Editing The Pen Addict 261/transcript (section)

== Pen Auction ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' We do, we do, and we love doing it, so we might as well fill up all the weeks. But I want to know how your trip to WWDC was, and if there was any pen and stationery action that you had out there. What do you think? Do you think there was any? Well, I mean, I saw you getting tweets about the wraps for the Apple Pencils and, you know, some things like that. So I figured there might be a mix of a few things out there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, I did get lots of links about, so Slick Wraps is a company that makes skins. I've used them before for the Apple Pencil stuff, and you can now get your own custom wraps made. Like, I have ones that make mine look like a pencil, right? But now they're doing, like, a whole customizing thing. And I'm working with Frank, our designer, on creating a custom design for myself. Oh, nice. Based on the Palomino pencils, like the orange ones. Ah, cool. Yeah. So we're making a little Myke Brand pencil. I want to see how it comes out. Like, if it looks good, it might be something I look into a little bit more. But, yeah, I'm making one for myself because it's fun. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, I'm going to have to steal that from you because anything Frank touches is pretty much golden. Yeah, it's pretty great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's pretty great. It's not done yet. Once it's done, I will show the world what it looks like. But I am going to share it with you just so you can see. You know, I put it in our little Skype chat there just to drive the people crazy. Oh, wow.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You're super evil.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's not done. It will be done soon. And when it's done, I will share it. And, like, maybe even so people can make it themselves. It's pretty great, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That looks pretty amazing. It's pretty great. That's ridiculously good looking. Sorry, chat room.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm working on, like, an orange pencil with, like, my name on it and stuff for, like, some little iconography. But it's not done. So I don't want to share it because it's Frank's work. So I don't share his work. Yes. But it's done.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So you will share this, though, because it's really impressive. Oh, yeah. Awesome.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, yeah. He's doing some amazing work, as always.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Good. Good, good, good. Well, yeah. But you've been busy yourself, though. How was Raleigh? Yeah. Like, while we were both road tripping during our two weeks of non-live recording, Raleigh was fantastic. It turned out to be a great show. My daughter Elizabeth came with me. She had a blast.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, yeah?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' She was the perfect helper at the knock table.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, what about me?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I will take family over friends every time. Sorry. You know, and she could handle the math. She could handle the same-sized bills. Did she get the names right? She didn't. She wasn't great at the names, but she knew by looking at them what their price was. So she would never go for the name, but she knew exactly how much everything was. Okay. She got me beat there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I can never remember the prices.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah. And, like, you know, she was the professional cashier. She'd actually, like, take the stuff out of my hands because she wanted to do it. So she was all about it, and she was assimilated into the pen community. Everyone was super nice, and she had fun, you know, talking to people. And, like, she went to a Pens for Kids class, and she walked around the show by herself, which I was happy about. That's great. I told her if she did it, she'd probably score some free pens from vendors, because I know they're really cool about giving stuff to kids. And she did. Every time she'd leave the table, she'd come back with, like, one more pen. So it was cute and funny. But we had a really, really good show. It was a good crowd, good room at Raleigh. I think it was 70 to 80 tables, something like that. So pretty good sized. And from a knock perspective, it was successful. Great. Which we always are thankful for. You know, you never go to lose money on these things, and we didn't. So it was good enough to where I would definitely do Raleigh again, because the drive wasn't bad. You know, it took us about seven hours, and like I mentioned, Elizabeth just wants to get there. She's not one to, like, stop if she doesn't have to stop. So I can appreciate that. So we made it in seven hours, both directions, and it was easy. And yeah, it was just an all-around, really, really good, good show. So, you know, we did, I did a couple different things there, like going to the auction and actually sitting through the auction, which I wrote about in Refill, the Pen Attic Members newsletter, this last week, and how much fun it was, and how much Elizabeth actually just loved every second of the auction. What she saw, there was a sheet. So, like, there was 123 lots in the auction. And, you know, each, it's got a lot number, it's got a product description, and then it has how much it's sold for, like a blank where you can put it in. So what she realized, she could fill in the dollar amount of everything that's sold. Like, you couldn't talk to her the rest of the show, because she was so focused on the auction. It was hilarious.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I was pleased that you both enjoyed it. I mean, a pen auction, that seems like a scary thing to me. I've got to say, like, the way you were describing it, that, like, you don't really get to try out the pens. I checked them out too much beforehand. I don't know about that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So I did that thing where do as I say, not as I do. Yeah. You know, my advice for going to a pen auction would be to take the time. The lots are always available before the auction, usually the day, two days prior to the auction. You can go, you can get the sheet of what's available, you can look at it, and then you can physically check out all the pens beforehand to see if they're in good shape, if you want to bid on them, you know, when they come up, when it's their time to come up. You know, you need to do your due diligence beforehand, and of course, I didn't have any time to do that. And going to the auction was actually a last-minute thing, and Elizabeth was just like, let's go, let's go. And I was like, are you sure? You're going to be bored. And it ended up being the exact opposite. And there were enough modern pens to where I got in on the action, which I was a little bit surprised about. But I got some good deals, I think. You know, I bought a really, really nice Visconti with an 18-carat oblique nib. And it's just a beautiful, stunning pen. It's called the Aida model. It came out, I don't know when it came out, several years ago. But it's right up my alley. Nib's beautiful. And, you know, I got it for a really good price. And then I bought a bright green Sailor Demonstrator for like $90, which I couldn't turn that down.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So it was fun. The Sailor Demonstrator is amazing. I can't believe you got that for just $90. What's that like? That's under half price, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, no. I think it's probably in the low to mid-hundreds. