The other day, I stumbled across an online retailer offering a few styles of Moleskines at low prices, including the Moleskine Pocket Squared notebooks for only about 50 cents each– even once shipping was added in, this was too good a bargain to pass up, so I ordered 5, for a total of $17.15 including shipping– that’s $3.43 each, for those too lazy to do the math! I almost bought 10, and despite my backlog of notebooks waiting to be used, I now wish I had bought 20: the retailer must have realized they made a mistake and the prices are now a lot higher. They’re still quite good, though– $4-6 for various styles, which would probably get up to about $7-10 including shipping. At that price I don’t think I would have bought any right now– not as many, anyway. I guess I have a certain tipping point for stocking up on bargain priced notebooks!
The notebooks that arrived must have been made a few years ago when Kikkerland still distributed Moleskines. Four of them are packaged with some promotional postcards and stickers with quotes about writing. The wrappers on the notebooks don’t say “Made in China” anywhere on them, so perhaps these are the early Italy-made ones with the supposedly nicer paper? (I’ve never noticed a difference myself.)
Though they must have been sold off in some kind of remainder deal, they are not marked in any way and seem to be first quality merchandise, except for a dent in the spine of one notebook. The dent may have happened in my mailbox, though– they were packed in a padded envelope, tightly wrapped, and it just barely fit in the box, but that was fine with me, as I hate having to go and pick things up at the postoffice!
If you like the price and want to try to snag some of these, they are being sold through Bookbrothers via Amazon too.
Trying to order on the Web form these guys is bizarre. Be aware, the pocket ruled reporters and squared hardcover are about $5.00 but…
1. Shipping and billing addresses must be the same or your credit card will be rejected.
2. The web order form wants more than $50 to ship 20 molies standard ground. That’s just insane. UPS priority would be about $25; ground should be about $12.00, $18.00 at the most.
3. So far, can’t get anyone to answer the phone in Philadelphia to straighten this out. Guess no one is there till 10:00.
david boise ID
Yes, they’re not the most advanced in terms of customer service! But good luck, let us know if you get someone to help you over the phone!
I ended up using a different supplier, umm, sortfloorbooks.com. Ordered a handful of squared pockets for $5 each and a couple of large reporters for $4 each. shipping was $0.00, zero.
Their catalog page clearly states “Has Remainder Mark” which could be dangerous, might even be a notch cut out of the cover.
http://www.sortfloorbooks.com/?CLSN_2564=123628013425642533a64c2990e4f0bf&keyword=moleskine&searchby=keyword&page=shop%2Fbrowse&fsb=1&Search=Search
Thanks for the post on these remainders. Searching amazon for Moleskine turns up the strangest things, eh? Like an 18-pack of pockets incorrectly priced for more than $20 each or these cheap closeouts. I’ve been trying to find older molies that come with the postcards and stickers for many weeks. Hopefully these will be similar to yours. If not, well, I still got a boxful of molies for dirt cheap.
david boise ID
Order arrived today, 03-14-2009, about ten days but with USPS *free* shipping. All have a “remainder mark” on one edge made by a Sharpie. The shrink wrap had to be torn open to make the mark and someone removed the postcards and stickers from all but three of the 15 units in the box. Bummer.
Still an excellent value. But after recently buying 10 Piccadillys, I am up to my ears in pocket-sized notebooks!
david boise ID
That’s a fantastic deal. You should definitely post more of them on the site when you find something good! (Unless you buy all of the notebooks first!)