The Pen Addict 269/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	269
Title:	We Sold Everything
Release Date:	August 9th, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 269
Audio File:	Audio Episode 269
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 269
Length:	4949 min <br />0.817 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 269. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined once again by Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: You are joining me from an undisclosed location, right?

Myke Hurley: I'm in New York. I'm happy to disclose that location.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's about as undisclosed as it gets because there's lots of people there. But we're actually in the same time zone once again recording, except I'm back home. You're in the city. You're in the big city, hanging out, getting some work done, got some things going on. And it was nice to roll into the show notes doc, which I usually start putting my notes together Tuesday night. And I roll in and like, bam, there's this whole document. And then I remembered you were actually still on my time zone. So that's cool.

Myke Hurley: Yep. I was ready and raring to go today.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So how was your trip home from DC?

Myke Hurley: It was nice.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I say home, your trip back to your current location.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Well, this is home for now, right? Like I do have this weird feeling, Brad, where I feel like I live here at the moment.

Brad Dowdy: In the US or in a hotel room?

Myke Hurley: In New York City, right? So like, yes, like a bit of column A, little column B, right? Like, but this is me trying to force myself to feel that way, right? Like I'm trying to put my mind set there because I don't know if I mentioned it on the show, but like I'm in America for all of August now because I had like a couple of things, including the DC Penn show, which were happening in this month. So I was like, well, I'll just, I'll just won't go home. And so now I'm like, I'm here. I am in New York and it's nice, right? Like I'm just working. I've already been out for breakfast this morning. And after we're done here today, I'm going to go walk around, look at some stationary stores because there's a couple of stores like right near my hotel.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, we're going to need a full report on that next week.

Myke Hurley: Oh, don't worry about that. What is that one called?

Brad Dowdy: Kinokunia? Yeah.

Kinokunia Bookstore

Myke Hurley: That's like, I spotted that this morning whilst going to get coffee. And I was like, heck yeah, I'm going to go there.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So apparently the word on the street is you need to go into the basement of Kinokunia. That's where all the magic happens. The below street level level.

Myke Hurley: Oh, really? Yeah. I think that's where all the stationary is. So downstairs, because it's a bookstore, right? Yes. Right. Yeah. I saw, I was kind of Googling just to double check, right? Because I saw the name and I was like, hmm, I'm sure I recognize that. And I saw a post come up from our good friend, Mr. Joe Grace, with the top five stationary stores in New York City on the Gentleman Station. Right. So they're there for me. So I'll pop down. No CW because they're moving. But I will be going to a couple of these places for sure whilst I'm here. But yes, I feel like I'm just kind of, I'm kind of living here right now. But I don't know if that's what people will come here for today. We're going to talk about the pen show because the last time you heard us, it was Friday. It was like five days ago or something. And we had a lot more to go, right? We had like the two full days left, right? We only had like half of one day and then we had two full days. So Brad, from your perspective, how did Saturday go? Saturday being the first big public day.

Brad Dowdy: It went wonderfully. Why is that? Because we sold everything. Yeah. Like we packed as much, as many cases as we could physically pack, which was more than we'd brought to any other previous show. And by Saturday, I think we were 90% sold through every single product that we bought. No back stock. Everything was off the table. And then, you know, by Sunday, that last 10% was whittled down to about 2%. So we almost sold out of every single thing we brought, which is good and bad. Like we, I guess the proper fairies is we left money on the table by not bringing enough goods, but we sold everything we brought. So we got to be pretty excited about that. So we've never had a bigger show from a dollar's perspective.

Myke Hurley: And yeah, with the potential for it to have been more, right? But like, not that that's the thing I think to worry about, right? No. Because I think we sold more than we expected to sell. So we made money, right? Like it was, we just, it didn't stop. Saturday was bonkers. I mean, and what was left was stuff that was probably never going to sell anyway, like no matter what. Just because we had... What are you saying? Because it's all crap. No, it's because it's just like paper stuff and the laniers, they just don't sell as often as the cases, right?

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Exactly. Yes. The higher, like the laniers are a higher price, so they don't sell as frequently.

Myke Hurley: So stuff that we had to sell if we needed to, but like the things that most people were wanting was stuff that went super, super quick.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But it was amazing. Yeah, so it was really good. It was a packed house all day, Saturday. Okay. The show didn't close till seven that night, I don't think. Nobody knows. Yeah. Nobody. We still don't know. Some people are still there wondering when it closes.

Brad Dowdy: We're going to start getting Instagram engines. It was, hey, like, come let me out of this ballroom, please.

Pen Show Administration

Myke Hurley: So when we were talking on Friday, right, like there was some focus about the administration problems, which kind of put a downer on some of the pen show itself. What was your feeling like as a vendor come Sunday? How did you feel about the show overall?

