•Vendor Name: Rick Liebson
• Business Name: Like New Pens
• State/Country: Granville, Ohio USA
• Email: LikeNewPens@gmail.com
• Brands/Description of your products/Services: Like New Pens specializing in Nakaya.
• How long have you been active in the fine writing industry and accessories? Following many years of collecting watches, I got hooked on Fountain Pens about 15 years ago, with my first passion being Omas Paragons which was followed by the gorgeous urushi pens produced by Nakaya. My personal collection quickly grew to a point where in order to continue to buy new pens, some had to be placed into new homes. My good friend and fellow collector/dealer Barry Gabay kindly offered to let me sell some pens from a couple of feet at the end of his table at a show. I had a blast, was hooked, and soon began taking tables of my own at 4 shows per year, which I have done ever since.
• What do you think sets your products/services apart from other vendors/exhibitors? What sets me apart from other vendors and exhibitors is that my display at shows always features at least 70 Nakayas which are available for customers to see, hold, try, and buy. This represents what I have been told is the largest display of Nakayas for sale to be seen in the US. As a result, people sometimes refer to me as “Rick the Nakaya Guy” although my tables also offer other like new high end Japanese pens as well as Montblanc, Oldwin, Aurora, Visconti, etc.
• What’s an interesting fact about your business that most people don’t know? Most people have heard of the terrible earthquake that struck Japan on January 1, but many people don’t know it was centered on Noto Peninsula and Wajima, the famous center of Japanese urushi artistry. Many of the urushi and maki-e artists who decorate these well known Japanese pens lost their homes and studios, and some tragically even lost their lives. I plan to donate a portion of the proceeds from my sales in Baltimore to the Japanese Red Cross or other appropriate agency to help these artists rebuild their livelihoods.
