Editing The Pen Addict 311/transcript (section)

== Atlanta Show ==


'''Myke Madison:''' Since about, I don't know, 2011, maybe 2012, something like that. I'm not actually sure, because I only started, I think my first post about it on my blog was in 2012. But I don't think that was my first trip. So, probably the last, I don't know, seven or eight years.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I think that's about when I started going to the Atlanta show, which is my local show. And I know the first year or so, I didn't write much about it or blog about it. So, I'm like, I think it's 2012 or something like that. But what do you, just over the general scope of the time you've been going there, how do you think this show has improved or gotten worse or changed or anything like that? Have you noticed really any difference in the past several years of this show?

'''Myke Madison:''' Well, I mean, we've got a new venue this year, which is pretty darn cool. As far as that change for it, I mean, it's gotten bigger, for sure. There are definitely more vendors than when I started going. Good. The, sort of the public response kind of waxes and wanes. I think it really has a lot to do with, one, weather, oddly enough. And, two, like, it's a very nice day outside. Sometimes it's slower. But, and, two, I think it has to do with, you know, how well we get the word out each year. So, every once in a while, I don't know, there have been a couple of years where they've done a newspaper article and that sort of thing. And that seems to have really helped out attendance. So, you know, it kind of waxes and wanes a little bit. But, overall, it's a kind of calm show anyway. It's not like your DCs or Chicago's or something. It's pretty chill. But it really, it's a good show. I like it a lot.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think that's what I enjoy the most about it. Like, so we, this is my second year in a row attending this show. And I bring Nock to sell all of our Nock Co. goodies there. And I find that people who are first timers to this show, which there were a bunch this year, too, which is always fantastic. They want to know, okay, this is my local show. How does my local show compare to all the other shows you go to? And, like, they want to know how it compares to DC. And I'm like, well, I mean, you can't, you can kind of compare them. But it's not really the same thing. What Raw, and I always say, like, what this show provides is something for everyone. Like, you're not missing out. If this is your show and you can't make it to DC or Chicago or San Francisco, you don't miss out on anything. It's just like the overall size is bigger. Okay, DC might be three or four times the amount of tables. I don't know, I might be even selling that short. The huge amount of crowds. But you get all the same vendors, right? And you actually get time to talk to the vendors. You're not spending your time elbowing your way to the front edge of the table to see what's going on, right?

'''Myke Madison:''' Yeah, I think so. I mean, so Raleigh has all the modern stuff you want because it's got Anderson and Federalist Pens is there. And Crazy Allen's Emporium shows up with modern stuff and paper and whatnot. And you've got a bunch of, oh, Van S was there this year, which is a first. Yeah. You get a bunch of vintage dealers. You've got a good auction. So it's got a good smattering of things. So while it doesn't have everything like DC will, it's got some of everything and probably, you know, most of what you're looking for. Yeah. And you get to keep your sanity, you know. Right. Yeah. It's got about 70 tables. So it's actually not that small. It feels kind of small, but 70 tables is actually kind of a lot of tables.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I thought it was, the setup was awesome. It was one of the better rooms, just like physical room setup that I've been in, just from the space in the aisles and the lighting. I mean, those are two things we rarely talk about, right? But that helps a lot when it's like comfortable to get around and you're not going blind, like trying to see like old writing on a pen barrel.

'''Myke Madison:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So that's super helpful.

'''Myke Madison:''' I mean, as somebody who takes a lot of pictures at shows, or at least I used to, the lighting is actually really important. And for people that are, you know, smaller makers like Brooks and Franklin Kristoff and Krusek and these folks, like you need to be able to see these things to appreciate how good they are. And a lot of the times you have what we call vendor lighting, which is this terrible yellow lighting.

'''Mike Matteson:''' It's just awful.

'''Myke Madison:''' Yep. But this show is in the new location has really nice white lighting, plenty of room, which I think is underrated. There are lots of shows that are kind of cramped. So, you know, when people ask what stage to bring to a pen show, they're like, don't take a backpack. You can take a backpack to Raleigh because these aisles must be, I mean, what, 10 feet across or something? It's huge. There's so much room.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, pretty close. And we even had room behind the tables. Usually, like the vendors, like when I'm standing behind the table and have someone else behind me, we practically have to stagger ourselves from, you know, not bumping butts the whole time, you know? Yeah. But this time we probably had five feet behind our tables, if not a little bit more than that. It was absolutely fantastic. And it just, you know, it allows the crowds to get through there better because sometimes you can't get clogged areas in the aisle. And this isn't a place, like a pen show is not a place where you're like rushing through from like store to store to store. Like in a mall, you want to go and you want to spend some time looking at what people have. You want to talk to the person behind the table to maybe learn more about what they're selling and what they're doing. So, I don't know. I think this is kind of, you know, the perfect setup, especially for a first timer, but, you know, experienced people like yourself. You're not missing out on anything from a show like this. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. From a not perspective, just to let everyone, kind of give everyone like a baseline of how we do at shows like this. We did more in sales this year than last year. So, that's always hugely successful for us. Like when I can, you know, track those numbers and see what we did last year versus what we did this year. And, you know, we had bigger sales this year. Hey, I can't complain, right? I mean, that's pretty awesome. Awesome.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, did you end up buying anything at this show?

