The Pen Addict 467/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	467
Title:	You Had One Job
Release Date:	June 23rd, 2021
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 467
Audio File:	Audio Episode 467
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 467
Length:	7777 min <br />1.283 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 467, and today's show is brought to you by Holo, ExpressVPN, and Micro.blog. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

Brad: I tried so hard.

Myke: You're in the doghouse today.

Brad: So hard.

Myke: Brad's in the doghouse, everybody.

Failure

Brad: To make this work, I tried so hard and I still failed my one job. I still failed my one job, Myke.

Myke: So Brad is on vacation this week and very kindly still suggested he would do the show. And I was like, Brad, that's very wonderful of you. I'm so happy. And he's like, don't worry, I'm going to bring all my stuff. You know, we'll do the show as normal. I'm like, thank you, Brad. And then he just messaged me and said, so it seems like after all of my planning and prep, the actual microphone didn't make it into my bag. I had to unhook everything. I have the amp, the cord, the headphones, but no microphone. So Brad is calling in from a lake house somewhere on his AirPods. And this is one of those unfortunate situations where the time stuff doesn't work that like technically Brad could do tomorrow or Friday. But I have no space tomorrow or Friday at a time that makes sense for us to record. So, pen addict audience, we would like to issue an apology for the regressed audio in this episode. Think of it as like nostalgia for the first, I don't know, 200 episodes or something.

Brad: You know, I really tried so hard. I planned everything perfectly. And then that stupid mount on the microphone, I wasn't going to bring the mount, right? Because that's just too much to pack. I can hold the microphone in my hand for one episode.

Myke: In theory.

Brad: It threw me off. It threw me off. And I was so sure I had nailed everything. I didn't even check until like 30 minutes ago. That's how confident I was in this situation.

Myke: Well, you know, you're a professional podcaster. Why would you forget your microphone, right? No. Exactly. You wouldn't do that. So you don't need to check.

Brad: Oh, God. I didn't forget like the stationary stuff. You know, that stuff made it on vacation. I did forget the microphone, though. Priorities. Sorry, Myke.

Myke: It's okay.

Brad: Sorry, listeners.

Myke: Yeah. Don't apologize to me, you know. It's our listeners that deserve the apology. But I'm sure that they're even more forgiving than I am because they're like nice.

Brad: Yeah, they are nice like that. And man, I'm bummed. I'm just like, I'm replaying this whole thing through my head. Like, there's no way that I failed this. And then I failed this.

Myke: You know what's going to happen? You're going to forget about it. And you're going to go home. Yeah. And you're going to go into the office. And the microphone is just going to be sitting there looking at you. And then you're going to feel bad all over again.

Brad: I am. This is a you had one job situation. Yes. And where I failed.

Myke: So what kind of vacation are you on, Brad? Set the scene for me.

Brad: We are on a quiet family vacation. So my family, my parents, and then my sister and her husband and daughter who I only get to see once a year. And during COVID times, we didn't get to see them that year. So I hadn't seen them in like two years. So we're just a quiet lake abode. Very nice. Just chilling with family. Like literally nine of us in a house and doing like next to nothing. Like floating around on the boat and chatting and beverages and playing games and reading books. So like a great like getaway vacation.

Myke: Very jealous.

Brad: Yeah. Yeah. Just super chill. Like that's why I wasn't worried about podcasting because I know half the house will still be asleep at 10 o'clock on a Wednesday because we're up late at night just hanging out.

Myke: Now, I know that for Brad Dowdy, no vacation is truly a vacation. Which stationary went with you on your vacation?

Stationery for Vacation

Brad: It's always an important packing item. Not as important as a microphone. I'm going to go ahead and jump in on that. We're just going to cut you off right there.

Myke: Not as important as the actual microphone I needed today.

Brad: But secondarily, secondarily, I did consider what I was packing because my sister and my niece are like super into this type of stuff.

Myke: Right.

Brad: So my sister is an artist and bookbinder by trade.

Brad: You know, her daughter is going into graphic design. So they like all this stuff. So I wanted to make sure that my sister got to see my Misubi journal that I talk about so much because of the craftsmanship and the materials and the quality. And it's something that I talk about all the time. It's something I use all the time. So I wanted to get that in her hands. And like we sat down and, you know, she looked at the book. Then we went through the website and talked about Daryl's, you know, mission with Misubi and, you know, all the cool things that he does and all the different fabrics and all that. And how he puts the notebooks together. So I wanted to make sure to bring that. So I brought my iridescent indigo bank paper model. Right. So that was mandatory. That was definitely going to be on the list. And she's in. She's like, so do you want to make something like this? I'm like, I don't know about that. But I thought you should see it because it's right up your alley. It's very, very cool. Then I also brought spoke pens because they have not got to see what Brian has been making. And I've been helping Brian with as far as like the spoke stuff goes. Right. So I got to show them the Icon fountain pen, the traditional spoke pen with the Signo DX, the roadie and the model four pencil. And everyone I handed over to my sister, she's like, oh, I like this one. She's like, oh, I like this one. So I gave her all of those. She's got a, she has an Icon now, a spoke pen. I didn't give her the roadie because the only roadie I brought was my Joy Division etched barrel roadie, which I put a link in the show notes to. But it was funny. Just so you know that my sister and I are on the same wavelength. She was actually wearing her Joy Division t-shirt at the time I was showing her that pen. So we are two peas in a pod as far as that goes.

Myke: Family for sure.

Brad: But her favorite thing of the spoke items that I gave her was the model four pencil with the inverted brass grip, which was my pencil. But I gave that to her and I'll get another one. The orange with the brass inverted grip. I didn't, I have a picture of that. I didn't put it in the show notes, but I can get one. She was fascinated by that whole thing. She loved it. She loved the 0.5 core, core, the graphite, not the core.

Brad: So yeah, like it was, it was cool to show her like the stuff that I like from other people like Musubi and then the spoke pens that I'm involved with and able to give. Uh, them, some of those to take home with them was cool. Uh, now I need to get them a stack of notebooks. Like I purposely didn't bring a ton of notebooks to give them, but I always usually bring them like a box of stationery just to take home. And, uh, this year I'm going to, I decided to mail it just because we were like packed tight except for the microphone.

Myke: It must feel pretty nice in these kinds of situations though, that the stuff that you're giving is stuff that you've made rather than stuff that you've collected. That must just be a nice like change that's happened over time. Yeah.