Brad Dowdy: Overall, good. I mean, I think you can't argue with the numbers, right? And as I said from the very beginning, on Friday, as bad as it got, if we came through Saturday, I thought that was the day that would determine everything. If we came through Saturday in a good fashion, that doesn't erase what happened, but it changes the narrative. That's a phrase I used a lot over the weekend. And it changed. Like, how can I not be positive about what took place from a knock perspective? We were absolutely slammed. We sold everything we brought. And we met a lot of people and had a great time. Jeff was a fantastic staff photographer. Jennifer, Tony held down the table. And we got an extra suntan. And I can't really complain. So, I mean, there's issues. And we'll talk about that in a minute. But if you say, Brad, how did knock do at the DC pen show? The answer is, it was our best show ever. But that doesn't mean, Brad, how was the pen show itself? You know, there's some, you know, there's some imbalance in the force there, right? So, yeah.

Myke Hurley: I mean, for me, like, obviously, whilst being behind the table with you, you know, playing the vendor role to a point, I don't have as much built up in that, right? Like, my feeling about being a vendor at the DC pen show is not so important, right? Like, I had a feeling, you know, I just felt how I felt about it. I felt that it was administratively difficult. But overall was fine because we sold out. And, like, it was great. And there were so many people. And it's like, whatever, right? Like, any of the bad things don't affect me as much. It's just how it affects me at that time. You know, like, so waiting around in the hallway was really annoying. But then my feeling about it goes away, right? Like, because it's not something that I have to worry about too much because it's not my business, right? Like, it's your business. So, most of my feelings are as an attendee. And as an attendee, it was great, right? Like, I feel like as long as you weren't there on Friday morning, you would never know there were problems. Like, if you came on Saturday and Sunday, which is technically when people should be coming, right? Because the Friday thing is, like, kind of a trade thing, but people buy tickets. But, like, if you come as a member of the public on Saturday and Sunday, it was amazing. Like, just those two days is the best pen show I've ever been to for what it gave me. Everything was there. You know, everything. I saw everything I wanted to see. I was able to purchase basically everything that I wanted to purchase. There were so many interesting people, people that I've never seen at other pen shows, vendors I've never seen at other pen shows. Like, it was just vast and awesome. And the hotel was actually pretty good. It was a really good venue. It had a great bar. And, you know, the evenings were fantastic. There were these big, long tables, just like we have in Atlanta, where everyone could hang out and, like, play around with stuff. The hotel staff were very accommodating of everything. Are you sure? Why is that funny to you? What did you find?

Brad Dowdy: The hotel restaurant and wait staff was atrocious. Okay. It wasn't there. Not on a personal level. It was a management problem.

Myke Hurley: Well, yeah. I mean, I'm kind of discounting that. So, I mean, like, they were very accommodating. They were very nice. They were fine. But the hotel was overrun.

Brad Dowdy: Every 45 minutes, every 45 to 60 minutes, they were very accommodating and very nice.

Myke Hurley: I don't think, I mean, I know what you're saying here, but, like, I have nothing against the people, right? Because they weren't. I feel like I saw the same six people for the entire weekend, right? Like, the hotel was not stocked with people enough to be able to deal with it. But honestly, like, even with that, like, yeah, we had to wait a while for food and stuff to be delivered. But just based upon the amount of people that were there, like, I don't hold it against them.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I don't either. And that's why I, like, you know, our waiter and bartender the first night, you know, I made sure to take care of. Because, like I said, are you going to be here all weekend? That way, you know, I had an in at least until Sunday night and he was gone.

Myke Hurley: And, like, they were really nice and I don't recall anything being, like, banned or kicked out, right? Like, they were fine. You know?

Brad Dowdy: They were very nice. They were completely overrun, which from a hotel business perspective, you don't, I can't grasp how that happens. But this isn't, this isn't Hotel 101. So, I don't know. What do I know?

Myke Hurley: But I would say that as an attendee, this is a fantastic show to go to. Like, it's amazing. There was just so much stuff. It was everything. It was really, really interesting.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So, it was good.

Myke Hurley: So, here's a question for you.

Brad Dowdy: This is the big question.

Show Attendance

Myke Hurley: Would you do it again?

Brad Dowdy: I don't see how I can not do it again. And I don't know that's not a glowing rah-rah answer. But I think it's, it was great in every which way. But the thought in my, in the back of my head is that I would continue support the catastrophic administration if we continued to go. Like, is that something I want to continue to support? I mean, it would be nice to, you know, if you could, like, throw down the pitchforks and, you know, just dig in and say, I'm not coming back and dealing with that. But in the end, it's kind of the place to be. Right? And it was very good personally. It was very good professionally.

Brad Dowdy: How, how can I not come back? Right? I mean, it's, it's all the people I need to see, all the people I want to see. Got to meet a lot of new people.

Brad Dowdy: It was really good from a business perspective. So, I mean, yeah, I want to do it again. I just want it to be better. And I don't know that it will, but I don't know that that's going to stop me either. Right? So, I, yeah, it's not, like, a perfect answer because we want a perfect world. But, you know, there is a choice to be made. Do you continue support to support the show promoter who does not grasp the concept of running the show? One of the biggest in the world, if not the biggest, like we always say.

Brad Dowdy: But then you, it's almost like you're poking yourself in your eye, you know, on purpose. Like, well, let's just get past that and enjoy all the other reasons why we're there. You know, because so many people come to this show and I get to see people that I only get to see once a year at this show. And, you know, why wouldn't I come? So, it's a, I know I'm running around in circles on this answer being definitive. Because it's complicated. Yeah, it is.

