The Pen Addict 697/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	697
Title:	Use What You Have
Release Date:	January 2nd, 2026
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 697
Audio File:	Audio Episode 697
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 697
Length:	5555 min <br />0.917 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 697. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet. My name is Mike Hurley, and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Happy New Year, Brad.
Happy New Year, buddy. How are you?
I'm good. How long do you say Happy New Year for?
I think we're done after this episode.
Oh, wow. I mean, not to me. To other people. This is it now?
No, I think we have about a week of I might be seeing you for the first time.
Yes.
Experiences.
Through the weekend, I'm going to see people, so I will be saying Happy New Year.
Yeah, that's easy.
By the time, like Monday returns to normal, right? Both you and I are struggling with these weird off days and on days and holidays.
No complaints. I've had more downtime than ever, but it's really messing up my mind.
Yes.
When things get back to normal Monday, that's going to start to phase out slowly throughout the week, and then we're done by the end of next week.
Yeah, I would say next week's probably pretty swell. I mean, there is just the thing of like, I know I'm going to be talking to some people who are out of the office like all of next week as well.
So it's like the week of the ninth. So then what are we doing?
Like I haven't spoken to these people.
God, it must be nice.
Yeah. I mean, some companies, they just shut down, right? Like it's like a gift they can give. It's like you're giving people what is essentially feels like two weeks off or something, but actually you're just losing like six days or something like that.
So, yeah, yeah, biggie. But yeah, that's it. We don't know what day it is. It is Friday as we record this. Who knows what day it is when you listen to this?
Yeah.
Because, I mean, people are still just completely out of their regular routines through at least through this weekend and maybe more in some cases that you mentioned.
So I'm looking forward to doing this episode, though, since it's been a couple of weeks. It's not like we have a bunch of new things to talk about, but I think we have some fun stuff to talk about today.
Well, we have some follow up too.
Yeah. Let's start with, yeah, this is good. I put this first for a reason because Damien at All in the Nib heard us talking about the Nibgrinder secret menu.
And I wasn't going to call him out during our last episode, but he was who I was thinking about when I was thinking about Nibgrinder secret menus because I know Damien well and I talk to him a lot and I know all the cool things he can do.
I didn't want to, you know, just tell everyone to start emailing Damien for all your weird stuff.
Give me that good good.
But he was, yeah, he was who I had in my mind when I was saying all these things.
Right.
So he responded with a 500 word email, Mike.
So I would like to read this.
Yeah, I'm going to read it now.
He also takes a shot at you, which is fantastic.
You love that. We'll see.
We'll see how that one goes.
My favorite. My favorite.
All right. Brad, I hope you have a wonderful holiday. I can probably skip all the pleasantries.
You see, this is, I will just say, look inside of the podcast.
I missed all that.
This is the difference of when, like, because if Brad sends me that or any feedback, I cut all the pleasantries out.
People don't need to hear them.
Yeah, I just copied and pasted it right into a text doc so I didn't have to have my email open while I was reading this.
I appreciate people saying things in our feedback when they're sending questions and they're like, I love the show.
I appreciate that, but the other listeners don't need to hear that.
You know what I mean?
Right, right, right.
All right.
So it says, based on the last episode title, which was the Nibgrinder secret menu episode, I spent the whole time listening, waiting for the shoe to drop on what all of us Nibmeisters were holding back on our secret menus.
So it was the last question.
I guess you were just fishing for a good episode title.
I mean, you don't have to call me out that aggressively, Damien, but, you know, I did know a little bit what I was doing there.
So do not put it past me to know exactly what I was doing.
As for the actual question, yes, Nibmeisters can add feedback to a nib.
The easiest way to think about feedback is that it's a texture on the surface of the tipping.
The main caveat, though, is that feedback can have different feelings to them.
And I might not be able to add feedback with the exact same feel as someone is expecting.
Mike also mentioned that most people would say feedback is ruining the pen.
Yes.
And I would not phrase it that way at all.
And I think you totally backed out on this because we had a conversation about this.
It's like, well, you know, people like different things.
First of all, if feedback ruined a nib, then why would it be a distinct characteristic of Sailor, Platinum, and Aurora nibs?
Second of all, why would these nibs be well regarded and sought after within the community?
Anyways, feedback is a personal choice and is not indicative or indicative of a good or bad nib.
While feedback can sometimes be indicative of a poorly tuned nib that's just not bad enough to be outright scratchy, that's not always the case.
Because overly smooth nibs can come with their own downsides, too, looking at you, Pelican.
The smooth equals good, feedback equals bad take is overly simplistic.
And I think we both, and not put words in your mouth, I think we both totally agree with that.
I know I totally agree with that.
Yeah, but I stand by my original point, which is like, if you're at a pen show and you're offering pen tuning,
I think to a lot of your customer base, people don't necessarily know what they're looking for, right?
Ah, he gets to that.
And so I feel like, if you're like, oh, I'll add feedback.
You're potentially adding characteristics to the nib, which could be unpleasant to people that haven't got a specific idea of what they want.
Yeah, yeah.
So you're actually discussing a different piece of this whole topic, which Damien specifically gets into.
So let's keep going here.
As for the secret menu thing as a whole, part of it is that there's so many things I could potentially do
that listing all of them would likely become daunting for a potential customer.
Ideally, any nib modifications start off with a conversation about what you like and don't like,
what you're looking for, whether you're looking for something similar to what you already have or something different, things like that.
