Editing The Pen Addict 265/transcript (section)

== $3 Pen ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Yeah. So, after the... All these limited editions and all these expensive pens, the thing that got me the most excited last week was a $3 pen, Myke. And I just did a review within the past month about the new Uniball Signo needle, the DX. You know, 0.38 millimeter DX. We spoke about it a week or two ago, didn't we? Yeah. The best gel pen ever in my book. And part of my review was based around, why can't we have these in other parts of the world? Why are they only on the store shelves in Japan? Or we have to buy them from importers like JetPens, which we're obviously all happy to do. The price is great. It's not a big deal. But not everyone shops online. And not everyone gets to discover wonderful stationery in their local stores. And I'm talking big box retailers. So, friend of the show, Jacqueline from Inkpothesis, sent me a tweet. And it says, Staples is stepping up their game in Indiana. And it is an eight pack of the Uniball Signo DX in 0.38 millimeter ultra micro in kind of a rainbow pack. And they did it. Like, this is what I've been asking for for the longest time. And I just mentioned it a week or two ago. And here they are. So, I hope this is a sign of things to come. I hope it's not a local thing. I think Sanford, I'll have to look up. Is it Sanford or Newer Rubbermaid? All that is up in the Indiana, Illinois area. So, I don't know if this is like a location thing. Because they would have been close to them and got them first. But she got them at Staples. I went to a Walmart here. They didn't have them yet. But they do have these new white Uniball packages there. But I didn't see any of the DXs yet. But this is just fantastic news. I'm glad that these are now available. I don't know what they cost. I mean, this eight pack has probably got to be like 15 bucks. It's not going to be cheap. But that's still better than, you know, just buying one-offs. It's, I'm, you were hyped about the Canalea thing. I'm pretty hyped about this, Myke. I'm not going to lie.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think these two things are our warehouses completely, aren't they? Yeah. Right? Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like, this is, these are the things, like, I've always wanted. I always want the best stationery available to more people. So they can discover more things and say, oh, this is different than what I've been using. And it's awesome. So, you know, I love seeing the one pin that I've praised the most in all my time blogging. You can actually get it at a physical big box retailer now. Yeah. Because it should. You should be able to. I don't know what's kept Uniball, you know, so, so long from doing this. But I'm very, very glad to see it. And I'm going to see if I can hunt some down myself.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, you have to buy loads of them so that I keep doing it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, exactly. When I first saw the, when I first saw the Pilot High Tech C come to the stores as the G Tech C, they sold them in a blue, black, green, red four pack. I'd buy like three of them. Just so I was like, I told myself, I'm going to buy these so that they see that they're being sold. I seriously did that in my head. I said, I'm going to buy a bunch of these so they get marked as being sold in their inventory and they see that people want these pins. It didn't really help. They eventually vanished and I haven't seen them in a while. But I hope, I hope this one is successful for Uniball and it looks like the exact pin. Like sometimes there's differences, but just from an exterior perspective, it looks identical to what I would have hoped had would come over here. So this is really good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. This week's episode is brought to you in part by our friends at Squarespace. Use the offer code INK at checkout and you'll get 10% off your first purchase. Squarespace lets you easily create that website that you have for your next idea or project. You can make your next move with Squarespace. They have the ability for you to grab a great domain name and take advantage of beautiful award-winning templates to make your website jump out of the screen to your visitors. Maybe you want to create an online store, a portfolio, maybe even a blog. No matter what it is, Squarespace is the all-in-one platform that will let you take care of it. There's nothing to install, no patches to worry about, no upgrades needed. You don't have to worry about any of that stuff. Squarespace have got you covered. They have award-winning customer support that can help you with whatever you need. I mentioned that twice because it is so awesome. It's great for you if you need the help, but it's also great if you're trying to set up a site for somebody else. All right. This is a great thing you can do with Squarespace. Maybe you know how to build a website. You just don't need one. But there is like a local group or a community activity or something, and these people need to get a website set up. You can help them get off the ground. And then after that, Squarespace's support team is there for anything else they need. This is a super selling point. Considering plans start at just $12 a month, Squarespace is a fantastic deal. You can sign up for a free trial with no credit card required just by going to squarespace.com. Then use the offer code INK at checkout to get 10% of your first purchase and show your support for The Pen Addict. We