The Pen Addict 444/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	444
Title:	Complex Complicated Colours
Release Date:	January 13th, 2021
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 444
Audio File:	Audio Episode 444
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 444
Length:	6262 min <br />1.033 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict episode 444, and today's show is brought to you by ExpressVPN and Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. Blaze it. Is this a Blaze it number? No, that was like 24 episodes ago. Mmm, 444, it should be something. It should be something, really. It kind of makes more sense to me than 420, but I know there's like a whole thing. I did a whole episode of Ungenius about 420, and I don't remember why.

Brad Dowdy: Way to go, way to go. So yes, how are you, Michael?

Myke Hurley: Good, man.

Brad Dowdy: Good, good. I'm good too, I think, question mark. You know, in the general sense, in the worldwide sense, I don't know that I'm good, but that's a different podcast. But I wanted to do a quick recap or commentary on last week, some feedback from talking about planners, and theme system journals, and habit tracking, like all the feedback was super great, but I was taken aside a bit for my comments on the habit tracker, my comment about I don't want to track my water drinking on the habit tracker, and that I was like, that made me anti-habit tracker, and that is just not the case at all. I am very pro-tracking your water, I just want to do that digitally, right? I don't want to put that in my notes.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think we said that on the show.

Brad Dowdy: I know, I know, but...

Myke Hurley: And it's also, these things are different strokes, different folks, right? Yes. I expect that there are a lot of people that are like, why do you need to have a habit tracker to make sure that you're a good husband today? Because that's just a thing that I need to make sure that I'm paying attention to, and I fully understand that I shouldn't have to have that, but I'm a human being, and sometimes I think about myself too much. And so that's one of the things that I track every day.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like my things wouldn't work for you, and your things wouldn't work for me. That's the beauty of the whole thing. And I have a habit tracker now, outside of my theme system journal. I have an actual requirement for some type of daily tracking of a thing, multiple times a day, Myke. I am now in active physical therapy for my wrist, which means I have to do a set of exercises, five exercises, five different times a day. So it's a big batch of exercises, and I have to do those five times a day. So now I have in just my regular everyday notebook, I have Tuesday, and it has five boxes in it with little check marks in it. And now I'm on Wednesday, and I have one check mark in it so far. So I have, I am now tracking, tracking the random things, but it's just the temporary thing. I'll probably have like one page of it. I'll probably have to do this for like six weeks, so I might have more than one page. But anyway, I'm now officially checking off boxes in like what you would think the water drinking habit tracker would be. So I'm now officially that guy in the span of a week. So there you go. So that was a quick turnaround.

Myke Hurley: How the turntables.

Original Lamy Safari

Brad Dowdy: Yes, how the turntables. Speaking of how the turntables, Myke, we're turning it back 40 years to the original Lamy Safari. Have you seen what Lamy is releasing this year? I want to say for their 40th anniversary, but it's actually now 41 years since the launch of the original Lamy Safari. So have you checked out Safari Green and Terra Red?

Myke Hurley: Lamy Safari original, Savannah Green and Terra Red. I don't know what the, I know that these were the original ones. Why are they calling, do you know why they're calling them original? Is that just like the name?

Brad Dowdy: I don't. And I wonder if that is official marketing or not.

Myke Hurley: Or if it's just, because we've got all of our information so far from Fontaplumo, who are very reliable with this stuff. They always have this information. But you're right, we haven't seen like what are Lamy actually calling these yet. We don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think this is going to be the name though. I think they'll just be, I don't know if they'll have the original in the title or not. They're starting to put up pre-sales on other sites, which means information is now like spreading. Like last week, it was just on the European sites. Now it's starting to get to the US site, so I could probably poke around those real quick and see how they list them. Because in general, sites are going to list it exactly as the vendor says to list it. But this is a blog post, so it could be a little bit of freedom in that. But were you aware of these pins, the original colors of the Lamy Safari? No. Did you have any concept? Okay.

Myke Hurley: No, because this was the funny thing to me. As soon as I saw this, I was like, I have never once considered why they're called Safari.

Brad Dowdy: So back, I was trying to figure it out yesterday on stream. It was probably like 10 years ago when I was getting into fountain pens and started, you know, had my Lamy Safaris. And then you get into, hey, there's limited edition Lamy Safaris. Like, you know, there's been different orange ones and there's been like one, a blue one with a red clip that people called the Smurf Safari and things like that. And you tried to, you know, there was a whole, like a Field Notes thing, right? Got to catch them all. Here's all these limited editions that happened. And could you acquire the very first Safaris, which were the most rare, which were the Safari Green and the Terracotta Red?

Myke Hurley: This really reminds me of Field Notes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it really is. And like, this was like 10 years ago when I was looking at this, they were impossible to find. And they were several hundred dollars if you could find them each. And, you know, they, you know, couldn't find them in original packaging, couldn't find them in original boxes, anything like that. So I'm pretty excited that these are going to exist. It does bring up a lot of questions like, you know, should they rebuild or reissue the old original? Like, very close. There are obviously some differences, some tiny, tiny differences in these models than the original. Like, the nib markings are different and things like that. They used to not mark on the nibs way, way back in the day, but that doesn't really matter. They're pretty close. So I'm certainly pro.

Myke Hurley: I can't think of any reason why not.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I can't either. But I think, I don't think they'll have any pushback or anything like that. I think this is just kind of exciting for Lamy. To be honest, Myke, I'm a little bit surprised and shocked. Like, I didn't know they had a reissue in them. I thought they might have a continuation special edition. Like, if they're going to do 40th anniversary, do something just really wild and funky or something meaningful that relates to the entirety of the 40-year existence of the pen. Not, here's the first one again. But, like, I'm happy for it. I think these are amazing looking, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they don't really feel like that kind of, like, nostalgic company.

