Editing The Pen Addict 365/transcript (section)

== Blackwing Volumes Edition Discussion ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. So along the lines of what I'm using, I just got the Blackwing Volumes Edition in the latest subscription from them. This is the number 10. And I'm in love with this edition just right from the gate. Okay. It's a very simple looking pencil. Looks like a light gray. Yeah. It's like a light gray. It's a gray matte. It's got a matte finish. Uh-huh. So the story behind this one is, one of the reasons why I like it is the story behind it. So it's called The Journalism Pen. And it's based around a tribute to a journalist named Nellie Bly, who did this investigative reporting in the late 1800s around an insane asylum. And the series is called 10 Days in a Madhouse. And I'm not familiar with any of this. And the reason why I think it's cool is because I get an awesome stationery product and I get a story and I get to learn something. Right? So they like, not just, they didn't just say like, okay, this is what it's about. It's about Nellie Bly and investigative reporting and how important journalism is. They also provide you with the story itself printed on, like, it's not quite newsprint, but like the entire story, like as it was kind of laid out in the paper, like back in the 1800s, shipped with your, shipped with your pencil. So like I have this whole story to read now too, which I think is super fantastic. So I love this. I love the idea of this pencil. And I really love the style of the pencil, the black, excuse me, the gray matte barrel is super, super clean. It's got a silver ferrule and a dark gray eraser. It reminds me a lot of the Ada Lovelace pencil, which I love so much. It's a white barrel, black ferrule. And for some reason, I like these muted colors on the black wings. Like, you know, I've used some of the, you know, the wild ones, like the Tahoe and whatever the, like the, the lavender one was called. I forget the, the art series that the art movement that that was based on. But something about this one, plus it's got the extra fine, extra firm. I'm going to get that confused for the rest of my life. Extra fine and extra firm are two different things. So this has the extra firm core, which is their newest core. Or it's just an all around great pencil with a great story. So I think they did a really good job with this one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They continue to as well. It's really impressive. I was thinking about like, you know, off the heels of, of the field notes price increase, which I agree with. You know, I echo everything that you and Myke said, but that, you know, it's interesting to see that. But I was just thinking about like, what it must be like to come up with four ideas a year or whatever you end up having to do, right? To create a product like this. And we've seen many companies try and fail at it, right? Like it is.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Now that I have dipped my toe into the water of production of a notebook, the trying to make, not just have the ideas, but make it all line up with the times that you need to release these things, that it must be a Herculean effort. But I've been thinking more about that stuff recently.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I was thinking a lot about that this morning specifically around this pencil. So it's funny that you say that because all I could think about this morning, and I don't even know how I got started down this path, was how many editions they have right now that are in the process. Yes. Not even like, not even like on the drawing board, but like in production.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You've got to assume there has to be multiple because you have no idea if one's going to take four times longer than you thought. And if you're only working on one at a time, what are you going to do? There has to always be multiple ones, right? That would be my assumption.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. And how hard it is to coordinate and manage that process to hit these, you know, they're not exact dates, but they're close enough approximations that you need to hit around there. They have a window. You know, pretty closely. Yeah. You know, it's very small.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They have a window that they have to hit. It's very small. And not just for time, but also like for the success of their company, right? Right. Right. I'm sure that there are dates internally where it's like, we've got to hit this date because otherwise we're going to have a problem.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. Right. So related to that, I noticed the price on this dozen was $27.95.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And that caught me a little bit off guard. And apparently that had changed, I don't know, within the past year. It wasn't a new price change. I was used to them being $24.95 a dozen. I'm a subscriber to their volumes edition. I don't know what I pay per dozen. I'd have to go back and look. You know, you obviously get a little bit of a break with that, but I'd have to look and check. But $27.95 for a dozen pencils, so let's say $28 per dozen, we're getting about to the point where I might have to think about that because I don't use all the dozen that I get, right? You know, is that value still there for me at that price point? Right now it's fine. Like, I don't have a problem with that. And I just wonder, you know, hopefully this price will stay like this for a while, but I can get the idea from some people looking at a dozen pencils for $28 going, whew, yeah, that's a special thought process to make that kind of purchase. I feel it's worth it, like, right now. But I'm getting closer to the uncomfortable edge of the price point. So we'll see. But, like, that goes hand in hand with what we're just saying about how hard this is, right? Like, the price has to justify the work that goes into it. So, like, I get it. Like, I totally get it. But I got to, you know, evaluate that for my personal usage and things like that. But I agree. Like, it's close.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So coming up very soon, alarmingly soon, is the San Francisco Pen Show.