Editing The Pen Addict 82/transcript (section)

== Kickstarter Project ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. So we got a few other updates that I wanted to talk about that some previous – a previous Kickstarter project we talked about called the Polar Pen. You remember this one, Myke, the one with the magnets pens that you kind of build that did like $800 and something thousand dollars, I think.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, $800,000 Canadian dollars. But my understanding is that that exchange rate is pretty similar, right? These days? Yeah, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's pretty close to one-to-one. Right. So it's right around even money for exchange in the U.S. dollars. So we talked about how – the first time we saw it, the first thing that came to my mind was the Buckyballs fiasco that happened in the U.S. and I guess around the world. But they were a U.S. manufacturer, which are the magnets that got pulled off the market because they were unsafe for children. So I brought that up and a few weeks later, I think – I don't know if it was before the campaign ended or not that this gentleman is based out of Canada. And the Canadian Health Department said that they're investigating this to see if they're going to allow this to be sold to Canadians. And so their investigation came through. It looks like my friend on Twitter – I'm blanking. And Greg – Greg is a Canadian, and he keeps sending me the articles that post in the different Canadian websites that I'm not checking. So on CBC News, they actually came down with a decision. And Health Canada has put a cease and desist out on this gentleman, Andrew, that is the maker of the Polar Pen. And what that means is they are not even going to allow him to manufacture these pens in the country.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So this is where – oh, yeah, in the country. Yeah, carry on. Sorry, that's not what I was going to say. Carry on.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So Andrew, you know, at the end of the project, he – reading this article, he took an advance of like $100,000 from the project to start building out, I guess, the manufacturing and operations and warehouse and shipping to make these pens. And they're basically kicking him out of Canada. He's going to have to relocate to the U.S. to fulfill and manufacture this product, which is just pretty crazy. It's a real interesting follow if you want to, you know, follow along the Kickstarter project to see what's happening with it because it's – I mean, like the Canadian backers, I don't know if they're going to be able to get their pens. Andrew's not going to be able to make them in Canada. I don't know if he'll be able to sell them to Canadians at all, like if they ship from the U.S. to Canada. I don't know if that's allowed or what. But it's basically a cluster. I mean, it's not pretty. I feel bad for the guy. But do you – I don't know. That thought was always in the back of my head that this might be coming. I would imagine it was in the back of his head too. If he's coming out with a product like this and seeing what happened with similar products on the market, you would think there would be, you know, some percentage chance in the back of your head that this might happen. But I'm not sure if that's the case or not.

'''Myke Hurley:''' My only thought is that he must not have known of Buckyballs because I feel like you would check. Yeah. I feel like at some point, at least when you started to make some serious money and get attention, that you might check. So this is where I'm a little bit confused. So we'll put both of these links in the show notes, which you can find at 5x5.tv slash penalex slash 82. The update to the Kickstarter page on November 15th talks through this a little bit. It doesn't go into the fact that there's like a fine or whatever. Mm-hmm. Mentions that he's going to –

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't think – let me correct you real quick. I don't think there's a fine. I think that's just money he spent already. Sorry. That's basically down the drain because he's going to have to rebuild his manufacturing facility. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Hoping –

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Relocate. Relocate, I should say.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I hope that he has enough profit in there at least. Yeah. That it works out for him. I really do. Like in the end. I mean, he's going to be out of pocket for a while for sure. But yeah. So the – sorry. You know, it doesn't really mention that in the post on the update page. And what it mentions here is that Canadian backers, they're not sure if they're going to have to issue refunds or whatever. But the products will still be made. But in the article, it states that Gardner says he'll likely have to refund the about $1 million total earned through Kickstarter.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So there's two points. Now that was published four days later. So my thinking is either the CBC – is that Canadian Business News or Broadcasting Corporation? Yeah. Probably like BBC. Canadian Broadcasting. It's probably Broadcasting, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They've either got that wrong in that he's saying you just have to refund the Canadian backers, of which, of course, there'll only be a portion. Or the project's not going ahead and he hasn't updated any further. It's difficult for me to see. But I would assume that the CBC has misread the situation and that he might just have to refund the Canadian.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Well, I think he's trying to circumvent that by moving the facilities to the U.S. So he wouldn't have to refund the entire full Kickstarter to everybody, right? I think he's going to move it to the U.S. and then get it made there and fulfill as many orders as he can legally. It's kind of how I read between the lines on what's happening. But I did see in the comments section he chimed in and he's going to have a big update tomorrow, he said. So I'll check it out and see what he says then and see if anything's been made. Because the way he's alluded to, progress has been made, like moving to the U.S. to get the manufacturing done. So we'll see. It's interesting to watch for people who are fans of Kickstarters. And this just happened to be a pin project. So it caught my eye. And it's interesting, all the things you can get involved in with all these Kickstarter projects. There's lots of interesting things going on in Kickstarter land these days.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No doubt. Yes.