Editing The Pen Addict 188/transcript (section)

== Blackwing Pencils ==


'''Lee Rubenstein:''' Um, because it was just so, I, you know, it's, it's, it's a thing that came back from the dead. If you know much about Blackwing and I'm sure your audience does, um, it came back from the dead and not many artists know about it and it's just a really good pencil. So I definitely remember a Blackwing in there. Um, uh, and I, it wasn't a 602. It was just a straight up Blackwing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Uh, uh, man, it's all on our website. Yeah, I know. I haven't, I'm staring at it. That's why I'm asking you. What's that doing? So you had the, uh, the Blackwing pencil, the Blackmat Blackwing, the Sharpie brush tip permanent marker, um, which you rarely see. I mean, that, that was pretty cool. You had the Spangle Green Mini Jumbo Triangular Learning Pencil. You had the Reeves Gouache Artist Paint and the Solo Horton Camel Hair Watercolor Brush Size 2. So when you're sitting there like planning this, tell me about just planning the first box. Like you, you want to get this right. I mean, that's a kind of an important deal. The very first one you're shipping out.

'''Lee Rubenstein:''' Yeah. Um, geez. Wow. These are tough questions. Because we, we've done so many boxes within the last three years. And my mind right now is looking like six months in the future of like what products we want to feature then. So going back to that first box, I think we just wanted to, um, put some items in the box that just, you know, you're familiar with a pencil, but you don't know Blackwing, right? Right. You're familiar with Sharpie, but they make brushes, you know, that sort of thing. So, uh, I think that was our thinking for the very first box. Um, but more importantly, we wanted to make sure that we could, you know, ship it on time and that it looked good in the box. Um, and that people felt like they were getting, you know, their money's worth because it is a blind box. Right. So, right. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think that's what people look at a lot on the, like on the blind box things. They kind of try to do some math, like in their head real quick and say, am I getting, is this worth, you know, my, my money? And I, I, art snacks always has been because y'all do, which I'll do great. I think is fine. Just products that people haven't seen before. I mean, I'm one of the most dialed in people in the, in the, in the pen world. And you come up with something that I've never even seen before. And I just think that's so much fun to open a box and see all these cool things. How do you guys, between you and your sister, how do you like plan this stuff out? Like figuring out, you know, where you're going to find new products and sourcing them. It just has to be like a constant, not a battle, but it's just a constant work trying to put that puzzle together, I guess, every, every month.

'''Lee Rubenstein:''' Yeah. So, I mean, without going into specifics of our secret sauce. Um, but I can say that going back to that first box, like we're, if we're going to send you gouache, like we got to send you a brush. Right. So we, we, I can't assume that our customers has a, have a brush lying around. So that, that's part of our, our kind of curation. Um, we want products that work well together right out of the box. And we, we've been pretty, pretty set on that mantra from day one, box one. So that's kind of it. I mean, like you said, we're looking for products that are not only unique, but also super high quality and, um, nothing that you can find at Staples. Right. So like, um, a lot of, that's just our thinking. It's like, if you're subscribing to the service and you have to wait a whole month for it to come, what, why would we send you stuff that you can find in Staples if you can just go down the street and get the stuff at Staples? You know what I mean? So that's kind of our, our, our secret sauce positioning from day one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, uh, yeah, I mean, yeah, no, I think that, I think that's great. And I think Myke, you got an art snacks box before I did, if I'm remembering this correctly. And I remember you enjoying that receiving things you would have never bought for yourself that you could go play around with. I remember this conversation now. I didn't go back and listen to the specifics of it, but that's coming up now that Lee's talking about this, right? I mean, you, you enjoyed getting these different things that you would have never bought and playing around with them and seeing what you like.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Over the last few years, kind of like a dip in and out, right? So I'll get them for a few months and then stop again. Cause I just end up with like tons and tons of boxes. Like I just have, I actually have like a cabinet full of art snacks stuff, which is awesome. And cause I don't, I don't use it as much, right? Like, so I don't really do art stuff, but I like what I've always liked is like getting like interesting pens, like really strange stuff that I wouldn't have seen. Right. Cause it's more art supplies than like the usual handwriting things that I do. We will get to something that you're doing a little bit later. I'm very excited about, but I've always, I always loved the mystery of it. Like you just open this box, like what is this stuff? And my favorite thing that you guys do bar none is the little card, the card inside that tells me, cause otherwise there's stuff that I get in that box and be like, I don't know what to do with this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I could not, I could not agree more. And that wasn't in the, in the first, was that in the very beginning? Lee, did y'all do that?

'''Lee Rubenstein:''' Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think that's actually the most important item in the box every month.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And I, um, I think I found the first episode where we discussed it. Episode 57. I'll put that in the show notes. That was in June, 2013.

'''Lee Rubenstein:''' Yeah. And so Sarah is, you know, the copywriter for these cards. She and I test the products way before they're even considered for any box, uh, before we start, you know, curating for whatever month. And, uh, she does an unbelievable job, um, taking an item and very succinctly boiling it down to why is it here? What does it work well with? And why are we featuring it now? And, uh, I think also we recently put the retail prices in the box, uh, on the card. So that's something new, but, uh, we've always had that card. Um, and it's, it's, it's one thing to just get items in the, you know, but to have a brand voice of being like, Hey, you know, crank it's, this is where it's coming from and this is how you use it. You can drip it. You can do all the things. So, um, and, uh, it was really, really important from, from day one to have that little info card. In fact, people collect them for some reason. I, I don't know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, I, I use them as bookmarks. I just keep them around and I'll, I'll slot them in a book for when I need it. Once I, once I read it, I always have to refer to them two or three times. Cause there's something in there like really interesting. I can't remember this one pencil from a few months ago that I had never heard of. I had to keep reading about it and I was like, Oh, that's just pretty cool. I'm glad they give me that information up front.

'''Lee Rubenstein:''' Yeah. Well, I'm glad. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's the brand voice. Um, and, uh, it describes the item and what it works well with. And I think, you know, it's, it's a no brainer to put it in the box.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Do you see a change in what y'all have provided, say from that first box to what, what's, um, what you're shipping out now? I mean, is there any kind of kind of conscious change that you think's happened between these as, as the years have gone by and you keep building these boxes every month?