Brad: Yeah. Yeah. It's super cool to be able to share that with someone who like kind of gets it like in a, you know, to a certain degree and like to see their reaction to the things and that you've made and, and how they, you know, interact with those things. And what are their thoughts that, you know, it's always fun. Even like, if it wasn't like my sister sitting here going to a pen show and someone figuring out like a pen case or a pen for them. And then like explaining it in words, Oh, I would use it this way. And it's like, that's really cool to like, you know, you can only see so much in your head, right. When you make things or I make things like you have your kind of predetermined ideas on what you're going to do with them. And to get that other feedback is like super valuable to see it in other people's hands and have them tell you this and that, like how that, how they would use it or what their thoughts are, you know, all that kind of stuff. So it's very cool. Love it. Um, I did bring some new pens that I just inked up last week that I'm working on testing and reviewing. Um, the Leonardo Memento Zero Mango with black trim. Myke, this is a heck of a pen. I, I'm very confident in the Leonardo ranking in the top five fountain pens category from 100 to $200. I put it number two. Um, I wouldn't argue with people who would want to put it at number one. I think even it's, it just feels that good to write with. I, it's hard to explain why I enjoy this pen so much and why I think other people will enjoy it so much. And even though this is like my third one, it just, you, you get that pen, you ink it up, you start writing with it. And it's just like perfect for me. And it's designed in such a way that I think a lot of people will have the same experience because it's not odd. It's not, it doesn't have, Oh, but here's this one thing you have to pay attention to or worry about or figure out what the pen, right? It's just, it's very classic, but in a modern updated refined way. And it's just a pure joy for me to write with. I inked it up with another new product that I'm going to use in this pen probably for a while. Birmingham pens. I've been playing around with some of their inks. I have antique sepia ink in this pen. You know, this is a bright orange pen. It screams for orange ink. So I was determined not to put in orange ink because, you know, you've got to be different. And this kind of matches the, the brownish undertones of the pen. And it's kind of a perfect, perfect match.

Myke: What nib do you have in the Memento Zero?

Brad: So this one is the black plated extra fine.

Myke: But what material?

Brad: And it's a, it's a steel, steel. Okay. I always get these with steel. And it's just a nail and it's awesome.

Brad: Like I, it's kind of, it's the perfect writing nib for me. Right. It's firm. It's fine. It, it's flow is like right there, like medium flow. It's not too dry. It's not too wet. It's just, it's right on the money. You know, that helps with, you know, all the positive things that I have to say about it because it just worked awesome. Right out the box. Like the, the fit and finish and feel of it on the page. It's just like, uh, this is what, this is what a fountain pen should feel like. Right? Like we can talk about like the Leonardo Memento Zero and compare it to say like the pilot vanishing point. Is there about the same price? And you get a gold nib and you have this cool mechanism, but there's a lot more questions and discussion. You have to have around a vanishing point. If you're going to recommend that to somebody or something like the Leonardo Memento Zero is straightforward and top of the class.

Myke: I feel like I should have one of these. I mean, cause I, I still don't think I get it. You know?

Brad: Yeah. That's, I mean, that's fair. Like I understand that.

Myke: But I guess it's not, I mean like, you know, I don't know how fair it is to say I don't get it considering I've never actually used one.

Brad: Um, well, here's the, here's the thing. Like if you, the moment you pick one up, you're not going to say, Oh my gosh.

Myke: Right.

Brad: You know, like that feeling, like I know how you do that. Right. It's not, it's not that it's not going to give you that. So you can't like these types of things that we talk about that I say, I like them so much. You can't work yourself up thinking that this is going to like change my life type of type of pen. Like I've never felt anything like this before. It is amazing. Right.

Myke: It's not, I'm not going to get that kind of experience because that's not what it's aiming for anyway. But it's that real solid kind of, you know, how much are they? A hundred and ninety nine dollar pen. Like it's that kind of solid. Yeah. That's what this is. Yeah.

Product Promotion

Brad: Like it just works. It does its job exceptionally well. Right. So it's, it's that type of product. The other pen that I'm brought is I'm trying to figure out how it relates. To the Leonardo and that's Mayora. So that I have the Impronte Oversize Postalipo Golden Touch. Very long name. I don't know which part of the name means which part of the product other than Oversize. It's a large pen. A little bit bigger than the Memento Zero. Wider in diameter. And it has one of those very concave grip sections. So between the size of the pen and the concave grip section, I wasn't sure if I would like this pen. So I held off when they kind of launched. I don't know. Or not launched. But when they first came around, I don't know, a year or so ago. I was like, ooh, that's a really nice looking pen. But it's probably a little big for me. Then I got my Kasama Una. And it has kind of that same shape. It's a wide diameter barrel with a very concrete cave grip. And it turns out that that works for me. So this one's working for me so far. I'm liking it. Both Mayora and Leonardo came from the remnants of the Delta closure. When Delta fountain pens shut down in Italy. Both of the families that now went on to form these two companies came from that. And you can see that these pens kind of favor each other in design.

Myke: Well, you see a family tree, right? You've got the look of the Delta pen and their two children. Because the Mayora and the Leonardo look very similar in design. Everything about it, really, to me, the key difference between the two of them is the clip design.

Myke: That's the thing that really sets the kind of standard apart, right? Like they're big, bright, colorful acrylic pens with bands that go around in metal, right? Like at certain points on the pen. But the clip design seems to really set the two apart.

Brad: Yeah. Would you say the Mayora is a little more standard, basic, and the Leonardo is a little bit more modern, classic? I don't even know how to describe them. I would say... Neither of them are like... They're not like... We're not talking about like... For those of you who can't see the image, we're not talking about like a Visconti clip situation here.

Myke: No. Like the Mayora's clip is very basic. Like it's just this is a clip. And the Leonardo clip, they've tried to do something with it. They put that kind of like little steamroller on the bottom of it, which I actually don't like. I don't have a big problem with the Leonardo clip. It's not a stopping point for me like Visconti, right? But just the general design of the clip is a turnoff for me, for the Leonardo. However, the Mayora pen, I don't like that. I would prefer... Honestly, for me anyway, I'd prefer both of these pens without a clip on them. Aesthetically. Because the clip design itself is not... One is too basic and one is too much for me.

Brad: Yeah. So that's funny. I had to go look at the images. That's how little I've noticed the clips on these pens for having used them for a while. That's how little they stand out to me. I think I saw them as like, okay, clip, good. And then just moved on to something else.

Myke: I'm quite picky with clips. I think it's because in general, I prefer pens without clips on them. So if I'm going to have a clip design, it needs to be one that I like. And just like in general, I enjoy both Sailor and Platinum's clip designs. Sure. Because Platinum's clip design is very basic, but they've kind of nailed it, right? Like it's a very standardized shape, but it's got like a nice engraving that goes around the outside. And just I enjoy Sailor's overall design, which is reminiscent of a kind of duck bill. But luckily, they have gone even further in that direction before, but then pulled it back again.

Brad: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I inked up this Mayora. I definitely went matchy-matchy with this one and continued my travels into Pannonia Inkland. So I have Marexold in this one, which is called Poison Green. And it's really kind of more of a blue-green, which fits this pen. Yeah. Like I don't even – I was actually confused when I went to go see what color this was and that it had actually green anywhere in the name because it was really more like an aqua teal maybe. It's great. It's fantastic. It matches this pen perfectly. So I'll be talking about more of both of these pens and both inks soon. So this is what – I brought these because they're new to me, and I'm going to start working on their reviews. So I need to get them inked up and used so I can kind of get a good baseline. I will definitely review the Mayora first just because I've reviewed a Leonardo before. And I'll review this one separately, but the Mayora is going to be first just because it's really new to me. And I'm happy with it so far. I have a couple of minor questions that I want to – just need to explore a little bit more. But I think overall it's going to get like a good review, but then you can't help but have to compare it to the Leonardo, and it's just not going to rank as well. Just because in a recommendation kind of way, not a personal kind of way, it's wider and has more questions to ask around the grip section. So it's for less people right out the gate from a recommendation perspective. So that's how I kind of look at these things. So that's my initial thoughts, but I'm definitely enjoying it.

