The Pen Addict 694/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 694 |
| Title: | Orange Is the Worst |
| Release Date: | December 4th, 2025 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | No guests this episode |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 694 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 694 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 694 |
| Length: | 5656 min <br />0.933 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 694. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Enigma Stationery. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. Hello Myke Hurley, how are you? I'm good, we're into December. We've got, I think, three episodes left this year. Unbelievable stuff. Like, I, yeah, I don't even want to talk about time. It's like, I don't understand it. I don't know where the days have gone. So yeah, like we got like three more episodes this year. Is that right?
Yeah, we're taking Christmas week off as we, as we do except every time except that one time when we were going to line up. What was it like? The 10th anniversary in the 500 show or something? Yeah, yeah. Something like that. It was episode 500 so we could line up almost like an exact date type of thing. So. But yeah, set us here a advance notification that we will be off the week of Christmas. Yes, yeah, yeah. I think the episode would otherwise be out on Christmas Day, which seems a bit extreme.
Yeah, a little extreme, a little extreme. I mean, it's like, I'd do it. We could make it happen somehow, but yeah. No, thank you. Last week's episode, Mike, was our gift guide, which is always a pleasure. Thank you, Anna, for joining me and putting this together. Everyone always enjoys this. Always love seeing the feedback on that and just cutting it up with Anna is always fun. So yeah, if y'all haven't checked that out, go listen. It was, it was, it was okay for my wallet, but like right after that, I was like, oh, maybe like, maybe it's not okay for my wallet.
And then I've added a couple of Brad's extra gift guide links here later in this episode because I keep seeing things. It's a, it's a weird time to be a stationery lover, which we're going to talk about here in a minute. And in that it's like, well, let's get into it. Let's get into it. I was going to, I was just going to beat around the bush. I was just going to say about last week's episode. So obviously this is always a stuff show, but the gift guide episode, it's the stuffiest of stuff, right? It's just like all stuff.
Yeah. But the one thing that I found really funny about the episode is you still could not, not talk about top five lists. Yeah. It's like in the gift guide, you're still like, all right, so let's talk about some lists. Yeah. It's the plague. It's, it's the plague that keeps coming. And I just realized today, I never put the 200 to 500 list live on the page. So I got to go correct that. It's still on the old, we've talked about it like twice now and it's still on the old, old data. So now, now we've spoken about it here. Toptober continues into December.
Well, it does. Do you know why, Mike? No, tell me why. Because everyone is changing their prices. Oh, no. He sets the lists and they're like, gotcha, Brad. Here we go. Yep. And that changes things. I had thought of that. Like, obviously I can see what we're going to talk about. It did not pop into my head that now it's just upended the entire lists. Oh, incredible. Toptober forever, baby. Because since it's not a personal preferences list, that can be like price excluded, right? This is a recommendations list. So now, and recommendations, price plays a huge part in making general recommendations.
And all of the big three Japanese makers have just thrown my list into Tormorol, literally, like as of this week. So let's get into a few of these. This is kind of a discussion in totality, but each of them have done it a different way. Okay. And by the end, we'll talk a little bit broader about, you know, the overall state of the union because things have gone crazy. And platinum is the biggest one that has really just kind of, seeing platinum's recent increase, which is 40%, they just did a 40% increase.
Average, like ballpark 40% increase. Let's just say the platinum 3776, their most popular pin, that one got a 40% increase looking at the chart that's on their page. So it's around that for like their gold nib pens. And this is the, this is a materials price change, right? A raw rare earth materials. We've talked about this for years now, that gold is just going through the roof. And these companies who have a lot of gold nib pens that are very, very popular are bearing the brunt of it. And I just have a lot of questions on how platinum has handled it as a company, because this is their second 40% increase within the span of six or seven months.
So yeah. So they, yeah. So they just came out with a 40% increase December 1st. So like within like a few days, I think it was December 1st. I'd have to look at the press release. What was that one for? So this was, this was a broad materials increase, materials cost of production. Okay. But I didn't realize it was only back in like June or July that their first increase hit and it was 40%. So they went from like the, and again, I'm just like using the platinum 3776 as like the measurement here. It went from like $180 pen to like a $240 pen.
But like to your memory, what was the reason for the first increase? Same. Same materials. So it just cost the materials each time? Mm-hmm. Yeah. 40%? Twice. Yeah. So I don't know what that's. I'm not doubting them, right? But like, blimey. Yep. So it's gone from $180 to $240 to now $300 in the span of six to seven months for the platinum 3776. I'll be like, you know how much I love this pen. Longtime listeners know how much I love this pen. That's a problem now at $300. Like that's a problem for where the market is, right?
And I don't want to blame it. Obviously, I can't blame platinum for this, right? It's like rare materials are a thing. But they, like, I don't know what kind of mismanagement they had to like miss the initial increase. Like they sat on it for a while, I guess, to the benefit of the consumer. But like, it just seems like a crazy thing to do run to 40% increases in the span of the same calendar year is it makes you just wonder like what else is going on besides cost of material. So I don't know. I have noticed, and we mentioned it two episodes ago, that they, platinum has absolutely unloaded on special editions, right?
Where they were pretty limited on who they'd work with and what pens they would make. Everyone in Japan, all the Japanese stores have a special edition now, right? And that's a change in business model where before it'd be pretty rare. They would do it, and you'd see like a one or two, you know, store special edition platinums, 3776s, you know, different colors, different things. Now they've just gone full sailor in the Japanese market where everyone gets a platinum 3776 now, which is kind of telling, right?