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's not. This one's still available. So I wasn't going to go much more than like $90 because you can get them sometimes for, you can get them for like $140, something like that. And both of these pens I bought were used, but you couldn't tell by looking at them. They were maybe used like once each. The converters had like, you could see they had old ink that they were used that they weren't cleaned out perfectly. But from the externals and the nibs, it looked like they'd never been touched. So they were, if they were used, they were barely, barely used at all. So I'm really happy with these pens. I didn't buy anything at the show except for one random pen, which kind of came to me. Like I didn't buy anything from any vendors at the show, right? Like I didn't go around from any tables and buy anything. But behind me was Alan Hirsch. And I just happened to turn around and I saw a guy asking him if he was interested in a pen and I saw it was a pilot box. And then I saw him open it and Alan look at it. And Alan's more of a vintage vendor. So he's like, no, I'm not interested. So I just told the guy to, you know, hey, come on around over here. And it turns out it was an M90.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I already have an M90. I bought one a few months ago, but mine's a medium nib. And I bought the medium nib, but just because these things aren't easy to get, right? You know, it wouldn't be my perfect nib choice. But I didn't know if the opportunity was going to come again for the price I got it for. So I was like, cool, I want this pen. Always wanted it. I can deal with the medium nib. And the medium nib is great. Well, this guy had a fine nib. Wow. And we talked about prices. And he left. You know, we didn't make a deal right then. He left. I said, we'll go see, you know, if you can sell it. If not, come back to me and we'll talk. And I ended up with it. So I got a fine nib M90. So now I'm going to have a medium nib M90 to sell. Like I don't want both. I don't need both. But I had to have the fine. How much are you selling that thing for? I don't know. I hadn't thought about yet. I'll do another. All right. Oh, you want. Why do you want it?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Buddy, if I can get another one of those. Yeah, I'll take it. I need like this is my favorite pen maybe ever made. I need a backup.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And you have a medium, right? Yeah, I have a medium. Okay. Well, I wasn't planning on making hot deals during the during the show, but we can certainly work something out. This is the benefit of recording with you. No one can get in before me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If you're if you're selling that medium, you tell me the price before you start. Tell anyone else I want it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So now it's going to be on. Yeah, it's on. It's on. I want that thing. So we've just made all the listeners mad. Well, actually, I'm going to clarify you. You have made the listeners mad. I'm undecided. Yeah, you've done nothing. Definitely, definitely have an in. Okay, definitely have an in. But yeah, I don't need to M90s if I prefer the fine over the medium. So the medium will be sold. Okay, apparently to you. Apparently to you, it seems so we'll find out. But the fine is mine. And we'll go from there. I do need to. I do need to thin the herd again. So maybe look for a pen addict sale again sometime, you know, in the next month or so. Maybe this summer there's a good time between pen shows before DC clean out some, you know, I end up selling five or six pens at a time when I have too many new ones coming in and not using some of the old ones that I have been using and enjoyed in the past. So we'll see. But M90 on the block.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I should do it sometime, but I don't think anyone will want to buy my pens.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Not if they listen to the show, no.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Exactly. No one wants to buy my pens. They come with ink. Yeah, they come with ink. Pre-inked.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Pre-inked. Pre-inked for your writing pleasure. What a deal. Yeah. Well, I do know what people do want to buy a mic.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, yeah?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Is that Harry's? It is Harry's. They should definitely. Father's Day, isn't it? Yeah. They want to get in on it right now because Father's Day is like right. It's basically now. If you're listening to this show, you need to buy a Father's Day gift if you haven't. And we have a great deal for you because we all know that not only do we have to think about so many things with gift buying, it can also be difficult to buy gifts for some people. Like you want to make sure you can get people a gift that they can actually use, something they might actually want. And maybe you've already bought them all of the things that immediately come to mind or, you know, just stuff that at this point you're just buying them things that they're stacking up in a closet somewhere, right? Nobody needs a million pairs of socks. Well, fortunately, our friends at Harry's have a special offer that both you and a dad in your life is going to love. You can get $5 off one of their shave sets, which includes the limited edition Father's Day set by going to harrys.com slash penaddict. Harry's shave sets start at just $15. You get a razor handle, moisturizing shave gel, and three of Harry's five blade precision engineered razors. And their limited edition Father's Day set comes with a storm gray razor handle, also a chrome razor stand, their foaming shave gel, three replacement blades, and a travel cover as well. It also comes in this great giftable box with the option for custom engraving and a personalized card. So you don't even need to wrap this thing, right? Like it just comes to you in a box. You take it out of the box that it was shipped in and it's ready to gift. Now, Brad, I believe that you have one or two, maybe even 12 of the Father's Day sets

'''Brad Dowdy:''' somewhere in your house. I have two of them and one is going to me and one is going to my father and he will be here this weekend because my son is playing baseball and they're coming down to watch him play this weekend. We're having a big summer with the kids' baseball team. So he will be here to receive his and I'm holding mine until Father's Day and going to you break it open that day because I really want the chrome razor stand, which I have never had from Harry's. Seeing that I have everything else that will complete the inventory of Harry's goods and that will be placed upon my sink area this weekend for Father's Day. So yeah, these boxes look great. Last year when I gave it to my father-in-law, we didn't, like you said, we didn't even wrap it. So it's perfect. It's a really, really nice package.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So go to harrys.com slash penaddict right now and you'll get $5 off any of Harry's shave sets. This is a limited time offer to get this $5 off. We don't always do this. So go to harrys.com slash penaddict. You can get $5 off any of their sets, including the Father's Day set. You'll also be supporting this show if you do. Thank you to Harry's for their support, the penaddict and RelayFM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So this next pen we're going to talk about would be an ideal Father's Day gift as well, although it may not come in time. I think Retro 51 messed up the date on this, Myke. What do you think?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, I mean, yeah, I guess if you're thinking about it as a Father's Day gift, right? I can see why that would be the case.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But this Retro 51 play ball, oh my.