Ink Purchases

Myke Hurley: I mean, ideally, between now and then, we see some kind of sign that they're trying to address this stuff. And this can even come from just having a website that has actual information on it. Right? Like, ideally, there is, like, some kind of sign of life which shows that they're aware of the problems. And whilst difficult to fix, they're trying to, you know? That's the ideal, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Like, and you weren't joking about the show hours. We still don't know what the show hours are.

Myke Hurley: And we were there.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and we were there. Just all of a sudden it closed.

Myke Hurley: Right? Like, that was it.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, that's kind of the one thing that's kind of important. So, I don't know. I see myself going back. Yeah. You know? But it's not without some hesitancy.

Myke Hurley: So, I would say for me, I don't know yet. So, my feeling is that considering the amazing success we had this year with the Kickstarter campaign, that probably in the future we will continue with a two-show campaign. Right? So, like, we do a campaign every year that gets us to Atlanta and somewhere else. And DC would stay on that list. But if there is another show which I haven't been to, which we could do, then maybe I would do that. Right? Maybe something like a San Francisco, you know, like, which is apparently also really great. Like, you know, so I'm kind of, I think we keep our options open for now. But I would definitely attend the DC show again because I had a great time. Yeah. But I'm sure I could have a great time in other places as well. But, you know, so maybe LA. You know, I think we would maybe choose one or the other. Like, but we always do Atlanta and then there might be another show that we do. DC for me would remain in the contention. Right? Because I did have a really good time. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm with you. I agree. It's, yeah. And the further we get away from it, you know, probably the more, you know, positive the administration talk will get. And, well, maybe he'll do, like you said, well, maybe he'll do better next year. Because everything else about it was great.

Myke Hurley: It was just the problems on Friday morning, really. Everything else was livable. Yep. So, you know, as long as they just don't do that again, then maybe it'll be fine. And I like to have faith in humans.

Brad Dowdy: I do too. But Bob needs some help. What were our remaining purchases then?

Myke Hurley: Let's move on from this. What did you pick up? What did you buy?

Brad Dowdy: So, my Shone Design pen, which I had bought Friday. So, we talked about that on the last episode. I only bought one more thing. Not even any ink or paper or anything. I bought one pen. It was a vintage Pilot Vanishing Point, one of the early models from 1965. And I've just started to clean it today. Like, I'm still recovering at home, getting unpacked. Like, all clothes and everything are unpacked. But I haven't unpacked stuff until I started that this morning. So, I'm pretty excited about this pen. It looks like it's in great shape. I just put it in the ultrasonic cleaner before we got on the show today. And it came out really clean. Like, I'm wondering if it was used. It was cleaned awfully well. And there hasn't been anything sitting in it for forever. So, I'm really happy about it. And just to give people an idea, to put it in perspective, I paid $200 for it. So, I don't know whether that's good. I don't know whether that's good or bad. But it felt fine, you know, to make a purchase. So, I didn't really. I mean, I had to think about it. It wasn't like, oh, yes, here's my money. But, you know, it's old and it's fragile. And it's something I'll need to take care of very well and watch it. But it seemed like a fair price for what it was. And what made me buy it was the condition that it was in. Because it was in a tray with about eight other ones. And there were a couple other ones that I thought were better looking. But they weren't in better condition. Like, he had a full pink one. Which, that would have been my first choice. But it was a lot more banged up. Then he had one with turquoise ends. And it wasn't as nice. So, I bought the nicest one in the tray from what fits me. Right? What I felt. You know, felt me in my style. And I got a good price on it. And I am glad to have this. And, you know, I'm going to ink it up this afternoon once I get done cleaning it. But it looks pretty good.

Myke Hurley: So, for me. That was it. That was it. That was it, right? You really were keeping it slim this time.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, like we talked on Friday. I saw a couple other things. But, you know, I'm in that phase now where I don't have to have everything. Where before I was just like, oh, I need one of these. And I need one of these. So, now I'm trying to really, like, sort it out mentally. Take my time and say, do I really need this pen? I mean, obviously, I don't need them. But do I really want this pen? So, you know, I'm trying to consider that a little bit more. So, yeah. And then I also know I have San Francisco in about two weeks from now. So, there'll be plenty of opportunities. And I might go stupid on that show because that'll be my last one of the year.

Myke Hurley: So, for me, I paid you for the Pilot M90. Thank you so much. Haven't used it yet. Thank you so much. So, who knows if it's busted. We'll find out. Very true.

Myke Hurley: I need some ink for it. I'm going to see if I can try and find some cartridges somewhere. Maybe in the store that begins with a K that I can't remember how to say the name of. They might have some in there. Yep. Because I know they do a bunch of Japanese stuff. So, I might be able to get some cartridges. But I bought a Caron Dash 849, the fountain pen. I bought that for Adina. I think she might like that. We'll see. I mean, I haven't really used it. What color did you get? I went with yellow. Okay. Cool. Because it's this bright, luminous yellow. All the colors look fantastic. So, it just could be a nice. I mean, if she likes it, great. It could be a nice little present because it's a fun pen. And I also bought some Robo Oster Yellow Sunset Ink, which is for my Kenalea Haleakala silhouette. Hey, you nailed that pronunciation. I've been practicing, man. I've been practicing.