It's like they're telling on themselves. Well, talk me through that. Why is that? Because they need money. They need to sell pens. Okay. Like they, it was like where before the answer had always been no, no, no, no, no. Oh, look. Okay. Well, we need to sell some more pens. So yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Because the thing that stuck me is like if it's more expensive to make the pens, why would they work with more people? But it's, they're just like, I guess there's an element of like contractual obligation and stuff like that as ways to sell pens rather than just like what can they make and market themselves.
And they, and it will be cheaper for them overall to produce the product if they're not responsible for all of the marketing that's related and selling it, I guess. Yeah. So I've never seen so many like special platinum editions before. Could we get platinum now? Yeah, right. Could we make one? I was like, well, I don't, well, then I'd have to sell, so these special editions, that's going to be $400, Mike, not $300, right? Oh, jeez. You know, because we're just going to make a hundred of those. So that's going to be actually be $450.
No, I haven't looked at all the prices, but they're not going to be the, the $37.76 that's now going to be like $300 is just your basic blue, green, red, you know, the stock ones. Yeah. So what's interesting is a few months ago. It's just like orange though, like an orange though. I know. $37.76. They've done one. No, but we could do it, you know? We just have to mortgage our homes.
I know. Well, I don't know. We could do like a hundred of them. Like I could figure out a way to do a hundred. It's not like I need a thousand of them. I mean, speak for yourself. So $450 a pop. Let's do it. Oh, boy.
So we're starting, like all of these things that have happened in the past few months are starting to like make a little bit more sense because the one pin we haven't talked about that Platinum launched maybe two months ago, or at least I first started seeing it like two months ago. It's called the Platinum Beso. And it was so uninteresting and mispriced to me, but now it's making sense. And in the totality of this conversation and in the conversation we've been having over the past few months, we'll tie it all together here.
Like when we talk about Pilot in a minute. They're filling in the gaps that are becoming just so large between the steel nib pens and the gold nib pens. So now they have the Platinum Beso, which I think is just like the most basic pen ever. I actually, this is a weird thing. I hate this pen.
I wasn't going to go that strong. I don't hate it. I do. It's just unnecessary. I find this pen unnecessary. The design is so bad, Brad. Like this gives me visionary vibes. Tell everyone how much it is. Tell everyone how much it is. Well, for me, I can see it on Goldspot, it was £122. Yeah, so $160 USD. $160.
That's a problem. Like I, it's like I'm going to have to like rethink everything I've ever learned over the past decade plus 15 years, 20 years, however long I've been doing this. That this is what they would put in this spot. Like, okay, make a $160 pen, but put some effort into it. What this reminds me of is there was a thing, I don't know if it still is the case, but it was at least a few years ago, that in Europe, if you were a car maker, you had to have like an average of, like your vehicles had to have an average of emissions.
So like the whole range that you offered had to meet an average and they were like, oh, okay, sure. If you didn't. So companies like Aston Martin were like rebranding smart cars and putting the Aston Martin logo on them. Sure. So they would get the range that they wanted. And it's just a, I don't know, that is just what I went to because it was like, it's like a, just like Aston Martin Signet is the product that they did. And they basically just took like a smart car and put an Aston Martin logo on it.
And they do it, they did this so they could hit an emissions point. But Platinum are doing this to just hit a price point. Right. And it's just like an uninspiring product. Like if you have to do this or you feel like you need to do this, do it in a way that is at least well considered and thought out. Like give me something that's all acrylic, like plastic, if that makes it cheaper for you or what, like do something fun. But make it look cool. Yeah. Yeah. The only thing, they did a couple of like what we would consider fun colors.
Like they have some bright, like the purple and the green. Sure. But like it's $160. Yeah. And they're just trying to fill this gaping hole that they have now from like the Platinum Playsier. They have like a $50 steel nib pen that I actually personally don't think it's that great. I think their $20 pens are better. And then you go to the Platinum 3776. So they're trying to fill this gap. And they've done it in the past with like the faux Maquiez like sticker type pens, which I actually, I didn't, I didn't mind those.
Those were like in the mid hundreds. Those were actually pretty good. Yeah. Um, and they had some style to it. Like you could at least get a pen that's similar to this Biso, but it's like, oh, well, it has like Mount Fuji or whatever, you know, Japanese art representations on it. And like, it's fine. Like, it's fine. It was a good pen. And, you know, Platinum Steel nibs are great. But like the price points we're having now and the discrepancies between steel nib and gold nibs are just running. It's running wild.
And I, I'm not fully blaming these, these, um, these manufacturers, right? They have to absorb these costs. There there's, I'm, I'm complaining that they're stuck. Like they're getting stuck by this and they weren't ahead of what I think is going to be almost like a reset of the market. Um, and filling in the gaps. Um, I'll give some, some credit to one of these companies here in a minute. Um, but not before we talk about pilot. So that's Platinum's price change. Pilot made this announcement earlier in the year, but a lot of the changes aren't coming to fruition until like January 1st, 2020, 2026.
So like 15%, um, increase across the line. And, you know, I was looking into this and that, that press release was back earlier in the summer, but saying that somewhere, or actually it was earlier. It might've been in the spring saying that we have a few increases now, and then the other ones are going to hit in beginning of 2026. And it was going to be like, you know, some 15% increases, you know, which that's more in line with what we've expected over the past years. But I guess like Platinum, you know, back to them, they, they just got really, really caught out in this, in this gold price increase.
