Editing The Pen Addict 10/transcript (section)

== Atlanta Pen Show ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' So, I remember last week we said that we would only talk about the Atlanta Pen Show, which you visited over the weekend, if you spent a ton of money. Otherwise, we just wouldn't have spoken about it at all. So, the fact that this episode is about the Atlanta Pen Show means that you spent a ton of money.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, we won't say a ton of money, but I definitely spent everything I had budgeted. I figured I was going to blow the entire budget or I was going to spend zero. It was kind of how it was going to go. And, you know, fortunately, I found some things I was looking for, some things I wasn't looking for that I still had budget for. And, you know, it was pretty cool. It's my first Pen Show. And, you know, I kind of had a general idea of what it might be like. But not ever having been to one, I wasn't sure. You know, my expectations going into it was that there'd be a lot of vintage pens, a lot of classic pens, a lot of classic fountain pens, you know, the majority of them. And then there'd be a lot of the nicer, higher end, new fountain pens and new roller balls. You know, the, I don't know what the proper term is for them, but, you know, the more executive or collector type, you know, the two, three, $400 fountain pens and roller balls, you know, that you see with all the nice hand painting or the gold inlays or whatever, you know, all the bling type pens that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, the ones that weigh like two ton.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah, that I personally have zero interest in, that type of stuff. I also, at this point, and I'll reserve judgment, I don't have a lot of interest in classic fountain pens or classic writing instruments yet. That's always, that's always subject to change. That's just not in my, you know, not in my thought process right now. So, you know, going into the show, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to find the types of things I was looking for. Sure. And I'd say, you know, the, the pen shows just like, you know, if you've ever been to like a hotel ballroom or conference rooms or something, they had two big conference rooms set up with dealers and, you know, all their wares out. And it was, I say it was probably 75% vintage, classic, and then like the higher end writing instruments. Okay. So, you know, I'm walking around, I'm like, you know, these are nice. It's not really, you know, up my alley, but I had a few things in mind. And, you know, we've talked in the past about kind of like a, not necessarily a Holy Grail pen, but if there was one fountain pen that I wanted, that's been on my wish list for a year or two, is the, the pilot vanishing point, the black matte one. And, you know, it's, it's the full black and, and, you know, black clip, black plunger, you know, the, the nib is, is, is, it's gold. It's a gold plated nib. So it's silver. It looks sharp. And, and, you know, I've held off and held off and held off. And I was pretty sure I would be able to find one there because it's a relatively recent pen. And, you know, most new pen dealers, you know, will, will have some type of stock of, of the vanishing point. And sure enough, I came home with one. So, uh, that's.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I was looking up, I was, because I've been, probably since we started doing the show, I've been talking about the possibility of a vanishing point because it's a fountain pen that's retractable. And that just seems very exciting to me. But the pilot also do something called capless, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. It's the same premise. I, I, there's a pilot capless, a pilot decimo, and the pilot vanishing point. They're all the similar functionality. I, I can't, I don't know the differences, what makes each one named differently. Um, I, I do know that the vanishing point for whatever reason are the lower end of the price spectrum. Um, if you looked at the capless or the decimo, they're maybe 25% more expensive. That's just ballpark guessing. I, I don't know why. I don't know if it's some of the barrel materials or things like that. Um, although some of the vanishing points are, are kind of around the same price. So I don't know if that's a regional thing. You know how we've talked in the past, some pens are named one way in one region and one way or in another region. You know, the pilot, uh, Namiki brand is, you know, originally a Japanese brand. So there might be some branding type things going on there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's the same general concept of a pen of the pen.