Myke: All right, let's take our first break of this episode and thank our first sponsor. It's a new sponsor for the show, Micro.blog. If you're a pen addict who wants to share your love of pens and ink and stationery and more, you can join Micro.blog where you'll find kindred spirits. Micro.blog is an easy-to-use blogging platform where you can write short or long blog posts. You can share photos, video, or even host a podcast of your own. But more than a place to post your stuff, it's also a friendly community of people with a wide range of interests who share and comment via the service's social timeline, backed by strong community guidelines that are enforced by the people running and moderating the communities. It really is a very cool and special thing. Like, Micro.blog's been around for a while now, and I've always loved myself how on the site, the content that you put on there, it actually feels much more like it's yours because it doesn't feel like it's belonging to a company to fuel their algorithms and sell their ads because this isn't something that they do. You have so much more control about where things live and where they're seen, and the fact that the communities themselves are more focused than other social networks, you may be able to more freely explore the things that you love. They also actually, just before sponsoring the show, they added a feature to use emoji to discover things that you care about. And so what would be good for listeners to this show, any post that uses the fountain pen emoji attached to it will be surfaced in a new pens and ink topic on Micro.blog, so you can very easily find new people to share stuff with. So I think that's super, super cool. I really love that feature. That was really nice to see them put that in there. Look, Micro.blog is different. There's no ads. There's no behind-the-scenes algorithm choosing which posts appear on your timeline. If you're always wanting to share your love of pens but have felt lost or discouraged by larger social media sites, come to Micro.blog. You can meet fellow enthusiasts in the rest of the community and share interesting things that they love. Micro.blog hosting starts at $5 a month. You can use your own domain and you can even cross-post from there to Twitter, Tumblr, and Mastodon. Using your own domain name, your posts reside on a blog that you control. And you can use Micro.blog via Mac, iOS, and Android, as well as the web. If you're ready to try a different blogging and social media experience, head to micro.blog slash penaddict where you'll be able to sign up for free and try out all of the features of Micro.blog for one month of free usage. That's micro.blog slash penaddict for a one-month free trial. Our thanks to micro.blog for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad: Can I say a few words about this?

Myke: Yes, I would love you to.

Brad: I'm inordinately excited about this sponsorship. I was a supporter of the launch of Micro.blog.

Myke: It was a Kickstarter, right?

Brad: From their Kickstarter campaign. Yeah, and I was like, I love this idea. And I haven't been using it, like admittedly. And late last year, I was like, I need to start working on this a little bit more. And I talked with one of the main people over there at micro.blog, Jean. She's a good friend of yours and ours and just an awesome all-around person. And I was like, I really need what micro.blog is offering. I need this comfortable social media experience that's fun and fascinating and interesting and community built. And it's really cool. So I'm going to start leaning into this a lot more going forward. Not just because they're sponsoring the show, but because it has been on my fingertips here for the longest time that I really need to use this for pen-related stuff and be involved in this space. Because I like everything about it and want to be part of it. So yeah, I'm going to start working on that soon. I spent some time kind of cleaning up my old accounts, trying to get everything kind of spiffied up. So I will shoot over a link to my micro.blog. I'm Brad on there. So from the OG days when you sign up at Kickstarter, you got to reserve your name. So you can find me at Brad.

Myke: Yeah, what you definitely need is another different username.

Brad: Yeah, that's good. I'll probably continue to work on that and make more new usernames for different things. But no, I'm excited about this. I've been wanting to work on my micro.blog for a while just because it's easy and it's fun. And I look forward to it.

Brad: Something else we can look forward to, Myke.

Myke: Okay.

Brad: Every few months.

Myke: Yeah.

Brad: In your mail. What do you got?

Myke: Yeah, I mentioned this a little bit last time and I thought that I don't know, we could maybe touch on it a little bit more. The Theme System Journal now is offered via a quarterly rolling subscription. So previously, you've been able to just go to cortexmatch.com or buy a Theme System Journal of your own whenever you've wanted one. And listeners of this show have been following the story of this will know that we have had what I consider now at this point to be historic levels of stock shortages.

Myke: The product is now two years old and we have sold more in the last year than we did in the prior year and a half. And one of the big reasons for this is because for most of that year and a half, the product was not in stock at all. We couldn't keep it in stock. And now we are in a position where we have a better supply flow, I'll say. You know, like we've moved to a different manufacturer where we're able to tweak things a little bit differently and we're able to restock much faster. And so now we're very comfortable with our stock levels so much that we are willing to say, hey, if you want to give us if you want to subscribe, give us money every quarter, you'll get one every quarter. Right. And this isn't something we could have done before, because if we didn't if we weren't confident in the amount of time it takes us to restock the product, then we wouldn't be able to fulfill the subscriptions. Right. So, you know, you'd come to like subscription refill time and it's like, oh, we don't have any of these and we're not going to have them for three months. Now, again, like this is a we're kind of calling this like a beta, really, because we still got to make it work. Right. Like something could happen that we're not anticipating and then we need like it's like hair on fire time trying to get new ones of these things printed in time. Right. So like we're still kind of we're still kind of getting our heads around this, which is why we've launched it in the middle of the year. Right. Like the best time for anything related to the theme system journal is between like November and January, because that's when people are thinking about their next year. Like even though the product technically lasts kind of around 90 days, if you journal every day, it's just not really the time frame that people are thinking, hey, I'm going to start my new yearly theme in July. Right. But people that are in the system and are using it, they need one every 90 days. So we have people now that are getting ready to buy their new journal. So we're like, hey, if you want now, you can subscribe instead. And we're working with Cotton Bureau on this. This is the first subscription product they've done. And they've been really awesome in helping us kind of get this off the ground. So things are, you know, they're a little bit delicate in places. You know, like we have fixed times that we send them. You know, like people said, like, it would be great if I could just get one 90 day under the 90 day interval from when I first buy. And I agree with that. But that logistically is too complicated for us right now with the setup that we have. So effectively, when you go to the page, it says like, hey, if you order before this day, you'll get one in this amount of time. And then your next delivery will be this time. And then it will be every three months from there. You know, so by and large, most people would have the journal for every day that they need. It might, you know, after your first one, you might have like a day or two, depending on when you buy, where you need to wait for your next journal to arrive. But we're also sending them, starting to send them like a month before you need them. So I reckon people will be fine. Like, this isn't something we're going to know about on mass for a while. You know, like, how is it like, what do people think of the delivery process and stuff? But there are benefits to doing it. Like, we've taken $5 off the price, which I think is pretty great. So instead of $25, it costs $20. And we're throwing in just some little thank you extras, like stickers and stuff like that, which I'm hoping as the subscription grows, like the people that grow, we might be able to offer more elaborate gifts. You know, this is like, like, you know, look, listeners of this show know what I'm doing here, right? Quarterly subscriptions, right? You can understand why I want to grow this. Like, I have grand dreams of custom covers and stuff, right? But like, this is, that's a long way off in the future for us. We need to like, build a large subscriber base before that stuff even starts to become economically feasible. It is really interesting now, you know, I'm sure you went through this whole journey, to look at something like Field Notes and understand how difficult it must be to be there. You know? So hard. To make money, you know? It's tricky. But maybe, you know, that's a grand dream I have for the future. But for now, it's a way to kind of say to people like, hey, you're gonna, you're gonna have one all the time. And Cotton Bureau, like, we're working with them on logistical stuff. And, you know, they told me, like, we're gonna keep an eye on how many subscribers there are. And if you start to get low, we're gonna hold journals or something. Like, we're all working it out together, right? But this is kind of the next stage of this product's life is subscriptions.

