Half the fun of traveling (for me, at least) is hunting for unusual local notebook brands. It can also be very disappointing when the hunt turns up nothing but the same-old same-old: global brands like Moleskine and Leuchtturm and Rhodia, which seem to have crowded out smaller regional manufacturers. Fortunately, there are intrepid artisans everywhere, so it’s still possible to get lucky and find a notebook that you could never buy at home. And notebooks make great souvenirs!

When I went to Chile and Argentina several months ago, I knew I wouldn’t be spending a lot of time in the major cities, so I wasn’t getting my hopes up too much about finding notebooks. But I did manage to snag a couple of South American souvenirs nonetheless.

The first notebook I bought was from several days into my trip. I hadn’t seen any stationery stores yet, but when we stopped for lunch midway through a long drive, I noticed that there was a small store that seemed to sell children’s party supplies and school supplies. I went in and poked around, and discovered some basic school notebooks made by Colon. I didn’t see any pocket size notebooks of the type I usually prefer, so I got this one, which measures approximately 7 x 9.5 inches:

colon school notebook from chile south america

It’s staple bound, light weight, with pretty thin paper. I forget how much it cost but I think it was the equivalent of just a dollar or two. A made-in-Chile basic school notebook that local kids can afford. Not all that exciting, but definitely not something I’d be able to get at home!

My other Chilean find was at a craft market at Punta de Lobos, a popular surfing destination. I was so excited to see a table full of colorful handmade journals, where the friendly proprietor was very patient with my fumbling Spanish! The brand is called Confluye, and they had some really nice journals, photo albums, and watercolor sketchbooks.

encuadernacion artesanal confluye chile punta de lobos

confluye encuadernacion artesenal notebooks from chile

I bought a nice little two-pack of pocket notebooks. (I don’t remember the cost of these either, but I’m sure they were more expensive than the school notebook.)

The Confluye notebooks have sturdy kraft covers, colorful stitching on the spine, and recycled paper within. The are somewhat similar to Field Notes or Moleskine’s Cahiers, but the covers are heavier, and the corners are angled rather than rounded, which would help them fit in a notebook cover.

The paper inside is an off-white, with little fibers– what I think of as that classic “recycled paper” look. It feels pretty light and I didn’t think it would be anything special so I almost didn’t bother to do pen tests. But I happened to have a couple of my fattest, juiciest fountain pens nearby when I was taking photos, so I thought, what the heck… and wow, what a surprise! The paper feels quite lightweight, but these fountain pens did not bleed through or even show through at all! No feathering either.

The brand name Confluye means “converges” and their slogan on the paper band means “so your ideas will always have a space to begin,” (more or less). I enjoyed that day at Punta de Lobos a lot, and I’m glad I have these nice little Chilean notebooks as a souvenir. You can find Confluye on Instagram: @confluyecrea

My trip eventually took me all the way down to Punta Arenas, where I had some time to wander around. I didn’t find a stationery store, but I did browse in a fascinating vintage shop called Vieja Patagonia. I was really excited when I saw some old pocket sized notebooks on display, but it turned out they were from the owner’s personal collection and not for sale. I guess this little notebook was used for recording grades or other information for a student’s parents.

vintage chilean libreta de comunicaciones

Before heading home, I spent a day in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was not feeling great (and it turned out I had COVID!) so I didn’t do a lot of exploring, but I did plan a walking route around several stationery stores that I’d found in Google maps. Unfortunately, every single one of them was closed! I guess it was a holiday that day. It was so frustrating, as I spotted a notebook brand I’d never seen displayed in one of the windows. I didn’t take a photo and now I can’t remember what the brand was. (I did review a notebook sample from the Argentinian brand Brügge once, but I don’t think that was what I saw.) I consoled myself by visiting one of the world’s most beautiful bookstores, El Ateneo… and a pharmacy. I never did manage to buy a notebook in Argentina, but I hope to have another chance someday. I would love to go back and see more of Buenos Aires when I’m not sick! And Chile is worth another visit too.