They weren't ahead of that where like maybe Platinum, excuse me, Pilot has maybe done like 15% every year for four years. I don't know. I haven't gone back and looked, but you know, it's at least more palatable to the end consumer. Um, but as I was looking through their PR and looking through the releases of like the price increases and stuff, I, I would wanted to bring back the Pilot NS, which is the pin that confused me like a month ago, a few weeks ago. This is again, it's the Platinum Biso all over again, where Pilot is trying to fill this gap for a hundred, $110 steel nib.
And we're seeing this, you know, now with Platinum and Pilot doing the, hitting this price point with a steel nib. When historically they kind of avoided this price point because let's take the Platinum 3776, I could get it for $180. Why do I need the Biso for 160, right? Or with the Pilot, you know, I don't need the $110 Pilot NS. I could get the, the 74 for 140 to $160 maybe, you know, so there was no need for these products. So you're seeing them backfill these areas and they're getting kind of stuck.
And the problem with Pilot and Platinum in this case is that they've done the best job of anyone at the low end, right? Their quality from the $5 Preppy to the $25 Metropolitan beats the pants off of everybody, right? Like it's a, it's a self-inflicted wound that they did so good on the low end that now that they've had this huge, huge catalog gap because of pricing increases, they're now having to tell you that the Pilot NS is actually worth $110 when you could just get a Metropolitan for 30 bucks, right?
Like how are, how are they going to market this to the consumer and not have confusion in like what we're actually doing here? And that's why they're introducing brand new product lines, right? They're saying, well, that's not this pen. And so we have to make this pen for these reasons and it's going to be this price where like, you know, they're, they're sitting here watching the Metropolitan and the Kakuno just boat race the, like the Pilot NS. Like there's no way that's going to outsell any of those pens, right?
Not even close. So it's interesting to see how these manufacturers are handling it. Um, and it's, it's pretty glaring at this point, what's happening. Um, and I, I don't know what to think about it overall because these pens just aren't the value that the lower end pens are. And we're starting to run out of value on the high end too, because of the price of materials. So it's interesting, but Mike, wait, there's more. No, wait, there's more. So sailor might have done the most sailor thing ever. And I'm still trying to wrap my head around this.
And this is pretty much so platinum and pilot have taken just raw price increase, right? They're just saying, Hey, price of gold has gone up. Our product staying the same. We're increasing the price. Sailor has gone the shrinkflation model to where they're taking the 1911. And there's, I have a couple of assumptions here in this, because it's very, very strange how they've implemented this. They're taking the, let's take the 1911. Okay. So the 1911 historically has been two models. The 1911 S, which is smaller and it has a 14 carat gold nib.
And then the 1911 L for large, and it has a 21 carat gold nib. They're now introducing Mike, the 1911, no letter. I wasn't going to follow up with any letter there. And the 1911 is going to have two material nib options, a 14 carat gold nib and an 18 carat gold nib.
And I don't understand where this sits. I don't have the price. They didn't have the price on sailor's page. They have the links to the products. And this is going to be a core product, which sailor has historically not done core products. Well, right. They're all edition pins all the time where pilot, you have the 74 and the 912 and platinum. You have the 3776 and like proper product line. Sailor has always had the pro gear in the 1911, but they've never had like the stock edition, at least very infrequently.
They might do like a black and gold trim. Now they're saying we're going to have the 1911, no lettering, in black, blue, red, and green, gold trim. And you can choose a 14K nib or an 18K nib. There's no more. I don't know that there's no more S and L sizes. I don't know. I'm a little bit confused. They didn't go far enough. This one is the large? It looks like they're saying this is the large size. So currently. Pin. Barrel. The large, or this version of the large, these colors. Mm-hmm. You can get it in a 14K nib, which I guess is now bigger, right?
Because the 1911 L is a bigger pin. It has a bigger nib. You can get that nib in this pin and your choice of price point, aka 14K or 18K. No more 21K. I am kind of dumbfounded in this set. How are they describing this to retailers? I'm very confused. Because this is pretty new information. This just came out this week. And I tried. No retailers have them in stock now to where I could see. But like, Sailor lists two separate products for an 18K and a 14K of the exact same pin. And there's no additional nomenclature.
There's no additional descriptor. There's no S or L sizes. You get the 1911 in one of four colors in your choice of 14K or 18K. And do we know what the price is on these? We don't. Because they were not at retailers yet. And Sailor, like on the product pages, and I'm looking at sailor.co.jp, they say go to the retailer to see the price. Yeah. And I couldn't find any retailer with it. And it's impossible to search, right? Because all the 1911s historically have been the S and the L. And it's just flooded the search.
I can't break down a search much further. I was just manually going through websites in Europe, websites in the U.S., everywhere I could figure out. I couldn't find a final price on this. So I don't know what the price is. And, like I say, it's shrinkflation because they're removing, like, the 21K nib and calling it something different and probably charging more for that. So 21K is gone. Yeah. And it's been replaced by 14 and 18. Okay. I missed the 21 part. Like, I figured the shrinkflation part was the, like, oh, you can, you know, it starts at 14 now.
And it's probably a similar price. So the S was 14K and the L was 21. Okay. Just like the Pro Gear. Pro Gear Slim 14. Pro Gear, whatever it's called, the large one. I always forget. I think it's just called the Pro Gear 21K. So small was always 14K. Big was always 21K. Right. So now we're introducing the 18K. And I don't know if we're getting rid of, I don't know what the specialty models are going to be. Um, so, like, this is such a typical Sailor thing. Sailor is, like, so confusing in their product lines.
