Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Cheap pens!

Yes, we have cheap pens. As a matter of fact we have a lot of cheap stuff. We have more than 26,000 pens from more than 1000 manufacturers and suppliers. If you need a quantity of 1000, our database shows over 1100 pens from over 100 suppliers for under $0.50 each. 32 of the pens are under $0.25 each.

Yes, they are cheap.

You know it.

I know it.

The person you give it to knows it.

There is a reason that they are cheap. Here’s the thing. Cheap pens fail much quicker than other pens...sometimes they fail as soon as you open the box! It may leak, it may skip, it may just not work at all. As it fails, your customer will look at this ‘cheap #@!%* pen’ that he really needed to work and while throwing this failure of a pen in the trash what will he see? YOUR logo. Is that how you want to be remembered? The giver of the ’cheap #@!%* pen that failed’?

I am at the brink of requiring any customer who purchases a cheap pen from us to sign a waiver excusing us from any fault when the pens fail. I do not want to be associated in any way with the failure and so you are warned. Cheap pens fail.

There is a difference between cheap and inexpensive. When it comes to inexpensive, I am a big believer in staying with the brands. They did not get to be the 'big dog' in their field by being cheap. With pens under $1.00 we recommend sticking with Bic, PaperMate or an advertising specialty name like Gold Bond, Hub Pen or Perfect Line. We have more than 11 years in the business. These are names we trust. There are others we might be ok with (no waiver required), but these are our go-to guys for inexpensive pens.

Thanks for letting me vent. Sorry that it has been so long since my last entry. I will try to do better.



Steve Raggo
www.raggo.com