In the process of that exchange, feedback will likely be something that will come up from the customer,
or I'll ask about it some way or another.
As you mentioned, though, once you start to request things that are more on that secret menu end of the scale,
I'm going to assume you're asking for those things because you know what they are and know you want them.
I once had a customer who reached out with a hyper-specific secret menu request who got the nib and didn't like it.
I came to find out that it was actually their first grind, and that initial request was likely overboard for what they actually needed.
Once we sorted all of that out, I was able to get them set up with something that still was a secret menu type of request,
but was in line with what they actually need and could enjoy.
I think that's more to your point, where sometimes when you don't have a lot of experience doing this,
and come in with a rigid plan of what you want,
and not necessarily, I'm not saying this happened in this case,
but not necessarily let the expert kind of guide you a little bit.
You don't know what you don't know until you figure it out, right?
You know, if I've been doing this for 10 years,
I've learned things that I didn't know now that I learned in the first year.
So, yeah, I do think to your point,
there's a lot of discussions and conversations to be had when you sit down at that table,
and I think, like, your experience level and knowledge base shouldn't be, like, you know, avoided, right?
That, like, hey, this is my first time doing this.
Here's what I like. Here's what I don't like.
And then, like, the conversation can go from there.
But coming in with an I want X,
and having a NIMMeister deliver X, exactly,
and going, ah, yeah, no, I didn't like that.
I was like, ah, yeah, it's, you got to give,
you got to give some proper, changing the meaning of the word here,
you got to give some proper feedback on some of these things.
So, yeah, so feedback, back to your original point, Mike.
Feedback can be added.
That was the question originally.
And everyone thinks of that.
Individually different, right?
So, Damien concludes, says,
I hope all this adds more context and is helpful.
Overall, if you want something, just ask.
I get requests for non-standard things all the time.
It keeps things interesting for me.
The way I look at it is that I'm trying to manifest what you want in a NIMB,
not just do my thing and tell you to take it or leave it.
So, and then he,
then he kindly says,
hey, if you need a guest for the show, let me know.
Damien, you're always on the list.
So, yeah.
Hopefully, I'll see Damien out at shows.
Love his work at All in the Nib.
We'll have a link to the show notes.
Great person to talk to about Nibs.
And like, I'll sit there and just talk with Damien.
If I'm not getting work done or sit here and watch him work on other people's Nibs
and just partake in those conversations just from a listening aspect.
And it's good stuff.
So, I appreciate you taking the time to do all this.
But yeah, it's good stuff.
It's complicated.
It's not easy, right?
But I think we're going to see more of this this year and the coming year as customers,
pin users, hobbyists look to maybe customize and manipulate some things they have, Mike.
Because I called this next bit of follow-up sticker shocking, Mike.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We may be, if it's going to be a yearly theme in the stationery hobby, it might be use what
you have as opposed to buying new things.
Yeah.
That's going to kind of be a running theme, not just this episode, but a lot.
So, we talked about some of the general price increases coming, what, three episodes ago,
two, three episodes ago.
And that's going to be a recurring theme, at least for probably like the first month of
the show, because everything's actually getting into place now, right?
The black and white numbers are coming out.
Where before we've been looking at this increases 30%, this increases 25%, whatever.
Now we're getting the numbers.
So, Goldspot got ahead of this.
Like, they literally took one for the team on this one, but they don't have a choice.
But I would rather, if I'm in their situation, I do this, right?
Because it's not their decision to raise these prices, right?
So, they threw it out there with what these increases are going to be on some of these
popular pins.
It's outrageous.
Like, it's gasp-inducing what we're seeing in some of these product lineups.
A couple of examples of popular pins.
The Pilot Metropolitan, the increase is 37.7%.
And we'll have a link in the show notes to this image if you haven't seen it.
This is something Goldspot put together.
One thing I think actually Goldspot did themselves a disservice here.
They didn't list this as MSRP, which they almost universally on each brand has X percentage
of MSRP off this price.
So, the Pilot Metropolitan MSRP is now $42.50.
It's probably 20% off that price when you go to buy it, right?
20% off MSRP is probably like the standard.
But I hope no one's paying $42.50 for a Pilot Metropolitan.
Yeah, but I think the value is just seeing the scales of it all.
Yeah, it's the scale.
The scale stays the same, right?
Like, if you go to look at the Metro.
Actually, we could probably go look at it right now since we're on January 2nd as we record
this.
I wonder if they have the Metropolitan price listed.
So, were these price increases of January 1st thing in all of instances?
I believe so.
Okay.
I believe so.
Metropolitan.
Yeah.
They still have some of the old prices on here.
Okay.
So, that's another thing you're going to find.
If you're looking for pens, I mean, there's a class.
One of the OG Pilot Metros is $23.83.
So, yeah, it's hard to suss out.
I'm trying to find a new one here.
But they're pretty much all some percentage off of MSRP, which that $42 number is that.
The Platinum Procyon.
Platinum should remove this from the product lineup.
They should close out manufacturing of this pen, sell the remaining pens, and end that
product lineup.
Because the Platinum Procyon in my book, and I love Platinum's low-end pens.
The Platinum Procyon has historically been the worst value in the $50 range.
And now it's $95.
Which is unbelievable.
It's unbelievable.
For what that pen represents within a product lineup.
Right.
That's how I'm trying to look at this not individually as the pen, but in the context of the rest of
the product lineup.