Myke Hurley: And, oh my God, I love this pen so much, Brad. Yeah. I'm so happy.

Brad Dowdy: I think you picked a pretty good ink for that, too.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I was playing around and the good old Punky was doing some tests for me and made some suggestions. And this was one of them. And I went and looked at the ink swatches on the Van S table and picked it up from that mill right next to us. So, I went and got some of the Robo Oster from there. And I've been really, really happy with that pairing. This feels like a pen that is special enough that it should have an ink that I only put in this one pen. And the yellow is really good. I am obviously coming across some of the problems that yellow ink can have, which is like it can be hard to see, which was why I went with a yellow ink that has a little orange in it. That was why I went with this Sunset because they have a sunrise and a sunset. And the sunrise yellow is a more brighter yellow. But, like, I was using – I was kind of playing around with this on one of my story supply notebooks, like the red ones. And the paper in those is a little cream, a little creamy color. Right. I could barely see it. But I have a Field Notes Arts and Sciences in front of me that I've been using for my notes for when I'm recording. And it's bright yellow on this paper because it's white. You know, so it's just like I don't really have this problem usually. Right. But yellow inks will blend into the background a little bit more because they are fainter. Yes. It's just about remembering that. So I'm going to play around with it. Like, there's some pink in this pen. So who knows? I might put some, like, KWZ Raspberry in here at some point or something like that. But I absolutely adore this pen. And it's – looking in my Sinclair here and seeing two can of layers and the Robert Brooks Arushi pen and I'm like, oh, boy, what happened to me?

Brad Dowdy: Man, that Robert Brooks guy, he's pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: Robert Brooks, everyone's favorite. Jonathan Brooks. Who's Robert? Oster. Robert Oster. Everyone's names are just messing up together for me today. I'll let you off the hook, but I wouldn't go to let that flood. I will take just a moment now because I've destroyed everything that Jonathan stands for by ruining his name to just say I was – every time I would see Jonathan, I would take his little case away from him and just look at the work that he's doing right now.

Brad Dowdy: Right. He just carried around, like, the Pulp Fiction briefcase all weekend. Yep. And, you know, he would, like, open it up and he'd go, ah! Then he'd shut it and then he'd bring it around to someone else. So, yeah, he's going to have the full lineup. He's going to have a table in San Francisco. He did not in D.C. purposefully. And he was, you know, walking around with his case.

Myke Hurley: So, just having seen some of the Arushi work that he is doing right now, I would say to run, don't walk to his table in San Francisco.

Kickstarter Backers

Myke Hurley: And, again, I apologize, Jonathan, for calling you something you're not. What's happened to me today? Oh, my. So, before we move on, should we do some, like, pen show-related admin?

Myke Hurley: Because there's a couple of things for our Kickstarter backers. So, I recorded a bunch of video for the vlog that I'm going to be putting together at the D.C. Pen Show. So, that's coming soon. I'm going to start working on it this week. I don't know how long it's going to take me because I never do with these things. So, if it's not out before the next episode, I'll know on the next episode when it will be out, if that makes sense. Wow. That's crazy. That's fast. Typically, these things don't take a lot of time once I really get in the groove of them. So, if it's not out before next week, I'll have an update next week on when it will be out.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. And I didn't get to see any of the video or I haven't looked at any of the video, but Jeff saw some and he thought it was really awesome. There's a lot. There's a lot of Topgolf stuff. The pre-edited stuff.

Myke Hurley: That's kind of sketchy. We had a really wild game of Topgolf, which was fantastic. So, there's a bunch of that in there, including lots of super powerful pro golfing from Brad Downey. No. The golf pro. Brad Downey. So, that's all in there. So, that's that. And, of course, there's also the physical thing, the Cappello, right? That's coming close now.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, yes. Related, I sent out the backer surveys for addresses for the Cappello. It started to show up. Our manufacturer is so weird. This is taking, like, way longer. This is why we put everything out so late or it takes so long to get things done. It's just bureaucracy. So, we had in a kind of a, I don't know what you call it, like a temporary run just to be sure that everything. We're into, like, quadruple checking, but we're in full motion now. So, I expect, you know, more cases to arrive late this week, early next week. So, we'll probably start shipping out late next week, I think, at the earliest. Excellent. It's kind of tracking. But, first units are in. You know, we got a box full yesterday. And, the production line's moving. I confirm that, like, every day. Like, what's going on. Then, I usually get, you know, an end-of-the-day list on what's actually being shipped. But, I haven't seen those yet. But, I should expect more Friday than rolling in every day next week. And, then it just takes us some time to inspect and ship and coordinate. You know, shipping is always a coordination thing with, you know, ship station and stuff. It's always some kind of nightmare. So, hopefully, we won't have it as bad as we had it with the Lanier, which is super, super mess. But, yes. So, your surveys are out. So, be sure to look for that from Kickstarter to give us your current address. And, we will get that out to you pretty darn soon. You know, it will definitely be before the end of the month. That's the way everything's looking.

