Editing The Pen Addict 216/transcript (section)

== Cafeco Ice Sport ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think people eyedrop are the classics and the sports, the plastic barrel ones. But this is a new release. That's why you haven't seen this one before. They added a couple of colors into the Ice Sport. This is an inexpensive pen to begin with that I recommend all the time. And I know Anna's a fan of this barrel size and shape and quality as well. And I never see it go on sale. That's like a steal. $17 after all the coupons and everything.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Yeah, I rarely see it lower than about $24.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I was gonna say about $24 is pretty consistent. So, you know, even though it's, you know, the percentage off it is great. 30% off of this pen is just for something you never see. That's, that's quite a deal. Especially for such a good pocket pen, a quality writing pen, and it just, it just flat out looks cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So Brad spoiled my, my ability to reveal the price, which I enjoy so much.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, sorry.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So you stole that from me this week.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, if you do it much better, because you like read all the details, I just go straight to the, straight to the candy, and you start with the packaging.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I'm gonna try, I'm gonna do it my way. So you can get 30% off the Cafeco Ice Sport in black. Plus, when you add the 10% code to the great savings that Pen Chalet will give, it takes this pen from $27 to just $17 and a penny. It's a new color, as Brad said, and there is a limited amount available, Ron has told me. So if you're interested in picking up one of these brand new Kaweco Ice Sports, head on over to PenChalet.com right now and order immediately. Thank you so much to Pen Chalet for supporting this show and RelayFM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Alright, so we got a slew of news this week. Two, two really main ones, and then a few little tidbits we're gonna throw in there. And we're gonna start off with not the one that everyone wants to hear about, but it's the one I want to talk, but I want to talk about the most. This is the one that's actually more important. And it's the news that Omos got bought this week, which is super interesting, because I forget who I was just talking to in the past week or two, talking about Omos and not knowing what was gonna happen. And it was kind of disappointing, because they make such wonderful pens. And it was a pen brand that I'd just gotten into, you know, right before, you know, within the year before them going out of business. And the news came out that the group that revitalized the Wall Eversharp brand is the buyer. And that's important, I think, because within the pen community, that's a very well-respected group, right? Like, you wonder about these people who buy old pen companies, Estherbrook, and try to do things that don't really line up with the core values. Of what the brand was at one point in time. Wall Eversharp has proven through their revitalization of the brand, that they can make a high-quality pen that is wonderful looking, wonderful performing, and true to the history of the brand. So, you hope that the same thing is going to happen here with Omos. So, there's still details to be forthcoming. But it's, the way the original post was worded, it says that they bought basically all the stock, all the materials, all of that. So, they're going to be selling some of the old stock pens that they acquired. They have a bunch of the materials that they're going to continue to use to make products. So, I'm assuming by reading this that they have the whole kit and caboodle, including the name and the rights. Like, they're going to now, like, they have Wall Eversharp. Hopefully, they're going to be Omos now, too. Like, it's going to continue on. But that's kind of to be determined. They're still, they just announced this a few days ago. And it's still, you know, working through the thing. I'm sure that it'll be kind of the talk of the pen show in D.C. because they're going to be there. A gentleman named Sid Saperstein, who's one of the owners of Wall Eversharp. He's a really nice guy. I met him at last year's D.C. Pen Show. He was showing off the Deco Band, which is a really huge, massive pen. That's really, really beautiful and really well done. And our friend Matt at Pen Habit reviewed that pen. We'll put that in the show notes. So, I don't know. I thought this was very interesting. This is one of those things where it feels right. You know, just being in the community and reading about the companies involved and things changing hands. This is a very, this one gives me a very comfortable feeling, right? As opposed to, like, what some other brands have done. Hesterbrook and things like that. So, it's a very positive thing, I think, so far. Still, like I said, a lot to be determined. But if this happens and Omos can continue in a reasonable format that does justice to the brand as it existed previously, this is going to be a huge win for everybody.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I definitely got the impression that they had the rights to the name to continue. Just from reading that post. I mean, it doesn't say it explicitly and I've just checked it again. But it kind of feels like they're saying, oh, we're going to continue to make them. And unless they're going to continue to make new pens out of those materials, but that feels like a bad business move if that's what they did, right? Like buying up the old stock, buying up materials and giving them a new name. I feel like that would not be a great investment there, to be honest. Unless you were just buying the stock to sell it off, which they are doing, and then kind of call it quits. But it doesn't feel like that because the whole post is focused around bringing the brand back to life. Right. And I think you wouldn't be doing that if all you're doing is kind of just fire sailing the stock away.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, right. It's just that, like you, I read it a couple of times too, and it never...

'''Myke Hurley:''' It doesn't explicitly say it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Explicitly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But that could be a legal thing because it might not be finished yet.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. The feeling is that it's going to continue as Omos, just like Will Ever Sharp did.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. And that's great. I mean, I know that Omos means a lot to people. You know, at Atlanta, I saw people spending ridiculous amounts of money on vintage Omos pens and stuff like that. And I know how important this brand is. There are some stuff that they do really nice, but they have some design details that are not to my liking, which I really hope that the Wild Ever Sharp people change, like the kind of the little logo banding thing that they do around some of the pens. But I'm always happy, as are you, when I see a good company do something like this. And, you know, it's one of the lovely fuzzy feelings that we get as being in this pen community, is seeing stuff like this happen, where there is somebody who loves this brand so much that they don't want to see it die. So they're going to take a risk on it and hope that the community will rally together. And, you know what, I bet there'll be a lot of people in the same way that there were when Nock launched, who will buy the stuff just to support the company, which then helps them kind of get their foot in so they can expand.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Ana, have you ever owned an Omos or reviewed an Omos? I don't recall.

'''Ana Reinert:''' I have not. One of my questions is, just reading through the article, whether or not some of what they'll do as they move forward is to sort of reduce the overall line. Because what I see with a lot of these brands is that they had such massive, like, array of products that maybe, you know, because they were saying that there was like a $10 million loss was part of what shut Omos down, is that maybe they need to, as they start to redevelop the brand, introduce only a couple models of a pen at a time. You know, what happens is I think they get, you know, 30 different pen models in four or five different colors. You know, they, I think they exceed what the market can handle, especially in some of these higher price points. You know, and I'm seeing where other companies do three or four models and they only do two colors, three colors, you know, and they release them slowly to build sort of market share and interest and only, maybe only have them available for a limited amount of time so that there's a genuine interest. And then be like, that's it, the blue one is only available for 2016 or 2017.

'''Ana Reinert:''' You know, so that they're not keeping a massive inventory and they're not sitting on the market. Let the secondary market have, you know, have those things for a longer term.