Editing The Pen Addict 433/transcript (section)

== Subscription Services ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' And this kind of segues into the next topic that I want to talk about is just subscription services in general and stationary. Stationary subscription services. Over the years, like you and I have subscribed and unsubscribed and re-subscribed to plenty of stationary subscription services. And in general, I think it's a great idea. Right. But I had wound myself down to subscriptions. This was my last remaining stationary subscription. Right. Like I no longer subscribe to Field Notes or Blackwing. And we're going to get into that in a minute. But the CDW pencil box was a cool one for me because it allowed for discovery. So I got to thinking about, you know, why do I or don't I subscribe to some of these popular services? And who does it well and who does it right? And I was just trying to think big pictures, like what makes these services successful and what makes them, you know, I don't want to say fail, but what makes them like be discontinued or have to be stopped? Or change. Yeah, or change. You know, just in the general sense, it is an extremely difficult thing to do. Again, like that's going to be the common theme of this show today is business is hard. So any subscription service, man, what a challenge that has to be to come up with a new product every month, every quarter, every six months, every year, however you do it. It doesn't matter what the time frame is.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You're asking people to blindly give you money for and you must delight them every time.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Every time, whatever your date is, every time. And the stress of that would freak me out. Like I could never be like a subscription person. Like I would just be in anxiety attacks like all the time, just trying to fulfill those needs. All right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Let's put a pin in this for a second because there's more talk to have there, but I want to take our first break. Okay, sure. This episode is brought to you by Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing rollerballs and fountain pens, ballpoints and mechanical pencils, and so much more from your favorite brands. Pen Chalet are always adding new products to the site and they're also running special deals very, very frequently indeed. Every couple of weeks, you're going to find new deals at Pen Chalet as well as new products. They also sell accessories. So if you need a carrying case or you want some refills or some ink, maybe you need some converters. Maybe you need some general stationary items. Go to Pen Chalet because they do great prices and they give a satisfaction guarantee. 100% is what they guarantee. They want you to be happy with the products that you buy. If you are in the U.S., they do free shipping on orders of over $50 and they have great and fast shipping for overseas orders as well. So go to Pen Chalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password Pen Addict for this week's special offer and to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time. Pen Chalet. Now, Brad, what do we have as a special offer from our friend Ron at Pen Chalet this time?

'''Myke Hurley:''' There's two sneaky things in here. Number one, the Diplomat Traveler fountain pens. So we talk a lot about the Diplomat Arrow and how great that pen is. And that's what kind of put Diplomat as a brand on everyone's radar. But their entry-level pricing pens have gotten rave reviews. And this is like the one up from the base entry-level pen. So this is the Diplomat Traveler. And it's in this cool like flamed finish barrel. And it's a thinner profile than the Arrow. And it gets rave reviews. And it's like half off of what it normally is. So like if you're, you know, kind of figuring things out as far as fountain pens go, that's a great one. Oh, one I missed here. The Cross Townsend Rollerball is always a good choice. It's a classic design that everyone's going to like. And this is like a crazy price off of the MSRP. And it's a really sharp looking pen. But the one that was snuck down here and jumped out to me is the Monteverde Engage One Touch Ink Ball Rollerball pen. Do you know what this pen is, Myke?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Is this the one where you can fill it with fountain pen ink? Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is a very cool pen. And this is a hard thing to get right. Pens that you try to be a rollerball pen to use with fountain pen ink. This is one that does it well. This is the one that gets recommended a lot. There's a few different colors of this, including like a gradient rainbow and an all black and then like a transparent one. So it's basically a rollerball with a converter in it. So you can use your fountain pen inks in it. And this is, Ron snuck that one in there. And I think this one's going to do very well.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think that there's a very, very good price on a Pelican M120, which is just above it. And the M120 is a shape of Pelican that I'm not personally that familiar with. It's actually shaped a little bit more like a Sailor 1911.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. It's more of their retro throwback type of design. It's not a current line that they've done a special edition on. It's a bringing back something from the past shape. That's not as part of their regular product lineup. So those always do well. So they're great.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. If you want to go and get your hands on these special deals, just go to penchalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com. Click the link at the top of the website for it says podcast and enter the password pen addict. Our thanks to Penchalet for their continued support of this show and Relay FM.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So back on the subscription services, I think there's a couple in, I'm just talking really in our realm in the stationary world because there's a lot of options. I think there's two or three subscriptions that get it really right. And you can tell because they've been around a long time. Obviously Field Notes. They do one thing. Yeah. They're the OG, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' When it comes to stationary subscriptions, they are the OG. They innovated. Many of these other services have emulated what Field Notes have done. And companies will continue to do it in this space forever because not only do Field Notes create this idea in this space, they continue to execute at a very, very high level.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. And to me, it's the epitome of doing one thing and doing one thing well, right? Even though it's different every quarter. Not just well. It's right. It's not just well. It is premium. Like it is the best service. Blackwing falls right in line with Field Notes using the Field Notes format. You know, it's identical, right? In the idea of what a subscription service should be using that framework that Field Notes built. And, you know, it's a great product and it's no doubt that they've been successful.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Are one of the very few companies that have taken the Field Notes model and actually lived up to it. Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Not everyone can do it. No.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because it's really hard. That's why. It's not that people are not up to it, right? Yeah. This is such an incredibly difficult proposition. Yep.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm-hmm. Yep. And then I think Art Snacks does it extremely well. And that's more of a discovery base.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. This is more of your, like, typical curation box. Yes. Like how you would see in different worlds, like in the makeup world, in science, in tech communities, all that kind of stuff, right? Yeah. It is another example of a subscription thing, but it's totally different in the sense that, like, Blackwing and Field Notes, they are making the products. They are coming up with the ideas. They are producing the products. They're sourcing them and they're shipping them. They have to come up with the whole story around them. Where for something like Art Snacks, which is a more typical subscription box, they come up with the idea and then curate and source the products to go in an addition. Difficult in its own right, but different.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Absolutely. Absolutely. And they've been one of the few that's been able to curate the right products. They've been able to get the quality, the delightfulness, and the usability. I can't even fathom the logistical.