It already didn't fit.
And now it's just forced into this bracket where it really sticks out like a sore thumb.
Like, I don't get it whatsoever.
So, you're looking at $69 to $95, which is another 37% increase.
I mean, some of the price increases, I mean, they're all over the shop, right?
So, you've got the Platinum 3776 Century.
That's the next one.
That's the big talking point here.
It's going from $300 to $430 of a 43.3% increase.
Why is this one so high compared to the others?
Because Platinum screwed something up.
I don't know that for a fact, but they had two 40% price increases in 2025.
They, I mean, they basically bend it somewhere during race season and never recovered.
And now they are literally paying the price for some level of mistake.
They couldn't cash or something like that.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
I mean, I have no knowledge.
I'll never have any knowledge of that.
But that's the way this looks.
The way the 3776 changed throughout 2025 in the pricing.
For this pin to MSRP at 43.
So, what would it be?
That would be 86.
So, $350.
Let's say you get the Platinum 3776 for 376.
I'm getting the price and the name of the pin mixed up.
Platinum 3776 for $350.
Less than six months ago, you could get that for under $200.
Brad, we might not be far off this pin costing $3,776.
So, here's the problem with this one.
I mean, it's awful, awfully priced.
Like, there's no way I could recommend this.
Where this used to be the number one most recommended pin by me for your first gold nib pen.
Now, I wouldn't recommend it ever.
But the problem Platinum is going to have, and this goes into the broader context of what we're going to see in 2026, is their base model is $430 MSRP.
What do you think their limited edition models are going to be?
$600?
Easy.
At minimum.
That's too much money.
It's too much money.
Like, so, I don't know what's...
I've been aghast ever since I heard these numbers.
But when you see them actually in a post like this...
Again, just as a reminder for people in case they've forgotten the open pen attention.
The problem here is the price of raw materials, like rare materials, gold, silver, and everything are all going up, like, significantly.
Which is causing these issues, right?
Mm-hmm.
I'll admit I missed the Pilot Custom 823 increase.
I know it's slowly increased over the years.
But for that pen to now have a $520 MSRP, so you're paying $400 out the door probably, for the 823...
I paid a...
It's unfair to say back in my day, right?
Yeah.
But it's really hard to look at this and have the context of the life that you've lived where I bought a Pilot 823 for $180.
And now you're asking, like, should I be okay with a $520 Pilot Custom 823?
No, I'm not.
I'm just not.
But we're really going to see some interesting changes.
And I said this in the episode where we talked about it.
We're not going to see the fallout this year.
I think it's a two-year kind of learning window to see what this fallout is going to be.
Fallout in what regard?
And change market changes.
And how companies deal with the price increase, the volume changes of sales.
Are they going to be able to withstand these increases in the products?
We've already seen both Pilot and Platinum do a $100 to $150 entry-level...
Entry-level, excuse me.
A mid-level steel nib pen to fill a gap in the price bracket now, right?
Platinum's has expanded even further to go from, say, the Procyon, which used to be about $55, to the 3776, which used to be $180.
Now you're telling me that's $100 to $430.
So they built a pen.
They built a pen that they sell for like $150, $160.
But it's not as good as some of their low-end pens, right?
It's just backfill, right?
They look at this product lineup and go, well, we don't have anything in this $300 range.
Let's just throw something out there.
It's like, it's still not worth it.
But like, as you can tell, this is all, I'm still trying to figure all this out and how this works big picture-wise.
But it's not good.
Because I'm expecting something different, right?
Like, if we're putting the 3776 and the 823 up to $500, right?
Kind of like hovering around the $500 range.
Yeah.
I'm expecting a different pen now than the one that I am getting, right?
Like, the Custom 823, that whole package is not worth half a grand.
It isn't, right?
Like, it's just not based on the knowledge that we have had.
Now, there may have become a time in two years' time it is worth that because that's what everything is priced at.
You know what I mean?
And it's like, well, now quote-unquote worth has shifted.
Right.
But I just don't think that there is enough.
Like, there are different pens that I think could bear the price increase more.
Like, if you're looking at them, like, what do they look like?
I think that is an important part of it.
You know, like, I've never really liked the look of that pen.
I didn't really like the look of the 3776.
I still don't.
I like the custom ones that they do.
Yeah.
That was always my hang-up.
Yeah.
By and large, the pen designs are, they're too standard looking, kind of boring, maybe old-fashioned looking.
And I just, I think they're really going to struggle to sell these pens for $500.
Like, I just, I feel like that there's going to be competition that is going to be more interesting.
Like, we've got another pen here, right?
The vanishing point, which is only going up 9%.
I don't understand how, but it's only going up from $220 to $240, which doesn't even feel like newsworthy.
Yeah.
Right?
Just like a 9% increase year over year or, like, when the new year starts.
I'm sure it's already gone up before.
But, like, you know, it's like, okay, right?
Like, that's fine.
And I also think, like, in the current market today, $240 is a okay price for the vanishing point.
Like, that doesn't, I'm not losing sleep over that.
But, like, you put the pallet vanishing point and the Platinum 3776 next to each other on a good day, you know?
And the vanishing point is more interesting to people.
It's like, oh, a retractable fountain pen.
But then when you look at the prices, and the 3776 is approaching twice the price, it's like...
I don't know, man.
I really don't know.
Yeah.
It's going to be interesting.
So, there's lots of different things I think we'll see this year as far as broad changes, right?