Myke Hurley: But 40 years is a long time, so I could imagine them doing it now. Like, I don't really imagine that, like, next year they're also going to plumb the debts of the back catalog to release something that they've done before.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that was one of my follow-up questions. Should we expect more from Lamy's back catalog in the future? I agree with you.

Myke Hurley: Because they're a very creative company, I think. I believe their intent. And I think that they like to try and stay modern.

Myke Hurley: Because these colors are definitely not, they don't look of the now as such. Right, right. And so I can imagine them, like, continuing down their current path. Like, I think this is, you know, you said it's 41. I'm sure they probably meant to release these last year. Sure. Or, you know, it's just like, what you're going to do.

Future Lamy Releases

Brad Dowdy: We're going to get to that in a minute on another product, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Right. And so, like, it's just where they are with it. I think it's super cool. I will be keeping my eye out for when they become available. I would like to pick up both of them. I'm really keen to see what the inks are like, if they have matching inks.

Brad Dowdy: That was a big question. Because these are ideal for that, in my opinion. Yeah. Right? These are not complex, complicated colors, I don't think, to make some cool matching inks. But I haven't seen anything pop yet. But if they're doing most of a lineup, right? They're not just doing fountain pens. They're doing roller balls and ballpoints. No pencils. I would think they would pop in some inks. But it's a little interesting. They usually, historically, have sold those together. Right? They come out as a group. So, why would they release the pens and then the inks, you know, two months later? But, I mean, that wouldn't stop them from selling the heck out just because people would buy it. I mean, myself included. So, I found it interesting that there's not inks yet. But I would love to see inks for both of these because I think they would be fantastic. In the show notes, we'll put some links to someone who had the original terracotta and Savannah Green that I found on Flickr, which is a name I haven't heard in quite a long time. But I found a cool photo set with some original pictures. They are, I mean, they look brand new, right? They look exactly like these. They really do. If you had to pick only one color, Myke, which one would you go with?

Myke Hurley: I would probably go with the Savannah Green.

Brad Dowdy: Why is that? Because I think that's exactly right. I think that's, for some reason, this Savannah Green really sticks out. It seems more vintage-y now, 40 years later, than the Terra Red.

Myke Hurley: Safari, I think of green, that green, right? Like, that is the Safari color, right? Like, if you're thinking of safaris, like what you imagine is like a Safari outfit or a Jeep. It's that kind of green color. And also, while I am like maybe more drawn to the terracotta, I have a lot of orange pens. Like, if I'm only, even though like, I don't own a straight up orange Safari. Safari. Same. Which is funny, because they don't, you know, I don't remember them even making one recently.

Brad Dowdy: They've done one a long time ago. Yeah. But it might have been special edition.

Myke Hurley: But so it's kind of like, I would want to, if I'm only going to buy one of them, I would get one that is really different to the pens that I own. Yeah. I don't own a color even closer to the Savannah Green. But my intention will be to try and pick both of these up, because I don't expect them to be very expensive, because they're still safaris.

Brad Dowdy: They are not. I have pre-ordered mine.

Myke Hurley: Oh, okay.

Brad Dowdy: And I paid, so I bought.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah. Look at that. They're on Fontapulma. They're like 20 euro. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I bought two green and two orange. One set for me, one set to give away. And I think I've paid total international shipping and everything less than $100 US. Like, they're just, they're inexpensive pens. That's what's so beautiful about the Safari. It's just a dang good pen. Yeah. And it's funny you say that about the green, too, because I feel exactly the same way, and I can't pinpoint why. But that Savannah Green is killer. They're obviously both going to, they'll sell out. They're both killer. I mean, it's like 1A, 1B, right? But they're fantastic. So shop around. They're at, they're starting to pop at all kinds of retailers now.

Pre-order Details

Brad Dowdy: And they're looking at a release in February. So some sites do pre-orders. Some will just release them when they have them in stock. And yeah, the news is starting to spread. I'm thrilled with this. I think it's going to be great. I like the fact that they're the same standard price as the traditional Safaris have always been. There's no price increase, which it would be valid. In this particular case. So thank you, Lamy, for holding that line. I think that's pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: Question.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: On these. I don't think that people would feel this way, but I wonder anyway. Do you think that there is any kind of like frustration amongst collectors?

Brad Dowdy: That was kind of what I was alluding to in the beginning. Yeah. In this exact, very specific case, I would say no. Yeah. Because I don't know anyone that has them. Like there's so few. But even if you did. If you did, you still have. You still have the original version. Especially if you have the original boxes and packaging. They had some unique boxes back then and packaging. If you had all that, I think it's still an extremely special edition. Does it maybe take the luster off it? Maybe a little bit. But that's from someone who wasn't going to buy the original anyway. Right? Someone who wasn't going to pay. Like we found one online yesterday that is actively for sale. One of the green ones for $750. And it has a cracked cap. Like that's how hard these are to find. They just don't exist. So I don't think the collectors would be too upset. Right. Especially if you have the full packaging. It doesn't lose its luster at all, I don't think.

Myke Hurley: Because you still have the.

Myke Hurley: You still have the original, right?

Brad Dowdy: Like if for some reason I was that person that decided. Like I'm this Uber collector. And one of the great pens that I want in my collection. Is the original Lamy Safaris. I would be 100% still like willing to pay. If I could track down like that mint condition. You know, 1980 release. With the packaging and stuff. And pay like a large premium for that. Despite these new models being out.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because the reason that they're like sought after. Is not because of what they look like. It's because they're old and rare. Yeah. And reissuing them doesn't change the rarity. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And it was the first safari. Like you can't say that about these. You can say these are the colors of the first safari. But they're not the first safaris. And that's a big gaping chasm of a difference.

