Editing The Pen Addict 483/transcript (section)

== Survey Results ==


'''Brad:''' I do know. So, Catherine Palmisano and Michael Harris have put together this survey. It's still ongoing. And what we want you to do, if you're listening to this, we want you to go click this link in the show notes today. Because we have 418 responses so far, Myke, which is more than doubled last year's response rate. And this is just a fun survey. It's like, you know, kind of like one of those anonymous demographic, you know, what are you into type of surveys where we just try to figure some things out about the Panaddict community, right? It's definitely, you know, skewed to, like, the nerds who are, I say that lovingly, being one of them, you know, like in the Panaddict Slack. And, like, this group that listens to a podcast about pens, right? It's not necessarily the general, you know, public view of fountain pens. So, we have this very specific information. So, it's running about another week or so. And Michael and Kat sent me over a sneak peek of one of our favorite little questions in the survey, which is, what is your favorite fountain pen brand? So, have you had a chance to look at these results so far, Myke? Yeah. I have some things to say. Okay, so, let me read the current standings with 418 responses so far. Let's go down to up. Down to up. So, we have the top, what, six? Okay, top six brands. I think this is probably, like, a good line of demarcation here in the overall survey results. So, Lamy checks in at number six, 146. People voted Lamy as their favorite fountain pen brand. Lamy coming in fifth, platinum at 147. And then Pelican right above that and fourth at 149. So, that's a group right there.

'''Myke:''' Just real quick, we need to stop right there, I think, for a second. Yes. Obviously, Pelican, these two are very close. There's three in it, right? 146, 147, 149. Yes. This is not the order I would have placed these three in.

'''Brad:''' You personally or you thinking of what the public would reply?

'''Myke:''' The second part. I mean, probably me personally too, but the second part. I don't think I would have ranked Pelican as highly. I think I would have maybe, definitely I would have put platinum above Pelican. I would have put platinum higher than they are. But platinum would go above Pelican. And I don't know about Lamy and Pelican. I think maybe Lamy above Pelican as well. I feel like Pelican pens are great and they do great work. But you just hear less and maybe I feel like I see less. So, yeah, that surprised me. Just that three is a surprise.

'''Brad:''' Well, to me, out of those three, it's Lamy. That is someone's number one brand over the five above it, which I get. Like, obviously, I'm like the biggest Lamy lover ever. Would they be in my top five?

'''Brad:''' Probably. I guess they'd be in my top five. But remember, like, this is not saying this is someone's fifth ranked pen. This is saying this is what they voted for number one. Right? So, if you think about it that way, I think Lamy is shockingly well represented here. And I kind of like it. I'm down with that.

'''Brad:''' All right. You ready to jump into the top three? Yeah. I actually have a lot to say about this. Coming in at number three, would you have guessed, Myke, that it's Twisby? No. At 182 votes.

'''Myke:''' The reason I wouldn't is because Lamy's so low down. Right. Comparatively. But I get this more. Because I would consider these two brands similar in like, like they're in a very similar bracket to me from an availability and cost perspective.

'''Brad:''' I almost understand this more than the Lamy votes, to be honest, though.

'''Myke:''' I would put them higher myself, too. But I think it just surprises me that between Twisby and Lamy is Pelican and Platinum.

'''Brad:''' Yeah.

'''Myke:''' That is surprising to me, especially because of the gap. So, remember, Lamy was 146. Platinum was 147. Pelican's 149. Twisby's 182. That's a big gap. That jump is, it's just fascinating. This is why I'm so happy that Catherine and Michael put this together because it's the same as last time. I love picking through this. It's just, it's fascinating to me.

'''Brad:''' And I think the one and two are the most interesting thing and the thing I want to talk about. Yeah, we haven't even got to the part to discuss. I think the Twisby thing is interesting because that's the, if you're looking at this from the outside or looking at this from yours and ours perspective, like this is the area of the market that's growing the most, right? This Twisby range, right? And that's why we always talk about these pens because there's so many people getting into this hobby and finding, hey, we can share this cool stuff that Twisby's making and share it with y'all. And it turns out that that's kind of what maybe people have been looking for all the time. And like, that's all they need. And like, that's the, that's the Twisby thing. And, you know, they're able to take those Twisby's and they look cool and they're able to use bottle ink with most of them and just have a fun time with Twisby. So that one doesn't surprise me as much as some other stuff. All right. Number two, Myke, Sailor at 195 votes. Number one, Pilot, 241 votes. So the gap from number one at 241 to number two at 195 is the gap of Pilot and Sailor. What are your thoughts?

'''Myke:''' This is very...

'''Myke:''' I think the jump between them is the thing that surprises me the most. That it's 195 to 241. I don't know if I would have put Pilot to beat Sailor and everyone else by so much.

'''Brad:''' I think this is exceedingly interesting. When they sent me those numbers, I said, oh, I'm going to have a lot to say about this. And, like, at the fear of, like, talking about it now before even the results are finalized. I think it's such a big gap right now. My initial thoughts, I think I just want to go ahead and give them instead of waiting for the final results. And then we'll revert back. This surprised me. The gap surprised me. But here's my thoughts. All right. Just hang with me. I think we are currently living in a peak Sailor environment right now. I think Sailor has climbed to the top of the mountain over the past few years. And, like, in the past year, they've hit their peak. Right? What else is Sailor going to do for us today that is going to move the needle in the favorite fountain pen brand category? I don't know because they literally do everything. Like, what are we missing from Sailor right now? And I'm not saying this is a pro or a con. I'm just saying this as an observer. What do I want from Sailor right now?