Having to deal with these price increases.
One, I think we're going to continue to see product lineup manipulation, right?
Slotting things in into these huge price gaps that these companies now have, like Pilot and Platinum, and trying to find out, can they sell somebody a $100 to $200 pen that they like?
Yeah.
That they feel is worth it.
Not that they like, but, you know, the quote, worth it, right?
It's everything is different worth to different people.
So, is that gap going to, you know, be filled adequately?
So far, I'm not impressed with what I'm seeing.
So, I would like to see something there.
Two...
Do you have a sense for why the 3776 is the price that it is compared to the vanishing point?
Why is that?
I mean, the vanishing point has...
Why is that delta so large?
Because it's about a third of the nib size.
But I don't think it accounts for that much price increase.
I don't even know.
I know that there is obviously less gold, like actual gold in the nib.
It's not that much, though.
But it's not that different.
Quantity difference.
Yeah.
I feel like I can't understand what's going on here.
Because Pilot clearly are putting up prices where they need to.
You know, the Metropolitan's a $50 pen now nearly.
Which is insane.
So, yeah, I don't get it.
I just think there's something happened at Platinum that we'll never know.
And someone probably got fired somewhere along the way.
Like, whatever your speculative, you know, actions that you took place on cost of materials going up failed.
Insanely hard.
I guess, but why is the Pilot Custom 823 $520?
Yeah, that one, I don't know.
I actually missed their last price increase on the 823.
So, that's actually much higher than I thought it was.
I'm really struggling to get my head around somebody's prices.
I just don't.
Maybe some of it's gotten away from me a little bit, right?
Like, that these pens are up to this price range.
Yeah.
Because I own the ones that I want.
You know what I mean?
So, like, maybe I've kind of, like, kind of lost that a little bit.
Like, the pens that I want that are in this range I bought, like, years ago.
Yeah.
It's hard.
This is difficult.
It's rough to see.
It's tough to see for new and, you know, people just getting into the hobby.
So, we'll talk about that in just a second.
Yeah.
You know, what they can do.
But, yeah.
It's like, you know, I think, you know, we're going to see.
I'm interested to watch the special edition releases this year.
Right?
To see who does what.
Because they're going to have to price them in line with what they already have.
Which means the baseline has gone up again for that.
How quickly are they going to intend to turn these over?
Like, Platinum is the one I'm watching.
Because with the 3776, when they do the limited editions, they usually do 3,776 of them, right?
Numbered edition is kind of their common thing.
Well, are they going to do that quantity in a $650 fountain pen?
And is it still going to sell?
That's what I want to see this year.
If they're changing how they do limited editions.
I think the secondary market is going to continue to blow up for obvious reasons.
Right?
Used in secondhand, non-retail pen exchanges are going to continue to thrive.
I buy my most expensive pens this year.
I bought a secondhand or secondary market.
Yeah, because I feel like.
Just for savings.
You will be able to price less and make significantly more than you would have if you would have sold these pens a year ago.
Exactly.
So, I think that you're probably right that that will be like, the secondary market will be pretty interesting.
I think as well that you're saying about the limited editions.
I figure they have to do less, right?
Yeah, they have to.
Do less, charge more.
The risk is too high.
Which is just a frightening.
Yeah, it's just a frightening aspect, right?
Right.
I think another thing that's going to be interesting.
I think vintage pens might continue to thrive, right?
Just because people can.
What I, this is my, I would say everything that comes out of my mouth is my own opinion.
But I really think in this hobby, people are looking for something unique for themselves, right?
Like, they don't necessarily want some generic pen that, you know, everyone else has.
They want something unique for themselves.
And I think you can find a lot of that in vintage pens.
And, you know, while those prices might go up just because, you know, vintage dealers can, right?
They have, they've already paid for this stuff.
And, you know, by, you know, did the cost of all of this going up?
I don't know.
I hope you don't see a rash of price increases.
But you can get some great gold nib vintage pens for, heck, even less than $100.
But I was going to say $100 to $200 that have been restored and right wonderfully.
So I think we're going to see some explorations into that space a little bit more by people who didn't dabble in that area for, you know, valid reasons previously.
So I think that's going to be interesting.
Yeah, I, you know, I think I'm probably going to work on some articles, like, in the coming months.
Like, have you been priced out of the hobby?
Like, and what can you do about it?
Like, what can you, what should you be looking at that maybe, like, retain some of your faith and then not everything is just a $500 for a fountain pen, right?
Which that's going to be a recurring theme.
It's like everything, every gold nib pen is $500 now, which just does not work as a hobby.
So what are we going to do differently?
You know, and by we, I mean, like myself, people that listen to the show.
And it's interesting.
It's getting these black and white numbers now.
It just really just, you know, it's head explode emoji, right?
It's just straight off the top.
I don't know what's happening.
I don't know how this is going to be fixed.
Fix is the wrong word.
But my goodness, it's a mess.
We're in for a very different year.
Yeah.
I think.
Yeah.
So how are our good friends at Pinshaw?
Let me tell you about the deals, baby.
If you want to go somewhere that's doing their best to give you the deals, it's Pinchela.
That's true.
They have your favorite brands.
They have the products that you're looking for.
They run discounts twice a month, close out specials every two weeks, and they're always
adding new styles of pens every single month.
Pinchela believe in giving you the best customer service around.
Fast, reliable.
That's what they set their clock to over at Pinchela.