It's crazy. Um, like I said, Platinum and Pilot are just going with, like, straight up price increases. This is, like, reshuffling the deck and, like, telling you, like, you know, just, like, it's like a shell game. Right? You know, find the nib under the cup. And it's, like, what are you going to get? I don't know. I mean, my thinking on this is, like, if the pricing, if the pricing is similar, I can see why they've done this.
Mm-hmm. Right? Because it's, like, what are we going to do? Put the price up? You know what I mean? Like, what we've just been talking about with Pilot. Like, we just keep, yeah, Pilot and Platinum. We just keep putting the price up, price up, price up. Yeah. Where they've decided to go the route of, no, let's make the entry cheaper. And it's still. Yeah. And the way that they're describing it, at least on Instagram, is, like, the 14-carat version gives you a firmer feel. Yeah. Hashtag marketing.
Yeah. But, look, you've got to do your best of it, though, right? Yeah. I agree. I'm not discounting it. I think something that is worth kind of underscoring in this conversation is we're not saying anyone is bad here. No. Not at all. They're stuck. This is all they can do. Yeah. You can't make a loss on these products. That kind of defeats the whole purpose. Yeah. They're in the business of making gold nib fountain pens, and they're completely stuck right now. Yeah. And, like, I feel for them. I'm not complaining.
This is 0% complaint. I understand what is happening. But, man, it is, as a consumer, right? Like, people that listen to the show, we're consumers. Yeah. And this is just brutal stuff. But, like, I can't imagine, like, from a corporate perspective either, like, they're just getting crushed on materials, right? This is a luxury item. Yeah. And it's just getting run roughshod by these material increases. And, like, Platinum is the one that scares me the most with their aggression in 2025 on having to be so aggressive on the pricing.
That, like, scares me for them as a brand. I don't know what's happening there. Yeah. Like, it's pretty interesting to watch over the next few years and see. Yeah. But, like, we're not going to get into more of this conversation today. This is enough. And it's so confusing. And it all just kind of happened, you know, pretty close together is where does this leave us as consumers, right? What is the focus of us as the total, like, as the fountain pen consumer as far as, like, price brackets and getting people into the hobby and interest in, you know?
Like, as these prices go up, you know, the value of our money goes down, right? So it's like a double-edged sword in the hobby that is not, you know, this is not a necessity that we're talking about here, right? You know, no one has to have a fountain pen. And the prices are going up. And our spending ability is going down. Where does that leave everybody? Like, you know, I mean, I have an opinion on this, but we'll save that for another show. So I think it's pretty clear how things have been tracking over the last couple of years.
What has been at the top of my mind and at the top of consumers' mind, it's smaller, more personal stuff, right? And it feels like, I mean, I don't know how this is achieved, but somebody needs to come up with another material to make nibs out of. Yeah. That will give a good experience. I know it sounds insane, but, like, this is like chocolate producers, right? They're having to find different ways because cocoa is not as plentiful as it used to be. Yeah. Yeah. And just to your point, steel nib pricing has gone up as well, right?
Steel's not, you know, steel is, a lot of steels are made from a lot of different metals and, you know, getting these nibs manufactured, you know, the cost of that is going up as well. It's just like, you know, a lower total cost. So we don't see it as much. But like, if a raw Yovo. The cost of everything goes up over time. But this is, this is out of step of inflation. Right. Like, if a raw Yovo nib unit goes, I'm talking from a cost perspective to a maker from $15 to $18, that's actually a huge percentage increase, right?
That's a 30% increase. We just don't see it that way because it's $3, like, to the manufacturer. But then that gets extrapolated into the end product to the consumer. And then, you know, it's, it's, yeah, we're, we're in a, we're in a spot right now. So it'd be interesting to continue to track. Like, there's still lots of good deals out there. And I'm not even saying that to segue into our sponsor. But like, I do think it's an overall rethinking of where we're at as a hobby and as consumers. And I think retailers are going to have to, like, think about these things a little bit different too.
Like, the whole supply chain is going to have to think about this different all the way from the big manufacturers like a pilot all the way down to, you know, us on a podcast talking about the things we like. So, you know, let's, let's go see what our friends at Pen Chalet have. Because honestly, they do a really good job at giving us deals, right, to help spread this around. And I'm not just being like, like, totally selling out here. But like, you have to understand where your vendors are that are going to take care of you as a consumer.
Like, because you're going to keep buying ink, probably. You're going to keep buying pens, probably. And you keep buying paper. And when you have someone like Pen Chalet that is looking out and seeing what's out there and doing cool things like they do with us on the podcast. Let's, let's tell everyone about them, Mike. Yeah, I want to, you know, let everyone know that they've got a bunch of stuff going on, right? They've got their, like, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Cyber Week. Sales are still happening over at Pen Chalet.
So you can go and check those out. Like, we'll talk about some of the things that we will be able to offer you, right, because you listen to this show. But there's lots of deals going on over at Pen Chalet right now. So make sure that you go and check those out. Because Pen Chalet have got all of the products that you need from all of your favorite brands. Whether you're looking for a new fountain pen, a new rollerball, a new mechanical pencil, or ballpoint, or more, they have got it for you. They run special discounts twice a month.
Clothes up specials every two weeks. So there's always a reason to come back and check out Pen Chalet. Not just during this, like, deals time of the year. They've always got great prices on new products because they're adding new stuff every single month. Pen Chalet, as well as selling pens and as well as selling inks and all that kind of stuff, you'll get some accessories, too. Whether you want carrying cases, pen holders, converters, and so much more, they have got it for you. Pen Chalet do free shipping on orders of over $75 in the U.S.