Myke Hurley: All right. Let's take a break. And thank our first sponsor of this week's episode. And that is Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. And they sell from your favorite brands in order the types of products that you're looking for. They also sell lots of extras. You can get inks and converters, pen holders and carrying cases from Pen Chalet. And they stock brands like Pelican, Estabrook, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweco. So everything you're looking for, go to Pen Chalet to try and find it because they're always adding new products. Every month they're adding new styles of pens. They're adding lots of different accessories. And they do great discounts on them as well. Every two weeks they're doing great discounts which you can go and pick up. Pen Chalet have fast and reliable customer service. They do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the United States. And they also sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. Shipping's great too. That Estabrook that I ordered two weeks ago arrived today. Which is kind of funny really because I've just been having, just like everyone, shipping is a nightmare right now. So I was very surprised it showed up. We're going to talk about that. Yeah, we're going to talk about, that's the topic for later on in the episode. Pen Chalet have low prices on high quality pens and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to penchalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password penaddict for this week's special offer. And to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Pen Chalet. What has caught your eye this time, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: There's something in here that I don't recall seeing before being available. On Ron's Pen Chalet Pen Addict page. And it's the Caran d'Ache 849 Claim Your Style Ballpoint Pens. Those are generally pretty expensive. You know I love the 849. I have my own 849. And, you know, they aren't inexpensive pens to begin with. But the Claim Your Style Editions even have a premium. Just like the Nespresso Editions have a premium. Anything above their stock level 849s is at a, for Caran d'Ache, is still a pretty good premium. And this is a discount on the Claim Your Style Edition 2 colors. Which I don't have any of those colors yet. I have one of the Edition 1 colors, which I love. Which is one of the reasons why I wanted to pursue making one myself. And it's odd. Not odd. It's good to see a discount on those. Because you rarely see it. So if that's something you're interested in. Also the Conquerant Duraflex with its flexible nib has been pretty popular. It's an inexpensive way to get into, you know, kind of a soft, a little bit more flexible nib. And the Diplomat Esteem Mad C. I have seen pictures of this. And I keep looking at it going, what is this pen? What is this pen? It's at a really, really crazy good price point right now.

Myke Hurley: That's a wild looking pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, very unique stuff. You know, I like my bright bold color. So it's no doubt that these stand out to me.

Myke Hurley: Ron did also want us to mention a Retro 51 that they have had available. But I think it's sold out now, which is a Retro 51 Hubble, which was an exclusive to Pen Chalet. So when we were talking a couple of weeks ago about the belief that we'd seen the last general Retro 51. There would still be some exclusives coming out, which I guess is clear in the backlog. This is one of them. And it was on sale, but I think it's gone now.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it was only 500. What's the distance here? I'm going to get it wrong and I'm going to get yelled at. Let me pull it up. 547. 547 kilometers high. So there were 547 issued. I love the design of this one. I didn't order it. I don't know. It's very nice. But it's got the different color nose cone. It's different color hardware on the front end and the back end. And you don't see that very often. So I think that's a really, really unique look. Obviously, it was going to sell out very quickly. So I love it. But too bad it's already gone by now.

Myke Hurley: The space ones have always sold fast.

Brad Dowdy: That's kind of what they do best, right? The way they design their pens, space, aerospace, anything mechanical. They look like rockets anyway. Yeah. Anything mechanical is just always, always looks exceptional. And having almost like a window into space on the front end and the darkness and depths of space and the things you see with the panels and hardware of the machinery of the telescope. I don't know. It looks awesome. Like if I was into this, that would be an insta-buy.

Myke Hurley: But not. It isn't because you can't.

Brad Dowdy: It has launched and it will not be returning from orbit.

Myke Hurley: Go to penshalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website. Use the password penaddict to get your hands on the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Penshalet and to see this week's special offers. Our thanks to Penshalet for the continued support of this show and Relay FM.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke. I'm going to talk about this article. It's like one of those things that I have balance. I was like, should we talk about this? Should we not talk about this? And the answer is always to talk about it. And this is the 87 best pens, Blaze It by Strategist UK. Myke, 87 best pens by Strategist UK. If this sounds familiar, Myke Hurley, did you know that we had covered the Strategist US version of their top 100?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I remember this.

Top 87 Pens List

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, all the way back in 2018.

Myke Hurley: Didn't they choose the Baron Fig pen right up there? Was that that one?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So that was the one with the Baron Fig squire was number one. And that was pretty much the only good thing about that list, right? Like that was the thing where the squire was number one. And I was like, okay, cool. I get that. Like that makes sense with what you're trying to sell me here on this list. So everything else about the list, right? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Myke Hurley: If you're in New York, you work in New York, you're in New York, you always get covered by the New York media. This is something that you see all the time. And this is the way. Great pen because there's a great refill, great body. We are eye on a couple. I love them. But it's just, I think that New York bias played, helped them out. Absolutely.

Brad Dowdy: But that was the least problematic part of that list. And I thought this was last year. It's all the way back in 2018, episode 335. I'll put a link in the show notes.

Myke Hurley: The reason you're thinking this is the same reason I'm thinking it is we just did like the wire cutter or something. Yeah, probably. There was one very recently that we'd just gone through and we were equally, I actually think more frustrated with that one than any of the others.

Brad Dowdy: Well, this one might win, Myke, for frustration level. It is one of the most scattershot lists that I have ever seen.

Myke Hurley: I don't get the point of 87. Not just the round number, but just the number as high as it is. Number 86 is the Lamy Safari. These things, we're never going to be happy about them, right? They're never going to be what we want.