Places to Buy Notebooks

Shibori Notebooks

August 12, 2024 Nifty Notebook Leave a comment

Every once in a while I spot a notebook that I know would be totally wrong for my personal needs and preferences… but I salivate over it anyway. The Japanese Shibori notebooks below are a perfect example! The dyed patterns and colors are absolutely gorgeous. Alas, I know I’d never use a landscape format A6 size notebook with this kind of binding. But maybe you would!

Other colors are also available, via japanstationery.com

DaVinci, Diary, Filofax, My Collection, Organization, Pagem, Planner, Plotter

Filofax Fever

August 6, 2024 Nifty Notebook 1 Comment

A few months ago, I went down a rabbit hole of reawakened interest in all my various Filofaxes. It turned into a big research project, the results of which I’ll soon share in a series of posts. The research project ended up involving some shopping, so my Filofax collection is now even larger than it used to be! I keep thinking about how I could use more of my favorite Filofax organizers.

shoebox full of notebooks — Filofax and looseleaf notebooks, as of a couple of years ago. Now there are more!

I’ve been using my Guildford Extra Slim Pocket Filofax on a somewhat daily basis, if carrying it around and flipping through it sometimes counts. I can’t say I’m writing in it very actively, but it is coming in handy at times as a repository for long-term lists that I want to refer to without having to copy them from one notebook to the next.

filofax guildford with plotter inserts — Guildford Extra Slim with Plotter inserts

I’ve also decided that I am going to use a Filofax for my work notebook next year, as soon as I’d done with the Pagem planner I’m using now. I am enjoying the Pagem, but don’t feel the need to use another one next year. The key thing is that it’s shown me that a pocket-size notebook is not too small for my work notes, and that an un-formatted page will be better for me than a dated planner since I have an odd part-time schedule. I just need a place to keep some checklists and quick reference items, notes about key tasks I want to accomplish on certain days, an on-going to-do list, and notes from meetings. If I was really super-organized, I’d try to make my own customized version of the Japanese bookseller/publisher’s diary that I posted about recently! But I think a pocket Filofax with some Plotter inserts will be perfect. My only hesitation is that the actual writing area of the sheets that fit in a pocket Filofax will be even smaller than the Pagem sheets, but I think the added flexibility of being able to add and move pages will make up for the loss of size.

I have a few Filofaxes that will be candidates for the work notebook, but I can’t help thinking that none of them is quite perfect. That search for elusive perfection has always been part of my relationship to Filofaxes. One of my pocket Chelsea models came pretty close, as did my customized Filofax from the early 1990s, but otherwise every Filofax I’ve had has been slightly the wrong size, or made of the wrong material. Even other brands haven’t quite nailed it– the Raymay DaVinci notebook is a little too small, and my Plotter notebook is a little too wide. In theory, maybe I could cut the Plotter down to be narrower, but I’d also rather not have the exterior metal spine.

filofax chelsea, pocket size — My favorite old Filofax Pocket Chelsea

There is one more or less current Filofax out there that is so so close to what I’d like, but it only comes in the Personal size, not Pocket: the Filofax Heritage Personal Compact Organizer. Filofax’s website lists it. but I wonder if this model is being discontinued, as it doesn’t seem to be part of the official Filofax store on Amazon, though some are listed for sale on the US site via Amazon Japan.

Filofax Heritage Personal Compact Organizer

The Heritage line seems to have been designed to emulate a vintage model, kind of like the one in this eBay listing, but even more minimal. There are no inside pockets, no snap closure, and the shape is slimmer than the standard personal size Filofaxes, thanks to 15mm rings. This makes it a little more substantial than the super-skinny “slimline” models that only have 11mm rings. There is a stitching detail around the edges and the leather has a pebbled texture that looks nice, at least in photos– I’ve never seen one of these in person. It comes with a leather insert that has some pockets and a pen loop on it, but I’d take that out anyway. If I bought one, that is, which I won’t, because what I really wish is that they had made a pocket size Filofax exactly like this but in the size of the Guildford Extra Slim! Or even slightly bigger, if needed, to accommodate the 15mm rings, but keeping the proportions of the Guildford. I think that could have been a perfect Filofax, but alas, it doesn’t exist.

