Editing The Pen Addict 320/transcript (section)

== Show Sales & Attendees ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Agree. Agree. So, Friday, the setup went smooth. I think across the board, the show vendors and maybe even the attendees felt it was a quieter day than they remembered from last year. But all of our last year's brains are skewed, right? So, we have a very confusing, like, I couldn't remember what sales we did on Friday last year because it was such a wreck of a setup. We were all very stressed.

'''Myke Hurley:''' My memory tells me it was kind of okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, I think, so, like, our sales on Friday, we just thought were okay. Like, it was a real good day, but it wasn't like a blowout, knockout day. But, like, as with any pin show, pretty much the only day that matters is Saturday, right? Yep. If you do super well Saturday, Friday and Sunday, you're happy with whatever you get. So, Saturday, we just killed it all day from the doors open until close. It was a very good sales day.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Excellent.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And, you know, people were lined up at 9 a.m. to get into the show, you know, out in front of the show tables, and we were ready for them. And just all day, that was just a really good, really good day. Went by quickly. Very, very busy. And then Sunday, a lot of shows, you don't do much on Sunday. Like, Atlanta pin show, we do very little on Sunday. Yet, that's one of our best shows of the year, sales-wise. Sunday in D.C., you stay pretty busy all day. So, we had real good sales. And by the end, we squeaked past the 2018 Atlanta show. This was our most sales ever for NotCo at a single pin show. So, it was very successful for us. And from a business perspective, from a personal perspective, it was extraordinary. The people at this show were amazing. The people at every show were amazing. I feel like I don't ever go, oh, people sucked. They were terrible at this show. But that's just consistently the best part of any show. Getting to meet all kinds of people. Getting to see people from the local show year after year that you've been able to become friends with, you know, online. Then you see them, you know, at their local show. You get to see people who travel from all around the world to make this pin show. Like, I get to see people here that I don't get to see in Atlanta or, you know, other shows that I go to. And vice versa, obviously. So, it's really cool. The feedback, like, on all our products was great. The people that had nice things to say about the podcast. There were actually people that missed you, Myke. They were like, they were sad you weren't there, which kind of confused me a little bit. I wasn't quite understanding that. But I did have you on my chest the whole time. So, I had my Kickstarter Tallulah pin case and me, you, and Anna's heads on a stick. Our little pins. So, you were with us, you know, at least, you know, you were on my body, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, there are images of the pins that Anna was sharing. I'll put a link in the show notes. I'm very, very, very, very excited about them because they look very, very good.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Lots of great feedback on those. I wanted to make sure we had those there because we had the black Tallulahs for sale at the show. And those did really well. And I wanted to be able to show people what the Kickstarter one was coming, you know, if they were waiting on those. And I put the pins on there as well. So, it was kind of a neat little thing to do. And sidebar from that, those should be, the Kickstarter one should be arriving at my house this week. Yay! Yeah, so that's good. And we'll get all that, we'll get all that coordinated. But, man, like, just like any show, the people were amazing. This bar scene, like, it's not the best bar setup, but it's pretty good. The only negative surrounding the show, the only thing I can say bad is, like, there's not a lot of food options that are easily accessible at this show. You have to drive anywhere if you want to get...

