Editing The Pen Addict 104/transcript (section)

== Graduation Gifts ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I do have some follow-up. Just a quick one because I'm still getting a lot of questions about it from last week's episode where we did the Twitter Q&A. Okay. This time of year is graduation time for high schools, colleges. So, I'm still getting a lot of the graduation gift questions. And right after we recorded, someone sent me the link that Brian Goulet at Goulet Pens had just put up a post about the top five fountain pens for graduation gifts. So, I thought it was kind of pertinent and his list is really good.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' He breaks it down into three factors to consider when you're buying a graduation gift. Presentation. Is the pen going to look good? Is it going to make an impression on the person that you're giving it to?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Kind of a quality of the pen. Is it going to last a long time? Is it durable? Is it a pen they're going to be able to use for years, perhaps the rest of their lives? And ease of use. Is the pen enjoyable? Is it an easy rider? Is it an easy cleaner? You know, maybe the person you're giving it to hasn't necessarily experienced a fountain pen. So, you want to give them an easy pen that's easy to use that they can figure out quickly. So, he put together his list. And I got to say, it's pretty good. His number one is the Lamy Studio, which is just a very well-designed, kind of striking Lamy. It's one of the few Lamy's I think that you can get in a steel nib option and a gold nib option, which they usually just kind of do one or the other. So, that's a good choice there. Then he's got the Edison. Anything from the Edison line. Then he's got a Lamy 2000. And he's got a Monteverde Invincia Deluxe, which is just butt ugly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That black nib is horrible.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's bad. It'd be better if it was all – they make an all-black one where it's actually reasonable. But with this gold or – that might even be rose gold. Yeah, that's rose gold, which is just – that's not pretty. And then a platinum 3776, which is a pen we will talk about later because I'm enjoying the one that I have. And then it has the honorable mention of the Vanishing Point. You know, that's a tough gift pen. Aside from how cool it is, it's just not made for everyone to write with. So, anyway, I wanted to throw that out there for people that are still looking for graduation gift ideas, especially from fountain pens. And what's interesting, a lot of these options – well, not a lot, but some of them have rollerball options. Like if you're not a fountain pen person or don't want to buy a fountain pen as a gift, I know the Lamy's have rollerball options for these same pens. So, something to keep in mind. So, that's a good link, good reference from Mr. Goulet. And since we haven't done it in a while, I wanted to give a quick NotCo update just because we're about to wrap up this thing, Myke. Can you believe it? Wow. Yeah. So, last update, I did an update Sunday. We only have 140 orders left out of 2066. And then I just shipped out about 40 of those today. So, we're down to about 100 orders left. And I'll have, I don't know, another 30 or so shipped out tomorrow. And then probably most of them by late next week, we should be just about there, just about done. So, I just wanted to give people the heads up that we're not going to roll straight into the store opening. Once the Kickstarter is fulfilled, we need to build up some inventory. So, we're going to take probably the rest of the month of May to build up inventory. We're going to look for a workspace that we can rent. We're going to look to hire some help. I think we're just at that point. The feedback has been so good. And we got people lining up for this stuff that we want to, you know, do a better job of getting our production out quicker. So, we need all these things. So, we're going to take May to kind of get that going. And then we'll have the shop open in June sometime. I'm not going to say June 1st, but it'll be in June at some point in time. So, it's looking good for that to wrap up here in the next week or two. And we'll be done with the NotCo Kickstarter. And then we'll be on to phase two and open up the store and get into retail. And then we'll really see what's going on with this thing. It's pretty crazy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Wow, you've been a busy guy.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I am. Yeah, I'm extremely busy. I'm so busy, Myke, but I'm not too busy to order new pens. And I ordered a pen last week. I'm not sure if you caught this on my Twitter because you've been busy all week. Yeah, I haven't really been busy. I haven't seen you online hardly. Yeah. But I placed an order for a Nakaya.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Wow, what one?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I'm not going to tell you.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' How's that?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, that was what I was going to say. I have actually tried out a Nakaya this week. Oh, cool. Now, this is from, again, this is one of the very, very lovely people whose name I cannot remember. He had incredible blonde flowing locks of hair. Nice.