Spors Fountain Pen Advertising In 1927

OK, another departure from repairs for this post. It is related to a few previous posts -

Made In Japan February 13, 2008

Spors Fountain Pen Entertainment Center September 17, 2008

Frank Spors sold goods through a catalog from Le Sueur, Minnesota. The following correspondence with a Charles Butts of Trosky, MN reveals one of the ways that Spors Marketed their pens.  I won’t go into the pens themselves as the above two referred posts will do that, but it is interesting to see how his marketing program worked.

What first strikes me is the demonstration that the salesman can do (after purchasing a piece of “soft” wood for $0.65) to prove how strong the nib is.  Images of a door to door salesman cutting pieces of wood with his glass nibbed pens provide me with quite a chuckle.  And this should, of course, lead to at least $100 per week.

One other quick question from the page below – why does the rubber sponge in the cap make the pen write better than any other pen on the market?

Following is the application to be filled out and the cost involved in getting started on the path to riches.  Based on this, I figure you only had to sell about 120 pens per week to make the $100.00!

Of course, if pens weren’t big sellers in your area, or if the wood cutting trick wasn’t particularly effective, or you couldn’t get your hands on the cool pens with the dice under the compass (see my post of September 17, 2008), then you could resort to many items covered in the letter to Mr. Butts below.  After all, everyone is black bottom hose crazy….and who can resist a Lindbergh visor or shirts that sell like hotcakes.

Back to pens – Apparently some found them an easy sale and they actually do still show up quite frequently in auctions and at antique stores.  Just look at the next to last paragraph below.  If you run across a Spors pen today, it may have been sold by the successful Mr. D. Parks of New York or Lee Sohn in Ohio.

I wonder if Mr. Spors used one of these pens to sign the letter?

Finally, here is an advertisement that I picked up, separately from the letter to Mr. Butts, to be used in a Store environment.  The recipient of the coupon can purchase the pen for 69 cents.  Not bad for a pen that can carve wood…..

Spors Pens, with the glass nibs, were imported from Japan up until WWII, when the supply ran out for obvious reasons.  They are interesting, and thier marketing was as well.