Brad: Well, that's great. I think that's, like, perfect. That's a big deal. Like, I'm listening to you talk going, like, this is so difficult to pull off. And so, I know how much you put into it. So, yeah, I think it's great.

Myke: Yeah, I'm like, as I'm talking about it now, I'm already starting to feel the anxiety of the holidays again.

Myke: Oh, yeah.

Myke: Like, we have a lot. Like, we have 10,000 of these that just arrived. And so, I'm expecting that's gonna last us now all the way until the end of the year. Right. You know, because we've sold nearly 9,000 of these in total so far, the second edition. So, from, like, late December to now. So, you know, 10,000, I think that's gonna be enough for us to start off the holiday season with. And we'll probably have a journal order that will come in, like, maybe September, October time to help put us over, hopefully, like, over the war for the holidays, you know? Yep. But provided they keep selling, you know, like, you know, I've been really surprised. We sell... I'm giving a lot of information here, but this is what you get on the Panadict. Do you get the behind the scenes? We sell, I don't know, like, 10 of these a day? Just every day. Yeah, that's crazy. Which I just, which is more than I would have expected without any marketing, you know, like, it's... We mention them on Cortex every now and then, like, every couple of episodes or whatever. But irrespective of any mention, we sell that amount. And we're gearing up for advertising now. Like, I'm working on some advertising stuff that we're gonna do, and we're gonna start advertising them on Instagram. Have you ever done any of that?

Brad: Not on Instagram, but I know Brian has.

Myke: Okay.

Brad: Has done some Instagram ads. Wow, we're really getting into the weeds now, but...

Myke: Mm-hmm.

Brad: The short version is... That seems to be the most successful current way to advertise products.

Paper Testing

Myke: Especially products...

Brad: The most bang for your buck.

Myke: Like the stuff that we make.

Brad: Like this. Yeah, yeah, like the things that we make, right? That seems to be the route.

Myke: The reason I want to do Instagram ads is because Myke Hurley buys loads of stuff from Instagram ads. You know, like I buy more products or at least like click through on more ads on Instagram than I have with any other type of web advertising ever. Mm-hmm. Right? Like I just know this about myself and about my friends too, right? Like there's something about Instagram advertising that when it's done well, it's very compelling. And I'm really pleased with some of the treatments that we've got going right now. But we have some like logistical financial company set up things that need to be done before I can start the campaigns. But I'm hoping that will start soon. Yeah.

Myke: Yeah. The setup is... Oh my God.

Myke: It's a frigging nightmare. Oh my God. So I'm trying to work through that stuff. But I'm purposefully not rushing it because there's no real need to rush it. But yeah, the subscriptions is where we are now and then kind of just running out the rest of the year. And yeah, we'll see. There is one other little thing that I think I wanted to talk about today with the journal because it's just something that's playing on my mind. And you notice we've spoken about this, which is like paper performance and how complicated that is to do. So like I've had, you know, I've had some people contact me and say that like, hey, you know, my 1.1 millimeter stub nib with Noodler's Black is feathering a little bit on the theme system journal or whatever. And I'm kind of like, yeah, it's going to do that. And it's really complicated. And like, you know, I was having a conversation with this person. They super understand it. And it was just kind of like, hey, do you know about this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's because the journal, the paper I have chosen, I did extensive testing with myself. And I am happy with the result of it. And I think the result of the paper that we use in all of our products right now is good for all circumstances, but it is not perfect for any particular circumstance. Because if I was to make the perfect fountain pen paper, it's going to not be perfect for the majority of our customers. Right. Right. And so like, I'm having to kind of thread the needle a little bit to find the right product fit. It's very complicated to do.

Brad: Without question. Without question. Yeah. But for like a product like this, it can't be tied into like a specific use case, be it fountain pens or pencils or gel ink pens. It has to be more all encompassing, which means it may not be 100% perfect for everything, but hopefully it's like 90% perfect for most of what you use kind of thing. That's the way I always look at these things. Because like our paper that we use in our knock notebooks are the same thing with fountain pens, right? There's a lot of fountain pens and inks and nib combinations that work great, but there's some that just it's not going to be good. And but the decision is, well, we like this paper for what it offers for everything. And if it was a fountain pen only paper, we'd market it as such. And it's not.

Myke: So, you know, it's always there's a whole other thing about just the science of paper, which I'm learning about. Oh, yeah. Where it's like you can have a notebook and five pages it might feather on, but the rest is totally fine because something got in the factory that day. And it's like, oh, my God, it's really complicated. But I'm basically this is therapy, this conversation for me right now. Like, I'm just I just wanted to talk about it where it's kind of like, hey, because I think of the people that would buy the journal that would maybe have these issues, I reckon I've got a pretty decent Venn diagram listening right now. You know, like of people that would buy the theme system or the subtle notebook and use the kinds of products where you might see these issues. They're probably listening to the show. So, I mean, look, I don't really it's like I think the paper is really good for most circumstances and there's going to be outlier situations. What I will say is if any listeners of this show do have really egregious issues throughout the notebook to just contact me. I want to see some images and I'll take care of you. Mm hmm.

Brad: Yeah. So just to put a bow on this from my experience, when I would use a different pen every day when I use my theme system journal and most of the time fountain pens. And I'd have maybe.

Brad: One out of every 10 or 12 or 15 pens and ink combinations, I was like, ah, that's not the best on this page.

Myke: Mm hmm.

Brad: That's pretty much how it went. Like, and then all the other ones would be just like perfectly fine. I've had this too. And then just want you someone again.

Myke: My testing is like, all right, let me try it on the next page. Oh, it's OK. And it's like, what is happening? So that I'm still I'm new to this. Right. And I'm get I'm still trying to get my head around it. It's a frigging nightmare.

Brad: But that's all we can have these conversations out loud because we've got we've both gone through this and we will continue to go through this because this it's it's nothing is going to. Ever make this perfect.

Myke: So but I will stand about these things out loud by the fact and we'll say it out loud because this is, again, part of my therapy. I believe I've made a very good product. Yeah, that's kind of. And so you can check it out for yourself. I recommend it. Cortexmerch.com. Let's talk about something. It's nothing to do with us.

Brad: Well, actually, I did this because I did this on purpose because you have another product called the subtle notebook. And I wanted to shout out 10 years of Patrick Ng's chronodex system, which I saw I put a post up that this latest like six month batch of, you know, calendar planner. I don't even know what you call this system. It's just this fascinating system. It's now with this release. It has reached the 10 year mark. And you can use this type of system in something like the subtle notebook, right, where you could get these printed out sheets and cut them out, paste them in there or transfer this type of sheet. But basically, I just wanted to give a shout out to Patrick for 10 years of chronodex, which is really, really fascinating. He does all this for free and puts this out there like every six months, puts out the next set of calendars because the little base that you use for the chronodex is complicated, right? People who like the system generally don't draw their own chronodex. They use the preprinted stuff that Patrick has done, and he's just done this forever. And I appreciated him for that, and I wanted to give him a shout out.

Myke: Yeah, definitely. This is a super cool project to not only have started, but to have continued for so long and for free. And I think there's a lot. I mean, he could have turned this into a product a long time ago and sold it.

Brad: Yep, absolutely.