They also have limited edition products and accessories.
So if you ever need a carrying case, a pen holder, some refills, some ink, some fountain
pen converters for that ink, and so much more, you can find it over at Pinchela.
They do free shipping on orders of $75 or over $75 in the US.
They also sell internationally with great shipping rates.
They have low prices on high quality pens over at Pinchela, and they offer a 100% satisfaction
guarantee.
Go and check out some deals and to get 10% off anything at Pinchela by going to Pinchela.com
slash Pen Addict.
What have we got, Brad?
Their top of the page deal is a free Pilot Metropolitan Retropop set of five ballpoint
pens.
I need to go look at this set because if they're swappable with the G2 refill, I'd be curious.
But it's with the purchase.
So this is gift with purchase, right?
I think we're going to see a lot of different things over the next year.
But this is a big gift with purchase, where if you buy a Pilot Vanishing Point limited
edition or a Pilot Decimo limited edition, you get a set of five pens of the Pilot Metro
ballpoint pens, right?
So that's a huge value, but you also have to go in wanting a Vanishing Point or wanting
a Decimo, and you can have these add-ons.
Where I really think we're going to thrive is the accessories and inks and general stationery,
which I think Pinchela is leaning into here.
By offering ink samples.
And when you're new to this hobby, one of the ways to experiment and figure out what
you want is go to somewhere like Pinchelae.com, buy five different ink samples, spend about
10 or 15 bucks.
And then you have this colorful palette of inks you can play around with and see what you
like.
There's so much interesting stuff to find in this hobby, like inks, which we're going
to talk about a lot this year, and notebooks and dip pens and things that can make you
happy and content in this hobby.
And it's nice to see Pinchelae having all these samples in here to where someone who's just
getting started can go figure out what they like for the first time.
That's what I want to see is people continue to figure out like what they're getting into
this hobby, figuring out what they like and having that opportunity.
And something like all these ink samples, like who is this?
Tosh.
Tosh is one of my favorite ink brands.
Van Demons, J.
Herban, Platinum, Diamine.
Like all of these are fantastic.
Like go buy some of these ink samples, figure out what you like.
And then you go buy a bottle later.
And it's just, it's a fun way to explore the hobby.
And that's enjoying what you have, right?
So you're enjoying the pens that you have and trying new inks in them.
I do want to mention as well, like Pinchelae, it's a link at the top of our page too.
They're having like an inventory blowout for the end of the year.
And there is like a billion things on this list at really, really good prices.
So all of that's there and you can get 10% off of our code as well for that.
Yeah.
So I'm scrolling, scrolling.
Oh yeah.
So yeah, I was going to say, I looked, I started scrolling.
Then I looked over at the bar, the page bar over on the side.
It's teeny tiny.
So yeah, this is going to go on for a while.
So go check them out.
Yeah.
I think like sales, limited edition, sales discounts and limited editions.
We're going to continue to see that.
And you can get some really great, oh, there's a Heinz pen on here for like a really crazy price.
Like that's awesome.
We're going to see a lot of maker pens like continue to thrive.
Like that's going to be a good market.
So it's fun to see companies like Pen Chalet has always been like a good maker supporter,
right?
Doing these collaborations with makers.
That's an area where we'll continue to see interesting things happen.
And that's going to be a great focus for 2026.
And Pen Chalet is doing a good job of, they've been doing a good job for years of getting ahead
of that.
And so yeah, I look forward to seeing all this stuff over at Pen Chalet.com.
So take yourself over right now.
That's 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.
Gathering of curiosities.
RB has done a great job with the blog over the years.
I'm pretty sure I've shouted them out before on shout out of the week, but it's always
cool to read everyone's 2025 recaps and 2026 stationery intentions.
So RB has been doing this for a few years, doing their intentions at the beginning of the
year and then recapping at the end of the year.
That's something I'm personally super bad at.
I'm really good at like the retrospective stuff.
I'm not necessarily good at the forward thinking stuff, but there's some good topics in here.
Number one for RB is no FOMO.
So that's going to come into play a lot this year.
And that's something I fixed for myself, I don't know, three or four years ago.
We all look at things differently and we're all in different stages of the hobby.
And we're certainly all familiar with the concept of fear of missing out.
And I solved it for myself years ago by understanding that telling myself there's always going to
be something else tomorrow, right?
If I don't get this thing today, well, I'll just have something else later down the line
that I'll like even more.
So we all have to figure out how to handle that ourselves.
Like if I was getting into the hobby now, it'd be a lot different situation, right?
It'd be a lot harder to control the FOMO.
Like if I started a vinyl collection today, Mike, I'm going to have a problem, right?
I will be FOMOing like crazy.
But, you know, it's something you need to think about that there's always going to be
something else tomorrow, right?
And we've talked about that a lot over the years.
And then I'm not going to, I want y'all to go read all of the topics here.
But that's number one on the list.
Number five on the list is do one interesting hobby-related project.
Like I think we're going to see more of the, this is essentially the year of using, right?
For, you know, to take a yearly theme concept into this.
We're all going to use what we have more because we have less money to spend on more expensive
things.
So what do you want to do with those things, right?
It can be like RB says, it could be a piece of art, a collaboration, a design.
It's just do something personal for yourself, right?
It's figure out what project you can do.
Like I was just talking not to tie this into an ad, but when you look at Pinchelink and
get all these ink samples, what you can do like cool, one of the things I've done is
had done like cool water brush washes with these inks and seeing all the real cool colors
in there, right?