Myke Hurley: Great.

Brad Dowdy: So, hooray on time. Even though it took forever, but we planned on it taking forever. So, we'll actually hit the forever mark. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Woo-hoo. Look at us. So productive.

Brad Dowdy: It's like you feel right by hitting the date, but it's taken stupidly long.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's like we hit the date that was the date that was meant to be the maximum. Right. Exactly. This is how you plan for Kickstarters, kids. If it's one thing that everybody's learned over time. Maximum amount of time plus two months is the way that you want to focus on these things. All right. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace. Use the offer code INK at checkout to get 10% of your first purchase. You want to make your next move with Squarespace because they let you easily create the website that you have for your next idea, project, or big event even. With the ability to grab a unique domain name, award-winning templates, and more, you have everything you need. They are the only one platform that will let you put your site online. There's nothing to install. No patches to worry about. No upgrades needed. Everything is all done in the web browser. It's fantastically simple to do. And you don't have to worry about anything because Squarespace have got you covered. Also backed up with a 24-7 customer support team. No matter what type of website you want to put online, whether it's a store or a portfolio or a blog, they've got all the tools that you need. Whilst I'm here in New York, Brad, I'm going to start working on building my wedding website. Oh, cool. Here's the thing that I want to have. I know a few people that have done that, right? So you can have like a website that's like password protected just for invitees, and it has all the information they're going to need and can be updated over time. And Squarespace even have templates for that. So that's something that I'm going to start building because I want to have this thing, and there's no other way I would know how to do it than to use Squarespace. So there you go. I'm going to be setting up a new site. So you'll be hearing me talk about how easy that was to do over the next few weeks, I'm sure. Squarespace plans start at just $12 a month. You can sign up for a trial right now with no credit card required just by going to squarespace.com, and you can play around with everything before you sign up for a plan. Then when you do, use the offer code INK, and you will get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for The Pan Addict. We thank Squarespace for supporting this show and RelayFM. Squarespace, make your next move. Make your next website.

Ask TPA

Brad Dowdy: So real-time follow-up before we get into our Ask TPA section of the show. I opened up my email while you were reading your Squarespace ad. And from our manufacturer, I went down to the shipping department yesterday because I did not get a shipping report. 40 parts were made. They will be sent out with what they get made today. My response was, well, then I hope today is 400. So this is my life right now. Oh, God. Because 40 doesn't cut it. No. They owe me 700. So let's add a zero to that, guys. Come on. Oh, Brad. It's fine, Myke. It's all fine. I hope so.

Myke Hurley: Okay. Let's do some Ask TPA today. I want to start with a question from at Slim Targa, right? Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Great question. And I don't even know where you found this because I never saw it until you put it in the doc, but I'm glad it's here.

Myke Hurley: I'll do what I can. How is the relationship between the Black Pen Society and the new media pen enthusiasts? All right. Okay. Let's back this up a bit. I had never heard of the Black Pen Society until DC. From what I can gather, the Black Pen Society seems like a group of old school pen vendors and enthusiasts who have this kind of secret club, which seems to be all men.

Myke Hurley: Okay. So I'm along the right line. Which is this kind of ridiculous thing with a bunch of people that think they're being really cool. And it's an old guard thing, for sure.

Myke Hurley: It's, you know, it's like the old vendors and they're having their cigar club. And it's something that I couldn't be less interested in if I tried because that's not the type of life that I want to live at a pen show. I want to be having fun with everybody in the bar and not having it being a part of a secret society. So I will say, though, at this show, I did notice that there were a bunch of people that would usually maybe be a part of this society that were more interested in trying to learn what we do. And coming and hanging out and trying to understand a bit more about the podcast and social media stuff. I don't think that there should be any secret clubs or societies. I think that we should all just enjoy this stuff together. So that's my feeling on that.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, so I can see exactly why those are your comments. But it's not quite that way. And they're trying to change it, even though they don't know exactly how. So the Black Pen Society was started, you know, as a group of mostly men who saw each other at every show. And then every year at D.C. was kind of the the main event for them because it was the big one. And they make like a lapel pin they give to everyone. Basically, all you have to do to be part of the Black Pen Society is they ask you, do you do you own a black pen? You say yes. And then they give you a pen, a PIN pen. And it's very cool. It's these neat pens that they do every year. You know, I forget how many years it's been around. So there's a core group of guys that do this. And a few years ago, you know, I learned about this at D.C. And kind of like what you were alluding to, I just didn't have like time in my schedule to go do this event. But on at other shows, I've tried to hang out with these guys and get to know them a little bit better and kind of have this crossover. And I've become friends with a lot of them. So Paul Arano runs the Black Pen Society. I've become good friends with him. And so it comes around to D.C. I've got so much going on. It's not even on my radar that, you know, whatever. I guess it's Saturday night, Friday night. I don't even remember which night. I think it was Saturday night. So it was going on outside. And people started coming to me inside, including Paul. He's like, hey, we're doing this Black Pen Society thing outside. Why don't you all come? It's fun. I'm like, that would have been great if I was aware two hours ago. You know, maybe I should have been already. And we could have rounded up some people all gone out there and met some new people. Because they're a really good bunch of folks. It's not all men. There's plenty of women out there.