thank Squarespace for the continued support of this show, Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I noticed they just released some new templates for the summer. I haven't updated my blog style in years because I don't need to because I like the way it looks and the way it reads. But I always do like checking out the new templates, see if there's something I need to integrate there. So I'll have to go play around with that a little bit more. I got that email yesterday or the day before, something like that. But always happy with Squarespace. And I did some reviews on my Squarespace site, Myke called The Pen Addict, at penaddict.com or thepenaddict.com. Which you have gloriously stopped bugging me about after I finally bought it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, I think I only helped you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I did a few reviews and I like how you like to talk about these products now. Because I can usually pull, you can usually pull some more things out of me that I can't get in the type written word. And like this Life Noble mini ring notebook, which is just an amazing little notebook.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And it's kind of like the Aurora Minerale. Like I like everything about it, but I don't really need it. It's a little bit too small. I don't like the format when it's that small to have side spiral binding. Like I love two ring binding, but I like it top bound on a small notebook or side bound on a large notebook.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So what are we talking like field note size with a O ring?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's smaller.

'''Myke Hurley:''' A little smaller than field notes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, just a little bit. I think it's five inches by three and a fraction. So it's beautiful. It works well. The paper's too creamy ivory color for me. I'd like it to be a little bit more white. And it's not great for the pocket with the spiral going vertically down the spine. I definitely like on something I'm going to put in a pocket to have the ring binding top bound. You know, like you can get those little smaller notebooks that are top bound, ring bound, which I think are better. But you're not going to get better paper than this, you know, as long as you don't mind the ivory. But I tend to use everything but like black and blue ink for the most part. So you can't see like the bright blues and the bright greens just don't show up as well on the cream colored paper. So, you know, it's a cool product, beautiful product. I'm glad I have one, but I don't really need any more than that. And that's what I tried to express in the review. Like, it's really great. But here's the things you need to consider. And especially the price. Like, just on a one-off, if you see it's like $5, you think no big deal. But compared to other things, it's really kind of expensive. But all of life's products are expensive. And that's to be... I don't want to say that's the way it should be. But it's kind of a given seeing that they're imported from Japan and they're just expensive.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, they're very attractive. I just don't think I would enjoy a spiral bound or a ring in a format that small. I just don't think that would work very well for me personally.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. It's great for little notes to rip out and give to someone. But I just can't carry that small with the ring bound. So the other paper product we reviewed recently, Susan reviewed the Goulet notebooks with the Tomoe River paper in them. These are really great. This is a big deal. Yeah, a lot of companies have started to do this. Jetpens has been making pocket-sized ones for a while, having them made for them. Goulet's are having these in all kinds of formats. That's what surprised me the most about this notebook, is it comes... They do a lot of different shapes and formats. So it's really cool to see these starting to become a thing now. And getting them printed and made up and, you know, self-branded and things like that. But I really like the...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Having A5 sizes, having traveler's notebook sizes, having smaller sizes. And you can also... I don't know if the Goulet's have them. Yeah, they do. And they also have the two different weights of the Tomoe paper. So there's 52 GSM and then the thicker 68 GSM. So, you know, this is a very cool product, something we always love. I know a lot of us are waiting for our Hippo Noto notebooks. Yep. Which are the big, big honking notebooks, which I can't wait for. I have two of those coming.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And... Like you said in the show notes, no-brainer. It just is. It's a fun paper to have. Is it the most absolute functional paper you can use on a daily basis? No. Is it one of the coolest papers you can own and use regularly? Yes. So there's kind of a difference there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like this is something that, you know, if you're buying something at Goulet, you should be adding this to your cart if you don't already own one. Like they've got them at such great prices. Like you can get... They start at like $6 for the smaller ones, the pocket size, and they're like $9 for an A5. Like... Right. You should be adding one of these because if you've never used some of my paper, this is a no-brainer. Right. Right. Really awesome. I'm pleased to see that they're doing this.