The Pen Addict 346/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	346
Title:	The Platinum Platinum
Release Date:	February 13th, 2019
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 346
Audio File:	Audio Episode 346
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 346
Length:	7272 min <br />1.2 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 346, and today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley, and I'm joined by Bigger Money Boy, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Big Money Brad. Big Money Brad's back, baby. Oh, that's a not very accurate statement, but I see what you're getting at here. We have a little project called The Spoke Pen on Kickstarter, me and my friend Brian Conte. We did a thing, we launched it last week, and we discussed it on the podcast last week, so we won't totally go over that. If you want to hear all the nuts and bolts about the project, definitely listen to episode 345.

Myke Hurley: $65,000 on a $20,000 goal.

Kickstarter Discussion

Brad Dowdy: Big Money Brad. So, let's talk about pre-launching a Kickstarter and having expectations about how it might go. The short answer is, you have no clue, right? You cannot ever know, no matter what you think about how good a job you did getting ready for it, you don't know what's going to happen when you push the button. So, Brian and I sitting there, it's like, we're done. So, you start throwing out numbers, like, what do you think this project is going to do? How do you feel about the overall scope of the project? You know, how big do you think it could go? Do you think it's going to flop? You know, all these things. So, just to throw out some talking point numbers, I think both me and Brian thought if we raised, if we did $50,000 total for the project, we'd be ecstatic. We'd think we'd had done a really good job with the campaign. Well, we did that in, like, less than a week. So, now you're going, well, what's going to happen now? And you still don't know. But you can kind of tell, like, what the pacing is like.

Brad Dowdy: So, like, I don't know if we'll get to triple digits. Like, if we got to triple digits, like, I think our heads would pop off just from, like, wow, this really went well. I don't, I mean, six digits. I say triple digits. Yeah, I know what you mean. Six figures. Three big numbers. Three big numbers, yeah.

Myke Hurley: KickTrack is still trending you to $237,000, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: You think since they launched KickTrack, they'd have that algorithm to do math a lot better than that? No, I don't think they care. That's not the point of it, right? The point of it is to big numbers it, right? Yeah. So, yeah, like, 65K, you know, like, we're probably tracking, like, between 80 and 90, I would imagine, at this point. So, we'll have another big spike the last couple days of the project. But, you know, we just want to keep the campaign going. We did plan on, if it went like this, if it went gangbusters, and we got to around 1,000 pins sold, we did cap off the current backer levels and move a shipping date. You know, no change in the product. But we did have to pull that trigger probably sooner than we thought. You know, it's just one of those things. We're physically putting together all these pins, right? We're getting all the machine parts made and then shipped to us in parts, not in a final product. So, that's a lot of labor on our side. So, we have to account for that to, you know, hopefully give the best experience possible in the Kickstarter project. So, you know, it's just one of those things we needed to do. We planned on doing it and we were surprised it came that early in the game. So, we'll take it. You know, like I mentioned, I put out an update yesterday. We're 0% concerned about getting parts manufactured. Like, we can get parts manufactured, as many parts as we need. But it's going to take us time to actually put those parts together. So, that's why we instituted that change yesterday. So, it's going great. We're very happy with how it's going. So, we appreciate all the support.

Myke Hurley: While we're talking about Kickstarters, I know there's a lot of stuff going on right now, which we can only apologize for. But the Atlanta and blank pen show Kickstarter for our two destination Kickstarter should be live before next week's show. We are currently hoping to launch the campaign on Tuesday, February 19th. This is obviously pending Kickstarter approval. Right. But we have basically everything we need taken care of. The video is done and the stuff is all written. And it's just a case of getting that into Kickstarter and having to improve it. So, you can be sure that we'll both be tweeting about it and posting about it on Instagram and stuff. And then we'll be talking about it on next week's episode. So, again, like just in advance, if you feel like you're oversubscribed to the amount of things that you're paying for, don't feel like you have to do this. Of course, only if you want to support the campaign, you want to get the rewards that we're doing and we do have some great stuff, then we obviously encourage and please support the Kickstarter campaign. But, again, we know it isn't always feasible for everybody. So, if you can't do it, don't do it. But if you can do it, we'd love it. Keep your eye out for it.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. I think the only thing we're lacking, which won't hold up the launch, is the actual physical final approval case prototype that I need to assign off on production. Like we made our physical prototype, we just don't have those physical pictures of the final.

Myke Hurley: But for reasons that will become clear, it's not necessarily required for the campaign to launch.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. But we'll have digital mock-ups and things like that. And we fully anticipate to have the real pictures in before the campaign's over. And this is not a campaign with early birds. So, you can wait any amount of time. If you want to see the pictures, you feel free to wait.

Myke Hurley: I don't think we've ever had a campaign. Where we have had like an actual physical mock-up at launch. I think it's always been images.

Brad Dowdy: I think like two came. Well, I guess I'm thinking about some of the NOC projects. We've definitely had some. I thought, actually, I thought I had one for the Tallulah, then swapped it out, maybe deleted it, and then replaced it. I don't know. It seems like we've had it before, but not a big deal at all. This will be, yeah, you'll see exactly why when we posted that. It's not going to be a big issue. But I promise we will have the real pictures in before it's closed.

Myke Hurley: So, last week, we spoke about your Fire on Fire Fountain Pen Inc., which was a funding collaboration with Robert Oster. But there's another Robert Oster collaboration, which looks really cool. And that is from our good friends over at the Carolina Pen Company and Jonathan Brooks. They have made Carolina Blue with Robert Oster, which is available now, too.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this looks like an awesome color. Jonathan, he mailed me the moment I announced Fire on Fire. He's like, oh, thank God you didn't do a blue-black. Because neither one of us knew we were doing these inks right around the same time. And I just found it to be hilarious. And he sent me a picture of the ink. I was like, oh, this looks great.

Myke Hurley: It does look really good. It's a really deep blue. It's very nice looking.

