Editing The Pen Addict 277/transcript (section)

== London Pen Show ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' It was the London Pen Show. Honestly, it was no different. Every time I go, I kind of hoped that the show was going to be a little bit more modern, like every time, but it kind of fails to do that. There are the same amount of modern pens and companies every year, right? So, like, you might get a vendor or two that's selling Twisbees and Lamys and some that's selling, like, Luchterm, and then you've got some that sell good inks, like, all the shimmery inks were there, all the Diamines, all the Geobands, all the KWZ inks were there. I saw some Sailor Gentile, and I can't remember the name of the vendor that had all of these inks, but it was, like, a ton of really great ink and stuff like that. But there's just a real lack of interesting pens for me at the London Writing Equipment Show. Like, John Twist was there again, and I very nearly walked away with a Twist pen. It was, like, it was dangerous. It was one of those pens that has two nibs, right? One on either end, and, like, two filling sections, like, two, and it was two, like, demonstrators, like, touching each other. Very close to buying that, but I pulled myself away at the last minute.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And then the rest of it is just, like, Parker 51s everywhere. Like, it's just, you know, tray after tray after tray of Parker pens. And then you get, like, the parts bins. And, of course, Sarge is there, right? But, like, unless you're ready to drop a grand, you're not going to walk away with anything from his table. You know, because he has a lot of interesting stuff, but, like, his really interesting stuff is, I understandably, really expensive. Yeah. Yeah. You know, what I want to see is what I see at pen shows in the US, right? Like, where there is all of this stuff, but there are also more people like John Twist, right? Because there are loads of people in the UK that are making pens, like, putting them on Kickstarter. You know, like, where's a Johto? Why aren't they at this pen show? Right? Exactly, yeah. And it's so frustrating. I mean, it even comes down to, right, we get there, we go to get in, go to pay. They won't take card, just take cash. Hmm. And it's like, you understand what's going on here, right? Like, what this is all about, right? Like, and the amount of money that people are going to be putting in there. Like, so it's like where the ATM, don't even know where an ATM is. Like, it's such a, it feels like such a, you know what it is? It is what it is, and I'm expecting it to be something different.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, it's, yeah, it's the conversation we've had over here of transitioning into a different type of selling realm. Do they have this pen show more than once a year? There's multiple, I don't know that this particular organization that puts this on does more than one show, but I know there's some more regional shows around England.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There are, there are, like, we saw advertisement for the Newcastle pen show and stuff like that. But this one's the big one. But this is the London one. I mean, I don't know if it's a big one, Brad, but it should be, right? Like, it's the London show.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, I watched the video online posted by, I believe it's Grand Mia Pins, and it was basically just a walking around the show for, like, 10 minutes. There really wasn't any talking. It was just, like, a visual. The place was packed. It was packed to the hilt.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's always like that, which is something that makes me so sad because it's so busy, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And if you haven't, if you haven't seen this video, I just want to give people a size relation. If you've been to the Chicago pen show, it's, like, that big. It's pretty big. Like, there's a big ballroom, there's some side rooms, hallway stuff, and it looked like a zoo, to be quite honest.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. And it's like that. It's been, every time I've gone, it's been like that, right? It's always difficult to move through the aisles. Like, people are there because they want to check out what's going on. But, I mean, my personal opinion is that there just isn't enough variety of vendors. Like, there are too many tables of people that have brought their small collection to sell. You know, which is great, and there should be a place for that. Like, definitely. But, in my opinion, like, there is no reason that Atlanta should be the size that it is. Like, even when we started there, with London being the size and variety that it is.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right? Like, I feel like there should be more going on. Like, the London pen show should be a huge pen show. It should be the pen show of Europe. Right? Like, and it frustrates me that it's not.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I think there's some other big European shows that get more run than the London show. I think the one in Madrid, I think, supposedly pretty big. I think, I don't know if it's the one in Netherlands or the one in Germany. One of those is pretty big. I don't know if it's Tilburg, maybe one of those. But, yeah, it seems like this should be the premiere up and coming. Like, let's do things that plan more to the future than getting our buddies together. Which is, I guess, kind of what you're saying?