I still have a few months to decide which Filofax or other looseleaf notebook will be my daily work companion. Maybe something perfect will come along!

Diary, Links, Organization, Other People's Notebooks, Planner, record-keeping

Interesting Japanese Diaries

July 29, 2024 Nifty Notebook Leave a comment

Every so often, I spot interesting looking Japanese notebooks and planners on Instagram. Without knowing any Japanese, it’s sometimes hard to figure out what the brand is, but sometimes I manage to click around in various hashtags and find at least a keyword or two that might lead to a link I can copy and paste into Google to try to find more information. My latest such search didn’t enable me to buy the diary I was curious about, or even discover its brand name, but it did lead me to some other Japanese products that I found interesting.

I guess it’s not unusual to find notebooks that have a theme relating to a hobby– Moleskine’s “Passion” notebooks, and Smythson’s themed “lifestyle” notebooks, for instance. But I don’t remember ever seeing a yearly dated diary with a fishing theme, like this one.

According to the original poster (via Google translate), “as it has sections specifically designed for fishing, allowing me to record detailed information about my catch, conditions, time, tackle, and so on.” Even better:

“The fishing section includes information about daily fishing, river conditions, fish condition, personal condition, training, research, etc.

In addition, the calendar section records global weather conditions, sea water temperature, rainfall, air temperature, local river conditions, environmental changes, and so on, day by day, without fail.”

Alas, it was discontinued after the 2021 edition, leaving the original poster searching for some other notebook in which to record his 245 days per year (!) of fishing!

I also found a Japanese diary designed specially for bookstore employees and publishers.

This was quite exciting to me, as I work in the publishing industry myself and I’ve never heard of anything like this diary. The contents include:

　Sales support information, annual sales plan table, list of qualification exams and certifications, list of major magazine release dates, how to use sales indexes, basic knowledge of textbook revisions, etc.

　・Various store checklists
　　Store checklists, competitor store survey charts, daily checklists for disaster preparedness

　・Book classification
　　C code table, book 36 classification code table, Nippan magazine classification display

　・Awards and information:
　　List of Akutagawa Prize winners, List of Naoki Prize winners, book and magazine formats, list of publishers, etc.

It would be great to have something like this for the book industry in the US, though our data and checklists might be a bit different. Books in the US are classified by codes called BISAC and the full list would be way too mind-numbingly long to print in a notebook!

I love the idea of specialized notebooks that will help you keep track of a hobby or job, but I’ve never had the occasion to use one. Have you, dear readers?

antique, Denbigh, Diary, Journal, Links, Other People's Notebooks, record-keeping

The Drew Family Diaries

July 22, 2024 Nifty Notebook 3 Comments

In my post about Denbigh notebooks, I linked to a site that had a photo of a Denbigh notebook from the 1960s: Drew Family Diaries. These diaries are worth a post of their own!

Roger Drew created a website to share this amazing collection of diaries kept by members of his family, starting with his grandparents:

Drew Family Diaries, image courtesy of Roger Drew

The diaries begin in 1914 and mostly describe daily life in Nottinghamshire and Norfolk, England, with occasional mentions of historic events. Roger’s grandfather’s diaries run from 1914 to 1975, and his mother’s cover 1946 to 2016. Roger himself has kept diaries, and found some that he used in the 1970s and 1980s.

drew diaries between the wars — Drew Family Diaries, image courtesy of Roger Drew

drew diaries 1950s — Drew Family Diaries, image courtesy of Roger Drew

The website shares photos of various diaries and provides a summary and index to their contents. While some of the details might not be of interest to people outside the family, the site makes for fascinating browsing, as Roger has done a great job of researching some of the cultural references mentioned in the diaries and turning the collection into a kind of documentary history of everyday life in the 20th century. The diaries record events like the family’s first telephone being installed, and their first TV, which 19 people gathered around to watch Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.