So there's so much we can do with what we have and have fun, be creative.
I think creativity is key to all this, which we might talk about in a minute.
So yeah, really, really great post from RB.
Go take a look and think about, you know, how you're going to use your things this year.
And I think that's the most important thing I want to get out of all this like crazy, like,
you know, price increases and things like that, which we have to talk about.
But there's so much joy we can get in so many other things that I think we'll have a big
focus on that.
So good stuff.
Thank you, RB.
All right.
You snuck in a follow up here, Mike.
You want to hit this one from Sam?
Yes.
Sorry.
I thought we were going to jump into it.
I know.
I thought it was in the wrong place, I think.
You did.
I wasn't going to call you out, but Mike was live editing the flow.
Yeah.
And then...
I ruined it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So this is the ruining follow up that I did, but not from the follow up, which is Sam,
who says in episode 696, you guys explained that ink bottles are best kept in a temperature
controlled dry and dark place.
This seems like a shame to me since the bottles are often quite pretty.
I have a set of small shelves in my home office where many of my favorites are on display.
The spot of world is never in direct sunlight, but of course I do turn the lights on when
I'm in there.
Am I dooming my inks to a short shelf life or is this no big deal?
It's no big deal.
Right.
I don't want to do what you're trying to get away from.
I think.
Direct light.
Yeah.
Direct light is the worst.
Sunlight.
Direct sunlight.
Not candle light or light bulb light.
Yeah.
You should enjoy the things you have the ways you want to enjoy them.
Right.
Now there's little bits and pieces like could you do something absolutely perfect and you
know never have any issues ever.
Yes.
Could you also sap the fun out of everything that is the reason why you do this stuff in
the first place?
Also, yes.
Inks are not that expensive.
You should display them and use them how you would like to use them.
Over an extended period of time, if the inks have been in the sunlight, they're not going
to be good anymore.
Guess what?
You lit $20 on fire.
I mean, that's a lot of money in context, but it's not the end of the world.
Right.
So it's Sam.
It's no big deal.
You should display your inks on the ink shelf because they look cool and you like looking
at them like point blank.
Yep.
Yeah.
I think you're fine.
I think you're totally fine.
Yeah.
It's like don't do anything extreme with it.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
And then you'll be fine.
So yeah, totally fine.
So thus concludes the out of order as TPA follow up.
So let's get into a topic, Mike, and then we'll get back into it.
I apologize.
No, it's cool.
I was like, where did the topic go?
And it's like, oh, it's so yeah, no, I just wanted to talk.
I just wanted to link the stationery things I learned in 2025 article that I wrote this
week.
Like I mentioned when I was talking about RB's article, I'm really not good at forward thinking,
right?
Yeah.
Past like a week.
Usually we're, I'm usually like a forward thinker in like tomorrow, right?
I can't really think about writing a stationery intentions post because the way I operate doesn't,
I don't really get there, right?
I can't really think that far.
I just do, right?
And then as I'm doing, I realize I like this or I don't like this.
And then we make changes as we go.
So it's a lot easier for me to look back at what things stuck throughout the year, what
I enjoyed the most, you know, maybe things I didn't enjoy or things like that.
So it's basically, I just put together this article of, it's essentially think about myself
sitting at this desk and what did I always, what did I keep doing or what did I keep using
day to day, year over year?
And let's talk about these things.
And then is there anything different I want to do?
So like, I'm never not going to love micro gel ink pens, right?
It's the number one category for me.
As many fountain pens as I have, as much beautiful stuff as I have, I'm probably going to pick
a gel ink pen a lot of the times.
It's at least a 50-50 toss up where if I have a gel ink pen sitting next to a fountain pen,
it's 50-50 which one I'm going to pick up.
So I'm an avid fountain pen user, but percentage-wise of my writing is pretty low.
I mean, not crazy low, but I mean, I use other pens and pencils and non-fountain pens more
than fountain pens, right?
If we're doing a pie chart, that's for sure.
The other recurring thing is all the accessory stuff that I like, right?
I'm just a big tools and toys type of person to where I need my pen to have maybe a pen rest
or my washi tape to have a fun holder or my ink vial to sit in a panda bear's head
so it doesn't spill on the desk.
You know, and these little things tend to give me outsized happiness, right?
I don't need to spend $500 on a pen, but I can get a pink pen rest that holds my sparkle pen
and that's going to thrill me to no end.
And, you know, I've spent, you know, 10 or 15 bucks, right?
And like that kind of stuff gets me going and gives me personal enjoyment to see that on my desk, right?
So like that stuff, I did make a note of this because I think it's a feeling I had even most of this year,
I'd say, even before these outrageous price increases, I do think I'm tapped out of the high-end fountain pen market
where not that I've ever avidly shopped there, but I would be interested in spending, you know,
$500 to $1,000 maybe once a year to buy something like really crazy and cool and enjoy it.
And I think I've had that time and that time's passed and that's okay, right?
Like I don't need those.
That's not what gives me the enjoyment of stationery as a whole these days.
Well, there's only so many of those types of things you can own, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'm not creating a collection, right?
I'm not collecting these things to where that would be like an incentive to continue to purchase X product, right?
I either use it or I don't.
And if I don't use it, it needs to be sold.
And that's kind of how I look at my fountain pen collection.
And there's nothing these days that I have to have that's better than what I already have.