Brad Dowdy: But with like a bright blue undertone, which is like I told Jonathan if I was designing a blue-black, that's kind of how I would want it to look. So, he sent me a sample of it. I have it on my desk. Got it yesterday. I have not opened up the box yet, but I will get that inked up soon. But, yeah, y'all go check that out if you're a blue-black fan. If you're a Brooks Pen fan, Carolina Pen Company fan, you know, ink up your pens. And I'm sure Jonathan will have it at all the shows he's going to this year, which I think is a lot. So, that's very cool. Congrats, Jonathan.

Pilot Anniversary Video

Myke Hurley: So, I would say the theme of this show throughout 2018 was what is Pilot going to do for their 100th anniversary? You heard us talk about it a million times, right? And ultimately, the answer was, for most of everybody, diddly squat. And what they did do was not really worth it. So, in Burst Platinum, with their 100th anniversary, and right off the bat, they are basically telling Pilot to suck it.

Myke Hurley: They made this video, which is a really cool video, which shows their 100th anniversary, kind of all of the big things, all of the big goings-on that happened throughout their company's history. It's a really nice thing to see, because I feel like I maybe didn't know enough about their history. My favorite thing in this whole little kind of show-and-tell is in 1967, they made the first Platinum nib pen, which they called the Platinum Platinum, which I just thought was hilarious.

Brad Dowdy: If that's not our pen, I don't know what it is, right? I mean, we would be all for the Platinum Platinum.

Myke Hurley: Well, we'll get to that in a minute.

Brad Dowdy: You might have another chance, but I don't know about that. Not quite, not quite.

Myke Hurley: But there was something you liked, too, right?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. So, I'm sitting here watching the video, and I'm actually, man, this is a really good video. It's kind of emotional. Like, they're showing, you know, the... I mean, I'm coming... You know how I am anyway, but, like, they're showing the employees and the factory workers. And they're showing, like, every slide. So, it's like just an audio. I mean, it's just like a music background slide presentation, right? So, like, the slides, you know, going off the screen. And it's like, we invented this pen. We invented this unique filling system or nib.

Brad Dowdy: 1966 Platinum sponsors music TV program. I just died laughing. It's the weirdest.

Myke Hurley: Like, it's such a strange way to put it. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's, like, slammed right in between all these unique nib and pen design mechanisms that they've created. And it's just, like...

Myke Hurley: It's hilarious.

Brad Dowdy: Who approved this? It's like, it doesn't fit at all. But I obviously enjoyed it thoroughly just because it's such an outlier. There was nothing else before or after Platinum sponsors music TV program that would think this was, like, important at all. But apparently it was very important to them at the time, right? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. For whatever reason, like, maybe that was, like, a real turning point for the company financially. Like, they don't go into the detail. But you can only assume that this meant something. Or, like, maybe that exact TV show is, like, really important. Yeah. Right?

Brad Dowdy: Like, Top of the Pops, American Bandstand level type of thing. Like, we just don't understand it. But then they would have put the name in there. That's my... You'd think so, right?

Myke Hurley: But who knows? Maybe it's called... Like, it went translated in English. Maybe it's called Music TV Program.

Brad Dowdy: Nice. Right? I don't know. Just like this is an internet radio show, right? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: But, like, it just might be the translated name of that. Who knows? But anyway, the most important thing is they have a 100th anniversary pen. It's called The Prime. And they have it in two different models. They have a fully Platinum model and they have a Silver model. They're both limited edition. The Platinum body pen is limited to 100 pieces and is priced at a million yen, which is $9,000. Which, there's 100 of them. So, this is it, right? Like, you've got 100 of them. It's made completely out of Platinum. You want to charge nine grand for it. Okay. Right? Like, go for it. You know, I'm not going to buy it. But do it. I understand. Right? Because this was the...

Kaweco Silver Discussion

Brad Dowdy: Oh, you've got to buy that Silver Kaweco first, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's what you keep telling me, too. Yeah. Yeah, that's the pen I'm definitely going to buy. But, like, this 100 Platinum ones, this is the equivalent of what Pilot did. Right? This. Right. They made something mega expensive. And it was a range, but it was just mega expensive stuff. But then, they're doing something that is a little bit more... Well, it is a lot more, but still expensive, but a lot more attainable. They're making 2,000 of them out of silver, which will be charged at 100,000 yen, which is about $900. So, while still expensive, much more attainable for the average Platinum customer. Right? Like, this is in line with their expensive pens. This isn't, like, insane. This isn't a crazy thing. So, but what we should say is, well, the pens are stunning. Like, they are beautiful.

Brad Dowdy: I have a couple questions. We'll get to my thoughts on this in a minute.

Myke Hurley: Okay. It is, like, a pen. It's got a cap on it, right? Like, it's even made of... It's silver in color, right? Because it's even made of platinum or silver. And there's just... It's just, like, a crosshatch design. Like, just, like, lots and lots and lots and lots of lines.

Myke Hurley: So, super cool looking. The boxes and stuff, the presentation boxes are beautiful. And you get ink and all that kind of stuff with them. And, like, a little display thing that you can put it on. They come out on February the 5th. And the nibs feature the totally amazing, badass, 100th anniversary platinum logo that they've created. It's, like, a really cool logo.

Brad Dowdy: I want everything with that logo on it. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: It's very cool. So, yeah. This is a pen that's available.

Myke Hurley: Well, will be available in February. There's nothing, kind of, about pricing or availability information. On the English language version. The prices that I'm talking about, by the way, they came from the Japanese website. They're not on the English language website.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think nibs.com has them up. Okay. And they're pretty expensive. And so, a couple of things. One, they did better than Pilot in that they actually launched their 100th anniversary products in February as opposed to, what, September? Mm-hmm. Or October last year? I think it was September. But, like, I get what Pilot was doing. And Platinum's kind of doing the same thing. These price points are really high for the regular person.

