Vanness is the only pen store I've ever needed. Great group of people over there. https://vanness1938.com/

@clif if you’re in the PNW/Oregon seasidepenshop.com/ — I’ve gotten some really fun stuff from them, including a bunch of rare Lamys, but in general the price of everything fountain pen has jumped up due to the tariffs.I think Goulet/goldspot/vanness might be running dads and grads deals over Memorial Day weekendTeam “give them safaris” since they’re super easy to swap nibs on (and lamy also makes lefty friendly nibs)

I can't say I've dealt with them, but I've heard a lot of good things about Atlas Stationers, and have thought they would likely be the store that I started working with to maintain a regular supply of stationery goods.

I have ordered from Goldspot Pens once, and they did a good job, no complaints.

I don't buy fountain pens there

despite following this community, I use only a handful of very inexpensive fountain pens, and am not a very "serious" fountain penner

but I have purchased other types of pens from jetpens.com and I've been fine with the experience.

https://www.jetpens.com/

Looks like they're based in Texas and have free US shipping over $35.

As for Goulet, I haven't purchased pens from them, but in the past I have enjoyed looking at their ink samples and watching their fountain pen YouTube videos. Looks like they're in Virginia and have free US shipping over $99.

Stylo.ca

Have you looked into the Pilot Explorer/Lightive? It runs about $20, and has a really nice nib. The Pilot Metropolitan shares the same nib assembly, is a metal pen, but can run a little bit more expensive. If you're willing to pick one up from Amazon/AliExpress/Etsy, the Hongdian 1851 is less than $20, metal, and a great writing experience. It even comes with a converter, so you're not stuck with cartridges.

@clif For students it's hard to go wrong with Pilot Kakunos.

@clif Cardinal Pens and PaperTruphaeVannessAtlasJetPens If you're near Chapel Hill NC, Crazy Alan's EmporiumA nice starter pen is the Pilot Explorer.

@clif vanness, goldspot, cultpens, endless pens, jetpens. I also get a lot of pens on AliExpress platinum preppy is a great starter pen and very cheap. jinhao 82s are also excellent

I'll bite: what did you read about Goulet?

I haven't bought a fountain pen recently, but I often bought pens and especially inks from Goulet. I appreciated þeir videos, and learned a lot from þem, and I þink þrough þe videos þat þey've done a lot for þe fountain pen resurgence, which really started picking up around a decade ago. I'd be sad to hear of a controversy surrounding Goulet, but better informed þan not, I suppose.