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think it's just in the past. Like, I think it's just this is the way it's always been. And they have let a lot of the social media stuff just pass them by. Right? Sure. And a lot of the stuff that's going on now. Like, I saw people tweeting about it and stuff. Like, cult pens, you know, they're not there. Right. Right? The first time that I ever went there, the UK retailer, the writing desk, was there. And I bought an Edison from them. But they're not there anymore. And so, I don't understand it. Right? Like, it seems so peculiar to me. I feel like there should be those retailers should be there in the same way that you'll get, like, you know. What is the name of Jimmy's company? At the Atlanta show?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' His proper company is Total Office Solutions.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right? So, like, they're there with, like, just a vast array of stuff because they're a big vendor who can do that. Right. And there are huge vendors that operate out of the UK that could be at these shows. Like, I don't know what it is. Like, I don't know if it's, like, the US pen show culture is different. I mean, it probably doesn't help that it's not even called the London pen show, which is just wild to me. Like, it's... Everybody calls it the London pen show, but they refuse to acknowledge that. It's like... I'm just gonna... Look, I'm really sorry, everyone. But, like, the Writing Equipment Society is not a brand name. Right? Like, it's not a thing. I'm not gonna win with this. Like, the only way I can... The only way I can make this better is to do it myself, and I'm just not gonna do that right now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. All right. So, before I want... You have a couple products to talk about from this show besides the twist, and I have one I want to talk about. But I want to mention a post. I believe his name's Anthony. It's UK Fountain Pens. And he wrote a post called Losing My Pen Show Virginity. He was at this show this weekend. And I want to read one little paragraph from his that I think you feel exactly similar to. So, he says, There were probably 10,000 pens in the room, 80% of them vintage, lots of Parkers and Schafers. I found it helped me to ignore the vintage pens almost completely and pick out a few things I wanted to focus on. But interestingly, there wasn't much in the way of accessories, even ink. William Hanna was there, and I saw some Leuchtturm paper, but it was pretty much all pens. So, not only was it all pens, it was mostly vintage, which is fine. Like, I like to look at and shop for vintage pens. But that was it from table to table. There was no one selling really much ink, no one selling much paper. Is that pretty... I mean, you saw the same thing?

'''Myke Hurley:''' 100%. Like, there was stuff, but there wasn't a lot of it. Right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Very minimal choice. Nothing that struck your fancy as, Oh, this is new, or Oh, I've heard about this, and I should pick some up. Nothing like that. Just your standard...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, like I said, there was this one vendor that had a bunch of the sparkly stuff, right? The stuff that is cool right now. Like, there was... I can't remember the vendor's name, but it was one vendor who had a bunch of ink that was cool. Like, it looked like a fresh, young company, right? Like, that was the type of company I expected to see more of. I wish I would have written down who it was now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, now that I think about it, why isn't Diamant at this show? That's a UK company. They're a massive company.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This company had a lot of Diamant ink. It even had Noodlers ink, right? Like, they had everything, you know, that you would ideally want.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But they were right at the very back, sandwiched between, like, six vintage tables, right? Like... Mm-hmm. And again, like, I really don't want to rag on the fact that there's vintage pens, because, like, it's totally fine, but there needs to be a balance. Like, there has to be a balance. Because, look, let's face it, most of these vintage tables, they have the same stuff. Like, it's just in varying condition and varying prices. Mm-hmm. And, you know, and every now and then, you'll pick out a diamond, right? Like, there'll be something in there that you've never seen before. Right. But when you're just scanning the tables, it's much and much the same. And it's just a frustration to me, because the first time I went, it was fun, because it was different. But every subsequent time, it's been more frustrating, right? Because it's like it's refusing to acknowledge the world outside. So did you purchase anything? No. The reason I didn't buy the twist pen was because I stood and stared at a Sailor Emperor for like 15 minutes. So I'm looking at this picture.