Brad Dowdy: Because they're made for a specific reason.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, which is why the top 10, by and large, I'm actually pretty good with. Because I can kind of see how they've gotten to it. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: So the top 10, I'll run them down real quick. So from 10 to 1. So number 10, the Parker Classic. That is essentially the longer, skinnier version of the Parker Jotter. It will make sense why that's number 10 when I get up to number 5 here. Number 9, Stabilo Perfect Glide 0.3 millimeter. It's a rollerball. Number 8, Stabilo Exam Grade. Number 7, Muji Gel Ink Ballpoint 0.38 millimeters. It's not a ballpoint, but this is part of the larger, broader issue. Number 6, Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen. We'll come back to that one. Number 5 is the Cross Classic Century. That's the standard issue gift pen by Cross. You know, the skinny ballpoint pen. That's the graduation gift. That's why the Parker Classic, I'm assuming, is in at number 10. They lean towards those pens. Number 4 is the Edding 1255 Calligraphy Pen. We are definitely coming back to that one. Number 3 is the Edding 55 Fineliner. It's your traditional Fineliner, you know, drawing pen. Number 2, Muji Gel Ink 0.7 millimeter. And number 1, Stabilo 0.88, which is another Fineliner. So, oh boy, I don't want to spend too long on this. But when you have your number 4 pen, the Edding 1255 Calligraphy Pen as your number 4 overall pen. And it is a chisel tip marker.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know what you're doing with this list other than just farming affiliate links, which is totally fine.

Myke Hurley: Well, I think it's like we tried it and this felt really fun. But no one's actually using it to write with every day. And, like, it's totally fine to try that out and be like, oh, this is fun. But nobody's writing with those. They're not for writing with. And you're not doing calligraphy. I don't care what you're saying. You're not doing calligraphy. Right.

Brad Dowdy: And that's not the premise of this article, I don't believe. So, that's why, like, having the Tombow Brush Pen at number 6, that's a favorite pen of mine. Like, it would never be anywhere around, like, some of these other pens. Um, the Muji Gel ink pens are funny to read, number 2 and number 7, because they talk about how well they write without mentioning that it's the same Pilot and Uniball refills that are, like, ranked in the 40s and 50s and 70s of this list. Yeah, but that's, we all fall for that. It's, like, you know. Um, the biggest outlier, the biggest thing that just makes you go, what is happening here with a list like this other than, like, I wouldn't even read it if we, if we, if I didn't want to discuss it on the podcast. Because they put in something, like, at number 20, they put in the Molotov one-for-all marker. This is a paint pen, Michael. This is a paint pen. Like, shake up with the agitator in the barrel paint pen.

Brad Dowdy: It boggles the mind that this exists in an 87 best pens. Like, it may be the number one paint pen right on the market, but that, this just shows me they're just throwing stuff together. Like, the paint pen is ahead of, like, the Pilot G2 and the Uniball Vision and, like, every other good pen ever. Like, a paint pen. Who is going to use a paint pen to write with? And that's the way they presented this list. Nobody is. Because that's the thing.

Myke Hurley: I believe they've used these pens. Sure. But they've got the pen and they've been like, oh, that feels nice. Uh-huh. And then.

Myke Hurley: Anyway.

Brad Dowdy: So, that's about all I have to say. It's funny.

Myke Hurley: What bleed through? What do they mean by this? Bleed through. I don't know. Like, does it mean, does a five mean it doesn't bleed through?

Brad Dowdy: Um, that's correct.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: Which, a paint marker, I don't know if you're reading that one, but, like, a paint marker is designed to bleed through.

Myke Hurley: Wait, I haven't seen what they gave the score for.

Brad Dowdy: So, they go through their whole system.

Myke Hurley: 4.8! Come on! Come on! It doesn't bleed through when you do on a canvas. It's an emoji.

Brad Dowdy: They did them all in a emoji notebook writing the quick brown fox mic. And the Molotov paint marker is at number 20. This slimmer, thinner, and more functional pen still requires shaking like a can of spray paint. And the strong scent, as well as the satisfying rattle, is quite fun. It's not an everyday pen.

Myke Hurley: I don't disagree with any of that. But also, the calligraphy pen is going to bleed through. And they gave it a five. Like, I'm sorry. Like, look. As I said, I don't have an issue with a lot of the stuff in the top ten. No. Because, like, the Stabulo Point is a really fun pen to use every day. There are multiple of these in my home. Oh, absolutely. Because they're great. Like, the same as the Muji pens. Like, also great. Like, I don't like Cross, but I know why it's in here. The Parker Classic. I can kind of get on board with that because, like, you know, it's fine. Like, 11, the B-roll handwriting pen. Fantastic. Fun pen to use every single day. You get real consistency. Like, I understand why there are so many, like, brush pens in this list. Yeah, they're fun. They're awesome. Because they're great to use. The same as the felt tips. Like, 24, Paper Mate Flare. Oh, so good to use. Like, if, you know, you're not necessarily like us. It's like, yeah, I get it. But I do have an issue when just, like, these random things come in here. Oh, come on. They put the BitCrystal at 32. I mean, come on.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, that's, yeah. So, anyway, it's fun to poke fun at these lists. I mean, we're not taking it too seriously because it's just, it doesn't, it starts, it stops making sense when you see some of these things and you just kind of go, yeah, whatever. Like, and it's penless after about five or ten rankings. Like, it's just, like, a crapshoot. Like, it's all, they're all the same at some point.

Myke Hurley: What's the difference between the Fisher Bullet Pen and the Fisher Space Pen?

Brad Dowdy: Nothing.

Myke Hurley: Right, because they're both on this list.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I know.