Myke: I think it's super cool that he continues to offer this. It's really great.

Brad: Yep. Myke. Yes, Brad. Can I tell you how excited I am about the sponsors this week before you get into our next sponsor? This is like the most on-point set of sponsorships for me today. Despite the fact that I didn't bring my microphone, I'm never going to hear the end of it. Never. I am all in on these sponsors. So let's talk about our next good friend.

Myke: Is this how you make it up to me? Yes. Okay, great. This episode is brought to you by Hullo. They make incredibly comfortable buckwheat pillows. You may have never tried a buckwheat pillow and you may have, you know, you might not remember me talking about it, spouting so effusively about it. These are so different and so fantastic. It isn't a fluffy pillow full of feathers or foam. These are called buckwheat holes. It's kind of like a cross between like a shell and like a bean bag kind of bean thing. It's a totally different type of experience. But what it gives you is a much more comfortable experience, much more support because the pillow doesn't kind of like smush under the weight of your head like a regular pillow. Plus, it stays cool. It stays dry because air will flow through the buckwheat pillows more easily. They breathe better. They don't get warm and humid. You're not flipping to the cool side of the pillow and you're not constantly adjusting the pillow either to just, you know, to be the right kind of fit for you. It just stays as it is, which is fantastic. You can add and remove the filling to suit your needs, kind of to make the pillow the exact kind of size that you need it to be. It's really, really awesome. I have been sleeping on a hollow pillow for years and I adore it. If I am ever in a situation, you know, like maybe staying over a family member's house or I'm in a hotel or something and I have a kind of more regular, smushy, terrible pillow, I miss my hollow pillow all the time. Super fantastic. Hollow pillows are made in the USA with quality construction and materials. The certified organic cotton case is cut and sewn for durability and the buckwheat is grown and milled in the US. You may be curious to try one of these out and you should. You can sleep on it for 60 nights and if it isn't right for you, you can just send it back and hollow will give you a full refund. Go to hollow pillow dot com slash pen addict right now to get your very own buckwheat pillow. That's H-U-L-L-O-P-I-L-L-O-W dot com slash pen addict. And if you buy more than one, they have a special discount of up to $20 off depending on the size that you opt for. They have fast free shipping of every order and 1% of all profits are donated to the Nature Conservancy. So give it a try. If you love it, keep it. If you don't, send it back. That's hollow pillow dot com slash pen addict. Our thanks to hollow for the support of this show and relay FM.

Brad: I'm going to become one of those people that travels with their pillow after the current experience that I'm having right now.

Myke: It's going well, huh?

Brad: At an Airbnb and using this foam pillow, my head was literally on fire for hours and all I wanted was my hollow pillow that I had at home. And I couldn't sleep because every time I'd turn over, like the flames would start and then I'd flip the pillow and I had to do it so much. It would still be warm on the on the other side. It was not as cool as the other side of the pillow. It was still warm on the other side and all I wanted, Myke, was my stinking hollow pillow that I had at home. So, yes, they've got me. They have sunk their teeth in me and I am now one of those people. I need my pillow. It's that good.

Myke: You're a big hollow boy.

Brad: Oh, man. All right. You were talking about the difficulties of quarterly additions and how impressed we are with someone like Field Notes. Blackwing is right there with them in the quarterly subscription game and continuing to execute good products every three months, every few months, three or four months, depending on how delays go. So, and this latest version, Blackwing 64, it's great. It's a cool comic theme based on the 64 colors you see in the – what's the phrase? What's the word I'm looking for? The halftone.

Myke: Oh, yeah.

Brad: Halftone. 64 color palette. Halftone. So, you know, the – I look at this pencil. The first thing that came to mind was not comics. Like, I, you know, like I get it. Like, I get where they're going. You see the close-ups and you're like, oh, okay, I can see some of the kind of –

Myke: I saw art. You know, like it told me there was something artistic, but I didn't necessarily see – I mean, when I zoom in, seeing the, like, stipple pattern on the blue part tells me comics, but the lines don't tell me so much until I know, you know?

Brad: Right. Like, I didn't know this was a comic series until I clicked through. Like, I think they could have leaned into, like, the comic art on the pencil a little bit more than the halftone. I totally get it. Like, I love what this looks like. Like, I'm not going to rush out and buy them despite having the – they have the 602 core, the firm core, which I very much enjoy. This is a great set. It's going to do very, very well. I do wish they would have leaned into, like, really more the comic panel type of situation to tell the story a little bit better. But they've also – in telling the story, they have done some cool things. Like, they work with a friend of the Pen community, Myke Hawthorne, who has been a long-time comic artist. He did a sketch, which I'll put the link in the show notes. I watched this morning on Twitter. I don't know if you've had a chance to watch it. It's, like, a five-minute time lapse. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Watching him work –

Artistic Inspiration

Myke: That's an incredible skill.

Brad: It's mind-blowing. Yeah. It's – he is truly, truly gifted. And it was cool to watch him go from, like, a full-length unsharpened pencil to, like, he had about an inch left on the nub on this one big drawing that he did. And it was fascinating. Yeah, I couldn't believe that. I was really glad to go watch that.

Myke: Looking at it, it's, like, yeah, it's very – obviously, like, very intricate. Like, very – there's a lot going on. I just never would have imagined that you would use a pencil that fast, right? But I guess – Yeah, yeah. You know, depending on the type of lines that you're doing, he needs it to be sharp. And that's just going to keep – he needs to keep sharpening it. It's going to keep wearing it down. But that was, like, a big surprise to me, that difference.

Brad: Yeah. It was cool. So, y'all go watch that. And if you're not following Myke, follow Myke because he's awesome on Twitter. He, like, shares everything. And he's into, like, some really big stuff, some really big comics that he's involved in.

Myke: Yeah, he's done a bunch of Marvel stuff.

Brad: And being an artist on – Yep. Yep, yep. So, I think he's been –

Myke: He's been across the board, but, like, up where the big people play, you know?

Brad: Yeah. Yep, yep. And he's just an all-around good guy. So, definitely go give him a follow. The next item I want to talk about I'm not as straightforward on. Blackwing 64, thumbs up.

Myke: Yep.

Brad: The next one, Myke. What do you think of when I say Kaweco Elite Royalty Sport Fountain Pens?

Myke: Sounds really nice.

Brad: You know, various shades of red and blue. Yeah. Sounds like – Like, it's like this –

Myke: Sounds great.

Brad: Is this for the queen? Is this for the queen? Is this for the monarchy? You're going to imagine some real – This elite royalty.

Myke: Class here. Brad, do you want to know what – Yeah. I want to tell you – I'll give you a recap of what happened today when I was looking at the show notes. I opened this link and I burst into laughter.

Myke: Why? Why? I mean, I won't give up my feelings yet, but why?

Myke: Well, one thing that was funny to me – I don't know why this is the case, but on the pen chalet page, the images are upside down. I don't know the reasoning for this, but that's just what that is. But that only added to it. But I thought – and correct me if I'm wrong – I thought that Kaweco were not going to do this anymore, where they were going to write the name of the pen on the pen barrel in a weird font. I thought they'd stop doing that. Wasn't that a conversation that we had? Yes. Okay. Because this is one of the worst ones. And as Kaweco is quite rightly pointing out in the chat, why is it three pens and two of them are different shades of blue?