Myke Hurley: I should say, by the way, just because I set the prices. So, like, I was doing conversion prices when they actually make it to the U.S. So, nibs is selling. Nibs.com is selling silver for $1,120. And Platinum for $11,200. Yeah. Just as a note. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, Pilot's low-end 100th anniversary pin, I think, was around $1,500. And it was, like, the Arushi-painted one. I think it was really beautiful. I think it's better looking than this pin. Like, my question about this pin is, like, the section seems not special enough for this type of price of a pin. Yep. Yep. That's my only hang-up. I mean, I think, in general, the design's pretty good. I just want both of these companies... My biggest argument with Pilot, and my argument is going to be the same for Platinum, is I want to participate. Right? The low-end consumer, you know, that is buying anything from the Preppy to the 3776. Give me one thing, like, I can join in on the anniversary celebration with. Even if it's an ink or... Hell, give me a baseball hat with this 100th anniversary logo. I'll be the first one in line. But, like, I want to participate in these companies' anniversaries. So, that was my biggest issue with Pilot. Yeah, yeah. Like, I can't get those inks. Like, our friend Anna in the chat room, she's got some of those ink samples. I don't know if we're going to be able to get those inks, plus they're, like, a year late.

Brad Dowdy: Like, I'm good with it. Like, Pilot's doing... It's very close, actually, to what... I mean, Platinum's doing what's very close to Pilot. Pilot, the low-end might be a little bit more accessible price-wise. But I don't think it's... I don't think it actually holds a candle to what Pilot did on the low-end. And low-end is a complete misnomer for, like, 99.9% of what this podcast listeners are buying. So, we're Pilot fans. We're Platinum fans. And we want to participate, guys. Like, I would like to participate in these companies' large anniversaries. I don't have anything representing Pilot's 100th anniversary, which is a huge moment if I'm a collector and a fan of the brand. So, I would like to be able to participate. Now, I'm holding out hope that Pilot's got a jump on the calendar, right? I mean, excuse me. Platinum has a jump on the calendar. That's where Pilot ruined everything.

Myke Hurley: I'm giving them more kind of praise because it feels like they started it correctly. Here is the thing, right? Exactly. There is much more of a chance that they will have more and more affordable. Like, maybe there's going to be a nice 3776 or something, which is a bit more affordable or whatever.

Brad Dowdy: We had to question Pilot for nine months, which made anything that they did that they were behind the eight ball from the jump because they never announced anything. So, this bodes well, hopefully, for the rest of the year of Platinum. And I hope, crossing fingers, we get to see something in the more affordable price points because they have such a large following for some of the lower-end pins that they make, like the 3776. I'd be a little bit surprised, but hey, Pilot surprised me last year. Like, who knows what's going to happen, right? This could be it. So, we'll check back this summer and see.

Myke Hurley: All right. Should we take a break? Yeah, let's take a quick break. Thanks to PenchLA for their support of this week's episode. PenchLA, so everything you're looking for in the pen world from all of your favorite brands. Whether you're looking for fountain pens or rollerballs or inks or carrying cases. Whether you want to buy Pelicans, Lamis, Pilots, Sailors, Kawekos. Kawekos, it doesn't matter what you want. PenchLA have got it. They're an authorized dealer of everything. They do great shipping, great customer service. They offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their products. They sell internationally with reasonable shipping rates. And if you order something over $50 in the US, it will be shipped for free. So, they do free shipping and orders of over $50 within the United States. We love PenchLA because they always have a wonderful selection of items available. And they always have great prices as well as doing all of the discounts that they do. And they also have something special as always for Penaddict listeners. Go to penchalet.com. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com. And click the podcast link at the top of the website. And enter the password penaddict to get your hands on this week's special offer. And the code you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Penchalet. So, Brad, what catches your eye?

Brad Dowdy: There is two brands highly represented in this list this week. One is Conklin. The second one is Diplomat. I have experience with Diplomat. I like them a lot. I don't have any Conklens yet. They have the Mark Twain Demonstrator that looks super interesting. One of the Crescent Fillers where you can see the inside. It's a little gold for me, but that one's at least looking interesting. And some of the other materials in the Conklin, like the Conklin Empire, the price percentage off is 50% or more. So, there's lots of great deals live right now on penchalet.com.

Myke Hurley: So, once again, penchalet.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website. And enter the password penaddict to get your hands on those deals. And the 10% off coupon. Our thanks to Penchalet for their continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, we mentioned, I guess it was last week or the week before, about the Blackwing Natural. The Extra Firm Natural Wood Barrel Pencil was actually going to be a real thing. And now they are available for order slash pre-order. And I just wanted to point this out because they're actually available. And I wanted to talk about it from a business perspective that I find fascinating. is that Blackwing has been established now for quite a while. Many, many years in the business. And I find it so rare to see any stationary company that I follow have the opportunity to release their singular best product this deep into their existence. Right? I have a feeling like this is going to be their number one product. And how many years have they been around now? Seven or eight years? I'm thinking. I didn't look up the exact date. I just find that fascinating. Like, this is going to be like a calling card pencil for them. And I just kind of giggle thinking about, wow, that would be pretty cool to do your best work later in the life cycle of your brand. And this is actually what the customers of Blackwing have been calling for for years, right? So it was inevitable that it was going to happen. Except they did it all in one place doing the natural barrel and the extra firm core all in one. Like, this is the pinnacle of the pencil for them, in my opinion. Now, that's someone who likes the extra firm cores and the natural barrels. You know, not everyone's going to like that. I just have a feeling that it's going to be popular. And seeing the feedback so far, like we're on the retail mailing list for Blackwing at Knott because we bought some of their products before to do giveaways. And they're already calling for two to three week delays in retail orders. So they're sending, say, hey, we're ordered now. And it's going to be two to three weeks. And the order page on the website is kind of the same thing. It's like they're available for order, but it's going to be a while until we ship them. You know, that's a good thing. Like, they'll catch up pretty quickly, you know, based on, you know, what I've seen from them in the past and the amount of manufacturing that they do. But I just, I don't know, maybe it's just me looking at it from like a business perspective. But I find this endlessly fascinating that at this point in their timeline, they're coming out with maybe their best product ever. It's a testament to them and why I like them so much.