Myke Hurley: Fisher Bullets at 34 and Fisher Space Pen is, like, at 20 or something. Shape of the barrel, Mabel.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, shape of the barrel. So, I don't know what they're doing.

Myke Hurley: So, there's some differences. It's not the exact same pen.

Brad Dowdy: Same refill.

Myke Hurley: There's good stuff in here, for sure. It's not the worst list that we've seen by any stretch. Yeah. But it also has its own set of eccentricities.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. That make you, as pen addicts, you have to, you quite, we look at it differently. Like, you have to question why is a paint pen ahead of, like, the G2 and the Uniball Vision.

Myke Hurley: It reminds me of the Visionaire being filled with that ink.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the India ink.

Myke Hurley: The India ink, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Higgins. Higgins, India ink. All right. So, that's enough of that list. I thought that was, that was fun. It came up a bunch in my Twitter feed. I wanted to point it out. And then, I was like, do I even want to click this link? And, you know, I was going to click this link. And if I click the link, you know, I was going to have to talk about it. So, here we are.

Stationery Trends for 2021

Myke Hurley: I have a question for you.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, sir.

Myke Hurley: I just started a new year, right? Right. And I just wondered if there were any trends, like, stationary trends or, like, predominant ideas that you were expecting to see picked up on in the community or by larger retailers this year. Like, have you spent any time thinking about that? Is there stuff that you think is going, we're going to see in 2021, like, along those kinds of lines?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That was on my task list this week, honestly, to write about in depth. So, I haven't put all my thoughts in. It might be better to, we can explore this further or recap this next week when I, like, put together everything. But I have some high points that I wanted to discuss. And it ties in, one of them, the main one, or the obvious one, ties in with what we talked about in the beginning with Lamy and the reissuance of the Safari. And then I've gotten a bunch of tweets and emails because the Parker 51 that is being remade and reissued that we learned about last fall, then it got pushed into February. That's starting to come back around again. So, people are wanting to know our opinions on that. So, I gave my opinions on the Parker 51 in episode 423. I'm not going to, you know, re-litigate that whole thing. But I got some grief for it. I thought I was very fair in what I felt about the pen. And my stance is that it's perfectly fine. I wanted to see more, right? Like, I thought there was a letdown.

Myke Hurley: I just got distracted by Chris in the Discord. I have to read this. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. Strategist's top five cars. Number one, Tesla. Number two, a bicycle. Number three, Ford F350. Number four, Toyota Yaris. Number five, Ferrari LaFerrari.

Brad Dowdy: That's exactly right. That is how the, it's a non-context-based list where, like, none of this relates to each other. So, that's perfectly said. I apologize. I love that. That's really good. So, you know, with the Parker 51, it's about to come back out. And, like, I'm for it. Like, I just, it doesn't excite me, right? I wanted, this was an opportunity for Parker to push the 51 forward was my stance, not re-litigate the old version. But here I said at the top of the show, I'm pretty happy that, you know, Lamy's reissuing their pen. So, it's a little bit of a hypocritical stance for me. But I just think that there's an opportunity.

Myke Hurley: Right, but this is a hundred dollar pen. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I think it's going to end up being just a little bit under a hundred, probably like 80 to 90.

Myke Hurley: And also, like, we expect a new color from Lamy every year. And so, like, really all they've done, like, it's not like they've reissued a specific pen. It's just they've brought the color back for this year. So, I do think that there are quite a few differences between the two's approach.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and I just think Parker left a lot on the table. I don't think Parker tried hard enough for this, is my stance, right? Like, I think it's going to do fine. I think people are excited about it. It will probably sell well. But it's traditional colors with less features than the original. That's it. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I know we said this before. And I'll just say it again, I guess for the people in the back. Like, I don't know why you would buy this new one when there are a million old ones to buy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I mean, a new market, you know, to get into, you know, people don't necessarily want to go for a vintage pen, you know, and rightfully so in a lot of occasions. Yeah, but I don't know. They don't know how they work.

Myke Hurley: I don't know who's, like, new to pens and is like, ooh, give me that vintage looking pen. Like, I don't, I'm not sure that that market exists.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. I think you might be short selling. I think it's going to bring back a lot of good memories for a lot of people and sell very well. Oh, okay. Okay. The problem is. Memories. I hadn't thought of that one. Is what is it going to feel like? Is it going to feel like a $90 pen? And that's where my concern lies. When you don't have any of that hardware in the barrel of the pen, like the old vacuumatic filler mechanism. The feel of the pen, it has to be recalibrated. And we'll just have to see if they did that for this. Or is it just going to be, you know, a very air light pen. And what I wanted to see. So, I want to give them a little bit of slack. That it's, this release is less important than the next release of the Parker 51, in my opinion. Because I want to see, okay, this is the introduction. The reintroduction of the 51. What's next? Is nothing next? Well, then I think it was a letdown. And I think Parker is missing an opportunity. If there's something next that takes this, what they're re-releasing, and then moves it into 2020. With, give me an all black Parker 51.

Brad Dowdy: Why not? You know? What can you do with the barrel materials? Give me a striped barrel with the chrome cap. Give me something that says the Parker 51 is just as cool in 2020 as it was in 1950. And then I'll get excited about it. Right now, like, I'll try it. I'll test it out. But I'm not, like, you know, jumping through the screen to grab one. It's, I just think, I don't know. I personally wanted more from this. That said, I think it's going to do extremely well.

Brad Dowdy: So, back to your question. 2021 trends. Well, there's two pins right there, Myke, that are pulling from the archives. The Lamy Safari, the Parker 51. We're seeing Estabrook with the JR. So, when they recreated and rethought the brand, they took the brand and made a modern pin in the Estee. Now, they're looking back saying, okay, what can we do? Like, we did good with the Estee. It's a completely new reimagining of the Estabrook.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: What can we do with the JR? And they made some night. They made four of the JRs designed to fit the old vintage nibs. And they made them in a modern style.