Myke: Keep going. Anything else?

Myke: The crown's silly. The font is trash. And that's the end.

Myke: I don't get it. So I was so confused.

Brad: I was like, why are they doing something? Like, what is – like, is there some, you know, German king or, you know, monarch family? Oh, I have another thing. I have another thing, Brad.

Myke: I have another thing. The names. All right? Royal blue. Yeah, I was going to go in. Deep red. Crown blue. All right, so two things. What is deep red? All right? Crown blue and royal blue. What is deep?

Brad: It's the blood of your enemies.

Myke: Well, like, you know, there are a lot of reds in, like, cloaks and stuff, you know, like a traditional idea. But, like, deep red. But, like, crowns aren't blue. I don't know what's blue on a crown.

Brad: That's the end. Can we get to the piece de resistance now?

Myke: Uh-huh.

Brad: I'm going to read this.

Kaweco Elite Royalty Sport Pen Discussion

Myke: Okay.

Brad: Because it took me a while to sort this out. Like, why does this pen exist? Myke, let me tell you why this pen exists. This U.S. exclusive, you know, with all the monarchies that we've had here in the U.S., this U.S. exclusive is co-branded elite royalty for Kaweco's U.S. distributor, Elite Accessories.

Myke: Oh, this hasn't helped, but okay.

Brad: It's definitely not helped.

Myke: What is Elite Accessories?

Brad: It's a distributor. A distributor got their own Kaweco pen that they're selling to all their U.S. customers.

Myke: Am I supposed to care?

Brad: This is kind of grotesque.

Myke: About Elite Accessories, which is a brand that Google can't even help me find?

Brad: This is one of the most mind-boggling... This is, like, wrecking my brain. And, like, you know, I've had a lot of beers on vacation, Myke.

Myke: Yeah.

Brad: But I'm completely sober right now, and I don't know why this exists. Like, I love my friends at Kenro. You love your friends at Kenro. I do not want an Estabrook with Kenro plastered all over it.

Myke: Yeah, because I have no... Like, I, as a customer, have no affinity for what is ultimately a hidden brand for me. Right? Right.

Brad: That part should be invisible. Yeah.

Myke: Like, the brands that we know are, like, Estabrook. Right? Or Monteverde. Or companies like that. Right? The distributor has no relationship with a customer. Until now, Myke. It's like if DHL were like, hey, we ship pens.

Myke: We're gonna... Although, to be honest, that is at least a brand that people know about, right? Like, shipping freight... Acme Shipping Freight Company. Like, oh, people want a pen with our brand on it. Right.

Brad: Like, I mean, you know, a lot of us are sports fans. And, you know, we have the, you know, all the brand merch. And, you know, we cheer for laundry, basically, is how we joke about, like, brand merchandise. You know, if you're buying a jersey or something like that, it's like you're actually rooting for laundry. But in this case, like, I'm on Kaweco's team. I couldn't give a rip about Elite accessories. Why would I want them on my pen? Like, just give me the Kaweco stuff and tell me a different story about why he chose crown blue and deep red for these colors. Not that I'm... Not because it's of the U.S. distributor Elite accessories. My mind is... Like, I've seen a lot of things, Myke. This one is ruining me. I don't know what to say. I don't have anything nice to say, like, about what has happened with this decision. It was like... I think Kaweco... They're perfectly fine. I actually, I don't hate the logo. Like, it's a kind of horny logo. It reminds me of, like... Do you remember the old British Knights brand?

Myke: It's like medieval times or something is what it looks like. Yeah.

Myke: Kaweco made to make a sub-brand to do this stuff. Because right now, for me personally, all they are doing is, like, chipping away at the great brand that they possess. By...

Brad: And we thought, to your earlier point, we thought they fixed that.

Myke: Yeah. But it seems like no. And also, like, making a decision like this is so weird to me. Like, this pen should only exist as gifts for the distributors' partners. 100%.

Brad: Right. That's exactly what this is.

Myke: Like, that's who... Like, this should have been included. Like, for example, my watch brand, Nomos. They partnered with Kaweco and made a Nomos-branded Kaweco. And they sent it out to watch dealerships. And you would get given one if you bought one. And I have one. And it was, like, a fun little thing for me. Because it's like, hey, I know this. So I have a Kaweco with the Nomos watch branding on it. But they're not selling that. Right? It's a gift. So, like, this is, like, such a weird choice for me. It's like a corporate sponsorship type pen. It's like a corporate branded pen.

Myke: Sold to people.

Brad: That's going to be widely available. Like, this isn't a one-off. For money. Like, every retailer has this pen.

Myke: You want me to pay you for this. Yeah, it's weird, man.

Brad: I don't get it. The person who it's made for. Yeah. Wow. This one's really, really messing with me. It's fascinating. Like, I love everything about this. Because it is so bad. Like, I'm trying to be, like, metered and nice. And, you know, I love Kaweco. I love Kaweco and I love the pen. But this is a gigantic error. Yeah, we say this because we love you, Kaweco.

Myke: Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, we are trying to protect you from yourself. Like, make a secondary company. And don't put your logo on it. And make as many of these things as you want. Right? But stop co-branding in these really weird circumstances. Like, it's very strange to me. Or if you're going to do it, make something that I can't say no to. Right.

Brad: Yep. All right. So, as usual, please send me feedback if I'm missing something about this. Because this one, I'm actually pretty convinced I'm not missing anything. I think it just is what it is. But I'm always open to, like, learn more if I'm, like, really overlooking, like, what we're missing here. Hello at penaddict.com. Please feel free to reach out and let me know about your elite accessories, Brandon Kaweco. What is happening, Myke? All right. I don't know, man. We should do some STPA. We got some good STPAs. But, man, I have a feeling there might be follow-up on this pen, unfortunately.

Myke: All right. Got a longer one to start with, right? So, this comes from Myke. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I'm getting groomsmen gifts ready for my wedding. Congratulations. That was rescheduled because of the pandemic. I'm sorry. You had to do that. And my lovely bride suggested personalized stationary gifts for my three groomsmen. So, what we have here is kind of like a description of each person with my expectation of, can we make a suggestion? Or can Brad make a suggestion for a gift for each person? So, groomsmen number one. I've selfishly wanted to get this guy into fountain pens for a while because he is easily addicted to collecting things like baseballs, vinyl toys, etc. This person is perfectly in the warehouse for fountain pens. Yeah, exactly. I recently found out he has a brass pen and it feels criminal to get him addicted, but I want a pen friend and I think I can hook him in. I wanted to get him a conpecky for its closeness to cubby blue. I assume this is like a baseball thing. Is that the Cubs?

Brad: Yeah, so that's the Chicago Cubs, yes. Yeah, look at me. And like their cubby blue is, it's a very, it's a kind of a royal-ish blue.

Myke: Oh, well, we got the perfect pen. It's called the Coveco Elite Royal Sport. There we go.

Myke: It's already personalized.

Brad: Oh, my God. Actually, like the red and the blue, one of those would be a good match because the Cubs are, it's this royal blue and red. We found a customer. I'm going to erase what I wrote.

Myke: We found a customer. There you go, Myke. There you go, Myke. There you go, Myke.

Brad: So, I actually picked out the TWSBI 580 ALR Prussian blue.

Myke: Okay. Right.