The website also shows various interior pages of the diaries. There is a link where you can see a diary page from today’s date 50 or 100 years ago. Very cool!

drew diaries inside page for july 1974 — Drew Family Diaries, image courtesy of Roger Drew

As objects, the diaries are fascinating. You see how certain brands or styles of diaries repeat for several years, and then shift, either because different models were readily available or perhaps because the user’s preferences shifted. The “Heiress” diaries from the 1950s are particularly charming!

I’m wildly envious of this diary collection. And not just because I love collecting notebooks! My own grandparents’ lifespans were similar to Roger’s, and I often think about the times they lived through, wishing I’d known the questions I wanted to ask them when they were still alive. My grandmother told lots of great stories about her youth, when she was a “flapper,” and various family members were always saying we should record her on tape, or later, on video. I don’t think anyone did, and as far as I know, she never wrote any of them down or kept a diary. I would love to have a written record of how she lived, even if it was just mundane details about what she ate or bought or watched on TV. That Roger Drew has been able to preserve his family diaries and share them with others is a rare and precious gift.

Many thanks to Roger for allowing me to share some of his images!

Bindewerk, Field Notes, Filofax, Five Star, Hobonichi, Moleskine, My Collection, Paperblanks, Rhodia

Notebook Prices

July 2, 2024 Nifty Notebook 7 Comments

I’ve recently realized that I’ve been blogging about notebooks so long that I’m stuck in the past when I think about prices. The inflation kicked off by COVID and the Ukraine war, and sustained perhaps by some opportunistic corporate greed, has resulted in a lot of price increases for various consumer products over the last few years. Notebooks are included.

I haven’t tracked notebooks prices methodically, but I do remember the standard pocket size Moleskines going from about $10 when I first bought them in the late ’90s/early 2000s, to $12 and then to $15, in the time I’ve been blogging. But then I stopped buying new ones and was only getting old stock on eBay for several years, so I wasn’t paying that much attention to their suggested retail prices. I was shocked to see that a “classic” pocket size Moleskine now has a list price of $19.95. The pocket size sketchbook is back, and both it and the pocket watercolor album are $23.95. This isn’t wildly out of the range of prices for similarly size sketchbooks with high quality paper, but as much as I love the Moleskine sketchbook paper for writing and drawing with gel ink pens, it’s not really comparable to the papers in sketchbooks from, say, Stillman and Birn or Hahnemuhle or other brands that approach that pricing. Limited edition pocket size Moleskines are $25 and up. (And of course larger sizes have even higher prices.)

What about other brands?

When I reviewed a Rhodia Webnotebook in 2009, the suggested retail price was $15. The price is now $17.95. That increase seems relatively modest.

I’m pretty sure the original Field Notes Kraft 3-pack was $9.95 for quite a while, but those are now $12.95.

When I first reviewed the Hobonichi Techo in 2014, it was priced at about $24 (2500 yen). This one could be affected by fluctuating exchange rates as well as inflation, but it’s definitely a lot more expensive now, as $42 was the Jet Pens list price for the 2024 model.

Paperblanks mini size notebooks are now $15.95-$16.95, which seems to be the same as what they were in 2019 (see my review of the Paperblanks Nova Stella Solis). But they were $11.95 in 2013, when I reviewed the Paperblanks Old Leather notebook.

It would be interesting to track the pricing of Filofax organizers over the years. When they were first introduced, they were a premium product, made of beautiful leathers, and they were priced in line with their role as a status symbol. But over time they became more mass-market, using cheaper materials and going for more mass appeal. Their pocket size organizers now start at around $40 and go up to $200+ for special editions or fancy leathers. I wish I had a record of how much I paid for mine, the earliest of which were bought in the 1990s when they were still made in England using good quality leathers. I’m sure those specs would be impossible to offer now for anything near what I paid.

But there are some notebooks that may not have been affected by inflation. When I bought a bunch of Bindewerk linen covered notebooks a few years ago, I felt splurge-y paying $19-20 for them. That now seems like a bargain compared to a Moleskine! And in fact the price on the OrangeArt online store actually seems to have gone down, from $19.00 to $18.50 for the pocket size.