Myke Hurley: I think it's interesting the way that you say that. And I'm keen to see if that ends up becoming the consensus, right? Like, if it does end up being that everyone's like, oh, you want the Blackwing? Well, you should get the natural. Which is a new product in like a company with a ton of history. So it is kind of interesting, right? They've been around since like, well, this pencil has been around since like the 30s, right? Like this actual pencil.

Brad Dowdy: Well, yeah, this is a new company. Yeah, but they make the same thing. But now different pencils, the brand has been around that long, different pencils.

Myke Hurley: Okay. So it would be kind of funny if it's like, oh, now here's our new one and our new one's the best one. So yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So I pretty much consider this company like the new company. I don't relate them to the old Blackwing at all.

Myke Hurley: Okay. Well, it will still be interesting to see if people agree with your hypothesis, even though you haven't actually tried it yourself yet.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Well, I've tried the core because they've shipped out in some of the volumes and I've tried the natural because they've shipped out in some of the volumes. And now they're just putting those together and making essentially what I will be the ultimate pencil for me. So we'll just we'll have to see how it fares in the lineup with all of their existing pencils. It's also like the new fresh too. So it's of course going to do well.

Retro 51 Transition

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of new fresh, we've alluded to this. We've discussed it a little bit, but now they're starting to get into a wider release. And that's the Retro 51 fountain pen with updated nibs now made by Yovo and updated grip sections. So what are your thoughts on this?

Myke Hurley: I'm really excited to see what these are like, but none of the designs that are currently available are making me want to buy them.

Myke Hurley: Dave, so currently what they have available is a couple of models in two different styles. So they have some of the metal ones. They have like an all black metal one. They have one of the metal ones that looks like a plane. Yep. And they also have the Lincoln, which I think was made of like brass or something, if I remember correctly.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. What is that? I think it was brass. Yeah. It looks it looks brass, but I can't totally remember.

Myke Hurley: It either is brass or is supposed to look like brass. But like the retro the tornado, the rollable was brass. So and then they have just like a kind of a more standard line, which they're calling frosty metallic whenever blue, a pink and a purple. So I want to try one of these. But basically, none of them, none of the ones that are available right now are calling to me. But I'm just keen to see what it ends up being like, because we could end up with retro 51 fountain pens that are actually just genuinely very good. Where before they were like pretty good. They were fine. They weren't great. They were just kind of fine.

Brad Dowdy: You know, they were fine. Like when I reviewed one of the original ones, I pulled up the review is from 2014.

Brad Dowdy: There's nothing really negative to say in that review, except I really didn't like the grip section. I just didn't want to use the pen. Right. It's like it was fine. Like you said, it was perfectly fine. But why would I use it? And I think I'm 100% going to try one of these new ones. Because I'm mostly interested in how the grip section feels. Because before, it felt like it didn't match the fountain pen well enough to, you know, to ignore, if you will. Like it felt like this little cheap add-on where the rest of the pen was pretty good. And even the nib wrote well. But switching, upgrading the nib, and redesigning and refinishing the sections have me interested. And I will get, I actually, unlike you, I prefer the solid color ones. I don't like the, I mean, the designs are fine. They just don't speak to me. They look really bad in pictures posted, right? It looks like they're not, they obviously post, but I don't think that's going to be beneficial to anyone. Oh, I see what you meant by pictures posted. I don't think it's going to work well.

Myke Hurley: I thought you meant they look bad in all the pictures I've seen. But you mean putting the cap on the end of the pen.

Brad Dowdy: I mean physically putting the cap. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's a nightmare scenario. The pen's too big and the cap will be too heavy. Like this is not a postable, like it is technically a postable pen, but this is not a pen that you want to post. Because there's too much furniture at the tip of the, like the very top of the cap. So like that weighting is going to be wild.

Buying Decision Factors

Brad Dowdy: And then you get into the buying decision, right? I have, what is the price point on these? I didn't even look. I'm assuming what the price point is. Yeah, so it's in between $50 and $60. Right? Or maybe the solid color ones are in the 40s. Well, the amount of competition you run into there is enormous. And, you know, you have things like Twisby and Kaweco. You know, even the Pilot Prayer. Like I'm a huge fan of the Pilot Prayer, even though it's really overpriced. You know, you have some really good platinum pens that are half the price. You know, you have Twisby's right there. What are you going to do if you're a Retro 51 to differentiate yourself? Well, what they've done with the Tornado is make all these cool styles and colors and themed pens and different materials. But guess what? The Tornado has zero competition. That's why we like it so much. Because there's nothing to fill that need in that price point. Fountain Pen's a little bit different story. That area of the market or fountain pens, it's not oversaturated. Like it can use another good entrant. I don't know that this is going to be the one. We'll wait and see. I want to get my hands on one to see what it's really like. See how much I enjoy it. See if I can, you know, if it comes close to being a Twisby 580. Right? That's going to be what it's going to go directly up against.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And it doesn't have to beat it or be better than. It just has to be compelling and enough to be considered. And we'll see. I'm a little bit more. This is a hard market for them, I think. Just because of the success that they've had elsewhere. And they obviously know that their previous iteration could be better. And they've made these changes because they've gotten feedback for years and years and years about these exact things that they're changing. Now we'll see if it actually becomes, you know, a thing like the Tornado has. I have my doubts.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I feel like if anyone is able to create exciting, fun, cool designs, Retro 51 can do it. Yeah. What they have done so far, they haven't, like... I think they're kind of hedging it a little bit because they haven't really done anything new. Yeah. Like... Right. And so my feeling is that they're kind of just like, let's get some basic ones out there before we start doing some crazy stuff. That's kind of my look at it because it's like, well, you already do all of these, right, in the regular Tornado. Whilst eventually... I mean, so what might end up happening and what will probably happen is that ultimately you'll start making decisions. So they'll have a cool design that comes out and you'll choose, do I want this in a fountain pen or a rollable? And that might be enough, right? Right. That like, it's just, here is X new funky design that we've worked out, which is really cool. And we have it available in both models. And then at that point, it's like, oh, okay. Right. Like, now we're maybe onto something, but we need to wait and see if that's what they're going to do.