And that's very lucky for me.
Like over the past 10 or 15 years, I've been able to kind of like curate this little library of pens.
That's really great for me.
And it's like, yeah, I'm good.
I'm good.
Like what is someone going to do tomorrow that I have to have?
Like I'm keeping my options open, but like I'm good.
Like I think I'm good.
I would rather spend money.
This is I'd rather spend money on like stickers and stamps these days to be perfectly honest and get that enjoyment from, you know, junking up my notebook as opposed to necessarily having like a crazy expensive fountain pen.
Yeah.
And we all have these ups and downs in our hobbies and how we use things.
But definitely like the smaller and funner is the most exciting thing to me these days.
Creativity is always a personal challenge.
And I just want to do more with that.
I got a little bit looser this year, right?
It's an uptightness thing.
It's a fear of putting things on the page thing.
It's a fear of, you know, messing up and ruining things.
And I've gotten better at that over the years.
You know, just destroy your stuff.
And like that's cool, right?
I got into with the help of, you know, Lisa Olive Octopus Inc.
To be more creative with a water brush and inks and painting in the dominant industry ink archive book and painting ink ponies and just, you know, like I did for St. Jude.
Yeah.
Just like I got more joy out of that.
I still have some loosening up to do personally, right?
And letting myself do that stuff, right?
I still stress about that stuff.
But that's, you know, that's a great personal challenge for me, right?
Is to just be more free and loose with that kind of stuff because that's always a challenge.
And the last thing I learned, which is it was a little bit funny for me to say this out loud because it's just kind of a given.
But like I never get tired of talking about this stuff.
Yeah.
I don't care if it's, you know, a $2 sticker or a $2,000 fountain pen.
I know I just talked about being priced out of that market.
It doesn't mean I'm not interested in learning about it and why this exists and looking at the craftsmanship involved and trying to have an understanding of it.
But I can talk just as much about as that as I can a big crystal ballpoint.
Like I could go all day on the big crystal just like I could go all day on the pilot vanishing point or the 3776 before it was $500.
And, you know, just like I'm not going to shut up from talking about this.
I just I can't.
Like I love this stuff so much.
That has never changed.
That has never waned.
And as I was looking back on the year, I was like, I felt pretty good about that.
There's never been any like downtime for me in the enjoyment of the stationery hobby.
The things I enjoy move around.
There's a shuffle.
Yeah.
Right.
There's a there's a recycling and a rebooting of things.
But boy, I mean, I'm still just as excited as ever to talk about this because now I think we're going to look at things differently.
Right.
Because we just flat out can't afford some of the stuff anymore.
And I don't want to like or don't want to.
Yeah.
I don't want to.
I would rather spend that money doing something else.
That's exactly right.
So I think we're all going to be like I think we have an opportunity for just a huge amount of creative creativity and the hobby these days.
Yeah.
I genuinely expect.
I think you've already you have already touched on this in the episode anyway, but just for your own taste.
But I expect the things that we're talking about and are interested in are more more angled towards stationery than pens.
Yeah.
Because I think there's going to be there's going to be more interesting stuff happening there going into the next the future over the next couple of years.
Then there is like, oh, look at this new special sailor because I just think there's going to be less of that.
And even the ones that there are, we're just going to be like, well, that's nice, but I'm not paying $750 for it.
Right.
You know, and so I don't.
Yeah, it's going to be really as this is what this episode clearly turned into.
But like it's going to be very interesting to see what that ends up looking like.
But I for sure know that we're going to end up talking more about notebooks and washi tape and paper clips and stuff like that than we are.
Yep.
Fountain pens would be my expectation.
Same.
There's been a, you know, there's been a shift in the works here for the past couple of years.
And this is kind of like the final push over the edge for a lot of people just being priced out of the parts of the hobby.
It was like, well, there's just as exciting stuff and creativity in other parts of the hobby that maybe we haven't looked at before.
And, you know, that's been exciting me for the past couple of years, just like the general stationery piece of the hobby, as opposed to the like the luxury part of the hobby, which I've never been totally in.
But I do like a few fancy pens that I have.
I'm not discounting that.
Very happy to announce the rebrand to the Bujo addict.
Hashtag Bujo coming to you.
We know we've been saying it the whole time.
We can get Ryder on for like the fifth time and say, hey, look.
I don't think he wants to talk about that.
I got him last time.
I asked him that question last time.
But, yeah, I, you know, I don't, I'm trying not to be negative about the price increase because we have an opportunity collectively as a hobby to,
do something different and chart our own path, even if it's your own individual path.
Right.
And that's the way I try to look at it.
And then, you know, charting my path, figuring out what I'm going to do, figuring out why I like these products and then talking about it.
Like, that's, that's.
And I don't blame the pen companies.
Like, this is the hand that's been dealt.
Look, I don't blame the retailers.
I don't blame the distributors.
I don't blame the pen companies.
Like, this is, they're not, I do have some faith that they're not sitting there trying to jam us all.
Right?
I have a feeling like they're, they, I mean, they, I would posit that they don't want to do this, but they're stuck and they don't have another way.
Yep.
Well, the market's now going to dictate this change and what's going to happen going forward.
We're going to see.
Like I said, I don't think we're going to see like the big companies.
I don't know that we're going to have any clear answers in 2026.
I think it's going to take a couple of years to shake out, but it's, it's a good time to be a stationery fan because we have the opportunity to explore things differently.
