Editing The Pen Addict 604/transcript (section)

== Drama in the pen world ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' But hey, we don't let F1 have all the fun with the drama. We have our own drama here in the pen world. And let me tell you, I'm pretty much done with talking about Lamy Dark Lilac. And I think probably a lot of the listeners are.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We're not done because we're going to talk about it. But before we actually get to the new goings on, so we're sitting down on the sofa, I think over the last weekend. And Adina's like, oh, one of our friends, she sent me this TikTok about Lamy drama. And I'm like, oh my God. So it had found its way into the TikTok algorithm and is serving this drama. And the TikTok is positioned around this side. She sent it because she knows that I do this, right? But the drama is centered around the craziness that there could be drama in the fountain pen community. That's how it begins. But this person was a pen creator, but that was kind of like the way they positioned this TikTok as it was like, oh, look at this pen people crazy about an ink. So that's where we are.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that is where we are. And hopefully this is kind of the last time. Hopefully this is probably the last time I talk about it. Although I will be getting a bottle of Lamy Dark Lilac at some point just because it's going to be a good ink. It's a good ink regardless. But long story short, and then we'll do the long story long. Long story short, the Lamy Dark Lilac 2024 edition is officially different than the original 2016 edition. And that is where it's coming from Lamy. So Fountain Pen Memes on Instagram has done an exceptional job of tracking this.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They've been putting in the footwork, Brad. They have.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They've been pounding the pavement. They've been being the journalist in this situation.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Some real Clark Kent kind of work happening over there at Fountain Pen Memes. Asking people in... Which you wouldn't expect from an account called Fountain Pen Memes. But nevertheless, here we are.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so there's basically three posts you can follow. So I'm calling it How It Began, So Exciting, and then Oops is kind of how this whole thing goes. So how it began is pretty much what you heard on last week's show. I'm not going to rehash everything. It's Lamy actually created an ink called Dark Lilac that they launched in the European market first, but it's coming worldwide. And you can, like I said, you can go back last week and figure out why that's like a big deal in our little world. There was a previous ink from 2016 that everyone loved, and it became rare and highly sought after and very expensive. So Lamy had the grand plan to come out with a new Dark Lilac, and everyone wants to know, is this the same? Is it different? The best part of the week for me was when Fountain Pen Memes talked to Lamy USA's distributor. And basically said, hey, you know, here's the question. Is 2024 Dark Lilac the same color formulation as 2016 Dark Lilac? Lamy USA says, yes. So that's a very important question that Fountain Pen Memes ask is not just the same color, but formulation. And then, you know, we go through the other questions. Is Dark Lilac worldwide standard product? Yes, it's a standard product. Is it the same ink as the Blackberry Violet, which we're going to talk about later in the show, which is the 2024 Lamy Special Edition ink? It's no, it's not the same. And there you go. So that's part two. So, hey, it's the same ink. Until it isn't. Yeah. So Lamy USA, literally, I believe the same day, because this is when I got a text with this new email in, directly from Lamy, Lamy, the mothership in Germany.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm going to read this whole thing. So this was an inquiry, which we never see Lamy. I can't believe they answered this question, to be quite honest. So you can. At this point, yeah, I understand. They've caused their own problems. Yeah. They've caused their own problems here. After your mail, I checked again with the persons actually producing our inks, and they confirmed that we tried to produce exactly the same shade of ink, dark violet, as in 2016. However, the red dye we use, then, is not available anymore. So there is indeed a slight difference between the shade in 2016 and the new one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Please pass on this information and apologize in our name for the incorrect reply yesterday. That's a very German response. I love that. I love that one. I love that. I love that. So again, if you don't care, all you need to know is this is not the same ink. I will say it looks pretty good. It looks really good. It looks very close. It is clearly not the same when you put them side by side. At least I can tell immediately they're not the same. But it's a good-looking ink. I'm just glad we have this clarification. Why are you not surprised they put out this information publicly?