And they sell internationally with great shipping rates, too. Pen Chalet has low prices on high-quality pens, and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to penshalet.com slash penaddict right now, and you'll get a code that you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet and to see some exclusive offers because you listen to this show. You mentioned accessories, and I want to talk about one thing they have on here that we almost never talk about. And I actually have a couple of them, and I don't use them.
They have some brass seal handles available. And if you have a stationery lover in your life and you don't know what to buy them, any type of letter-writing accessory that they can use to add to their collection, right? If they're writing letters, they're probably pretty good on pen and pretty good on ink. You could maybe try some paper, but then, you know, Mike, you could go and seal that envelope with a wax seal. That's just fun. That's just fun to do. So this is something you, like, you sneak in as a small gift.
They're pretty inexpensive. Like, just the handles here are, you know, like, under $10. And then you can buy particular different, like, wax seals. Like, the actual stamp, you can get, you know, a letter, like, a last name. You know, you can get, like, the letter, or you can get, like, different designs that might, you know, speak to the person you're gift-giving to. Like, Mike, we're getting inundated with one of Apple's ads this year where they have the two twins, and one is the unicorn and one is the goth.
Like, you can get the unicorn or you can get the skull. You can really pick out your type, your flavor for these type of gifts as opposed to, like, a pen. Like, you know, you might, like, style a pen a certain way, but, like, you can really get down into the weeds in, like, these wax seals and wax handles. So Pen Chalet has this stuff to take care of you. And then you can just mix in a bunch of ink samples. Like, they are going off on their ink samples on our page. Yeah. Let me find some of the good ones here that I like.
Oh, okay. If y'all haven't tried Roaring Clingner, any ink color by Roaring Clingner. They are the most underrated ink brand out there on the market. They're never going to make my top five just because of volume, right? They're just not widely available. And then secondly, the Lamy Crystal inks. Those are actually really, really good and proven to be really popular. Lamy did a good job with those. And I wish they would actually do more. So those are probably two ink brands that a lot of people haven't tried.
And there are some really good opportunities to check out these samples here over at Pen Chalet.com. So that is at P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com slash Pen Addict. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for their continued support of this show and Relay. All right, Mike. We got our shout out of the week. Shout out of the week. Speaking of inks, it is ink vent season, Mike. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's happening. It is happening. It is on. Oh, I saw some good stuff. Oh, I didn't add it to the sheet today because it just happened this morning.
But it's hard. I don't want to, like, all of my friends are doing this. So, like, I couldn't link to everyone. So I chose, I picked Cheryl Lindo Jones, who we've had on shout out of the week before for doing a bunch of ink stuff. They're doing, and there's a few other people. I know Ink Apothecarian is doing this as well, where they're doing each of the three main ink, ink vents, right? So Diamine is the OG. Colorverse is a newcomer. And then the Enigma, which is, like, a collaborative, you know, really kind of a neat way to add in
different brands into all of these inks. So what Cheryl is doing is every day, every ink vent day is showing the samples from each of the three main ink vents, if you will. So it's really cool to see. I just happened to notice that on day four, which is today, there is a very controversial one to bring up. I got to pull this up here, Mike. So I'm going to vamp for a second.
I haven't had, like, to see the samples yet, but where is it? It's Diamine's Day Four is Scented, and it's called, like, Tobacco Smoke. Whoa. Yeah. Whoa. Every year there's a controversial ink choice, whether it's color or just something weird. It's literally called, let me get this right. Here it is.
Smokey Tobacco. Smokey Tobacco. It's a Scented Ink. What are we doing, Diamine? Why is that the scent we've chosen? No, but here's the question. Does it smell like tobacco, or does it smell like smoked tobacco? Yeah. You know what I mean? Yes. The conversation I'm following, they cannot decide what it smells like. Well, that doesn't make any sense. Why can't they decide? Who can't decide? Like, it is not clear. So, I don't know why Diamine specifically hasn't learned from years past. Last year's Scented Inks were the worst inks in the kit because they just didn't work, right?
Regardless of whether you like the scent or not, it just bled. Like, the different additives you have to put in these inks makes them bleed and feather on the page, right? It's just regardless of what you think about the color, the scent, it just functionally doesn't work. So, yeah. This is... So, I only have the links so far for Cheryl's 1, 2, and 3 days, but day 4, look out, baby. Day 4 is about to pop off on the ink vent, at least on the Diamine side. But I will say, some of these inks look really awesome.
Like, they started strong on days 1, 2, and 3. I haven't seen the rest of day 4 yet, which is the day we're recording this. I love ink vent season. So, we won't follow this up every week, but at the end, there's a few people that will choose, like, the best and the worst. I always look forward to that at the end of ink vent season. Feel free to share with me the controversial ones. I want to know. Yeah, so, that's today. Today, it's on. I just don't understand how... Two things. I don't understand, one, why you choose this, and two, why people can't decide.
I don't understand what it smells like. I mean, I don't... They are very different smelling things. Yeah, and, like, what holiday tradition are we representing here? I... You know, the holiday tradition of lighting up a fat one. I don't know.
Let's roll one out for the holidays, baby. Jesus, what are we doing? Yeah, as chat... Do you think it's like they make it by accident, and then they're like, oh, that smells like this? You know what I mean? I don't know. I don't know. Like, trying to fit it in. Well, they did... So, last year's controversial one, I don't have the name up, but they passed it off as a holiday drink, right? It was like some lemon... It was some lemon thing, and it was just really bad. This was like a long thing that we had where it turned out that there was a reason.