Myke Hurley: I mean, this is just the impression that I got from it. Like, it just seems super weird.

Brad Dowdy: Understandably so. Understandably so. You know, and it's definitely the old guard. It's definitely very old school and traditional. And there's, you know, scotch and cigars and stuff. But just making an appearance, you know, like I tried to. Like last year in D.C. I went out and hung out for a while. But it was after the, it's usually last year was during the Pen Act event. But they were still going after the Pen Act event. So I went. This year was during the Topgolf event. And we didn't have much. I wanted to go. I wanted to talk to people at the bar because I knew I wasn't going to be there much later. So instead of going out to the Black Pen Society, you know, I just hung out in the bar with my friends. You know, if I would have even considered it earlier, I might have planned better for that. But, you know, they're looking for fresh faces and new blood and other people to just join them. And there's really no joining to do. It's just kind of a hangout. And D.C. is always the big one for that. It's where they give out the pens every year. So everyone enjoys that. But, yes, it is a little old schooly male dominated, you know, whiskey and cigar thing. But it's changing it a little bit. And they're trying. Like, I give them credit. Even though they're not like super hard trying. They're like, hey, we want y'all to come. You know, y'all being, you know, like us and, you know, the pen attic crowd and the younger people and the people who are just into modern pens, not vintage pens. It's a definite for everybody thing. Cool.

Myke Hurley: I mean, so maybe I missed some of it. But I just, it doesn't feel inviting to me.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Because, I mean, what did you know about it other than them coming in the bar saying, hey, this is going on. Come on.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Nothing. Nothing. And that's not how we work, right? Like, everything's nicely communicated. But I like the idea of, like, people trying to understand a little bit more and bridge the gap, right? I think, you know, I think it kind of needs to come from more of that side because I think they need to understand a little bit more of what we're trying to do. I don't know. But, yeah, it just seems super weird to me.

Brad Dowdy: The big joke last year for us, because we were doing the pen attic thing in a ballroom and there were a bunch of us sitting there and we actually said we're the black sheep pen society. So that was, you know, something we got a big kick out of. But it's really, it's just something fun. They're trying to get everyone together, but they just, there's no real official way of doing it other than, hey, we're out there. Come on. And, you know, a lot of us don't roll that way. You know, a lot of us are like, hey, what's going on tonight? Oh, we'll be at the bar testing pens. And even though you can get up and walk away from that for 30 minutes, it's not the easiest thing to do, especially when you're hanging out with your friends that you only get to see at this show and they might only be there tonight. And you get to go hang out with a bunch of people you don't know. So, but I do try to make the effort whenever I can, especially at other shows besides DC. Okay. You know, I'll go and hang out and sit with them and talk to them and hear some stories. You know, I've definitely made some good contacts and learned some things. You know, now I have people that I can go to for questions and things like that. So it's a good, it's a good group that doesn't know how to cross the bridge.

Myke Hurley: Well, now I know for next time. So I'm pleased that you gave me that information. Yep. Cool. Yep. BD Margulius asked, I know that you guys really love your Pro Gears. Have either of you had a chance to try the Pro Gear 2? If so, how did the two compare? I had no idea such a pen existed. So I did a little bit of research and it turns out that there is a new version of the Pro Gear.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's been around two or three years or so. I've never seen one. I've never seen one in person, but I've seen them online a bunch and I just don't see any reason why I would get this pen. I don't like the clip design of it. I mean, it's fine, but I just like the traditional one better. Mm-hmm. You know, it's a little bit aesthetically different. It's cleaner.

Myke Hurley: I don't know if the original Pro Gear is cleaner than this one, I think.

Brad Dowdy: And while this is supposed to be a modernized version of that, right? Yeah. You know, that's the way I see it, but it's not necessarily. No.

Myke Hurley: I don't like the clip. They put this anchor on the clip, which makes it look like a duck spill.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. Which Pelican can get away with that. Because that's their brand. Not Sailor. Yeah, it doesn't work for me. And the nibs are inverse of what they normally are on the Pro Gears. Most of the Pro Gears have the gold braiding in the middle of the nib throughout a rhodium nib. And this is reversed. It's a gold nib with the silver plating throughout the little braiding and rope design on there. So I don't know that I've ever even used one at a pen show like DC at the bar. I don't know anyone that owns one of these. So, you know, it's just they didn't. I think it was something they were trying to. Let's have like a modern version, even though they don't need to. You know, a modernized version of the Pro Gear or do something a little bit of a different tweak. But I think it just kind of felt flat. And I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, we didn't see it in a couple of years. Plus, I think it's only in like the black and gold, black and silver trim. They don't do all the crazy colors like they do in the Pro Gear because it's a better pen. And this one basically kind of fell flat. And before you go on to your next point, which I'm excited to get into, BD Margolis has actually been who brought us the pens and notebooks from Japan. Oh, okay. Which I didn't realize that till this morning he was asking me a different question. I was like, oh, wait a minute. That's Ben. So, yeah. Very cool. So, you have a continuation of this question that I want to get into a little bit.

