Please help me find this pen.

August 10, 2012 9:57 AM

I am searching for a ballpoint pen - Papermate Pendulum. Can anyone help me find some?

Back in the early 2000's (maybe 2002-ish), I found a ballpoint pen that I loved at Staples. It was called the Papermate Pendulum. I love ballpoint pens and it was the best pen that I found. It had a unique 'swivel' tip that was unlike anything I had used before. It was a dream to write with and after it was gone, I went back to buy more, but of course I couldn't find any and they don't appear to be manufactured anymore. I have checked out the web and ebay for years, but haven't had much success.

If anyone has any of these at their house or knows of a place where I can buy some, I would greatly appreciate it. Blue ink would be my first choice.

posted by dbirchum to sports, hobbies, & recreation (8 answers total)

Do you have a photo of the pen?

I have had to do a lot of "but I really love THIS PEN" sourcing for producers and directors and such.

My usual M.O. is to get the most info possible about the pen: ideally a physical example I can take with me to the store. If I don't find it in the obvious Staples and Office Depot type places, I'll do one of two things.

1. Borrow one of those phone-book sized office supply catalogues people often have. Just because the Staples near you doesn't carry them doesn't mean Staples can't get you one. The website also works for this, but is harder to physically browse.

2. Take the pen (or the strongest evidence/information I can get) to a smaller mom & pop stationery store and see if they can hook me up. Often they can special order stuff that isn't typically available. Or sometimes they have valuable info like a technical name for a certain feature. "Oh, you want an angled nib with a refillable reservoir!" or hopefully even "Oh, yeah, Papermate rebranded those as the SuperPen2000!"
posted by Sara C. at 10:18 AM on August 10, 2012 [2 favorites]

Have you checked Amazon lately? I just did a search and got one hit, not sure if it's what you're looking for.
posted by Doleful Creature at 10:20 AM on August 10, 2012

I have bad news on Dollar Days, where discontinued stuff goes to die.

Apparently it's been discontinued by the manufacturer, so you'll want to buy as many as you can find.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 10:25 AM on August 10, 2012

Thanks for the info guys!

Sara C. Sadly, I don't have a sample anymore (I lost it during a move a while back). And there are only SMALL horrible photo's available on the web - nothing with any detail.

Doleful Creature - wow - I searched only and nothing from Amazon came up! Weird. that appears to be the pen, but I can't tell for certain from the tiny picture (which is a stock photo that you can find on the web). But it appears to be it. I simply need to see if its in Black ink before I purchase!

Ruthless Bunny - yes, I knew it was discontinued many years ago, but I was hoping to find someone (or a retailer) that was selling them. I found someone on ebay a few years back that was selling a 2-pack, but it was in Black ink.

Thanks!
posted by dbirchum at 10:41 AM on August 10, 2012

I would buy whatever you can get, even if it's black ink, and then use your sample to try to find others through the mom & pop stationery store method. There's a decent enough chance that some other company is making their own version, or that there's an updated item under a different name that you'd like just as much.
posted by Sara C. at 10:53 AM on August 10, 2012

i may have some of these in my collection at home that i bought a while ago. i'll get back to you.
posted by koroshiya at 12:36 PM on August 10, 2012

Looks like from the description on the Amazon site that it's black ink, but I agree that it's worth getting your hands on whatever you can for the time being.
posted by sascha at 12:06 AM on August 11, 2012

i have three in blue, but since i've had them for so long, none of them seem to want to write. i'll try flaming the tips as a last ditch effort tomorrow.
posted by koroshiya at 12:06 AM on August 11, 2012