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Penporium is an online retailer and is located just outside of Los Angeles, CA. The owner of Penporium, Mr. Roger Stein has long since been an aficionado of the level of craftsmanship involved in items like fine knives, watches, lighters, clocks, but he had never been a ‘collector’ until he fell engaged with the beauty of luxury writing instruments. Just like training horses, it is always the fine details that matter.

Roger loves to write and continues to be fascinated with the art of communicating, and the power of the written word. He has on average 8 to 10 luxury writing instruments, mostly crafted from precious metal in rotation every week, all are filled with black ink.

It was not long before Roger had accumulated several hundred pens in his collection, and that was when he became aware that he is not the only person that has a love of fine writing instruments. As a consumer, he knew the frustrations of trying to find limited editions that were sold out or were produced in very small quantities, and that is when his hobby began to develop into a business. Penporium.com was born in 2007.

*About Roger Stein –
A very successful Trainer for Harness and Thoroughbreds on the Southern California circuit.
Roger started owning Standardbred horses in 1976, received his training license in 1979, was the most successful and best ever Harness trainer in California. He eventually converted to training Thoroughbreds in early 1997 on the Southern California circuit. He soon becomes a household name in the horse racing business, so much so, that his victories in winning so many races in Southern California reached across the pond and he was personally invited to meet with HM Queen Elizabeth at Royal Ascot. That meeting with Queen Elizabeth came in 1991 when Stein flew the thoroughbred horse Forty Niner Days across the pond to run in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Roger Stein

Thanks to Roger’s financial success in the horse training and racing industry, he was able to invest heavily in Penporium.com. Today Penporium.com carries more than 15,000 fine writing instruments and has those pens in stock. This is unique because no other pen retailer can afford to hold such a large and varied stock holding of writing instruments. Every pen featured on Penporium’s website is available for immediate shipping. Penporium’s mission is to provide the best quality and variety of regular, limited, and unique writing instruments, all available for purchase with immediate shipping. Roger has trained and raced more than 2,000 horses in his career and is ranked as one of the top 20 horse trainers in Thoroughbred races throughout North America by Equibase.

*Why should everyone own and use a good pen?
Roger’s father used to own a clothing business specializing in cowboy clothes, which at the time was very popular. He fitted many celebrities of the time, Tom Jones, Jonathan Winters, Paul Newman, Charles Bronson, Steven McQueen, Bert Reynolds, Diana Shore among others. Earlier in his childhood, Roger recognized that it is vital to pay attention to the small details in life; A well-fitting suit, proper haircut, great shoes. Owning a quality fine writing instrument is just as important. It sets you apart in today’s somewhat impersonal and technology-driven world. Through the power of a handwritten note, you impart your personality by details as small as the way you write your characters to form a word. Letters today are as important as they were when written with a goose feather quill dipped in handmade iron gall ink.

Here are the latest articles featuring Roger Stein and Penporium.com

Leaders Magazine

Forbes Magazine

Robb Report Magazine

Roger Stein, longtime Southern California horse trainer and radio host, dies at 65
Roger Stein, a longtime radio host and horse racing expert, died Friday at 65.(Benoit Photo)

ByJOHN CHERWASPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR
MAY 31, 2019
9:02 AM
Roger Stein’s hulking presence around the racetrack made him easy to recognize, be it in early years as a harness racing trainer or later when he switched to thoroughbreds. It was his larger-than-life personality, which he brought to radio listeners every Saturday and Sunday morning for almost three decades, that made him a horse racing institution in Southern California. He died Friday at 65.

Stein went off the air on June 25 of last year, his fight with diabetes, neuropathy and other medical issues too much for him to keep going. He had been in poor health for more than a decade and was unable to walk the last three years.
On Friday morning, after requesting last week to be taken off all life-prolonging treatments and being sent home, he died surrounded by family, according to his son, Sam Stein.

“When he was in the hospital he didn’t like the food, so he always brought a portable refrigerator and we would have to go out and buy him his meals,” said Barry Shapiro, a longtime friend and horse owner. “Just recently, he wanted a bigger TV, so he sent me out to buy a 36-inch TV for his room. We installed it and there was some trouble with the sound, so he had operations fix it. Everyone knew who he was.”

Stein started as a harness racing trainer in 1977 and found great success, winning 17 consecutive trainer titles, mostly at Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos.

“It was incredible that he would have more wins as a trainer than the leading drivers, who would go many times a night,” Sam Stein said.

In 1987, he moved to thoroughbreds and started 4,179 horses with 470 winners over his career. His horses won more than $14 million in purses.

“He won a lot of races,” said Bob Baffert, a friend and Hall of Fame trainer. “Those harness trainers are pretty good horsemen. He was smart and a good handicapper. He was pretty sharp, even beat me a few times.”

Through those years, Stein used his personality and knowledge of horses to recruit owners, all with the idea that it would be an adventure.

“I won 150 races with [trainer] Mike Mitchell, but I never had more fun than with Roger,” Shapiro said. “He would take chances, like buying a horse for $40,000 and then entering him into a stakes race. And sometimes it would work out.”
Stein was seemingly successful at whatever he did.

One of his biggest victories came against the California Horse Racing Board in 1988, when one of his horses tested positive for cocaine. The stewards, while saying he was being charged only because he was the trainer of record, suspended him for six months and fined him $2,000.

He fought the punishment for two years and eventually won, even though he believed it tarnished his reputation.

No doubt, Roger Stein liked a challenge.

“I remember going to the Wells Fargo Bank,” Sam Stein recalled. “He had a slip of paper from Bank of America offering a better interest rate. He says he wanted Wells Fargo to match it. They say, ‘Roger, we can’t do that.’

“They bring over the manager and he says he can’t do that. My dad says, ‘How much is in my account?’ There was about $1.1 million or some big number. He says, ‘I’ll take that in cash or you can write a check.’ They matched the rate.”

Stein stopped training about 10 years ago when it physically became too difficult.
“He probably had an IQ of a buck-eighty, and all of that, along with the fact he knew the business inside and out, are what made him a tremendous interviewer,” said Mike Willman, director of publicity at Santa Anita Park and host of a radio show that followed Stein’s broadcast on Sundays.

“All of that served him well in being an effective horse trainer as well. He knew what motivated people, racing secretaries in particular, and he established relationships that helped him place his horses in races where they’d be competitive.”

Stein’s twice-a-week, one-hour radio show lasted 29½ years, the latter half on what is now KLAA-AM (830).

“He would talk about whatever he wanted,” Shapiro said. “He’d tell the truth even if the track would no longer sponsor the show. He wouldn’t sidestep things. He was definitely controversial.”

Baffert was a frequent guest on his show. “You had to be ready for him,” Baffert said. “He was a very intelligent guy. He should have been a lawyer. He always knew the answer but wanted to see how you were going to wiggle out of it.”

Stein also ventured into the world of collectible pens, where he started as a collector and then ran an online business.

“Everything he touched he did well,” Shapiro said. Especially his time in radio.
“As much success as he had with harness horses and later thoroughbreds, I truly believe radio was his No. 1 love,” Willman said. “Especially later in his life, radio supplanted training as his true passion.”

Stein is survived by his brother Rick, son Sam and daughter Shay Fillinger.