Brad Dowdy: I'm pretty shocked. I'm pretty shocked at how this went. So, tell the people what happened.

Sailor King of Pen

Myke Hurley: I have, you know, over time made fun of Brad's King of Pen, Sailor King of Pen for many reasons because, one, the name is ridiculous. King of Pen is just a hilarious name. And the nib on the King of Pen, it's like five times bigger than any nib you've ever seen in your life. And it actually makes the whole pen look like a club of some description. Right? It just looks monstrous because the nib is huge. Like, it's really, really big. So, I had always kind of laughed at it but never tried it. And I was like, hey, let me try your King of Pen. Like, I've never actually tried it. Nearly died. Oh, my God. Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Because it fell over on you and, like, smothered you? Or because you enjoyed it?

Myke Hurley: There's almost a part of me that wishes that was the case. Because I fell in love. Like, oh, my God. It's incredible.

Myke Hurley: It's a very different pen. I couldn't believe it. It was so good.

Myke Hurley: It feels like, to me, like, everything that I like about the pro gear, but more of it.

Brad Dowdy: And as it turns out, it's not too big. Right? No, it's not. It's gigantic. But when you actually use it to write with, you're like, oh, okay.

Myke Hurley: And, oh, my God. I immediately went to just go look around. And I found one at the Anderson's table. It's, like, a clear one. Like, a demonstrator clear. Like, completely clear, which I also really loved. You have a blue one, which is beautiful. But I really, really do like the clear one a lot. And it was, like, $790.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. That's what I paid for mine. So, I think when I did the review of this pen, or when I've talked about it before, this is an almost an impossible pen to recommend because of the price. Because are you really getting that value if you break it down that way? People will say, well, it's a clear plastic pen with a big nib. How is that? $790. I don't have an argument for that. But I use it, and I love it. So, it's been worth it from that aspect. But I totally get the price slash value argument for this pen. Because it's just not there. When you can get a killer Pro Gear Standard for, like, $280. You can get, you know, a Black Luster, you know, or 19, or Imperial Black for, like, $340. And even though this pen is physically double the size, it's not, you know, insanely, you know, it doesn't look like it's a crazy amount more money that it should cost. And it's still a cartridge converter pen. So, you know, it's just one of those things. Like, it's super hard to justify the price until you, like, pick one up and use it. And then you're like, oh, I kind of get it. And even then, it still may not justify the price for you. It's a hard pen to pen down in that way. But I absolutely adore it. It's one of my most used pens. It's probably, like, in my top five current pens. Because it rarely goes uninked. I'm always using it because I enjoy it so much.

Myke Hurley: Punky nailed it in the chat room. He says Myke is angry that he likes it so much. And that is the perfect way to put it. Like, I love this pen. But it's $800. And I nearly bought it. Like, I only didn't buy it because I'd already spent quite a bit of the show. But this pen has rocketed to the top of my list. Because I can't even explain it. But it is just unbelievable to use. It feels so good. And everyone that tried it was exactly the same. Right? Because after I was talking about it so much, a few other people were like, I was like, okay, let me try this thing out. And it's like, oh. Like, there's just something about it. Right? Like, it is wonderful. It is a wonderful pen. So, it's going very high on my list, I've got to say. I've got to say. So, that's something to be worried about for the future. Yeah. I, Eric asked, why doesn't Noodler's Ink crack the top five inks list?

Brad Dowdy: It's two reasons for me. One, there's such a variety in the ink that you have to research the ones that you're buying to ensure they're not going to affect your pens negatively. That you don't have to, you know, be extra careful which pen you use it in. You don't have to be, you know, do extra cleaning. Which is all fine. There's some really cool colors. You know, there's some tame ones. Like, 54th Massachusetts is one that always is popular. It's kind of a blue-black. And it works well with everything. And I used it for a while. But the second reason why it doesn't crack the top five is mostly because I just don't want to deal with Nathan's politics. And, like, I'm very open politically. You know, I really don't, you know, I'm good with whatever you believe in. But if it doesn't line up with, you know, necessarily what I believe in, I just, why deal with the drama? I don't understand why you insert drama into a product like Fountain Pen Ink. So, I just choose not to deal with it. So, therefore, I don't have any Noodler's inks that, you know, I use at all. But, you know, if you're looking for, like, the ones you always hear about if you wanted to try some out are 54th Mass, Heart of Darkness, and Apache Sunset. Those are kind of the three super, super popular Noodler inks if you want to dive into there. But I'm never going to, they're never going to crack my top five list because I just, there's so many more inks that I find better. I mean, they probably wouldn't crack a top ten list for me.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. I mean, I only have Heart of Darkness and I can't even remember the last time I've used it. There was like a, there was a Noodler's, there was, there was a distributor at the DC show and there was a Noodler's table. And I wished, I don't, I actually took some video of this, which I'll put in the vlog, which was so perfect. because there were boxes of Noodler's ink that were covered in ink. And I was like, that's Noodler's. To me, that's just what it is, right? Like it looks, they put boxes on the table of ink that are clearly basically exploded in the box. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: For some reason, that is Noodler's to me. Nathan fills them to the lip of the bottle. Yep. Always has, always will. And it's just kind of crazy. You always see that.