Yeah.
Than spending lots of money on lots of things.
Yeah.
And we can spend a little money and have fun.
We've always been about that anyway, but you know, it's, it's, there's lots of pieces of this hobby that each of us as individuals can explore differently.
And I look forward to that the most in 2026.
I would say for me, like, you know, look in looking at what I've learned this year is, is a couple of things.
One is just how much I enjoy mechanical pencils.
And that's been a really fun thing for me to, to dig into a little bit more and like try to understand what it is that I like about those.
And like thinking about the kind of the speed and the increasing level of impermanence that a mechanical pencil makes me feel rather than a fountain pen.
I like that.
And also like I had already also started to fall into the idea of rediscovering some pens that I'd not used in a long time.
And that was through doing some testing on some paper stuff.
I was like going deep into my fountain pen wells to pick out lots of things to try.
It's exciting.
And then I've just ended up with like, you know, my, my 1911 King of Pen tangerine has just been in constant use for the last two months because of that.
Yeah.
Because I've reminded myself just how much I love that pen.
Yep.
Like that's, that's a great place to be, I think.
And, you know, something we can all look forward to in 20 to 26 is, is figuring out these things and discovering these things.
Like I'm as positive as ever about this, this industry, you know, high end fountain pens is not, you know, the only part of the industry that we care about.
Right.
I care about almost everything else more than that.
Always have.
Right.
But like, you know, it's, it's, I think 2026 is going to be a good year for the creative side of the hobby.
And I think we might see some changes.
Who knows?
Who knows?
We'll see.
I want to knock out a couple of Ask DPA questions before we finish today's episode.
Yeah.
So I was thinking like before the show with Mike, we've gotten a lot of questions over the last month that we haven't gotten to.
And especially when we take like a week off, I want to do probably most of a show here.
Like at one of the shows in January is going to be, we need to get through, get through a lot of these because there's some good stuff in there that I want to handle.
So that does mean if you do have questions, then please go to penaddictfeedback.com and send them in because we will be trying to answer as many as we can.
Amital asks, do you have recommendations for budget pens of interesting nibs?
I'm looking for something below $30 that will expand my currently limited experience of fountain pens.
Yeah.
Good question.
We're all going to be trying to discover, you know, within a budget of what we can do differently.
Right.
There's honestly not a lot that answers this question for obvious reasons is that to have the more interesting nib, guess what?
That costs money.
Right.
So there are a couple of answers.
They're both pilot pens, both the pilot penmanship and the pilot plumix offer interesting nibs.
Um, the penmanship is an extra fine, uh, pilot nib, which is glorious.
The plumix is pilots.
They call it a cursive italic.
It's not super sharp.
It's kind of like a stub italic.
I love writing with that pen.
It's a great, great nib.
And then the third one is probably sailors food day nibs.
Those run about 20 to $25.
And it's a turned up nib that you can get a lot of different line angle and variation.
So those would be my three recommendations.
There are options out there.
It's not, you know, it's not a wide, wide range, but if you look at a couple of pilots, um, specialty nibs that you can get for inexpensive prices.
And sailors food day, food day demand, um, nibs there.
There's a couple of different, uh, angles of that nib that, uh, run about 20, $25.
And those are super fun to play with that, that, the food day nib, the sailors food day nib would be my first choice because it's the most different.
And an anonymous question answer, Oscar wrote in and said, great question.
Who even is Omas now?
After the demise of Omas back a few years ago, there seemed to have been a number of resurrections, some even using the Omas name.
Others, the Armando Simone name.
I'm confused as to who actually owns or produces Omas as of today.
Is it omasofficial.com, ascpens.com, thepennfamily.com, or omasbologna.com?
This is, I love this question.
I just saw this when I was looking, um, on the site and I was like, I have no idea.
I think this is a great question.
I have no idea.
I think this is a good research topic.
Um, or if someone has a link to an article, like a family tree type of article ever since original Omas shut down.
Um, what in the past five or six years, what has transpired with that brand?
I don't know that anyone can keep up with.
I certainly do not know.
And I don't know that it's any of those, any of those websites.
I don't know that we have an official Omas.
I think we have some name usage and naming rights.
Um, I don't know that the materials still exist in any, in any like capacity that would be like a widespread, you know, manufacturing process for making some cool Omas pens.
I literally have no idea.
Other than I see the same things that anonymous does in that.
You just have to ask what is going on.
Um, who has, what is their name ownership?
Is there, does someone own materials?
Does someone own names?
Does someone own machinery?
There's all kinds of stuff that I have no answer to.
So I, I would love even more feedback on this.
If someone knows or can point me to an article, um, that kind of lays this out in the, in the, through the end of 2025, because I think things have been changing even through like last year.
So I, I really don't have a good answer, but it's a good topic to explore a little bit more and we'll see if we can get some more feedback on that and discuss it.
Yeah.
If you do have any insight, same as if you have any questions, please go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can send us in your questions there.
You can also email longer stuff, uh, including, uh, I don't know, emails that for some reason trying to attack both of us, uh, to hello at penaddict.com.
Uh, I want to thank Pen Chalet for their support of this episode.
I want to thank you for listening.
If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com, twitch.tv slash penaddict.
You can find me here on relay at cortexbrown.com and theenthusiast.net.
Uh, thank you so much for listening.
Happy new year to you.
Until next time, say goodbye, Brad.
Goodbye, Brad.