Brad: Even though that blue is, yeah. It's not the color of, it's not cubby blue, blue. But what you can do with this pen, since it's a demonstrator, you can get like a red ink and kind of have that blue and red look, you know, for the pen. So, that was kind of my thought on this. And like, there are a couple rules here. We had to stay under $100, right?

Myke: Yep. Yeah, I didn't get to that point.

Brad: And then Myke was also going to do, so like he was talking about the personalized stuff, he's talking about doing personalized notebooks. So, I didn't really rank the pens that I've chosen for like customization, right? So, the TWSBI 580 ALR would be a little difficult to customize, but these other ones I chose would. But I think this is kind of, I think this kind of like hits on what we're looking for for groomsmen number one. And so, I feel pretty good about that answer.

Myke: Grimsman number two. This guy studied painting and loves camping. He's into city planning and public transit as well. I'm thinking maybe some kind of tasteful tactical pen.

Brad: Yeah, this is like EDC type pen. Like, the tactile turn options, I think, are kind of the, they're the classic EDC type. They can be, it's tasteful tactical. Like, that's a good terminology to put in there. You could go with something like the spoke pen, just the standard pen with the gel ink refill. That's always, that would be kind of fit into this mold as well.

Myke: I guess you could, depending on the way you look at it, it's like some of the spoke products could have that tasteful tactical vibe. Yeah.

Brad: Yeah. But I would stay away from like the extreme and like the, like the, when you get into the trade. It's got a knife in it.

Myke: And this one got a GPS signal in case you get lost in the woods.

Brad: So, um, like Karis customs, I think those also fall into the same category as well. Like the tasteful tactical where you can get that style of pen for a good price, good quality. And these, you could actually probably could get engraved on the barrels, these metal barrel pins. So yeah, I think that's a, that's a good choice. Probably something tactile turn or Karis customs.

Myke: And then groomsman number three studied graphic design, loves drawing, doodling, cartoons. I'm torn between a nice stub and a fine nib for drawing. So that's both ends of the spectrum there.

Brad: I feel kind of happy with all of my choices here, but I feel especially happy with this one. And it's kind of a, it's an interesting pen and I'm going to be doing a review of it soon. And we're going to, we've already had some reviews on it, but it's the platinum procyon. And here's why, um, it's in that price range. It's about $60, I think. And it's a, it's a lightweight aluminum barrel. Platinum's nibs are amazing. I would go with the fine side of the ledger here. I'd go with EF and EF platinum procyon in any color. There's like six different barrel colors you can get. And then I would especially add in platinum carbon black ink for drawing. And I think that's kind of like a really great art drawing technical writing setup is having a platinum procyon with those great platinum nibs, steel nibs that are very fine. And with an ink that is like an artist favorite and works spectacularly well in this setup. I don't know. That feels kind of like the right move to, to me for, for like a graphic design drawing doodler that we're trying to find here for groomsmen number three.

Myke: Very nice.

Myke: Congratulations again, Myke.

Brad: Yep. And, uh, let us know. Yeah. Let us know if you go with those. If you go with any of this, if they, what they think.

Myke: Yeah.

Myke: All right. This episode is also brought to you by express VPN. We all take little risks every day when we go online, whether we think about it or not. I think our connection probably won't be interrupted by someone trying to get data from us that it wouldn't be used against us. Cause why would you even consider that when you're out and about on the internet? Be using the internet can be like kind of like not having that insurance policy in place. If that makes sense, like something looking after you, there could be unnecessary risk because every time you connect to an unencrypted network, this is in public places, you know, like airports, hotels, cafes, that kind of stuff. People on the same network have the ability to get access to some of the information and data that's passing through. So your data is valuable to you. People could make money selling out your information, but also it's yours. It has your value. It's your stuff, right? So express VPN can act like that insurance for these connections. It creates a secure encrypted tunnel between your device and the internet. So nobody can steal your personal data. And express VPN is simple to use on all your devices. You just fire up the app and click one button to get protected. And that's what I love about it. It's on all the devices that I have. So when I'm in an environment where I'm connected to a network that I don't know, that I feel like I can't trust, I will turn on express VPN and it just gives me that little additional peace of mind. It's so easy to do. Why wouldn't you? Secure your online data today by going to expressvpn.com slash penaddict. That's exprssvpn.com slash penaddict. And you can get an extra three months for free. That's expressvpn.com slash penaddict. Our thanks to ExpressVPN for the support of the show and RelayFM.

Brad: Did you know, Myke, that I am currently on vacation and I'm running ExpressVPN currently while we podcast.

Myke: This is like perfect for you today.

Brad: And it does not touch the internet speed, nothing. Yeah, this is like, like it's what I said. This is the perfect group of sponsors.

Myke: I will say, like, this is a great example of it. Like we're having this call and there's no difference in the, there's no lag or anything like that. And you're using ExpressVPN for it. It's like perfect.

Brad: Yep. It has been turned on this whole call. So yeah, it's great.

Myke: So Luzgen asks, following up from last week's conversation, is the $100 to $200 like pen range, fountain pen range, kind of a bad entry point now? Would it maybe be better to consider a sub $100 for entry and then upgrade to $200 and over?

Brad: So short question, but a lot to unpack here. Let me go, I'm going to, I'm going to answer this question directly, but let me give a little bit of feedback that I got from last week. And it was generally like almost, there were very few arguments about what was in the price range. But the question that has come out of it is, is the price range valid, which gets to Luzgen's point here. Is the price range the best representation that we can give for what we're seeing? And I think the price range can be adjusted to, you know, maybe have a $150 to $250 price range and have a $75 to $150 bracket than a below $75 type of thing. But none of that, I still would say this is the best entry point. Well, I would never send anyone here, even in a hundred to $200 range for their first fountain pen. Right. So like we'd have to redefine entry point because $100 to $200 has never been a good entry point. Right. So that doesn't mean it's a bad entry point. Now it means it was never the point where I'm sending someone in the first place. I'm sending them probably that $75 or less, you know, Twisby's, Prerra's, you know, Metropolitan's, Safaris, Ecos. That's the entry point. The step up point is when you get into the $100 and $200 range. And I still, I think like $150 to $200 is probably the best step up point. So like, I really like, I'm a firm believer in the products in this price range. And there's even more, like I can, that's one list where I don't have a problem filling it out. Right. That, that's one of the few lists that could be twice as long. And I'd be very comfortable with every entry on there. That's how good that price range is. So to specifically answer Lodgen, the $100 to $200 range was never a good entry point. Like that, we just, I would not work that way unless I was, you know, being asked under a specific set of constraints. And that came the answer, right? We would never go there, but I think it's a great step up price point. So in the future, hopefully this year, you know, I will break out. I think we're going to go zero to 75, 75 to 150, 150 to 250. I don't know. I got to think about it, but we're going to break these out a little bit differently because I think, I think the wrong things are getting left out of what has now become some of the default price points in our community and what's offered. For sale. So I think that needs to be adjusted. So I hope that answered some of the question.

Myke: McKay asks, if your entire pen collection got wiped out, stolen or destroyed in an unsalvageable way, what are the pens that you would work hardest to reacquire? Current restraints, like if it's a limited edition, potentially you'll have to pay the premium to get it in the secondhand market or something like that. Do you want to start off? What, what, I mean, we didn't set an amount on this or anything like that. Yeah. I picked four that were like, I, I feel like these are the four I would, I would have to replace. Um, I didn't go for any sentimental value personally.