Mechanical Pencil Discussion

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Complete sidebar to this conversation. And I'm good with the fountain pen conversation. The Dimitri mechanical pencil that I love so much with the periodic table on there that I love the design so much, but hated the pencil. They're actually making that into a rollerball. So I'm pretty happy about that.

Myke Hurley: I saw that and thought of you. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, I mean, like, yeah, I can see like getting the sets of things, right? If there's something that really, like what Retro 51 does so well and does better than anyone else is like, you know, pulls at your heartstrings for things that you like, right? If you're into, you know, the space, you know, well, maybe you're going to have like some people buy the whole sets of the Retro 51 tornadoes. Well, are they going to have matching fountain pens to go with that too? Kind of thing. So we'll see. You know, I'm cautious, cautiously optimistic, I guess, that the pen has improved. I would wager that it has, but is it going to do enough to make me personally want to use it? Which is, you know, a completely different, you know, answer to, is it a good pen? Right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. We just don't know yet. We'll, we'll, we'll find out what we just don't know yet.

Brad Dowdy: I wonder if any of these fountain pens are going to be at the LA pen show this weekend, Myke. Will you, will you let me know you're going, right? Don't do that.

Myke Hurley: I'm not going now.

Brad Dowdy: I'm not going either. I am. I'm getting kind of bummed. Like I'm usually, LA is usually my first pen show of the year. I think it's been three years in a row that I've been. And I'm not going to lie. And talking with other friends and vendors, they, they feel the same. It's one of the harder pen shows to work for some reason. I get exhausted. I think it's probably because of the cross country travel and then just the, the full weight of, you know, working three days at a pen show. So, um, and then the full travel back, I just ended up getting exhausted. So I have like this, just these feelings of, Oh, LA, I'm going to be so tired.

Myke Hurley: What makes it different to the other West Coast shows?

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's the only one I've been going to for, it's been two or three years since I've gone to San Francisco. Okay. Uh, so the other difference for me is that I don't bring knock there. When I go to San Francisco, I bring knock. So I go to LA and work for Van Ness, which is great. Um, this year it's going to be a little bit different and I'm really anxious. To get feedback from all of my friends that are going to the show. And I know they'll let me know how it goes, but it's going to be at the same hotel, but they finally finished the construction to where the fountain pen show will actually be in the downstairs, large ballroom instead of an upstairs, large ballroom. I don't know that that's going to technically change anything about the show. And I would anticipate it doesn't, but I don't know anything and no one knows anything about the new space just to see how it flows and how it works for all the vendors. So I'd like to hear some feedback on that. Um, you can follow Lisa Van Ness. She is taking a road trip with our, our, uh, primary co-host, number one favorite co-host Anna Reinhart. They're hitting the road. They're taking a drive from Little Rock to Kansas City out to LA. So you need to follow. We'll put both, both of their Instagrams in the show notes for you to follow their shenanigans. And I know they're going to shoot a bunch of videos and post these videos. Uh, this is going to be hilarious. So they've, they've already tagged me in pictures where they found some graffiti of my name on one of the places they stopped the Cadillac ranch. And that actually kind of looks like my handwriting in this graffiti. It looks like I was there, but, um, it's funny. They're having a good time. I'm talking to them via text some, and, uh, this is, this is something you should really, really follow. Um, because they're just, they're two peas in a pod and I just can't imagine what kind of trouble they're going to get into. It'll be epic. So we did, uh, leading into our ass TPA portion of the show. We did have a question about the LA show from Ryan and it's, it's, it's a two parter. And I think both parts are really good. I want to want to tackle them both. If you'll let me, Myke. No, of course. Okay. So Ryan says, I was interested if you can help me with something. I'm really interested in, in a few vintage Parker pins. I would really like a gray Parker 51. Any filling mechanism is fine. I was wondering if you knew a particular vendor at the LA pin show that I should check to find out and maybe of the celluloid models. If not, no worries. If there's a place you would direct me to find a vintage Parker, not at a pin show, that would be fine also. So let me take that part before we get onto the second part. So I would look for a gentleman named Stacy is business is called paper. Once a pen. And he's usually there with his daughter. They're there every year. I love talking to them, hanging out with them. He restores.

Brad Dowdy: He's one of my favorite fountain pen restores to follow. Like on Instagram, he always has cool stuff coming through his hands and he does really great work. So he's great. If Martin Ferguson is there, Martin does wonderful restoration work. Um, there's a huge list of people, you know, Paul Arano, um, is another one you can find 51's at. I don't have, I'm not looking at the, the vendor list. I don't know if there is such a thing as a vendor list for the show, which we'll get to for the second part of the question. But I'd be looking for Stacy and paper. Once a pen first. And then probably checking out, you know, if you can find Martin Ferguson, Paul Arano, and then a few, there's plenty of other vendors that you should be able to find something you like. You will not be lacking of choice of Parker 51's. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: If you want a Parker 51 and you go to a pen show, you could walk away with a thousand Parker 51's. They are literally everywhere.

Brad Dowdy: So don't jump at the first one you see, you know, take a look around, test out all the pens, ask all the questions. Um, our friend Nick Pang will be there as well. The chat room is saying, so Nick will be there. He's always restoring and finding all kinds of new pens. So, um, and he's always glad to work with you too. Um, and answering questions. So you will not be lacking, but those are kind of the people I would target first. And then from Ryan on a side note, this pen show seems flat. I went once before and thought it was fine. There seemed to be a pretty good attitude among the crowd, but between the lackluster website shocking. Dang.

Myke Hurley: It's a very bad one.