Myke Hurley: I just have this image. I mean, I don't really know much about Nathan or how the inks are made. I just have this image of this guy making ink in his shed. Like that's how it feels to me. Like, and it's a real deal. Like it's, there's a lot of stuff. There's good stuff in there, but it just has that feel to me of just like the guy, you know, pouring the ink in bottles himself from a funnel and then like printing out a label and sticking it on and then putting it in a box, right? That's just kind of how it feels to me. Punky has said, because he does make ink in a shed.

Nathan: So it's like, it's basically what it is. Like people, I got it right. Like I was imagining the guy doing the thing that he's actually doing. This is hilarious. Everyone in the chat room was just like, yeah, no, that's what it is.

Nathan: So there you go.

Brad Dowdy: Oh my gosh. I think we'd all be surprised at our favorite ink makers or like one man shops, you know, with like the, like the witch's brew cauldrons going, you know? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Oh my gosh. That's hilarious. Yeah. That is hilarious. All right. Piscotikas asked, what is the purpose of what they call the fins on the back of fountain pens? And does it matter if one gets bent or breaks off and he includes, they include a picture, which I'll put in the show notes.

Brad Dowdy: Let me look at the picture. But yeah, it's for the fins on the back of the feed is basically for additional ink to hold there. You know, keep your nib wet, keep the, the ink flowing from where the nib actually physically touches the top of the feed and gives you a better continuous ink flow. Even though some feeds are solid, they don't all have fins. So if they get like, if a single fin gets broken off, it's not really going to affect anything on your pen. It should write completely fine. It might just bother you aesthetically. It's not going to affect any technical parts of you writing the pen. So writing with the pen, but it's generally to keep the nib wetter and flowing, you know, as a good, in a good ink flow. So it holds a little bit more ink back there and things like that. So I want to know what Nick did to this pen.

Myke Hurley: It looked like it went through some real trouble. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, you know, these, these feeds can be designed different way to hold the ink, but that's basically what it's for. And just a single fin like that getting damaged, it's not really gonna, gonna give you any issues, you know, other than like, so that's something that would drive me insane just visually.

Top Five List

Myke Hurley: And finally today, Alex Crossland asked, just saw that the top five list on the website hasn't been updated for about a year. Is everything pretty much on log right now?

Brad Dowdy: So this is the question I start to get about summertime. I used to back in the old days, I used to up this update this list at least twice a year. And when I did the, it was the last one or the one before I said, I was going to back it off to once a year because there's not that much variance in it. But around this time of year, those questions start to come. When's the update coming? When's the update coming? So I won't say everyone's pretty much on lock at this point, but we're pretty close. So that's in September, you know, there'll be a few changes and I'll start working on that soon and get that published in the next month or so. But I think last year when I did it, there were a few more changes than I thought there would be. So this year might be the same thing. So, and people always want to know my personal stuff because I try to keep the personal stuff out of that unless I'm doing like the little notes sections of it. So I might, I might re-add the personal top five in there just for, just for fun. So I always look for feedback on the top five lists and what people want to see because it's a, it's a pretty long list and I like it very much. And it's, it's proven to be pretty solid over the years. So I will update that soon.

Myke Hurley: All right. I think that brings us to the end of the episode, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: You got to go shopping for stationery.

Myke Hurley: I've got to go shopping. I will mention just before we wrap up today, we spoke about this a couple of weeks ago. RelayFM membership time is, is coming. It's happening with like next week. We begin publishing our bonus content for members. If you are a RelayFM member, you've already got the feed. You're all good to go. If you're not, then you should sign up. We have some great stuff posting next week, which is starting the 14th, including the, the special that me and you did. That's going to be out on August the 17th, which is where we look at Joy Division together. We, we, we do a real deep dive on some of your favorite Joy Division songs. You can become a RelayFM member from as little as $5 a month. There'll be a link in the show notes to, to go and find out more about membership. But if you just go to Relay.fm slash PenAddict, you can, you can sign up right there and you can give us some, some money there if you want to. And we give a bunch of different bonuses, including other exclusive members content and exclusive members shows. There's a lot of stuff and we're adding more and more and more. So I really recommend going to sign up. You can find out more at Relay.fm slash membership. If you want to do that, we'd really appreciate it. So you can send in your questions for the show, go to hashtag, you can just tweet with a hashtag, ask TPA, and they'll come in as always. And we like to try and get to those pretty much every episode now, because there's more and more coming in all the time. So that's really great. Don't forget about stationary.wiki, which is where you can go to keep, keep adding to the incredible resources being built there. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to knock.co where they've probably got some stock. You can go to penaddict.com. We do, we do. You got some stuff. Excellent. Penaddict.com. You can find out Brad's work. He's penaddict on Instagram. Dowdy is on Twitter. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E. We'll be back next time. Until then, thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring. Say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.