Editing The Pen Addict 542/transcript (section)

== Insights on Ian's Monarch nib and related developments ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So take everything I just said about Ian and the Monarch nib and the things I want to see and keep that in the back of your mind as I get ready to discuss the Pilot Custom 74 30th Anniversary Pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So if y'all aren't following Fude Fan, Jacob, and also CY over at Tokyo Inklings, Tokyo Station Pens, and Fude Fan, we'll have a link in the show notes to all their stuff. Y'all should be following them because Jacob always gets, always has like the quick links on the Japanese releases and see, that's where I see most of my Japanese pen information first. So of course, when he posts a link to, hey, look, Pilot has made a Custom 74 30th Anniversary Edition, I was like, whoa, like I didn't expect that, number one. Number two, like it's one of my favorite pens ever and like, okay, this is going to be cool. So, and then I went and looked at it and I was like, okay, what's going on here? So it's like a black, it's like a black finish, a black cap and black finial, Custom 74 with the same color translucent barrels. So you can pick, you know, blue, teal, or orange. And I was like, wait a minute, like, why don't the other barrels have the cap on it? I was like, oh, it's like a swappable barrel, right? They give you the singular nib unit and then they give you three barrels and then like one cab. And I was like, cool. Like, I love like the customization things, right? Like if I can mix and match and make my own pen, like that's what I want to do. Like I like having that choice. So Pilot is saying, hey, we're going to give you this little kit of the Pilot Custom 74. And we're going to give you like one nib. You can pick out the nib size you want. And we'll have more on that in a minute because they're introducing a new nib in this, which is cool. And then give you like three barrels for like whatever your mood is. You can use the blue translucent or the teal translucent or the orange translucent.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I was like blue and teal. It's like fun. Is there not like another color? Like, anyway. Well, here's the problem. They call it turquoise green. Just saying.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So that's the one I have. Like the one I use. I actually have the orange and the turquoise green. And then I have the same blue color in a Custom 92. And that's the problem I have with this. In a vacuum, I think this product is cool. It's actually priced very well for what they give you. Right. It's a little different style of Custom 74, which I'm down with. Right. With the black cap and the black end caps and finials. Right. I'm down with that. A little, you know, different, you know, cap band logo. And they give you a bottle of ink, which I'm going to, I'm going to circle back to that in a minute as well. And it's all 30,800 yen, which translates to like $225. And like the normal Custom 74 is like 165 bucks. I'm like, yeah, that's, that's pretty good. Right. That's not like a $500 set of pens. I was like, yeah, this is great. But, and then, and then Brad shows up. And as like, I literally, I really like this product and I don't want to give it too much of a hard time because I've give pilot a really hard time on some of their limited editions.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's just one of those. It just feels like we have all these parts laying around and let's do something for this 30th anniversary edition with just like from the parts bin. And I just can't help, but feel a little bit disappointed in that to where I'm getting the same color barrels that already exist and just getting a black cap on it. And it doesn't make me feel special for a special edition, right? Give me the, make a singular new color. Charge me more for it. Call it the 30th anniversary edition. Even make the black cap edition. I don't care. And make it with a pink barrel, whatever. It's, it's, it falls a little bit flat because it's just using parts of other pins that they already have. The 74 barrel and the different black caps and black finials that they already have in use for all these other pins that exist. Like it doesn't stand out enough. Even though I love it. I love the idea of it. The price is awesome. Um, and they have, um, this new nib options called the S nib, the signature nib. I guess the idea is that it's, you know, kind of like a writing, like a cursive writing nib. It's a bit, I wouldn't call it a stub nib. It's a very rounded, large tip. Um, it's something I will have to test out, but it looks like a big, it looks like signing

'''Myke Hurley:''' things. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like literally, I think that's kind of like the, the idea about it. You lose a little bit in the translation, right? So like they, you know, they talk about it and it doesn't really, um, tell you much. So I don't know, like I literally love this product and also feel extremely disappointed in it. Right. It's a weird thing as a huge pilot fan to, and a huge custom 74 fan to see this and just go like, what are you trying to tell me here? Like, I like the option, but I already have these options from you pilot. Like if I'm a pilot fan, this is not going to be my first pilot pin. So I probably have something like this already. Yeah. And then, I mean, limited color ink anniversary blue. I mean, is this not the stock? I am so flummoxed by some of these choices.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's not a stock blue if you put the word anniversary on the phone.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Is it though? I like, what color is this? Is it, if it isn't pilot blue? It's anniversary blue. Everyone knows that. Come on. It's, it's anniversary blue.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You can't spot anniversary blue when you see it? Yes. Yes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So like, like I, when I saw this, I was like, yes. And then I was immediately no. Then I was like, okay, maybe. And like, I, I just don't know how to feel about this. Like, it's, it's cool. Like, I'm down with this. I like the new nib. I like the price point. Um, but I also really like, what is pilot telling me here? And that's where, that's where I get lost in my own mind. It was like, this is what you came up with, right? This is what you sat down and had the opportunity to make something cool for the 30th anniversary. And you decided to go to the parts bin.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That, that's, that's kind of the end here. So I, I, I just have high expectations for some of these companies. Pilot, um, is at the top of that list, right? Because the, just the opportunity is there. Yeah. The opportunity is really there to move the needle.