Editing The Pen Addict 266/transcript (section)

== Kickstarter Updates ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, okay. So I should catch up, right? Okay, so I'm going to catch up by updating our Pen Addict Kickstarter. If you are a backer of the project, you got an update in your email last week. The pictures of the Sepulot Pen Case.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I haven't seen this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' What are you doing with your life?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I haven't backed the project.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, that's true. Right? I forgot about that part. I'm not allowed to. Yeah, yeah, that's true. That's true. Sorry, I rescind that comment. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But yeah, I'll get kicked off Kickstarter if I start doing stuff like that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's true. That's true. So this, I wish I could take some better pictures. I was in a rush. It was like a five-minute visit at the shop the other day, passing through town. Mm-hmm. I knew the sample was there, so I stopped by to grab it and verify it, and everything came out good. The pictures I took don't show just how fluorescent orange the interior is. Yeah. I mean, it is traffic cone orange. Perfect. It is awesome. So those are heading to production pretty much as we speak, and we had an estimated shipping time frame of August, and that looks like it shouldn't be an issue. You know how things go, but we're awfully close, and I think everyone's pretty excited to get these in their hands. This is a fun case, Myke. I'm not going to lie. We're probably going to have to put this into production later because it's just fun. It's very simple, but it's useful, and I know Jeff carries his a lot, and I haven't worked mine into my rotation yet, but I know how much people love it, and I'm anxious to get these things out there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I really hope that there can be an extra one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, there's going to be plenty extras. Yay. So we'll have an opportunity for people to pick some up at pen shows down the line because we have to order X amount of extras. Yeah, yeah, of course. You never want to order an exact amount, right? No. Things get lost, damaged, all that stuff. So we'll see. We should have a handful of extras. The little label is so cute. It came out good. I love it. I love it. It's so small, we couldn't do the lines in the background, so there were some little things you have to adjust for when you're doing stitching that size, but it looks good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because I use my Cappello quite a bit, actually. I got the blue label one from Atlanta two years ago. Yeah. And I use mine. I think it honestly is my favorite. It jostles with the Sinclair as my favorite product that you've done. Oh, good. Good. Because it's just this nice little thing, and you can use that big pouch, you know, the notebook, so you can use it for a bunch of stuff. This is one of those cases that can really easily be repurposed, so I like it a lot. Yes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a very convenient case for a lot of things.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So I'm anxious to get those going, so it shouldn't be long. We won't have them at DC for anyone to pick up or anything like that. That's a little bit ahead of schedule, but it's not going to be long after that, I believe.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And next week, we're going to talk about DC some more, because it's going to be our last episode before the show, because the DC Pen Show episode will come out a little later that week. We're going to record it when we're in person, of course, at the Pen Show. Yeah. And I've been thinking about the vlog, so I'm going to be doing that, and that should be out not too long after the show. Like, I can't imagine I'll be sitting on that for a very long time, so I want to get it out.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We already have one big extra scheduled for the vlog, so.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We do?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We do. I mentioned it to you the other day. I can't say it out loud. Then yes. I like your style. I don't remember.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'll fill you in later. Thanks. I'd appreciate that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We did have one bit of industry news I wanted to mention, because it got shared to me. It was an article out in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week that Daily's Pen Shop, which has been in business for like 90-something years, I think, in Milwaukee, is closing down. And I started reading this article, and I'm about halfway through this article, and I'm all sad and depressed. And he's like, yeah, well, only like three people come through the door and, you know, all this stuff. And it's a very downer of an article. But then when you get to the second half of the article, the current owner is like, yo, I'm killing it online. You know, he's like, I've got all this business. I don't know. You know, I'm buying like thousands of dollars worth of pens and fixing them up and reselling them on eBay. And, yo, yeah, business is great. It's just the overhead of the shop's killing him. So it was like, I was like down in the dumps for this guy. And it stinks that, you know, there's one less brick-and-mortar shop. I mean, you never want that to go away. But I think he's, you know, doing pretty well just in the online, you know, marketplace. And, you know, that seems to be where a lot of the business is going. Unless you can do, unless you can have an online store. I mean, a brick-and-mortar store somewhere like Anderson Pins, where it's a lot more than just a store you can pop in. And, you know, it's a store you can go hang out in and get your pens repaired and, you know, meet some people in the community and have meetups. And they do a lot to bring people into their storefront. So I understand that the shop closing stinks, but it sounds like it's the right decision, at least from a business perspective, the way the article reads. So I just thought it was an interesting article to share because I was really like, oh, man, this is super negative. But it turns out to be A-OK, I think.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Good. That is good news. So you've been quoted in a major publication again, Wired. I don't know if this is your first time being quoted in Wired. I think for a very similar article, this is an article written by a lady with the name of Elizabeth Stinson. Stinson. And she's written an article professing her love of the paper-mate ballpoint pen. However, I mean, it's OK. Right. It's a nice article. It's nicely written. I like it. I like it when major publications write stuff like this. I kind of enjoy it. It's a fun article. It's fun, for sure. But I just have some – I'm just going to be nitpicky. The title of the article is The Big Stops Here. And there is a picture. I think the only picture or one of the main pictures that's actually in the article is of a pilot ballpoint pen. Although the article is about the paper-mate specifically. And then it kind of branches out to more ballpoint plastic stick pens, as they refer to them in the article. But I just found it really funny. Like, you know, it's like the Kleenex problem with the Bic thing, right? Right, right. Bic is just what these pens are called. But it was just funny to me that it's called The Big Stops Here, but it's not about that at all. Right. It's about the paper-mate.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. The Bic name will draw the eyeballs, right? I mean, that's the headline writer in them, right? So that's what it's going to get the eyeballs and the clicks, you know, and not necessarily the paper-mate, you know, because everyone knows the Bic. And most everyone knows the paper-mate. But this was a fun thing to be a part of. I talked to her on the phone for like 10 minutes. You know, Joe sent her my way. Joe Crace. Joe Crace from The Gentleman Stationer. After he talked to her, he sent her my way, which I'm very appreciative of. And she got on the phone and was telling me, you know, what it's about. You know, she said, you know, I have this fascination with the paper-mate ballpoint pen. And she was telling me her stories about it and, you know, how she's used it for years. And, like, her first question is, what do you think about this pen? I said, it's a terrible pen. And she just started dying laughing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I love the quote that they used of yours. It's like dripping with other phrases. And, you know, it's completely – I mean, there are like a million words not said for every word that you say. So I'll read – this is the quote that they printed from Brad. When people see this pen, they know exactly what it is. That paper-mate keeps making it is a – that paper-mate keeps making it is a testament to it being a good enough pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's an accurate statement, Myke. It's beautiful. I love it. I absolutely love that quote. That is – you could show me that and say, like, who wrote that? And I would say it was you. That is, like, the most Brad Dowdy answer to a question. It's a good enough pen. It's like refusing to hurt anybody's feelings and – but saying, you know, saying something as positive as can be said with undertones of negativity. It's beautiful. It's the story of my life, apparently.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's what you get at. But it was fun. And she knows. Like, she absolutely knows. But it's just one of those things, you know, one of those items she loves. And it was fun talking to her. She was super positive and hilarious to talk to.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Did you give her any recommendations for other pens she should try? Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' She – definitely. She wanted to know – Let me help you. She wanted to know why it's bad and then, like, what can be done to solve that problem. So, I pointed her towards the Jetstream and the Acroball. She wanted to keep a ballpoint type of pen. So, of course, I did.