Editing The Pen Addict 330/transcript (section)

== Brad's Product Success ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' You have a lot of faith in me. I do. I'm not sure I have that. I did pull something off that was pretty cool though, Myke. I'm not going to lie. The Pink Robots Retro 51 edition is the best product pen-wise that I've ever done and I did not see this coming.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What do you mean? I mean, obviously it's incredible, but what do you mean in best?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' As far as the reception and the sales and the praise for it has been rocking my brain for a couple of weeks now since we've launched it. So, and all the credit goes out to Matthew Morse. I just want people to understand that this doesn't happen without his mind putting, allowing him to create an image that spoke to me on a different level and allowing me to think about the process of putting in a pen and for him agreeing to work with me on this and not knowing what the reception was going to be for this pen. It's very different. Yep. Because it's very different. Like I said, it's very personal. It's very weird. And it's sold better than any other pen that I've done. Like, I can't remember what the 300 orange ones, I can't remember how long they took to sell, but they took a couple months at least. I'm pretty sure. They kind of, you know, you sell a bunch in the beginning, then you trickle through the back end. Yep. Um, and then the isometric, I ordered 600. So I ordered even more. And I think I maybe got 20 or 30 of those left. There's not many left. So those have hung around most of the year. So I ordered 500 of these pink robots, which we've talked about all this stuff before, but I'm just like, I'm laying it out there. So behind the scenes. So I ordered 500. I put 450 up for sale on the site because, you know, I take a handful, you know, for me, you know, I pull back some numbers for you and Matthew gets his first choice at all the ones he wants for him and his family. And then I have, you know, say we took maybe 15 total that we've pulled out. Okay. So that gives me 35. I haven't put on site just waiting for all the first shipments to get there safe and sound. Right. I want to protect, like, I can't give you another pin if they're all sold out and yours gets lost or damaged in the mail. So I pull, you know, a certain amount. So I put 450 units up for sale as of this morning before the podcast, Myke, I had 30 left for sale.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That is wild.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I am genuinely blown away. Like, I can't. I am shocked. On top of that. I sent one out. To be delivered to the lead singer of the Flaming Lips, and I hope he gets it. Um, so we had, I had a customer. Wow. Who's friends with the band and with people in the band and they ordered some and we started talking. And I said, well, can you get one to Wayne? And he's like, yeah, just let me. I said, I bought three. Let me buy another one. I'm like, no, no, let me just send you one. And, uh, so I hope I'm crossing my fingers. We can get one of them in the band's hands. But just this whole project has been nuts. Like I am already sweating next time, even though this time isn't done. That's just how my brain works. Right. But, uh, thank you all. I guess that's, that's what I'm getting at. Thank you for your support of this project. I know if Matthew was here, maybe we should get him on one day. Matthew would say thank you too. Um, his mind's been blown. My mind's been blown. Um, I am just forever grateful for the support of this pin and the story Matthew and I wanted to tell about it. And, uh, we really appreciate it. That's, uh, that's it. So if you were thinking about waiting for this pin, I hope you listen to this and decide not to, I don't ever like to push people to buy things, but if you actually wanted this pin and said you're going to wait, you will regret that in a few weeks. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If you want it, like there's not going to be any more. So, you know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So anyway, thank you all for making this possible. It exceeded any of my wildest expectations. Like I would not have put this. This is not somewhere I would have gone if I, if I had to guess how this would progress. Um, you know, it's best case scenario. So wonderful, wonderful, uh, wonderful support for it. So thank you all. And thank you for Matthew.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I'm pleased that you posted, uh, on the pen addict, the story behind it all. So if you haven't read that, you should go and read it. It will probably make you want to buy one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I've had several, like, I don't know. Just the feedback. I don't want to go through it all, but the feedback has been awesome. I've gotten lots of emails and lots of comments and things like that. It's been really nice. Been really great feedback. Um, so yeah, cool. Thank you.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So we spoke about the Schmidt P8 120 last week. This is the fabled, uh, thicker lined, uh, ink, right? So like the retro 51 or refill. I ordered a handful of these. Um, I ordered them in blue. So I figured why not? So I got some blue P8 120s. I'm not impressed really. Honestly, it's not as thick as I was expecting it to be. I mean, it really isn't that much thicker than the P8 126. And I mean, I don't know if this is just because I got blue. I don't know why, but it doesn't feel as smooth or as nice to me as the P8 126 does.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's super interesting because it's wider. It's a wet ink to begin with. You would think it would be very smooth, very marker-ish.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's still smooth, but I prefer the way the P8 126 feels. I can't tell you why. I just like it more. I can notice that there is a difference, but honestly, like you write with these and there really doesn't seem to be a huge difference in the thickness of these lines.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I mean, you know, I've had, ever since we had that episode, I've had more people tweeting me saying, I bought this and it's amazing. So apparently we're wrong on this one. I'm not saying it's bad.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's just like the difference is not as striking as I was hoping it was going to be. Like there is a difference, but I was hoping for something really significant and it's not that really. Honestly, I think most people wouldn't notice if they had the P8 120 instead of the P8 126. Unless you told them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So it's the P8 128 basically, right? Sure. It's right in line with 678 right there. Yes. Slight range differences. Okay. Well, that's good to know because I will never buy one. I'll try someone if they put it in front of my face, but I'm glad it exists because a lot of people seem to enjoy it. So that's good. I'm glad there's an option for that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If this is your thing, I'm super happy. Go for it. It's great because it's still, for me, it's basically as good as the other one, right? The P8 126, but I just like the 126 more. Again, I can't tell you why. Maybe I'm just so used to it at this point that any slight difference I'm recognizing and I'm just not, like, it just doesn't feel as good or whatever, like, because there's a slight difference. But yeah, I was really hoping for an even thicker line than what this one gives.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. Well, in the realm of hope, there's a new hope for you in the UK, Myke, a new Retro 51 stockist, if you will. I put this link in here basically for you. Thanks. And any of our listeners in the UK, but really for you to pay attention to. This was provided to me by Retro 51. This is someone they're working with now in that market to bring more products over there. So, manic.co.uk. Man Inc. So, it's Man Inc. M-A-N-N-I-N-C. Man Inc. I-N-C. So, we'll have a link in the show notes. They're carrying Retro 51s and some other products. Looks like they carry Kaweco too. But this is who Retro told me to tell you to pay attention to if you're looking for stuff. So, I know you have a few options in your market for them, but that's another one for you. So, I thought I'd throw that out there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm happy to support a new store. They don't have anything of note right now. They just have pretty standard editions. But yeah, if they're brand new, they probably don't have anything. But I'll be keeping my eye on them for future products that I want to get my hands on.