'''Myke Hurley:''' And the hotel food is bad, very bad. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' At least it was last year, it was very bad. Well, the service was very bad, too, which always makes the food taste worse. And that kind of continued this year. They're pretty rough on the service. We overwhelmed them, and they haven't learned the lesson, the staffing lesson from that from the previous year. So, if there was any, you know, one tick in the downside column is that the restaurant and the service staff there is always a struggle. That's been two years in a row consistently. But the bar scene itself, since there's not a lot of places to go outside the hotel, it's packed. Like, jam freaking packed. I didn't leave before 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday night. And that's not like me. I usually go to bed earlier than that because I'm usually wiped out. But there were so many people still there at those times. Like, the bar shut down at 11, 1130 those nights. And when I left about 1 o'clock, there were still dozens of people just hanging out. So, it was good to be around that setup and, you know, just hang out and mix and mingle between, you know, different tables and, you know, different people that you haven't seen, different people you didn't get to say hi to during the day at the show. And it's a real event there at D.C. So, I loved it. It was pretty awesome. And then we all got to come together and pay respects to our friend Jim Rouse. You know, we all had some, a lot of us had different types of display things on our table. Franklin Kristoff, of course, had a big, big, huge display with a print of Jim and flowers and, you know, Coke bottles with Jim's name on it. And, you know, we had a Coke bottle with Jim's name on it. And I gave those out to a bunch of people. I'd ordered some. So, you know, it was nice to be able to talk about Jim and talk about our buddy that we will forever miss. So, I don't want to leave out the wonderful print that Joey Feldman did for Jim Rouse where all of the proceeds for this print are going to Jim's grandchildren who he cared so much about. And, you know, he would always tell me stories about his grandkids, especially when my kids were around Jim. So, it was good to be able to not really get closure on Jim's passing, but just to, you know, pay our respects and share our Jim stories with, you know, a bunch of friends. Like, I haven't gotten to see the Franklin Kristoff team, obviously, since he passed. So, it was nice to be able to chat with Scott and Audrey and everyone there. So, it was really cool. So, this Joey's print, he has it up for sale until Friday. I think the date, he extended the date on the website. So, if you look at the website and it says it ends the 6th, it's actually through the 10th or something like that. So, you should have time to get that. And I thought that was a cool thing. So, big picture. It was practically a 10 out of 10 pen show. Pen out of pen. Yeah, pen out of pen. So, the only negative I can attribute to the show, which probably isn't going to change, is the bar and food scene. Like, we got out of the hotel once.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You know, there's absolutely nothing that the organizers of the show can do. Right? Like, that's on the hotel.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. So, yeah. So, like, I have no qualms about it. It was fine. We made it through. You know, we ordered out lunch one day. Had someone, had it delivered. You know, we went out one night. About 10 of us piled in some cars. Drove a couple miles to a restaurant. And so, it was good to get out for a minute. But, yeah. It was fantastic. Just the vibe and the people and just the entire scene was really, really great. A lot of people came to the show. It was packed. So, good job this year, DC. You've redeemed yourself in a quite admirable fashion. And, yeah. I can't wait until next year.

'''Myke Hurley:''' For the majority of people, pen shows are not just for selling. Pen shows are for buying. And I would never believe that you would go to the Washington, DC, Fountain Pen Super Show and not walk away with your wallet a little lighter and your pockets a little heavier. So, I'm sure there's some stuff that you've purchased. But before we do, maybe we should make you some money.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Let's please do that.

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' Jeff actually laughed at me when I brought out the Harry's dop kit. He's like, oh, there it is. The famous dop kit. It's just like, as a matter of fact, like, oh, there it is. And so, yeah, I had to redeem myself the last time Harry sponsored when Les was on the episode. When we talked about me ordering the Pride set the last time you and I recorded, I misclicked, basically. Yeah, yeah. I got it all set and thought I paid for it and I didn't. What I forgot to mention with Les is that was the order where I added the mystery gift, right? And everyone wanted to know, everyone wanted to know, what's the Mr. GIF? What's the Mr. GIF? It was a completely additional handle and blade. So, like, I have this charcoal gray handle and blade now, which is good for us since we currently have three Harry's users. And I'll eventually have a fourth if my son ever hits puberty, you know, one of these years. So, yeah, it was nice to have that extra blade. That was what my extra handle and blade. That's what the mystery gift was. And then secondly, the Pride gift set, I ended up using the box for my new pencil box on my desk. I had a cigar box, but that box is so nice and fun and colorful and it's a little bit bigger than a cigar box. So, it fits my pencils well. And actually, Harry's, their social media on Twitter actually thoroughly enjoyed that tweet when I sent it out. So, that was fun.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You're the Brad Dowdy. That's why.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's right.

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' I had one thing on my shopping list for this show and that was to get a pin case from Yenderings. So, you've probably been seeing these online. A bunch of people have been seeing these online and I knew they were going to be at Toronto. They're from Toronto and I knew they would be at DC. So, I wanted to make sure to pick one up. I ended up picking up two.