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think this is a great idea, right? One pen, a bunch of like bodies to, to, to customize it with. Yep. You said they just, they picked the wrong colors. Like they should have done something a little bit more special than this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Give me three new barrel colors. And, or, you know, yeah, I don't know. Like it's, it's just the choice that they made that it just seems just like really, really obvious that they didn't put any time into it. Yeah. Yeah. Like that. And that's all like, should I expect more? Maybe. Is that unfair to me? I don't know. Maybe. But as someone who is a super fan and like raves about the 74 and has it, like I have no interest in purchasing in this while I do think it's a great product at the same time. Right. So it's just weird. It's, they put me in a weird spot pilot. I don't like that. I don't like when you put me in weird spots. I want to tell you, I love you unconditionally. And well, this one has conditions, Myke, this one has conditions. And that's before we get into the price increases. Oh, it's price increase season, Myke. It is price increase season. So end of, end of the year rolling into 2023 is the time where we see price increases in, in a lot of industries. Um, it's definitely the time of the year for stationary companies to move their, move their prices up, which we've seen, you know, they've been some drastic movements over the last, what? Three, four years. Uh-huh. Um, I'd say like, so it's, it's been pretty extreme given world events and supply chains and all the things we've talked about over the past three or four years that are causing these prices to go up in every industry. So, uh, Dan Smith from the Nibsmith sent out a couple of notes about some upcoming price increases. Let's hit this pilot North America one first. So, because it affects probably the 74. It's not specific to specific products, but it is, the note is up to 17% on pilot products and up to 25% on Namiki products. What that means for individual products, it's unclear yet, right? So, but let's just say the custom 74, which Myke, I just put it at number one in my top five pins between 150 and $200. Uh, it's number one, it moves it from like, what was it? 165 or so to 187 or 160 to 187. So this, I just wrote up this whole thing raving about the price and the value. And it's like one of the best gold nibs out there and it's less expensive. And I hasn't seen a price increase in a long time. Um, and then boom.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What you're saying is you did this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's my fault. Yeah. It is literally my fault. So thanks Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Rip. So yeah, like I, I, I, yeah, it wasn't lining up.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Does this change your feeling? Like all the stuff that you said, does a 17% increase change your feeling about it?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, because that's the whole issue with that price point anyway, is that everything is getting moved. Everything that's good in that price point is getting shifted out. And we're going to talk about that more specifically in a minute to one that does change my opinion. This one does not change my opinion. And I don't know for a fact that it's 17% on the 74, right? We'll find that out coming up in 2023. What specific products are impacted the most or the least or not at all. But we're, let's just assume that that 17% is on probably a pin that uses a gold nib that probably deserves to be increased. Makes it 187.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Whatever's most popular will get the highest price increases. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So now that just puts it like equally. Now you have to like really decide between that and the Platinum 3776.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Ah, okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because the Platinum already did their price increase. So now they're like 189 to 199 for just like the basic colors, which is essentially what 74 is.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's going to make that decision a lot more complicated. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like where before the 74 was like almost $30 cheaper, which is, I mean, that's sizable. I mean, that's a sizable percentage.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Cheaper. And for an equivalent in my mind, pen, you know, they're different, right? They have different, people prefer, you know, the way Platinum nibs feel over Pilot nibs. And, you know, there's a difference, but just from a purchasing like idea, they're always in the same category. So would a $30 difference make a difference? Yeah, I think it would. And now that difference is gone. So we'll see, you know, this is just this category, this price category is completely in flux. And I actually think we have a bigger price increase to talk about here in just a second after we hear from our good friends over at Squarespace.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, let's build some suspense. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace, the only one platform for building your brand and growing your business online. With Squarespace, you can stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience and sell your products, services, even the content that you create, anything with Squarespace. Physical goods, digital goods, doesn't matter. They got you covered. Doesn't matter what type of stuff you want to sell. They have the tools that you need to sell online. And you can learn about what products work best using Squarespace's fantastic insights. You can see which channels are most effective, where your sales are coming from. And then you can use that data to improve your website, build a marketing strategy based on top keywords and your most popular products. You can really build an actual store, a real business with Squarespace. But you don't have to. If what you want to do is make a blog, they have all of the tools that you want to share your stories, your photos, videos and updates. You can categorize everything, share stuff, even schedule your posts to make your content work for you and optimize everything with their built in SEO tools. You can use the suite of integrated features and useful guides that help maximize prominence among search results. You can take use of all of that and really make your website sing. You can make it so everyone's going to be able to find you, find what you're working on, follow what you're doing, all that kind of stuff. It really is fantastic. Been using Squarespace for over a decade. I wouldn't go anywhere else. Go to squarespace.com slash penaddict and sign up for a free trial today with no credit card required. And when you're ready to launch, use the offer code penaddict to save 10% on your first purchase of a website or domain. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict. And when you sign up, use the offer code penaddict and you will get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for this show. Thanks to Squarespace for the continued support of the penaddict and RelayFM.