Myke Hurley: I just always assumed it was Junior.

Brad Dowdy: Maybe. Well, I call it JR because the original was the J.

Myke Hurley: Hmm.

Brad Dowdy: So, I'm continuing that. Yeah, that makes sense. But I could be incorrect. So, I think it's J reimagined is actually maybe what it's supposed to mean. So, again, this is like what I said with the Parker 51. I want to see what round two for this pin is going to be. Because it's fine as it is, but I think there's room to grow there. And there's options to have there. So, I would like to see that.

Brad Dowdy: The next thing, I haven't thought out completely. And it's a little bit controversial. And it goes a little bit against the things I believe in. And I think, God, I don't know how to say this without getting in trouble. I think I'm going to get yelled at for this. Awesome.

Brad Dowdy: I love my wild pens as far as colors and materials go. But I think we're getting close to saturation.

Myke Hurley: Oh, definitely.

Brad Dowdy: For everything is wild. Yeah. And I'm a proponent of everything is wild. Like, that's what I like. Give me all your wild materials. Give me all your primary manipulations. Give me all your glitter pens. Give me all your neon pink pens. But now it's everywhere.

Myke Hurley: At a certain point, wild becomes lazy.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, I don't know if there is...

Myke Hurley: There will be a new wild. Like, that's what you've got to look out for. That the people that are truly skilled and talented in these fields of, like, coming up with these really interesting barrels. Yeah. So, like, here's one I'll give as an example. I know I mention them a lot. But it's just... Like, the most recent canalea pens have that depth to them. Which is new. Right? And I wouldn't say that that is, like, oh, that's completely wild. And, like, you know, it's going to change the industry. But my point is that, like, they are, like, materials, blanks, that have a different look to them than some of the other stuff that I've seen before. And I expect that that is just... That's what has to happen. Right? That, like, when Jonathan Brooks came on the scene, right, it just upended everything. Because it was like, what is going on over there? And then that became, like, a trend in our part of the industry for a while. And whether it's Jonathan or someone else, there would need to be a change. I mean, like, for Jonathan Brooks specifically, I think that, like, Arushi is where he is doing his interest in work now.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. But that doesn't scale. Doesn't scale.

Myke Hurley: No.

Brad Dowdy: So, wild scales. And it has. And I think... I don't know that we're at peak yet. But I think we're going to start... Someone is going to have to come in and do something different. Yeah, you gotta, like, turn it. It can still be wild. Yeah. But there's gonna have to be... And there's a lot of makers on the market now that I think have the ability to lead us into, like, the next design features or the next materials. So, I think this might be a reckoning year. Like, I have enough wild pens, right? I can only get so many more unique material pens. And probably... But, like, probably three out of the last four or five pens I've bought have been, like, what I would consider, like, the wild pens. You know, just the crazy materials, you know, whether they're from Montegrappa or from Leonardo or from Brooks or anything like that. Like, that's cool. That's what I love. But I think we're gonna hit a cap here on that. But so, 2021 is gonna have... I'm hoping it brings something new as far as... And it could be a small change, right? These things don't move, like, in wild directions, right? We're not gonna, like, have an upheaval. But what is going to be the thing that's going to push those a little bit further? Yeah. Because we all enjoy seeing them. We all enjoy using them. They make the best Instagram photos. Because at some point, I have five of them and I don't need any more.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah. The original reason... One of the original reasons that these things became so popular is because they were so different. And if we have too many of them, it's not different anymore. Right. It's different for people coming in to the hobby, right? Absolutely.

Brad Dowdy: And you have to think about that. That's why the Parker 51 is gonna do well.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Because one of the traps I fall into is just looking at it from my perspective and not a universal perspective.

Myke Hurley: Right. Because you're, like, oversaturated in general. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. So, those are the two main 2021... I don't even know if you'd call them trends, but, like, the everything old is new again. Like, that's always a common trend, right? And a lot of times, it's really good. Like, I like the everything old is new again, right? I like the vintage stuff and modernizing that type of thing. And then discovering, you know, is 2021 gonna see a corner turned in extreme materials? And I still have to work on how to expand on those thoughts. But, yeah, I think you got the gist of what I was getting at today.

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Brad Dowdy: We have some interesting Ask TPA this week, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Ask TPA Segment

Brad Dowdy: The lead question is interesting. And then we have some more in-depth traditional Ask TPA.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: But us makers and retailers in the US were caught off guard by some postal service changes, and we have questions about that, specifically from the aforementioned Mr. Jonathan Brooks. And then I copied in an email that I got. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So Jonathan's question is, do you think that the new UK VAT system will have an effect on small makers selling to the UK? So basically, in a nutshell, there are some new rules around customs and tax here. And anything under the value of 135 pounds, makers from outside of the United Kingdom now need to start charging tax. VAT is value-added tax that we pay on everything in the UK. The government, our government wants companies from overseas to be collecting this tax and then paying it to the UK government on a quarterly basis. Now, a lot of people don't want to do this because they're kind of like, I don't care, right, about you and your rules.

Myke Hurley: Ultimately, I think what we're going to see is a lot of people moving to larger platforms. So if you use something like Etsy or eBay to sell your products, you don't have to worry about this because Etsy and eBay will do it for you. I could imagine companies like Shopify trying to find a way to enable this if it becomes a problem in the future. There is actually, I think, a pretty understandable reason for this because obviously we've left the European Union now, right? So everything coming into the UK now has to go through customs. So I think what the thinking is, is they put this in place to try and stop a lot of stuff going through customs because the idea is if you are charging VAT, it doesn't need customs inspection. It just flies through. And then anything over £135 will still go through the customs route to make sure that everything's been done all above board. So I think that's why it's happening, right, that this has been put in place so it reduces the amount of increase on the Border Patrol and the customs force because otherwise nothing's ever going to get through, right? Like literally every parcel is now going through this system.