Yeah. Right? Yeah. So, hit us up with your smoky tobacco thoughts for InkVent. But this is why I love InkVent. Don't forget to leave your cigars out for Santa this year. Jeez. Jeez. This is why I love InkVent so much. Because, seriously, like, when day one came out, I was like, oh, these inks look so good. Everything looks fantastic. Then, like, day three, there was, like, Diamine did it, like, a super flat red pigmented ink that everyone's like, yeah, that's fine. But, like, in a group of 25 inks, you're going to have some hits, you're going to have some
misses. Like, yeah, flat red pigment in ink, whatever. People aren't going to use that. And then they drop this on us. Let's go. It's on. It's fully InkVent season now. I can't wait.
So, related to last week's gift guide, I wanted to add in a couple of items that I want. One I've already purchased, one I can't really purchase yet, or I'm holding off on. The Leuchtturm, Dregefell, which I'm a super fan of. I think, Mike, you're a pretty big fan of them as well. At least the pencil side. Yeah. Pencil side of the ledger. They did a neon edition. It's called the luminous edition with a collaborator in Hamburg. I'm not familiar with the Beth... Beth... How would you... How do you pronounce B-E-T-H-G-E?
Yep. Yeah. Okay. So... Yep. That's how I do it. These rule. These straight up rule. They've been out for like a week or two just on the German site, on Leuchtturm's .de site. So, you can get them. I can get them if I wanted to import them and be... You know, take that risk. So, I'm just waiting. I'm holding off on this one. But I'm so far in on these. I love my fluorescent pens. There's an orange one. All the colors look good. I actually... Hot take. I think the orange is the worst looking one. Yes.
I like the yellow and the green. I mean, because they are like the real luminescence. I don't even know how luminescent the orange would be compared to the others. Yeah. I was bummed that they didn't do this in the pencil, Brad. I was ready to buy it. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, I'll still get the orange, but, like, I might have to get, like, the green one or something to just, like, you know, get a real fluorescent one. But, yeah. So, those are cool that came across. When I was on the website looking to see if they made a pencil version of this, I found another pen version called the gradient edition, which is also really good looking.
Yeah. That's one of those ones I saw past my desk, and I was just like, well, like, this is the, you know, the sailorification of all the products. Like, we would just do all the things all the time. This pen, though, I agree, though. And I was like, this is cool. I'll just keep going. Like, this is such a good looking pen. It is. And it's so unique. Why not just do a bunch of colors? Yeah. I agree. I'm happy. Yeah. Like, I personally like it, so I'm okay with it, right? Everyone else can hate it.
And it's a Red Dot Design Award winner, of course. Oh, Lord. Oh, don't get me started. It's a Red Dot. It's won it twice, in fact. But this Luminous Edition, it's 30 euro. Like, that's a premium to their regular lineup. It's pretty expensive. Like, these pens are, I mean, they're kind of not, they're not 30 euro pens, to be honest. The pencil, I will pay 30 euros for. Like, it's such a good mechanical pencil. I'm such a fan of it. Because it just feels nice. It's super light, and it looks fantastic.
Yeah. And the mechanism is great. Just that little flip to, like, it's real snappy. It's just such a great product. Great product. I love this. I'm also a bag man, Mike. And I actually bought a tote this morning. I did buy this one. So, this is a Dome Paper collaboration with a company out of Memphis, Mike. Oh. Which, might have to make a visit there one of these years. Farther Bag Co., which is new to me. I love a good tote. And this one's blue with an orange liner. And it's very stationery focused with, like, the pockets, like, the exterior pockets.
It's like, I think I've bought pretty much every Dome Paper bag that Chad has ever designed. Like, I have a Topo Mountain backpack that he did. I have a couple of pencil cases, like, a denim pencil case and a black canvas denim pencil case. Like, I don't know. I think Chad and I's design eye lines up, like, almost, like, one-to-one. So, like, this was an InstaBuy for me. Plus, like, you know, not sponsored. No free ads, Mike. But Chad's running, like, 20% off. Like, I jammed the buy button. So, that was on me.
So, that was my little extra gifts for myself this year. One of these days, I'll get the Luminous Edition. We'll figure out how to get that one. You know, maybe I'll just... I just sent this company to Steven. Yeah, okay, cool. They make bike bags. That's their thing. Nice. And he's a bike bag guy. Or bike guy. I don't know if he has bags on his bikes. Probably not because it has mountain biking. But, nevertheless, they don't just make that. But, like, that is their thing. Yeah, yeah. But reading their details, it's all, like, made there in-house.
Like, you know, every one-by-one by the unit. So, cool stuff I've added to my list this year. Where else can people add to their stationery list, Mike? He's such a pro, man. He's such a pro. Our friends at Enigma Stationery offer unique items made from in-house designs, along with top brands and hard-to-find imports. If you're working on holiday shopping for the stationery lovers in your life, Enigma just loaded their latest shipment of new imports, including stamps, stickers, and even a fish-shaped pen case.
Orders placed by December 15th can be shipped to arrive in time for Christmas. If you're worried about holiday shipping shenanigans, gift cards are also available, too. Tell me about that, Mike.
Hey, it happens. And even if you aren't shopping now, be sure to join Enigma's stationery mailing list for exclusive previews of new items coming soon, including their 2026 Lucky Boxes coming in January. Last year, I basically filled Adina's stocking with stuff that I bought from Enigma, and it worked down really well. It was a good time. Lots of fun, weird pencil cases shaped like the various animals. A plushy plant. Loads of good stuff. Just like fun, weird stuff. So they've got loads of great things over at Enigma.