I haven’t tracked the pricing of Travelers Notebooks or other popular notebook brands. Has anyone else kept track of prices changes for their favorite notebooks over the last few years? Let us know in the comments! I’m still trying to get my head around the new normal…

Alwych, Denbigh, Links, My Collection, Nostalgia, Notebook Reviews, Places to Buy Notebooks

Review: Denbigh Notebooks

June 18, 2024 Nifty Notebook 2 Comments

After my recent post about Alwych notebooks, I kept thinking about the Denbigh notebooks sold by the same company. With Alwych looking like it might be discontinued, I wondered how long Denbigh would still be around… and I found myself coming down with a severe case of FOMOAN: Fear of Missing Out on A Notebook!

Fortunately, I know of a great cure for this particular affliction: just buy the notebook. I picked up two small Denbigh notebooks, one a regular lined notebook, and one with A-Z index tabs.

The price on the website is quite cheap, and online ordering is pretty straightforward, except that for orders outside the UK, you have to wait for them to invoice you separately for the shipping. I was worried that it would be expensive, but my total cost for these two notebooks plus shipping from Scotland to the USA ended up being only $15.43.

And look how cute they are!

I of course went for the pocket size at 3.25 x 5.25″, just a bit smaller than a pocket Moleskine as shown below. This is a hard cover designed to look like a 3-piece case binding– I think they were actually made that way at one time, but now it’s just red and black printing on the slightly textured paper that wraps the cover boards. The Denbigh name is stamped in gold foil on the front and spine. The spine also notes the model number and specs.

The cover has squared off corners and and creases near the spine. The other thing you’ll immediately notice about the exterior is the speckled edges. It all gives the Denbigh notebook a very retro feel.

The notebook opens very flat, thanks to the stitched signatures. Inside, the endpapers are a smooth beige paper, with a list of Denbigh notebook models in the front. The term “commercial books” I suppose speaks to why Denbigh may not survive much longer. The various models are designed for old-fashioned business record-keeping, with some having columns for entering cash amounts. Nowadays it would be a bit crazy for any business not to keep all these records on a computer, and even individuals are more likely to use a computer or phone app to track expenses or contact names.

Both notebooks have lined paper, in a pleasing greenish blue. The indexed version has each letter of the alphabet in stepped cutouts– if there’s a technical name for that, I don’t know it! But I do know it must add a lot to the cost of manufacturing these notebooks.

The paper has a smooth and sturdy feel, so I was optimistic about doing pen tests. I had seen a post on the Fountain Pen Network that said Denbigh were recommended over Alwych notebooks for fountain pen friendliness. But that post was from 2011, and the paper must have changed since then: as you can see from my limited pen tests, my notebook is not fountain pen friendly at all, with the ink spreading and bleeding through quite a lot. It works fine with my Uniball Signo RT 0.38 gel pen, though!

I’m glad I snapped up a couple of these notebooks, even if they may have changed from their original specs. I love the old-fashioned feel of them, and it’s nice to have a notebook that feels like it retains some vestiges of its long history.

If you are interested in more of that history, there is a photo of a 1940s Denbigh notebook in this Etsy listing. You can see another one from the late 1960s here (in an article about family diaries that is fascinating in itself!). Denbigh notebooks were originally manufactured by Waverley Stationery. Not sure if this is the same company that exists today and sells the Waverley Scotland notebooks I reviewed a while back. Denbigh notebooks were later taken over by J. R. Reid printers (more about them here). But according to this government site J. R. Reid is “dormant, ” which doesn’t bode well for future supply of Denbigh and Alwych notebooks unless someone else takes over these brands.

Alwych, Denbigh, My Collection, Places to Buy Notebooks

Alwych Notebooks Discontinued?

May 16, 2024 Nifty Notebook 5 Comments

Several years ago, I reviewed a classic Scottish notebook: the Alwych Book.

I bought mine at a shop in New York, but I think they’ve always been easier to find in the UK. However, thanks to some unusual web traffic coming to my review, I noticed that it seems like they may be getting hard to find no matter where you live!