Brad: All right. So, yeah, I went with three, but I think the list is probably five, but I actually want to have a discussion about trying to answer this question. Right. And I think it's a good question. And then I was thinking about, okay, what are the most important pens for me to, if I didn't, if I no longer had them, what pen do I want to use tomorrow? And it's number one, well, in no particular order, the Namiki Yukari Milky Way. That's like just kind of my favorite, just writing pen. Like if I could have one pen that I knew could do a little bit of everything. And on top of that, it's stunning to look at, stunning artwork, stunning everything. Great nib. Um, that one I would look to replace. The second one would be a Pilot Murex because it's, it's kind of the opposite of the Milky Way, not just in price, but in aesthetic, right? It's cold steel and, you know, industrial looking where the Milky Way is just artistic and beautiful. But I just love the feel and the writing of the Murex. So I would, I would instantly add a Murex back into my collection. The third one I wrote down is I would commission Jonathan Brooks to make me another Lamy Safari. He'd probably turn it down after the difficulties of the first ones. But I kind of want that pen because I, I, you know, love safaris. I love the idea.

Myke: I use it all the time. I love it.

Brad: It's just kind of a great pen. And then what I couldn't decide was my Nakaya Aotamanuri. I love that pen. I love the nib most of all. So I could, like, I wouldn't be dead set on getting that exact barrel shape and color because there are a lot of Nakaya options that I would be just as happy with as that one. So I don't have, I have the sentimentality with that pen that it was like, okay, this was my first, like, really big purchase and my first Nakaya. But I could replicate that even if it wasn't the same, you know, green, black tone, you know, the same setup and, and things like that. Like, I think I could just get a Nakaya with a amazing nib that I like on it. So I didn't put that down, like, in the specific words. And the other one that falls in that category would be my King of Pen Sky. I, again, my first King of Pen, you know, like, it's got great stories attached to it. But, like, I could get another different King of Pen and still kind of have that, that feeling. I think I would be okay with that. So does that make sense? So I had those, like, three definitive ones where the first ones that I would go out and try to replace immediately. And then, like, yeah, I'd want another King of Pen. And, yeah, I'd want another Nakaya. But they didn't have to be the exact specific one that I was replacing. I could go with, you know, a newer model or a different model and be just as content. But, like, the three that I listed, I would definitely want replaced as is.

Myke: Yeah, I kind of went with, by and large, stuff that I could buy and things that don't have that kind of sentimentality to them. So I don't have any, like, you know, like, I agree with the Brooks Arushi, but that was a one-off. Like, it's not going to happen again. Like, I can't buy it. And the same with, like, some pens that where I feel like I've picked them, you know, like my Canalea pens or whatever. I feel like they are the ones that I chose. And so I went with a selection of pens that, by and large, I can buy. And they represent, like, the spectrum of stuff that I enjoy. So the first is the Pilot M90. This would be the hardest, right? Because they don't make this pen. I would have to find this somewhere else. This is the one that I feel like I'm least likely to be able to get my hands on. But I consider it to be one of the greatest fountain pens ever made. So I would be super upset if I couldn't get another one of these. I would want a 1911 King of Pen. I would ideally like my Tangerine, but I would take another color. Really, I've just, I want a King of Pen. And I think the 1911 is my favorite King of Pen shape out of that and the Pro Gear. I think I prefer the 1911 because it's the maximum King of Pen. It's like, you know, before you start going into the Ebonites. But I'm not really interested in those so much. The Pro Gear Japan Steel. So this is the one with the little, like, hand-hit exterior. I just think it's fantastic.

Brad: This one surprised me.

Myke: I love this pen so much, Brad. I adore it. It's one of my top, like, five. And it really, for me, it was like, I want a Pro Gear. If I was going to have any Pro Gear, which one would it be? Right? Like, that was the thinking for this. It's like, if I had to replace a Pro Gear, which Pro Gear do I want the most? And it's that one. And then my Platinum 3776 Galaxy Starlight. Because it's a beautiful pen and I would want to have a Platinum in that list.

Brad: Yep.

Brad: We definitely thought along the same lines. It's, you know, there's some definitives. Like, okay, I want, like, a one-to-one relationship exact thing. You know, like, in the case of the Murex and the M90. You know, then you want, like you said, you want a Platinum in there. Or you want an Pro Gear in there.

Myke: If I'm re-bought, though, like, if I had to re-bought the Galaxy Starlight, I would get a broad nib rather than a medium. I have a medium nib on mine. And I have a broad nib on my Nicely Lass. And I prefer the broad nib to the medium.

Brad: Gotcha. That makes sense. I think that would be allowed under the rules.

Myke: I think so. It's my money. I'm buying them all again. I've had a heartbreaking scenario, which is mean that all my pens, my entire pen collection is unsalvageable. I'm doing whatever I want. Right. All right. Last question today comes from Michael. What type of design of furniture would make up your ideal queen of pens? Ebonite, like the king, or something else? So, of course, we just mentioned it, right? I don't really think of it in this way, but it is king of pen, right? Like, it's a particular thing. And this isn't in an attempt to gender pens, king, queen, for me. But I would want to make a truly fantastic pocket pen as the direct opposite to the king of pen, which is big and oversized. I would want to make something beautiful and undersized as the counter to what the king of pen is about, you know?

Brad: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's interesting. I didn't think of it that way. That makes sense. It's the route I went is I want an ebonite piston filler or, at a minimum, a good Japanese eyedropper. No cartridge converter in these thousands of dollars worth of pens, right?

Myke: Yeah.

Brad: It's like, I'm very pro-cartridge converter, but there is a point where you do question going, hey, these king of pens are very large and can hold a lot of additional internal mechanisms. What would a piston or an eyedropper big ebonite pen look like from Sailor? And that would kind of be my one option.

Brad: And I would probably do it, like, clipless, like some of these, some of the ebonite ones. Like, I would really want them to be shown off without any external furniture but have internal hardware to get rid of the cartridge converter system. That would be my ideal.

Myke: If you would like to send in a question for us to answer on the show, you can send out a tweet with the hashtag AskTPA. If you're a RelayFM member, you can use question mark AskTPA in the RelayFM members Discord, or you can send them over email to hello at penaddict.com. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to penaddict.com, noc.co, spokedesign.com. And Brad streams very frequently, obviously not while he's on vacation, at twitch.tv slash penaddict. Will you be back next week for streaming?

Brad: Definitely. Full schedule next week.

Myke: Awesome. Brad is penaddict on Instagram, and he's dowdyism on Twitter, and Brad on micro.blog. We've learned today as well. We'll work on that. We'll work on that. A little bit more confusing for me. I'm I-M-Y-K-E. Thank you to micro.blog, ExpressVPN, and hello for listening. For maybe to listen, but for supporting this week's episode. What I was thinking was, must remember to thank the listeners who've gotten this far through the show and offer our apologies again. And in a way, I can confirm to you this is never going to happen again, because now every time Brad travels, I will say, Brad, don't forget your microphone. That's what's going to happen forever. Even though now, Brad will never forget his microphone, because he will always remember the fact of the time when he forgot his microphone. He will now have me saying, hey, Brad, don't forget your microphone. So thanks so much for listening to this week's episode of The Pen Addict, and we'll be back next time. Say goodbye, Brad.

Brad: Goodbye, Brad.