And you can get all your stationery-related gifts right there. If you want free US shipping on orders of $50 or more, plus a free gift, go to enigmastationery.com slash penaddict and use penaddict25 at checkout. That is enigmastationery.com slash penaddict to get a free gift and free US shipping on orders of $50 or more with the code penaddict25. Our thanks to Enigma Stationery for their support of this show and all of Relay. You know, as a fish-shaped pen case connoisseur myself, I had to go run and see.
I was like, is this the one that I already own or have owned? And no, this is not one I've ever seen before. And this fish pouch, what it does differently, mine before, we're going to have a whole fish pouch pen case discussion. My previous one opened behind the head and in front of the fin on the back, right? Right. This one opens at the mouth. That's where it's supposed to open. That is the right spot, yes. I would agree with that. This is the correct location for a fish pen pouch. Open at the mouth.
What are we doing? Yeah, what are we doing? What was I thinking in that other case? Jamming the pens and pencils through the back, through the spine. No, open the mouth, put in the pens, close the mouth. Zip it up. Yeah, come on. What are we talking about? So this is correctly done and now I am fully on mouth open fish pouch watch. So if you don't do it that way, what are you doing? I'm also busy flipping through everything else on their site. Like you said, the point I was going to bring up, all your stocking stuff was for your stationery friends.
This is one stop shopping. There's so much cool stuff here. It's endless. They're all here. Probably, yeah, probably get a fish pouch. I really like that they put brush on the store too. Like, why not? Yeah, 100%. You know what I mean? Like there's an overlap. Come on, let's be honest. Yeah, yeah, there is. Oh, 100%. I was, I just bought a tote. I was looking at some of their other, like they had like quilted like character totes. I was like, oh, these are pretty cool too. Like I literally just bought one that I don't have yet
and I was already looking at other stuff because they do such a good job curating that stuff. So, speaking of curation, Mike, I need to curate my travel for next year. Okay. Why can't London Spring be two days, Mike? I would really consider coming over and dragging you over to the London Spring Pen Show. Yeah, but like. But it's one day. I'm looking at this. Yeah, but. What if we did a table that was cortex slash spoke at the London Spring Pen Show? Oh, Brad. Now. It's like two suit. Like that's in like, it's in like three months.
Yeah, I don't know. That is so little time. I don't have the stock in this country. That's like two, two and a half months. I mean, I could get some. We should do that though. We should do that though. Because London Pen Show is on my list. So they have a, so go over to the well-appointed desk. Like Anna keeps the Pen Show schedule that we all use. So no pressure on her to get all these dates right. But like London Spring is March 1st. Like that's like in two and a half months. Yeah, that's pretty soon.
But that's really close. And it's one day. Yeah. And that's like a lot of travel for me for like a single day. But Brad. Maybe in the fall. London Orton. October 10th. London Orton. So that's going to be a problem. Yeah. We're going to. Well, no, no, no. It actually is. No, it is. It's going to be a problem for me. It's a problem for me too, but not impossible. Okay. Yeah. So you coming off of September and Relay. Yeah. And all things St. Jude. And you. Well, I haven't been officially invited. I don't assume things.
I don't assume things. So you never know. So, but that's a thing. But Mike, I'm going to get myself in trouble here if it doesn't come through. I have a tentative Japan fall trip that I'm going to plan around this year. It's not final. And it's not for tips, but it would just be a stationery. It would just be a trip for like me and my wife and some friends. So my friends, what my, I have local friends that go to Japan. And I don't know. They've probably been three or four times. They're like, why don't we want to go to Japan?
Do y'all want to come with us? Yeah. And they, they like know what to do. Like they know how to get around. They know how to do anything. They can speak a little bit of Japanese. And I'm like, I got Mary Beth to get the time off. So now we just got to plan it. So we'll know early next year, whether it's going to be the, the year of, of Japan travel for me. So I'm basing the rest of my year around that fact that I'm probably going to Japan in the fall. So that means I have to think about the rest of my schedule going into it.
Right. Like how hard can I go in August when there's the DC pen show, yes, take a stationery fest in San Francisco pen show all with three within four weeks. Right. Like two months before I'd be leaving for like an insanely expensive trip.
I, I, I'm, I'm, I don't know. So I'm trying to lay all this out under the context that I might be going to Japan in the fall. So I'm thinking about my shows and like London spring show, honestly, really jumps out at me. Uh, it's just something different. Again, I want to do the different stuff. I'm going to get back to Chicago. So I haven't been to the Chicago pen show and their new hotel. Um, and it's been a few years since I've been there in the U S there is so many stationery shows, non pen shows.
And this is honestly the big conversation that we'll have another day that goes back to our original topic. All the price increases. There's now like, I don't know, off the top of my head, six stationery shows in the U S in three years ago, there was, I'll say for all intents and purposes, zero, even though there were some minor stuff. It helped me understand the markets, the markets changing stationery show compared to pen show. What am I seeing? Yeah. Less, less fountain pens and things of that nature.
Right. Right. Less, less retail, more small maker, less retail. Like you'll get some pen makers there. Like you'll say, like they just announced like Jonathan Brooks, right? You're going to see that and they're going to have, they'll have distributor presence there too. But things like, um, little craft fest in Houston, which started last year, like that's on my list to go to Chicago, uh, stationery fest, you know, that's, uh, something they did last year. And that's going on this year. Um, Orlando's doing a stationery show.
The people who run the San Francisco pen show are doing a stationery focused show in March in opposite of the traditional pen show in August. You know, maybe does that like relieve some of the pressure that the pen show has, right? That's a, that's a max capacity pen show that's bursting at the seams. I really want to do your second stationery first. Yeah. Well, I mean, now's the time to start thinking about planning. Cause like I would do that with you. Like that's the right time of year. Like it's a beginning, late July, early August.