'''Myke Madison:''' I mean, I bought a couple of things.

'''Myke Madison:''' I actually wasn't really. I didn't have anything in mind. I didn't have a list. I often don't bring a list anymore, which, you know, may be trouble, but whatever. I'll run that risk. But I did get a few things. Mostly, I got auction stuff. So, if you want to save that for later, we can. But the first thing I bought was I walked in and there's a guy named Rob who has – he's often got pin stands and display cases and all kinds of stuff that he schleps around all these shows. And they're awesome, but they're always too big for me to fly with. So, he didn't have some of the huger ones that I was really into, which is good because it's expensive. I don't have the space. But I did pick up this really awesome Acme pin stand. So, it holds, I don't know, a dozen pins or something. It's sort of this arc with primary color shape things going on like Acme does. And so, I picked that up. So, that was my very first pin show purchase. I got a couple of inks. I got Colorverse Sunspot and I got the new Krishna ink from Hippo. And I haven't really had a chance to try those out. I've swabbed them, but that's all I've done with them. And then I ended up buying a really nice pocket knife from a guy who was one of my viewers who brought a bunch of knives to the show to show me because he knows I'm kind of a knife guy. And I guess that's – oh, and I got one of the Noxa pillows, which is pretty cool. Nice. And then some auction stuff, and that's really about it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, I saw you walking down the aisle after you purchased that Acme display, and I just looked at you and I pointed. I was like, where did you get that? But I didn't say that. You just saw it in my eyes, and you're like, oh, that guy down there. I'm like, that's really cool. That's just a neat little display. I was pretty anxious to go down there and check out what else he had. No more of those cool Acme displays, but like you said, he had some Retro 51. And I didn't end up going back. I went down there, poked around, and I was like, oh, I'll come back later. And I kind of never did. So, that's okay. But yeah, I can – since I drive to this show, I'm able to pick up a few extra things like that. So, that's the right place to pick up on those bigger things. But kind of like you, I didn't really – I don't think I bought anything in the show proper, but the auction I did. And that's kind of – that's where all my funds were allocated this year. Not purposefully, necessarily, but I did get some good stuff. And I picked up a Parker Dual Fold Centennial Big Red. I'm actually trying to figure out the exact name of this one. Like, I found it on parkerpens.net. And I'll put a link in the show notes for everyone to go see it. But the naming convention on this pen and these modern ones, like this looks like it's from 2015, is really confusing. Because once you say Parker Dual Fold and Big Red in a search term, that's like 100 years worth of pens for Parker, right? Yeah, right. So, it's impossible to like – I haven't totally nailed down the exact name or model. But it was an orange one, which, you know, that always speaks to me. And it had gold furniture, and it looks really nice, and I'm real happy with that. But – and that pen and this next pen, which is the Yard of Lead Viceroy Grand, I've had a Parker Dual Fold and a Yard of Lead pen just on the mental list for years. Like, I don't own either of those pens. I have always wanted those pens. Both of those pens tend to be somewhat expensive when you're shopping for other things as well. They've never been at like number one on the list, but it's always been, I would like to have one of these eventually. So, when they popped up at auction and I was able to get them for good prices, the Yard of Lead, you know, more of a deal, if you will, than the Dual Fold. You know, I'm happy to like add those to the collection. Those are things I've been looking for for a long time. And then the last one I picked up was a Rotring 600, which I already have the lava fountain pen with a steel nib. I wanted a 600 with a gold nib, and they just happened to have one there at the auction. That 600 has a gold nib on it, huh? Yeah. I wouldn't have even bid on it if it was the steel nib, unless it went for really low. But that's the only reason I bid on it was it had a gold nib.

'''Myke Madison:''' I remember looking at it, and I thought it had the silver ends on it, so I didn't even open it up. I was like, ah, I've got one of those. It has a gold nib, huh? I think that might be an aftermarket gold nib then.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's got the Rotring label on it, and it's got the gold band on the outside of the pen. Oh, does it? I must have just missed it. Well, I'm glad you got it. Actually, it's not just a gold band. It's the entire gold top. So the top finial is gold.

'''Myke Madison:''' Yeah, I must have missed it. But I'm glad it went to a good home. I've got the black version of that pen. I've got a few Rotrings as well. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's great. And that is a broad nib, which is actually kind of hard to find, too. So that's really cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so that's where I don't let the nib size get in the way of me getting a pen that's really cool and that I want. I'm not normally... Like if there's five of these out when these came out and I have a choice of an extra fine nib, of course, I'm going to buy that. But I wasn't going to pass this one up. And what's weird about this nib, it's so broad that it's almost like a stub. It's a little bit squared off. So I kind of like riding with it so far. I'm not going to get it changed or tweaked or anything. I kind of like what it offers as far as the line goes. Yeah, don't change it. I'll trade you a medium or something. Don't change it. I'm not going to change it at all.