The Alwych website shows many of their products as Out of Stock:

The versions with an A-Z index are available, but all on sale, so maybe they’re being cleared out?

The same company makes another line of retro-looking notebooks under the Denbigh brand name. Looks like some of these ones are going out of stock too:

Amazon has sometimes had listings for Alwych notebooks, but they don’t seem to be available right now. They’re also out of stock at European Paper.

I found a Reddit thread discussing the situation. Sounds like they actually stopped producing these a couple of years ago, and have been telling customers that although they hope to bring them back into production they don’t have any current plans to do so.

I hope this company isn’t going out of business, though I imagine it’s hard for a small, independent brand to survive and compete nowadays in a world dominated by international paper conglomerates. These are charming, well-made notebooks that deserve to live on!

My Collection, new products, Nomad, Notebook Reviews, Places to Buy Notebooks, Resketch

Review: Resketch Notebooks and Stationery

April 30, 2024 Nifty Notebook 2 Comments

I recently received an assortment of samples from Resketch, a Phoenix, Arizona based brand that makes notebooks and other stationery products out of 100% reclaimed paper. I’ll just cut to the chase and say that I love this concept and the products they sent me. The design looks great, and they offer a nice variety of notebook sizes, as well as other handy paper products for desktop use. Let’s take a closer look!

The notebooks I received are a wirebound 7×9″ notebook, a wirebound reporter notebook measuring 4×8″, and a staple-bound pocket journal measuring 3.5×5″. They all have sturdy black covers featuring an R logo on the front cover and the brand name on the back.

resketch notebook review reporter notebook

resketch reporter notebook reclaimed paper

I also received a 5×8″ deskpad and a 3×3″ notepad, both with glue on one edge holding the sheets together. Each has a removable paper brand with more branding and product details.

I love that they used a wire-o binding so that the covers can be flipped over completely. My only beef with the pocket journal is that it’s half an inch shorter than the 3.5 x 5.5″ size I like for staple-bound notebooks, but that’s just my personal preference.

Inside each, you get an assortment of reclaimed paper. If you’re curious about how reclaimed paper is different from recycled paper, here’s how Resketch explains it on their website:

Reclaimed paper is perfectly usable yet unused paper rescued from the waste stream before it is thrown away or recycled.

Recycling programs are great and well-intentioned. However, paper recycling is a chemical and energy-heavy process – it helps us reduce our need for virgin wood fiber which is great, but what if we can delay that process even further? Paper fibers can go through the recycling process roughly 5-7 times before the fibers break down and need to be retired. Worse, there is no real way to tell how often paper fiber has been recycled until it enters the pulping stage. Pulping is the process of breaking down the used paper into pulp, which consists of separating the paper fibers and removing any contaminants. During this stage, the fibers are subjected to mechanical and/or chemical treatments to separate them and create a pulp slurry. Only then do we know the fibers’ quality and strength – if the fibers have undergone significant degradation, they are deemed unsuitable for further recycling.

By rescuing and reclaiming unused yet perfectly usable paper BEFORE it enters the recycling or waste stream, our impact on the environment and Mother Nature becomes much more impactful. After all, we made the paper in the first place – we might as well use it to its fullest potential.

My samples all have a pleasing variety of white and pastel tones, mostly in shades of green and yellow. Some have printing on them, some don’t. I spotted a little bit of writing on one page, but otherwise the paper all feels clean, unused, and un-crumpled. Occasionally there will be a hole punched along an edge.

I love seeing different patterns, sections of architectural plans, grids from some sort of form, and all the other random bits of paper they’ve incorporated. Almost all of the sheets have markings that are very unobtrusive, and if there’s occasional a sheet with topographic lines or something a bit more busy, I’d be happy just doodling on it. This kind of unpredictability might not work for everyone, but I think they have selected their paper carefully enough to make it aesthetically pleasing and very usable.