And does that enough gap for all the travel? So anyway, my whole point of this is like, yeah, I'm trying to make a puzzle now. Right. I'm trying to put together the puzzle pieces and I'd love to hear like everyone's feedback. Like I know everyone's going to say come to their, to their local show and I wish I could, but like, there's only X amount of shows I can do four or five, you know? Um, especially it's going to be especially hard for me this summer with all the, when all the big stuff happens to say no, if I'm going to Japan, it'll be easier.
But like, I'm trying to figure this stuff out now. Cause like I got hung out to dry at Washington DC. I had to buy a room at the alternate hotel. Now it worked out perfectly fine and I committed to it. But like these things, you know, take a little bit of planning and I feel like I'm already running behind. So, uh, I'd love to hear some feedback on y'all's plans, what you're trying to do and things like that. So there was, this was my, my point, uh, to say like, I don't have answers for exactly what my schedule is going to be yet, but now's the time where I have to figure it out.
Cause we're already like me and you both go, Oh, London, March 1st. That's really close. Like that's insanely close for like making plans. So anyway, uh, just pointing, pointing that out. If y'all have any ideas on pen show schedule, I'd love to hear them. Uh, but yeah, I'm going to start looking at the first half of the year here. Like I got to decide that like within the next week or two and start booking some things and making some plans. So looking forward to playing around with it. I would like to do your second.
Like I would very, I would very much like to do it. If I'm going to go to New York, yeah. Idina has to come too. Cause we love New York. That means bringing the baby. And like, obviously this is a doable thing. Right. But like, I just texted to her now. Right. And I was like, I know this sounds insane, but like, do you have interest in this? And she's like, well, yes, in principle. But like, I know it's possible. I know it's a thing that people can do. We have some friends who just had a baby, like literally the same time we did.
And they've already been to New York and back. Like I know it's a thing one can do, but like, it just feels like, like such a huge thing to do. Right. I don't know. Right. So yeah, my whole point in this is literally what you're realizing right now. Now's the time to start looking at this stuff if you're going to do it. And to my broader point, I'm looking at more stationery shows than traditional pin shows this year. Just to see, just to get a different feel. Right. Just to have like a different idea of what the markets look like.
And again, like I said, circling back to our initial topic, like what really is driving like the consumers and the hobbyists in is as far as like taste and like, you know, style and things that they're looking at. And I can get something a little bit different from the stationery shows than the traditional pin shows. Because I'm not saying with pin shows, you've seen one, you've seen them all. That's not fair to like all the different locales. But like you can like, I could go to two pin shows, traditional pin shows this year.
I'm not going to name names, but like they're, they're, it's pretty much the same. Right. It's good for regional place. But like, do I need to travel to four of the same pin show this year? I would rather mix it up a little bit. So that's my thought process heading into 2026 and I'm going to work on finalizing that here pretty soon or at least the first six months of the year. Me and you should talk about this more, but like, again, considering another message I just got, let's put me down as a tentative for, for your second stationery first.
Okay. Well, we need to talk about it like really soon. I know. Oh, I know. But like, this is the one I'm like the most, I think it's the thing that was most likely to get me to travel. Like it looked so good and it's different. That's, that's the thing what I'm excited about. It's like, yeah, I've done pin shows. Right. Yeah. And like, and I love them, but I've done them and I will do them again, but I don't feel an urge. A hundred percent. This feels like something new and fresh. Yeah. And that is very intriguing to me.
Yeah. Like I'm literally saying I would come to London for like the one day pin show. Like I'm not knocking pin shows, but like, I want to do different pin shows. Yeah. And so, cause here's the other thing, right? It's like, we're just getting into this now. Like we want to be able to travel with our baby. Like it is a thing that we want to do. And like, obviously me and Adina, we like to do things in America and you know, we have, so like in 2027, we've been married. It will be our 10th anniversary and we'll, we'll both be turning 40 around that time.
Right. So we plan to have a very big California vacation, but to get to there, we have to have gone to the East coast once to get, cause we're going to take Sophia with us. Yeah. And I figured we have to like get like, it's a big ask, I think for like, for, you know, she'll be a few years old then. So that we want to get back into travel and we're going to go to Europe, of course, but also thinking maybe I'm putting this down as a maybe and I'm going to start thinking about it and we're going to start, I think we're going to talk about it.
Okay. Cool. All right. Well, this is just turned into a completely different podcast. This is a great show. We'll just talk about our travel, but we also, you know, we spent a lot of time talking about pens today and I'm sure that you all have some thoughts and feelings about it. So if you would like to send us some follow-ups, some feedback, some, maybe some ask TPA questions that we can get into over the next couple of weeks, just go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can send those in there. I would like to thank Enigma Stationery and Pen Chalet for their support of this episode.
But most of all, I want to thank you for listening. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com. You can find Brad streaming three times a week over at twitch.tv slash penaddict. You still doing shipping streams? Yes. It's been, business has been good. Good. Excellent. Love that. Forspoke. So like I'm shipping a lot. So I was not intending to do a shipping stream this week, but you know what? Things happen and, you know, had to do it. Look, if people don't want the shipping, it's like the shipping streams will continue until
the business stops, you know? Like if you keep buying his pens, he's going to keep doing shipping streams and that's just the end of it. So keep buying the pens. You can find me online over at Relay, of course, where you'll find this show. You'll find me at theenthusiast.net as well and at cortexbrand.com. We'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.