Brad Dowdy: And the lack of discussion from most pen sellers and bloggers, it feels like this is for sure a weaker show. Any reason for this? They just seem not interested in having new pen people there. I could be wrong though. Maybe it's just small and that's why I get that feeling. So I have, there's lots to unpack here. Number one, it's not a week show. And number two, it's not a small show. Um, number three, it's main problem is that it's a Sunday only public show. That's 95% of the issue with this show in my opinion. So Friday and Saturday are trader days. You have to have a trader pass to get in the general public. It is not open to. So when we, when I've worked with Van Ness, so we've been there, we've set up on Thursday night and start to work Friday. And we're pretty busy on Friday for people who have, you know, traders passes or weekend passes or whatever the, their, their terminology is. And then on Saturday we twiddle our thumbs because everyone has already been there Friday, gotten what they came for and are just milling around. And then Saturday and then Sunday, you're absolutely overwhelmed six deep at the table from the open to the close. It's incessant. So it's really difficult to work. It's there's really weird traffic flows and patterns, um, in the buyers of the show. So it's a sizable show. It's an important show. Um, you know, the promoter has a history of not being, you know, the most welcoming and open to change individual, but that kind of goes for a lot of shows. Hopefully we're seeing some change and, and other shows. Um, so, you know, it's just kind of his thing that he does. He's not really involved in the community. I couldn't tell you his name right now if you held a gun to my head. Right. And I know a lot of people, but I just, it's just one of those things. So this show, I just, I, it could be even better than it is, but there's just no interest in changing the Sunday only public aspect of the show. And I think that's a huge challenge. So that's, that's my, that's my take on it. It gets all of the vendors that you want to see. Like the quality of vendors is really high. It's a good show, especially for the West coast. So you also get, um, a lot of vendors from the Asian market, which I always love seeing. So I get to see some friends that I only get to see once a year if I'm only making one trip to the West coast. So, um, you know, that's my favorite thing about that show, but just the Sunday only public day is, is it's a, it's a rough, it's a rough, uh, pill to swallow for a vendor from a vendor perspective. And it just makes for a weird show in general.

Brad Dowdy: The end.

Myke Hurley: That is weird. It doesn't sound like one that I'm that interested in visiting anytime soon. Whilst I would really like to go to LA.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, LA is cool. Like I, like the area where the show is at is killer. Like it's a fantastic area, but like anytime we've had any event, we can't do any events at the show because we can't work with the promoter. So we just say, Hey, we're going to meet in the bar at seven o'clock and kind of whatever happens happens. Right. It's just kind of one of those deals.

Myke Hurley: All right. Today's episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Make your next move with Squarespace because they give you all of the tools that you need to create the next website that you want for your next project for your next move. You can get a unique domain name, take advantage of award-winning templates and so much more. Big fan of Squarespace. Been using them for years and years and years for various projects. And a lot of the stuff that Squarespace offer, I have used like a lot of the different template options and stuff. So I've had blogs on Squarespace. I've had online stores on Squarespace. I've had event websites on Squarespace. We used Squarespace for our wedding website and we were able to take advantage of all the functionality that they have. We could drop in maps. We could, they have like specific templates that are beautifully designed. They're all professionally designed, all of the templates, but they have specific templates for certain ideas. And one of the, one of them is for weddings. So when we selected that template, it built out all of the structure of the website for us and we could just enable and disable what pages we needed. But it just helped us kind of make sure we had everything in mind. It was like kind of Squarespace was helping with the planning of our wedding in a weird way, I guess. But anyway, Squarespace isn't all in one platform. There's nothing to install or patch or upgrade. They have all of that covered. So you don't have to worry and they back everything up with 24 seven customer support as well. So if you need any help, you've got somebody there who can help you. Squarespace plans start at just $12 a month, but you can start a trial today with no credit card required. Just go to squarespace.com slash pen addict. And then when you decide to sign up for a plan, use the offer code pen addict and you'll get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and show your support for this show. So once again, that is squarespace.com slash pen addict and the code pen addict for 10% off your first purchase. So thanks to Squarespace for their continued support of this show. Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.

Brad Dowdy: All right. We got some lengthy Ask TPA questions. We've probably been holding these for a few weeks, maybe a month. So hopefully people are still listening for their answers.

Myke Hurley: Let me do the read in then. Let me take care of the read in because you're the one with all the answers. So it's going to save your voice. Andrew says, as I've listened through all of the episodes, the older episodes and back episodes of the pen addict, I've noticed that you regularly mention the Pilot 823 and 912. Both are featured currently on your top five list. I'd like to buy one of these two pens in the near future, but I'm not sure which. Aside from the differences in appearance and the filling mechanisms, are there important distinctions in the nibs and the way that they write? Would you recommend one over the other? I know that the 823 comes higher in your top five list, but they're both in the top three of the category. So I'm considering them pretty close to each other.

Brad Dowdy: They are. It's really boils down to the filling system is the primary difference. The nib sizes are the same. There might be a little bit more nib choice in the 912. Like the PO nib is one of my favorite nibs, which is how I first fell in love with the 912, which you just can't get some of these nibs in the 823. So it depends on what you're looking for. If you want some really unique nib, then you go with the Pilot 912. If you want the really unique filling system, then you go with the 823. The 823 is a little bit bigger and heavier because of the vacuum filling system, but the nibs are the same, which they're both same size and they're super high quality. You know, that's really the difference. The Pilot 912 might have 10 nib choices where the 823 might have five. I don't know these are exact numbers, but there's a little bit more variety available in the 912, but it's also a cartridge converter filling system as opposed to a vac filler. So those are your two choices. It's the variety of nibs and which one you want and if the filling system matters to you. If the filling system does not matter to you or you don't like the aesthetic, I mean, the 912 is a no brainer.

Brad Dowdy: But I like the 823 because of the filling system and the weight.

Myke Hurley: That sounds like fun. I mean, a fun filling system.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, yeah, these, you will not go wrong. You will be happy with whatever choice you make. Okay. But like, it's hard for me to tell you to choose one over the other because they're so different and equally excellent.

Myke Hurley: This one comes from Evan. How has getting into fountain pens changed the way you judge your other pens? For example, does the fact that you own pens that cost thousands of dollars, I don't know if we own pens. Do we own pens that cost thousands of dollars?

