Editing The Pen Addict 229/transcript (section)

== Journaling Pens ==


'''Brian Anderson:''' Well, I've always enjoyed writing and always had special pens that I would use for journaling or even homework. And as I got older, I kind of stopped. I lost interest for a little while with kids and all of that. And then got back into it in the late 90s. Just remember, I was bored and just remembered how much I really enjoyed, you know, some of the really cheap like Schaefer school pens and things like that that I had used when I was in school. And found a couple and got re-hooked.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And did you start like trying to find other fountain pens then? Or did you, you know, the internet was in its younger years then. Did you jump online and try to figure out where I can get more of this stuff? Or did you look locally and try to find some pen shops to get more involved?

'''Brian Anderson:''' I was in Tampa and there was one pen store, but it was downtown. And I hate one-way streets and parallel parking. So I spent a lot of time on eBay. And I was lucky. I met someone online who did some pen repair. And he became a bit of a mentor and kind of steered me toward Estrobrooks because they were cheap. They were easy to find. And they were easy to repair.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's super cool to have like that little bit of a guiding hand to kind of get you in the right direction when you're just getting into it. What about you, Brian? Is this like a deep-seated thing, this love for pens that you currently have? Has this been around your whole life?

'''Brian Anderson:''' Well, I've always been interested in antiques. And I used to go to a lot of antique stores. And I came across one day a Venus President, which was a striped pen, looks similar to a vacuumatic. And I couldn't take my eyes off it, so I bought it. I ended up actually breaking the pen between the point where I left the antique store and getting home.

'''Brian Anderson:''' That was a good buy.

'''Brian Anderson:''' Ended up calling the antique store owner and asked if I could get in touch with the vendor. And we ended up having about a two-hour phone conversation about fountain pens. And then eBay came along, and I started buying pens off eBay. And then I realized there were literally millions of variations. And then the rest is history, as they say. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, you know, you started doing this, started getting into eBay, started kind of building your collections, figuring out what you liked. And what was kind of the next turn for each of you individually? I mean, is that when you're starting to, like, okay, go out into the community, go to pen shows for your own personal leads? This is obviously before Anderson Pens is a thing, because at this time, you're not married, right? I mean, that's kind of part of your story.

'''Brian Anderson:''' We were both in other relationships and didn't know each other, but we were both collecting Estabrooks and kind of became linked just by reputation. You know, if you had a question about an Estabrook, you know, ask Lisa or ask Brian. I went to a couple of pen shows, probably about the same time. We think that we may have gone to a pen show together before we knew each other in Miami. But the Miami pen show back in, I don't know, 99 or 2000 was an eye-opening experience for me. It wasn't just me interested in all of this. And it was amazing. I met a couple of people who I'm still good friends with at that one pen show.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, wow.

'''Brian Anderson:''' Yeah, yeah. Deb Kinney kind of took me under her wing at the show. I clearly looked like a deer in the headlights. And took me around, introduced me to people. I bought my first modern fountain pen, which I regret selling. So I'm always on the lookout for it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, what was it? What are you going to tell us now?

'''Brian Anderson:''' It was a Visconti Kaleido, the original version in Burgundy.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Nice. Nice. And so this finally escalated to a point where y'all are kind of running across each other's paths more frequently. So how did this finally come to be Anderson Pens?

'''Brian Anderson:''' Well, a long story short, I guess, Facebook came along. And I was sitting there in my room one day. And I thought, well, I wonder what that Lisa is doing. And sent her a request.

'''Brian Anderson:''' That was after we met the first time.

'''Brian Anderson:''' That was it. Well, yeah, we did. We met in 2003 at the Chicago Pen Show.

'''Brian Anderson:''' Two geeky, nerdy pen friends. And we actually had some of our pens photographed for one of Paul Arano's books. And it's one of my favorite stories and Brian's least favorite stories. The pens were all attributed to me in the book, even though most of them were Brian's. So it was.

'''Brian Anderson:''' He got it straight in a second printing.

'''Brian Anderson:''' Yeah. But we used to bid against each other on eBay. And I cost him a lot of money. And because if I couldn't have it, he was going to pay for it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Brian Anderson:''' But then we called a truce. And then we met, like Brian said, in 2003 at the Chicago Pen Show. And then kind of lost touch for a couple of years until he friended me on Facebook. And we reconnected.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's pretty cool. I'm over here grinning because I love these stories like this. And you're probably like, oh, we've told this story a million times. But I want to hear it. I want to make you cringe a little bit telling it again. But I think it's important that people understand that you guys have been doing this for a long time. Like this is what you've been into for, I mean, decades at this point. And, you know, it's important to y'all. And you've always been in this community. You've always been like a very positive light in this community and very helpful. And, you know, this comes from this backstory. I mean, this has always been a thing for you guys, right?

'''Brian Anderson:''' Yeah, we both started in 98. And I guess the one thing Lisa didn't mention was... Makes me teary. One day she sent me an email. She was having a bunch of her pens photographed for an online pen magazine. And she was all excited. She sent me these pictures. They were professionally photographed. And I'm looking through it. I'm like, you know, that's cool. I have that one, that one. That's a neat pen.

'''Brian Anderson:''' Right.