Editing The Pen Addict 477/transcript (section)

== Montblanc Ink Controversy ==


'''Brad:''' Let's talk about something fun, Myke. Is this fun? I think you're dreading this topic. I am ready to have fun with it.

'''Myke:''' I've read it. I've looked through the stuff. And I'm not convinced of how this is going to be a fun conversation. So, maybe you can call me around.

'''Brad:''' Hashtag Montblancgate, Myke. Hashtag Montblancgate. That's not my name. This is from the Fountain Pen Memes Instagram page, which is actually how I first found out about the fact. And I say that fact that Montblanc is duplicating, exactly duplicating, limited edition inks from years prior to years current. Facts. Because Montblanc is apparently not smart enough to remove stickers from old inks. Okay, that's great. To new inks. They're literally morons.

'''Brad:''' That is so good.

'''Myke:''' That's my favorite part of this.

'''Brad:''' How can that not be fun, Myke? So, what's happening here? So, this is not new in our world. But I want to talk about it because Montblanc is a huge company. And let's just... I'm going to cut to the chase. This shocks me 0%. We're going to talk about that more as we get to the end of this. But other companies in our space, Lamy, Deatramentus, Sailor, have all made a limited edition ink or made an ink, took it away, and at some point years down the line brought it back as something different. And called it something different. Well, Montblanc... I don't want to say they're different. But they're different in the fact that they really lean on these limited edition releases. Like, that's one of their big marketing pushes. Like, every month or every two months is, hey, we made this ink with, like, this particular one, James Dean. You know, they have all these, you know, historical characters that they're pushing these inks on. And then they'll have just separate limited edition colors, say, Petrol Blue, just pop up multiple times during the year. And now, once they just... Once, you know, someone discovered this, and like I said, I found it on Fountain Pen memes, and they're doing a good job of tracking it all. People went back and started looking at bottles and are finding stickers on other bottles. Like, the Around the World in 80 Days Blue is the same ink as the Petrol Blue.

'''Myke:''' So, like, basically, the sticker on the bottom just says Petrol Blue or whatever, right?

'''Brad:''' Yes. It's amazing. I love this so much. Look, it's dirty, right? Like, Montblanc is doing us dirty. And that, I mean that from a hobbyist perspective. I mean you and me and the people listening to this show. This is not cool for us. Like, we spend our time and our money and want to enjoy these experiences. And some people really like their limited edition inks, and they're getting screwed on this deal, right? They're getting jobbed. Let me also say this. Montblanc could not care less.

'''Myke:''' Why would they?

'''Brad:''' They could not care less what you and I think about them duplicating these inks because they're shipping these inks off to their boutiques and selling James Dean's face on the cover of the box. And it's a red that they used three years ago.

'''Myke:''' Are they pairing these inks with pens or is it just inks?

'''Brad:''' I mean they do inks with pens. Like when they did the Beatles, right? That had a purple Beatles ink. And they've done some like Miles Davis inks and pens. And they do some combos. But I don't know. Like the full list of duplicated inks. Right. So a lot of their inks are just like one-offs. Which, you know, by one-off I mean like every month or every other month they're doing, you know, some special ink and putting some special logo and things on it. Like this is on purpose, right? Like this is just Montblanc. This is how they are doing business. From our perspective, it's wrong. And I hate everything about it. But from Montblanc's perspective, they just do not care. I promise you they do not care. Even fountain pen memes, like they have a thing from Montblanc PR, like ask them, hey, are these inks duplicated? And they're like, yeah, these inks are totally duplicated. Like they do not care. Let me see if I can find it real quick.

'''Brad:''' Hi, this is the reply from Montblanc PR. Hi, as a matter of fact, you were absolutely correct in your assumption.

'''Brad:''' Like this isn't an issue for them.

'''Myke:''' Why would they? But like, why would they?

'''Brad:''' So here's my point. And this goes back to a long ago conversation about Sailor Apricot, where I fell in love with the Sailor Apricot ink. And it went away. So I tried to find a couple of extra bottles, right?

'''Brad:''' And, you know, I found my bottles. And then a few years later, they come back with either Sailor Ken Makuse, and then later Sailor Apricot. These companies are always recycling this stuff. What's limited at one time and goes away doesn't mean it's not going to be reintroduced at a later date. So don't get caught up in limited edition ink hype. Don't get caught up in a lot of limited edition hype, period, because these companies are not inventive enough to continually come out with new products. In Montblanc's case, they just don't care. In Sailor's case, I don't know, you know, if they just thought, well, maybe that was so popular, maybe we made a mistake and shouldn't have discontinued it. Let's put it back, like, with Grenade and, you know, and all these other inks that they, this is not the only ink that they've done it with. So, and, like, Diatramenis just flat out makes a standard color. Let's call it dark blue. And then makes a line up of famous people inks and literally uses all the stock inks and just puts a different label on it. Like, it's just what, it's annoying. It's frustrating from a hobby perspective.

'''Brad:''' Don't get caught up in it from a consumer perspective because this is bound to happen again and again and again. You know, Lamy Turquoise and Lamy whatever they decided to call the remake of it Pacific Blue. I can't even remember what they did. And it's the exact same color. It's going to happen over and over again. So, just be careful with limited edition inks. Like, there's no reason for them to just not get out the formula, run it through again, and call it something else and slap a different label on it. So, I find it especially funny that it's Mont Blanc, but I'm 0% surprised and they will 100% do it again.

'''Myke:''' I mean, this is one of those things where we're trying to, also maybe some people are, I mean, I don't know if anyone's really mad about this, but prescribing the small maker ideals onto a massive multinational corporation.

'''Brad:''' Right. Like, I mean, the people that are mad who are recently, if they recently paid a premium for an out-of-production ink and turn over the ink bottle on a new ink and find it to have the same label and it's at the regular price. Yeah. Our friends over at the Tentarius podcast, I don't know if I said that right. I'm sorry, Jeffrey and Eric. They have, the title of their podcast this week is Escandalo de Rojo. Oh, I love it. So, definitely go check that out. And I think it's great. So, they covered that over on the podcast this week. I wanted to go give them a special shout out.

'''Brad:''' The awesome Spanish language speaking stationary podcast, which is, it makes me smile from ear to ear every time I say that and think about their show. Love them so much. So, yeah, it's a, it's a, I'm glad this is on the fountain pen memes Instagram because I, I do find the humor in this, even though if I was someone that was in the rare limited edition Montblanc ink business, I wouldn't be so happy.

'''Myke:''' Tony has put this perfectly in the members discord. I'm so mad about this. I'm never going to buy a Montblanc pen again. Right?

'''Brad:''' Yeah, exactly. So, it's just Montblanc doing Montblanc things and they are not alone in this and just be careful. Like, there's no need to chase, like, there's certain limited edition things that are like, hey, cool, like, I'm good, like, I feel real happy about this. But if you're ever doing it from, like, a collectability and, like, a profit type of status, like, this is bound to happen.

'''Myke:''' And as Kate says, it's a nice, it's nice to know that if you really love a limited edition ink, it will probably be back at some point.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, it's facts.

'''Myke:''' That's what I said. My favorite lucky orange, which I think they might have done.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Once I realized that, once I realized I can always find something exactly the same, if not exactly the same, really darn close, I stopped chasing limited edition inks, like, right then. Like, I was like, oh, this is how it, this is how this industry works. Okay, I'm good with waiting.

'''Brad:''' So, there you go.