As a journalist, I love me some expensive notebooks. However, I have yet to figure out what I am paying for when the price goes over $25 bucks. Especially for a paper that fountain pens supposedly bleed through.
hdsharpe1You're paying for the novelty of leather here not the paper. As demonstrated by the very prominent display of said leather.
To really blow your socks off, you can refill it.
JaegerDYeah, but see all leathers look and feel the same to me after a certain price. Unless it is that extremely thick cured stuff that looks like beef jerky for a notebook at the $200+ range. Pretty sure all cured leather that is dyed bio-degrades faster, and that is my problem for what I am paying for at the 50-100 range. It should last two or three lifetimes, but I have some like these that are falling about after 20 years.
hdsharpe1I doubt these will hold up like my grandparents collection the quality back then was unmatched
Fossil currently make the best leather price vs quality imo.
SanzinHonestly, the only leather items I have bought that I genuinely believe will out last most if not all, is American Bench Craft. The thickness of theirs is great and I like the use of rivets, but I do not believe they have anything that takes A5 inserts
SanzinIsn't is a shame that our grandparents' parents generation, and their grandparents (and the likes of our ancient ancestors) lacked the technology and education that we have today, but they could construct products, furniture, houses, and temples that could last for centuries. I have a wormy oak kitchen table that has been in the family for 170 years, and though it's had its legs replaced several times, the top looks great and it hasn't been stained about 30 something years.
I think quality is a huge issue in the modern world, and even "quality" usually is minimum quality that is overpriced.
JaegerDAmerican Bench Craft and The British Belt Company are both known for producing fine quality products. It's just we're in that tier were some of what we are paying for is the name. I think that was the point I was starting with above before I got sidetracked the other day.
hdsharpe1Whatever the markup is for ABC, it seems minimal for what you're getting.
I'm frugal on the best of days and Ive had zero regret with their stuff. BBC, to me at least, seems just slightly better than the leather belts and such that you'd get from Levi's, but I only bought one thing of theirs and have had no desire to try another. So YMMV some.
Just from my experience with the two. But ABC is less dressy/formal looking and more frontier/old west looking with their design, so that sways me towards ABC some.