Myke Hurley: I think in the short term there's going to be some disruption. I think companies will stop shipping to the UK. I've already seen it, honestly. There are some companies that I've seen, smaller companies, that basically have, and I don't mean this in a bad way, but have decided I can't be bothered to read this or to deal with this because a lot of these are admittedly very small makers. So it's kind of like I don't want to have to deal with whatever this new stuff is, so I'm just going to turn it off for the foreseeable future. Like you can't ship to the UK.

Brad Dowdy: So let me simplify what this new stuff is from the perspective of a small maker. So let's take Nock, for example. And Myke goes to Nock and Myke would like to purchase a Sinclair. That's $40 US, which is well under the 135 pound limit. So Myke has already been paying shipping, which has increased in the last couple of years. So that $40 product is going to cost him at least $15, $16 to ship. And then I have to tax him 20 more percent on that $40. So he's going to pay additional 20% and he's going to pay the shipping. Or he's going to think about paying 21% and think about paying the shipping. So then on my side, so Myke completes that transaction. He gets his case. I ship it. So on my side, I will have a bucket of funds of 20% that I've charged to the UK that I now have to send to the UK. I have to go register my business with the UK, collect these funds at the time of purchase, and then ship off those funds to the UK VAT registrar each quarter. So that's an additional overhead for me to track and me to siphon off. There's no cost to me other than Myke deciding not to purchase. That would be a cost of a lost sale. And then the time it would take me to manage the books, which in my case would actually be pretty small. But, you know, when you tack on lots of pretty smalls onto something that's already got a lot of pretty smalls, you know, it's just more things. The other issue is we weren't made aware of this until like two days ago. Like this was news to me. I didn't realize this on January 1st until I got an email from stamps.com. On two days ago, on January 11th, I get an email that says, effective January 1st, you need to be collecting all this stuff. I was like, whoops.

Myke Hurley: Well, there was a lot of obviously to the minute. I mean, I will say that there is also an element of like people, companies in other countries just not like caring to pay attention because there was going to be changes, right? And anyone that was aware of it knew that something was coming, but it is not your, well, it kind of is your responsibility, but not like emotionally or logically your responsibility. You have to care about what's happening in every country all over the place. What I expect will happen is like it really is up to the maker. If you sell to the United Kingdom a lot, you should do this because otherwise you're not going to be able to do it. If you don't.

Brad Dowdy: And hope your customers are going to want to pay the tax.

Myke Hurley: Yes. Well, but the thing is though, Brad, we already are, right? In a lot of cases. Like when you're hearing people complain to you about customs fees, it's this 20%.

Brad Dowdy: Gotcha. It's just coming later in the chain. This is now it's coming earlier in the chain.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But also it could be, I mean, I don't know how it's going to go exactly, but could end up being less because we won't have to pay the customs handling fees anymore on these items. Right. Because they won't be handled by customs.

Brad Dowdy: So from your perspective, you would not necessarily consider me charging you the 20% VAT because you're assuming you're going to get it somewhere. I might as well just get it now.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And also, I mean, as someone from the United Kingdom, I see VAT on everything. Right. Right. Like I go to stores and it's like, here's the price. And then you go to checkout sometimes and it tells you plus 20% VAT or you see it on the product page or whatever. Like we're used to paying VAT, right? Okay. And if it does mean that you don't have to pay the customs fees and I don't have to wait the extra time for these items, like that feels like a net win to me as a customer. Okay. Because like I'm still paying the same amount of money that I'm paying. And so, you know, it's just like I, as a person in the UK, hello, here's me. I really want all of the companies that I buy from, please do what you have to do here. I know it's frustrating. I know it's annoying. And I do expect over time it's going to get easier for a number of reasons. I think the process will get easier or the process will change. The process will probably change. And or there'll be companies, platform vendors that try and make it easier for their customers. Because like eBay and Etsy, I've already seen a lot of makers move stuff over to Etsy for the UK, for like the UK stores, because they will take it as part of the payment processing. So I would really, I would be surprised if a company like Shopify or Stripe didn't just do, come up with a product for this, where they're just like, hey, you as our customer, don't worry. We'll charge the 20% and you'll just never see it. And we'll just pay it to the UK government for you. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: So here, that's what I would like. Here is my thought that I think this is not going to be as big a deal in the end. Number one, your statement on you're going to pay this somehow. That makes a lot of sense. Number two, the companies in the US already pay state taxes individually by county. That is far more complex than a single VAT tax collection. So for example, NOC is based in Georgia. For each county in Georgia, Georgia has the most counties in the US. It's like 153 counties in the state. Each of them has a different tax rate that since I'm a Georgia business, I have to file individually. I only have to do it annually. Thank goodness. So, and not every county buys from me, but by the end of the year, I'll have, say, 30 individual county taxes that I have to file specifically. If you tell me I have to file one VAT tax quarterly, that's nothing. So imagine a larger company, how much they're already filing. This is not going to be a big deal.

Myke Hurley: No, because I'm only hearing this as an issue from small companies. Like large companies, there's not going to be a change. I expect this is going to be very bumpy for the next couple of months because there's going to be stuff that's sent before this happened, even though technically that's okay. But when did the purchase occur? I'm in on a bunch of keyboard products that I bought like six to eight months ago. What's going to happen more? There's going to be issues for a while. I know this. There's going to be a bumpy period where like, like you or like many people now listen to the show. This is the first time they've ever heard of this. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I haven't turned anything on on any of my sites yet.

