Have you ever fantasized about a cool notebook from the past that’s no longer available, wishing that someone saved a stash of them and then put them up for sale again? Well, that fantasy might come true today!

Back in 2003, Moleskine branched out from their standard hardcover notebooks for the first time, introducing the lightweight, flexible Volants, sold in 3-packs. For some reason, they didn’t really take off, so after only a year, they were discontinued. Moleskine replaced them with the more successful Cahiers, and later reintroduced the Volants in the 2-packs and bright colors that are available today.

But if you’re a Moleskine collector and would like to get your hands on some of the original Volants, you’re in luck! The nice folks at lovenotebooks.com have limited quantities for sale, and they sent me some samples to review and give away.

So you’re probably wondering what makes these old Volants different from the current ones– not too much, actually. As you can see, the packaging is a more stripped-down design:

Inside, the company name is still Modo & Modo, and the logo is printed in a slightly lighter ink.

On the back, they stamped the name on differently. It’s so heavily embossed that you can see the impression on the inside back cover! (Old Volant is on top in photo below, with a current Volant underneath it for comparison.)

The paper seemed a bit more cool in tone, less creamy than the current incarnation (below, old Volant is at bottom). When I did my pH pen test on the paper, I was surprised to find some inconsistency in the results– some of the notebooks had acid-free paper, but some did not. At the time these were made, Modo & Modo’s Moleskine sales were growing rapidly and they were scrambling to find manufacturers to work with, so they had some problems with consistent paper quality.

The Volant address book has a different tidbit of the Chatwin myth– I’d never seen this Salman Rushdie quote.

And at the back of the address books, you get these little tear-out note pages with squares labeled either “scripta volant” (in the pocket address book) or “verba volant” (in the larger size).

It’s nice to know there are still secret caches of discontinued notebooks out there, and I love the retro packaging (even though the interior booklets spout an even more blatantly untrue version of the Moleskine history that the company has since softened!) If you’re a Moleskine fan and you’re willing to take a gamble on getting acid-free paper, these will be a great addition to your collection. At $9.95 for a set of 3 pocket notebooks and $12.95 for a set of 3 large notebooks, they’re a good price, too. You can buy the  Moleskine Original Volant Notebooks exclusively at LoveNotebooks.com— they sell lots of other great notebook brands too, and offer discounts and free shipping for larger orders.

But I’m also giving readers a chance to win a free set of these Volants! I’ll do a random drawing and select 3 lucky winners from entries received in these ways:

On Twitter, tweet something containing the words “original Moleskine Volant” and “@NotebookStories.”

On Facebook, “like” the  Notebook Stories page and post something containing the word “original Moleskine Volant” on my wall.

On your blog, post something containing the words “original Moleskine Volant” and “NotebookStories” and link back to this post.

The deadline for entry is Friday December 3 at 11:59PM, EST. Good luck everyone!