It’s pretty clear to regular readers of this blog that there are two constants in my life- my love of all things British and my stationery obsession. So you can imagine my excitement when discovering Yard-o-Led pens.
Yard-o-Led pens were established in 1934. They are solid silver pens and pencils, and they are gorgeous. And one little fun fact- you can tell how old a particular pen is from the hallmark on the silver. Mine’s from the early 1990s, but you can find Yard-o-Led pens from decades ago. I absolutely love thinking about the craftsman sitting down in a workshop to make my pen in a little factory in Birmingham, England.
OK, so history and craftsmanship aside, these are not cheap pens. I mean, really NOT cheap. So for the past year or so, I’ve been trying to justify the splurge while searching for some coupon code that would make the price tag manageable. It has not happened! I needed a monumental life event (a baby! promotion to CEO! winning a Nobel prize!) in order to justify buying one.
But this is where my strategies for shopping The RealReal came to the rescue. On eBay, there are enough people who know what Yard-o-Led pens are to significantly reduce the chance of scoring a deal. But Yard-o-Led is not a common brand on The RealReal. They rarely come up for sale, so whoever there is doing the pricing is either in the dark as to the retail price or doesn’t have the time to check. As a result, I found my beautiful Yard-o-Led rollerball for close to 80% off the retail price. Did I need this pen? No. Could I resist the bargain? Absolutely no!
Ideally, I wanted a Yard-o-Led fountain pen. But as they say, “opportunity is not a lengthy visitor”, so I have happily settled for a rollerball. And I use my new Yard-o-Led pen multiple times a day in my other British favorite, my Smythson diary. The perfect marriage! And one that makes me happy every time I use it.