Brad Dowdy: I don't own any that cost that much, but I mean, I own several upper hundreds. Multiple.

Myke Hurley: Well, let's say around a thousand dollars. There you go. So I'm going to edit that, Evan. For example, does the fact that you own some pens that cost around a thousand dollars change what you're willing to pay for a rollerball or ballpoint? Personally, I think my threshold for buying a nice rollerball is now higher than it used to be before I saw how high the price ceiling goes. Do you value different things about pens? Personally, I'm less impressed by refill colors than I used to be because nothing matches the range of fountain pen inks. But I'm more interested in materials and finishes than I used to be. Are there any other ways in which you look at other pens differently now that you are into fountain pens? Let's break this down a little bit. So price-wise, does buying expensive pens numb you to the prices of other cheaper pens? Yes. 100%.

Brad Dowdy: Then this is why I love this question. I don't care about the rest of the question as much, but I thought this was a really smart point to make because it absolutely does. It changes everything.

Myke Hurley: I remember how big a deal it was for me when I bought my first $100 pen. Like, it was huge. It was a huge deal. Probably the biggest deal that any price has ever been to me.

Myke Hurley: But then it, you know, it all changed. I mean, as well, I was in a different financial situation then as well. Like, so it was a huge deal. Yeah. But, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it does change. I never thought I would have bought a rollerball like the Retro 51 Tornado in the beginning when I was, you know, kind of learning about pens and loving my gel-link pens, which I still love and use to this day. But the perspective has totally changed. If I'll spend, you know, $300 or $400 on a fountain pen, you know, on a Sailor or a Canelayer or whatever. I was like, well, maybe I'd like to try that weird looking Mont Blanc M, not in a fountain pen, but in the rollerball or ballpoint model. Like, I would have never considered that because I feel like writing experience is paramount and it's never going to be the best refill. But with a fountain pen, you can get the, you know, kind of the best, you know, refill, if you will, in the nib. It's a different, you know, it's a different problem to solve. But now I've considered, well, maybe I do kind of like that fancy barrel of that pen. You know, it's still not an easy decision, but it has absolutely changed what I'm willing to pay for a rollerball or ballpoint.

Myke Hurley: So, yeah, for sure. So, the next part. So, like, do you value different things about pens now? And yeah, 100% I do.

Myke Hurley: And for the exact same reason, I think it changes what I look for. Like, I look for more interesting design and color and stuff like that, which is a thing that I don't know if I looked for in the same way before.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's an experience thing. For me, like, what is the overall experience of the pen? That's the most important thing to me. And that's all those things combined together in, you know, look, style, feel, fit, finish, and most importantly, how it writes. So, you know, I don't know if that value changed because I always preferred how things wrote over how they looked. Like, we used to hack Mont Blanc rollerball refills into Pilot G2s because we cared how it wrote, not what it looked like, right? You know, that was, you know, one of those things back in the day. So, you know, I still value the customization that we have in fountain pens and in, you know, higher end pens where you can get something that really fits your style and personality. That's the most important thing to me is, do I buy it because it changes my writing experience versus do I buy it because I think I should buy it?

Zen Monk Correspondence

Myke Hurley: The next question comes from Blair. Someone I'm close to has decided to become a Zen monk and she's moving to a monastery this week. While she does still have access to digital communication methods, even monasteries have Wi-Fi these days. I wouldn't have known that, so I'm pleased to know that.

Myke Hurley: We're primarily going to stay in touch through mail. I have a pad of A4 Tomoe River paper, but that seems way too huge and too flimsy for this purpose. I think I'm looking for paper that feels substantial, is roughly A5 sized and has matching envelopes available, but I'm flexible if there's a slam dunk outside those parameters. Can I just say to Blair, thank you for giving that context for this rather than just saying I have a friend that I want to send letters to. I just like to know all of that other stuff, right? It's just fun to me to put it into perspective and think about a Zen monk writing these. It's beautiful. So I have no answer.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I said something like that to him when I replied to this email saying, I love this question. I want to take it on the podcast. So I didn't give him an answer in the email, but I was really appreciative of the information and the way he laid out the question. And I know Blair personally. I met him out in San Francisco. So he's, it's just, I found this question fascinating and I was like, I feel pressure to answer this. But fortunately there, there are some easy answers. The first two that popped into mind were life. They make great writing kits. They have wonderful paper with matching envelopes and they do some traditional styles. They do some retro styles like, you know, throwback airmail colors, things like that. Um, Clairefontaine triumph is another one that has exquisite paper. Um, and I've used the pads of paper just to, you know, just to write on. I haven't used their envelope specifically. And if they still make it, I didn't double check this, but I'm a big fan of pilots, um, pilots writing pad. I still have it. And I'll, I'll put the link in the show notes for you, Myke. Um, I forget the name of it. I apologize. I didn't prepare ahead of time, but it has, it's a self-contained writing pad, like the Clairefontaine triumph with matching, um, envelopes. So those are the three we'll put links to all those in the show notes. I'll be sure to get that link for the pilot one in there as well, but you can actually get some really good quality paper and envelope sets and, uh, good luck to your friend. I think this is awesome.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's really awesome. Really, really, really cool. All right. Next comes from Bill. Bill says, I use a file of facts, my daily calendar, and I use my fountain pens in it. Being a calendar, things change. Sometimes I write something in there and I cancel it or the date moves. When that happens, I've been using the Bic whiteout tape to cover up what was written, but it's hard for me to write on top of this. The nib gets gummed up and scratches the tape stuff off. Is there anything better I can do except paste in small labels? What's the best way to make corrections with fountain pens? Thanks for any help. Thanks for also telling us Torontonians how big our pen show is. I had no idea how it compared to American shows.

Brad Dowdy: That show's legit, man. It's no joke.

Myke Hurley: Uh, I think the answer is you put it in the microwave, right?