One thing I’m leaving out of this review is my usual pen tests. The paper in these notebooks has varying weights and textures, so there’s no point in testing one sheet. Dedicated fountain pen users might not want a notebook where you’re not sure how each page will perform in terms of show-through and bleed-through, but if you primarily use gel pens, ballpoints, or pencil, you’ll be fine.

If you find the black covers too minimal, or want just white paper inside, Resketch also sells some limited edition notebooks. These have colorful covers that are each one of a kind, while the inside pages are just plain 20# white paper.

If you’re experiencing a sense of deja vu reading this post, you’re not alone. I knew I’d reviewed something similar in the past, and it finally came back to me: the Nomad Notebooks I bought from a Kickstarter and reviewed in 2019. Those had a similar concept of mixed paper, but it wasn’t necessarily reclaimed paper. That company now seems to be defunct, so if you miss the Nomad aesthetic, Resketch might fill the gap!

The Resketch notebooks I received are reasonably priced at $22 for the notebook, $16 for the reporter, $14 for a set of 3 pocket size journals, $6 for the notepad and $12 for the deskpad. They aren’t the cheapest options for notebooks these sizes, but they aren’t wildly expensive either, and you can feel good about using a US-made product that is keeping paper out of landfills and reusing it in an eco-friendly way. Your local stationery store may not be carrying them yet, so check out their online shop.

You can also throw your hat in the ring for my giveaway of some of these samples! One winner will be randomly selected from entries received by blog comments below. If you also include a link back to a post mentioning both Notebook Stories and Resketch on your own website or social media, I will count you in for two giveaway entries, increasing your chance of winning. Shipping of the prize will be to US ADDRESSES ONLY, please! Deadline for entry is Friday May 10, 2024 at 11:59 EST.

Diary, Nolty, Places to Buy Notebooks, Planner

Where to Buy Nolty Planners

April 9, 2024 Nifty Notebook 1 Comment

I had a question from a commenter about where to buy Nolty planners, and I realized it was probably time to recap this topic, since some of my older posts aren’t up to date on the latest options.

In recent news, I noticed that Jet Pens is now stocking some Nolty planners! This is exciting, but at least for now, they are just offering a limited selection of planners that start in April, in line with the Japanese school year. I’m hoping this means that they’ll stock even more items this coming fall for the 2025 calendar year. They have a nice post with general information about Nolty here.

Kinokuniya is another good place to buy Nolty planners. They stock various Nolty and Pagem planners in their stores, and on their website, if you search under “Japanese books” using the word Nolty and a model number or year, you’ll find a wide range of models, including the leather covered Nolty Gold. These are a special order from Japan, but if you live near a store, you can do store pick-up and not pay for shipping. Shipping is also free if you order over $50 of merchandise. And that isn’t hard to do if you are getting a Nolty Gold! Their price tends to be very high, but if you are getting free shipping for just one or two items, it may be the best option.

If you are ordering multiple Nolty planners, or more expensive items like the Nolty Gold, Nolty’s own online store might be the best option. It helps a lot to have the Google Translate plug-in on your browser if you don’t speak Japanese! Searching can sometimes be tricky but if you know the model number you are looking for, just pop it into the search bar they have towards the bottom of the home page linked above. They have a World Shopping plug-in that makes international orders very easy, as it automatically consolidates items into a shopping cart. World Shopping is a 3rd party forwarder who basically buys the items for you and then charges you for shipping them to your destination. Make sure the items you want are all in stock and read the terms and conditions carefully to make sure it’s right for you. I have found that for a large enough purchase, the cost can be lower than going through Kinokuniya.

Finally, keep an eye on Amazon.com. I’ve seen the Nolty Gold listed there for a very attractive price. I haven’t ordered this way and my only hesitation is that Amazon is notorious for selling counterfeit items. If the price seems too good to be true, I sometimes wonder if the item is authentic. But sometimes low prices can be a quirk of their algorithms and you might get lucky.

Nolty planners can also turn up on eBay, Etsy, and other sites. Start searching early in the fall so you can compare prices and shipping costs and make the best choice on where to buy Nolty for your individual situation!

Notebook Stories

Notebooks from Chile