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Just because it's gotten to be too much of a thing now. And I think at the point where any official representative spoke on behalf of LAMI, which LAMI USA did, at that point, LAMI Germany, if they have additional information, need to communicate it. Because I can see what's happened here. The plan was we are recreating Dark Lilac. That was their plan, right? And that is what has been communicated within the company. But then just during production, they're like, oh, we can't do this. We'll do a different ink then and we'll get close. And so to them, it's like, well, this is the same thing, right? You can see how that becomes a thing of inside of the company. Like, we want to make Dark Lilac. Again, this is as close as we can get. We're going to call it Dark Lilac. The formulation is the same, except we have to use the different inks, right? So that they're going for the same thing, but it's a slightly different color. Like, slightly different. So they're like, this is Dark Lilac now. We've done it. And this goes back to exactly what the title of last week's episode. Do not attribute to malice that which could be attributed to other people. Not caring as much as you do about that one hyper-specific thing. That is Myke's razor, right? This is what we've got going on over here on the Pan Addict now. And I think this is an exact example of what I'm talking about.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, Lami found out that we did care.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But, yes. But, like, do you know what I mean? They set out to do something, and they got close to the way that they thought they should. You know what I mean? Like, this to them was like, we've done it, gang. We got there. We had to make a compromise along the way, but we got there. Did we, though?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Did we actually get there? That's my hang-up.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, for them, they did, though, Brad. Like, that's what I'm saying. That's the problem. For Lami, they're like, this is Dark Lilac now. You've surely been in this situation where you have had a production run where you've had to make a slight tweak. You continue selling the product as it is. And in your mind, you're like, no one's really going to notice this except for me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The problem is this is such an own goal. Yes. Right? It didn't have to be this way. If this was a standard lineup product that changed, I would have, we would not be talking about this. But this was arguably the most popular product they've made in a decade that was limited and not widely available. And they said, hey, look, same thing. Look over here. Look over here. And it wasn't. And, like, it's just so self-inflicted. Like, it's, like, why isn't... It's an own goal. Yeah. It's an own goal. Why isn't this called... This is back to my Tomoe River thing. Why isn't this called Lami Dark Violet? Like, you would save, like, all of the drama. Right? Dark purple. Dark violet. Anything but Dark Lilac.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What? We don't have all of these conversations. You know why. You know why.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know why. I know why. Because this was a really popular product. Because it happens in a marketing meeting.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. They want to benefit from the popularity of their own product. Right? Which they can't. It goes back to Uniball and the Kuretaga dive. Right? They increased the price of the product because they wanted to benefit from the fact that people were scalping it. And so it's like, why should someone else be making more money from our product? Right? This happens all the time. Like, we're seeing it with Nintendo now. Completely different thing. It is expected now that the Nintendo Switch will now launch in March of 2025 because they don't want scalpers to buy up the product. They want to have enough product available that they can flood the channel. And so that they can benefit from people wanting that thing. Like, this happens all the time. Like, this isn't me. Like, I'm not, like, you know, going to shill for this corporation. No. I'm just talking about, like, I think too often people, like, they blame, like, oh, the bad corporate. It's just a bunch of people and they're just trying to do something, you know? And, like, I guarantee you the high ups probably didn't even know about this. Like, they didn't even know that it was a different red. Like, some product manager decided it somewhere, right? And they were like, oh, it will do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. All right. So, last point on this, which I meant to make last week and then I forgot because we got so busy laughing at ourselves for this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because I do think it's completely silly. But it's fun to talk about. The last point is there is never a need to hoard special edition inks because companies will do this. It's been proven time and time again. And I've gotten caught up in it with Sailor Apricot. Was the first time I realized. It's like, oh, this is my favorite ink. I need three bottles of it because it's going away. Well, then they keep releasing it, like, every few years. Yeah. Either that ink or similar ink. You just don't need to hoard special edition inks because there's always going to be something that's close, if not identical. And a lot of times from the exact same company that made it the first time. So, that's your PSA for today. You don't have to hoard inks. There's always going to be something else. The amount of inks on the market right now is astonishing. And there's no end in sight. So, there's no need to buy five bottles of an ink because you think it might be going away. Because you're just actually limiting yourself from discovering other fun things that might be just as good or better down the line. And then, all of a sudden, you have four bottles that a company decides three years from now to re-release the exact same formulation of. So, there you go. Brad's PSA of the day.