Brad Dowdy: I put in this question because I have no earthly idea.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I want to know if anyone else has this idea because I'm a scratcher outer, right? I don't care. Like, but I understand in a calendar aspect or any type of planner, you're space restricted, right? So scratching out doesn't always work, especially if there's a change at the same date and time where you need to make like a real change. Next thing you know, you're scratching out and drawing arrows, hooking over from other days and just doing, doing weird stuff. I don't know how to solve this problem, but I think it's a really valid question that probably a lot of other people have. There's no way like any type of liquid is going to work. I don't think. Whiteout tape that I think that's just gone the way of the Dodo bird. Just the way we use pens these days. It was never a good solution because it just gets scratched up with whatever nib you're writing with. I don't know what the answer is. So maybe it's actually a pin change. Like you said, you said microwave jokingly, but maybe you use a pilot friction, right? Are we going to have pilot friction fountain pens before long? I wouldn't put it past them. Let's do it. As long as we don't sell rocket. Well, as long as we don't sell rocket books, it's cool. Like friction, friction on its own is fine. You know, uh, misappropriating what you're creating is not, but did I say that out loud?

Myke Hurley: Oh dear.

Packing Pens For Moving

Brad Dowdy: Next question.

Myke Hurley: Next question. Next question comes from, uh, at F I eight eight R. I'm going to go with Fibber.

Brad Dowdy: I know how to pronounce it. It's Fibber. Yeah. Fibber. He let me know.

Myke Hurley: Okay. Yeah. I understand. I understand how it goes. How do I pack my ink pens and pen paraphernalia for an upcoming move? After many years in Manhattan, I've grown up and grown out of my apartment. I have two dozen fountain pens, half a dozen ink bottles and syringes. They all currently live on my desk. My first thing that I'll say is buy a lot of gallon sized, uh, Ziploc bags, big Ziploc bags. Everything goes in Ziploc bags in something else than in more Ziploc bags, especially the ink. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. There's no secret way to do this other than very carefully, right? The smaller boxes, the better because you're going to end up with some weight. So you want five small boxes, not two large boxes is the best advice I can give you and just fill up the extra space to where there's no movement, whether it's, you know, balled up newspaper scraps, you know, you know, you don't have to go out and buy like bubble wrap or anything like that. You don't have to go too crazy, but you want to make sure you use smaller boxes so they're not too heavy and, you know, stress the box. And then you want to make sure that there is very little movement on the interior. So, um, you know, that, that's the best advice I can give is just pack it small and pack it solid.

Myke Hurley: And I will say as well, um, your fountain pens get like one of those big leather folios, put it in there and keep it on your person.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. That, that good point. Last point to make. Yeah. The, your most important stuff goes with you. Yep. Not in someone else's hands.

Myke Hurley: When we moved, I packed up my big leather, like 24 case thing with all of my nice fountain pens. And that just went in my backpack, which was with me when we were taking a taxi, right? Like, don't, don't trust that to move, moving people. There's nothing that because people just don't, no one can understand what's important to you unless, you know, like no one can get, get it. So take them with you. And finally, Mando Muller says, Brad, when it comes to Lamy, are you a, you are a card carrying member of hashtag team Safari, but with Kaweco, you seem to prefer the AL sport to the sport classic. Help a listener understand the justification for the Kaweco. So Mando says upgrade over the Lamy one. And I take, I take offense to the, to the upgrade being an upgrade.

Brad Dowdy: It's an absolute upgrade. The wall thickness of the Lamy all-star, or I get the, all these names confused. So the Lamy AL star has a thin aluminum barrel that's prone to dents and dings. Kaweco's AL sport model is a thick indestructible barrel pin that can take a beating and looks better with age where the all-star looks worse with age. In my opinion, just because of the way it's finished and the fragility of the barrel. So it's not even close. And I like the all-star fine. The, it is not comparable to the AL sport whatsoever, as far as construction goes. And that's where the difference is in that. Now the AL sport to the sport classic, that's closer. I didn't like the classic at first because they were primarily a gold trim pin, right? It's ultra lightweight and they had mostly gold trim and markings. I've come to love the sport classic now that I can get silver markings and silver nibs. So I carry the sport classic all the time. I've actually gotten used to the weight of it. I used to prefer the weight of all the metal barrel pins. And I still do like, you know, if I'm, if there's two of them sitting on my desk, one's one of the metal barrel ones, you know, the AL sport or one of the brass ones or any of the other materials, I'm going to pick that one up before the classic, but that's a closer competition now that I can get classics in very cool colors that fit my style. And I've gotten used to the ultra lightweight. It's an ultra light pin. It's not just a light pin. I find it to be an ultra light pin. So you can actually lose it in your pocket. It's so light, but I've gotten used to that and enjoy the sport classic a lot.

Myke Hurley: All right. That's it for this episode. If you want to find Brad AL Dowdy online, you can go to penaddict.com. Go to knock.co. You can go to Twitter. He's at Dowdyism. He's penaddict on Instagram. He's also on Twitch as well. You're penaddict on Twitch. So lots and lots and lots of options to keep, to get your Brad Dowdy content. I am at I-m-y-k-e on Twitter and Instagram. You should follow us there to keep your eye out for when the penaddict Kickstarter goes live, which will be in the next week. So you want to keep an eye out for that. We've got some real cool stuff planned. You know, maybe, maybe on this episode, maybe we have mentioned the name of the other pen show we're going to go to. Maybe. Who knows? Who knows? Top secrets.

Brad Dowdy: Who knows? Who knows? We should do a notebook called Clandestine and make a puzzle for people to figure it out.

Myke Hurley: I think someone's already done that. Oh, okay. It's a good idea, but I think we can be into the punchline.

Brad Dowdy: What about a notebook you can put in the microwave, Myke?

Myke Hurley: I love it. Let's prototype that one. That can be... Let's throw everything from our Kickstarter and we'll pivot. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Pivot us out of here. Sorry I ruined your exit.

Myke Hurley: Relay.fm slash penaddict slash 346 for the show notes this week. Thanks to Penn Chalet and Squarespace for their support and we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad Doughty.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad Doughty.