Myke Hurley: No. And so like there's, and my understanding is the process to apply is not that simple. Surprise. Oh my God.

Brad Dowdy: It's, it's terrible in Georgia. So I wouldn't expect anything less. And I imagine it's getting overrun right now. Yeah. And I actually need to start collecting any fees.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So you can do all of the registering and I don't mean, I don't know. And I assume it's going to be tricky and it's not going to be simple and you can have to provide all this documentation and blah, blah, blah.

Myke Hurley: But it's just going to become part of doing business with the UK. It's up to you as a maker if you want to do that. But I, you know, we're a decent economy. I know it's annoying. It's annoying for all of us. But as I said, I think, I think you as a company, you already know if it's worth it for you. Right. Do you have a lot of UK customers? If you don't, then what's the point? Don't worry about it. If you do, it's probably time to start talking to your accountant and doing some filing.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right? So, yeah. Yeah. So I was thinking at it more from a negative from the UK customer base when in fact.

Myke Hurley: You are going to have to do some customer education, Brad. Sure. Sure, sure, sure. And we do need to see that I'm right in my theory. But what we're not going to, there may be a customs handling fee still, but you're not going to have to pay the VAT. Because that's what we're paying. And people complain to you about customs. They're paying the VAT and then they're paying a fee on top of it. And, you know, so you might have to explain, well, like, you know how you have VAT on everything you buy in the UK. Well, it's the same here now, too. And my thinking on a lot of this sort of stuff remains anyway, that, like, once you've done the currency conversion, because of the way that our economies are structured, the price is, like, the same as if you were a UK company selling it here anyway most of the time. Right? Like, what is a $20 case is a £20 case if you were based in this country. Right. And so considering that there is differences between the currencies of the countries, like, a lot of the time, not all the time, but a lot of the time, it comes out in the wash. Right? Whereas, like, if you want to see what I'm saying, look at, like, technology products. They're always more expensive here. And that's why. Because they're adding the taxes on and adjusting for currencies. So, you know, it's a short-term frustration. But, you know, this is the world my country is in now. Like, we are our own island again. And I was going to say for good and ill, I don't know if, I don't think there's any good. If there's any good, it surely hasn't shown itself to me yet. For ill and ill, this is just where we are. And we're going to, I guess, have to drag everyone along, kicking and screaming now if people want to continue doing business with us.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, this is a bigger conversation and a good conversation for this show because of how Pen Addict shop. Right? We shop with a lot of smaller businesses and larger businesses and have a lot of UK customers if we're businesses, you know, around the world. So, yeah. This might be boring, but I think it's an interesting conversation because we're seeing some changes just in how these types of things are handled. And you might see some changes on your favorite websites. So, just, it's more of a heads up. I have some work to do on my side. I'm not pulling anything. I will just eat whatever taxes I have until, you know, it's completely set. It's not that big of a number to have to worry about for me. But other people might need to, like, step it up and do something quickly because, honestly, these types of things usually don't catch me off. Usually, I'm usually, like, ahead of the game on this one. This one caught me off.

Myke Hurley: Well, yeah. It's because it was, like, something was going to happen. Right? Because it had to. Because, you know.

Brad Dowdy: It's not good. But it's not going to affect my numbers enough for me to panic and, like, pull down UK sales. Like, I can deal with UK sales until, like, I put in the 20% type of things. Not a big deal.

Myke Hurley: It's just the case of, like, if you're a company and you sell, well, maybe stop for a bit. Work out what you could do and then resume it.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. Yep. But anyone in the U.S. who deals with state sales taxes, this is no different. In some cases, like in mine, it'll be simpler. In some cases, it'll be exactly the same. Like, a one-stop shop. Right. Okay. Well, that's good. I feel a little bit better after talking to you about it and, you know, realizing how it affects me directly. Because that's really what it's all about, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Of course. It's the pan addict. You are the pan addict. And so, like, it's just how are you doing, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So, part of the pan addict is answering Ask TPA. I think we're just going to have to take at least half an episode next week to handle our Ask TPA questions. Because we have some really good ones that I want to spend some time on. Yep. So, I think we're at the point now where we just move these to next week. And then I'll probably build up a big batch of Ask TPA. Nice. And just do one of our big catch-up episodes. Sounds good to me. For Ask TPA next week and some follow-up on some other things. Some new product talk, I'm sure. And all that good stuff.

Myke Hurley: If you do have a question that you want to get in, there's a bunch of ways to do it. You can send out a tweet with the hashtag Ask TPA. If you're a RelayFM member, you can use the RelayFM members Discord. Just use question mark Ask TPA and you can submit your question anywhere. Probably in the Penn's channel is probably the best place for it. But you can choose. It's up to you. You can email us at hello at PennAddict.com. I say us. I mean Brad.

Brad Dowdy: True. That is true.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Those are the ways you can get in touch. If you have any questions you'd like us to ask, any topics you'd like us to expand upon, send them in. We'll do some. We'll do many more next week. We were supposed to do a lot today, but then Jonathan sent me this question and then Brad pasted all that stuff in. And then I spent more time than I would have wanted to over the last 12 hours trying to make sense of this. Same. I think we kind of got to a point where I've been able to work it out.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Until then, you can find our show notes for this episode at relay.fm slash PennAddict slash 444. You can find Brad at PennAddict.com, knock.co, spokedesign.com on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on twitch.tv slash PennAddict. Brad is PennAddict on Instagram. Dowdy is on Twitter. I am iMike. I-M-Y-K-E. Thank you so much to Penn Chalet and ExpressVPN for the support of this show. And most of all, thank you for listening. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.