Editing The Pen Addict 445/transcript (section)

== Retro 51 Update ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. But anyway, it's on it's on Retro 51's blog. Now we have it on the blog. We'll put that link in the show notes. I will. So we'll have both both instances if you want to see it. So I will now move over to reading it from the blog. Greetings. A year ago, I let you all know I was going to retire. After many conversations of loyal fans, collectors, well wishes and prospective owners, an agreement has been made, a deal formed and completed. First, I want to thank you all for your support, business and personal, your purchases in funding our endeavor and your passion in spreading the Retro 51 message to all of our fans. Second is to say a little bit about the future. The new owners are fans and collectors, as well as accomplished business professionals. There will be some minor changes to come, but the guidance of the existing stuff, the basics will be the same for now. And then it goes on to talk about the individuals. Do we want to read this part? You do, because like I wanted to comment specifically on this. Vicky will continue dealing with the existing factories and the products will not change. Richard will remain as design guru, so the hits will keep on coming. Dan will train the new sales team as he winds down into retirement. Customer service will continue with the same passion for excellence that it has so rightfully earned. And I will be available with my opinion for at least one year. For the future, in the interim, I expect a shortage of standard items, but the pipeline is up and running. And we're back at full force quite soon. As my buddy Dan says, thanks for working, George. I just want to say just, you know, again, to underscore, congratulations to George, right? Built an incredible business, deserves to retire. And I'm pleased that there is a future. But I would love to know more.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's all we got. We have no idea who the purchasing partner slash partners are for this. You know, did, was it, is it, you know, private individuals? Is it a company that we know? I literally do not know. I'm not being coy here. We've tried. We've tried to find out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's a consortium of business owners that, like, or business individuals. I think it's like, it's not, we thought it might have been a company or a distributor or something. But there was always this outside thought that it was just going to be, you know, a bunch of people got together and made an offer. But it's kind of where it seems like it is.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, let's remind everyone of where George came from and the business ties that he has. I mean, his family runs in circles with billionaires, right? So there's outside people, maybe not just pen fans, that, you know, may want a piece of this. Like, it could be people we just don't know that we want to invest in saving this, in seeing this company continue. I shouldn't say saving. They're not, they didn't go away because they weren't, you know, doing a good job. So it could be absolutely someone we don't know as an industry. It's interesting. I'm glad to see the for now section, even though it does say for now, that these people will be saying because I'm friends with Richard and I'm friends with Dan. Richard is like the key to this, the designs. He's been there for like 20 years. Dan, I thought was actually gone.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But he's still there and heading into his own retirement. But yeah, like I, it's been an interesting year from retro 51 as a fan of retro 51. Like it's been a long year, year. Like I've not known what to think. This is the way it's been tracking the whole time. I think we're in the beginning. I don't know. I'd have to go back and listen to what we said. I would be pretty shocked if we said, yeah, they're just going to shut the doors and be done with it. Like, I think we were all pretty confident in this was going to transition to somewhere on somewhere, somehow. Right. Um, so we'll see what's next. I'm glad they're not going away. I've been a little bit burnt out with the bum rush of products in the past six months to be perfectly blunt. Um, but I will, you know, look forward to what they're going to do next. I look forward to seeing who the owners is. And I look forward to, uh, supporting any company that supports the community that, uh, that we have. And that is the stationary community as a whole. And if the, that community still gets to play like a big part in, you know, seeing all these special editions for pin stores, like I love seeing that, that, you know, they're able to get specific products for, for themselves. And hopefully that will continue along the same and we don't skip a beat, but you never know. So, um, we'll be looking forward to the next step and we'll let y'all know as soon as we do.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm intrigued. I'm happy to see that the people responsible for creating the products will be sticking around for a while. Um, any business change will change the business and the products. That doesn't mean for the worst, doesn't mean for the better, but things will change because it's different people's opinions, right? That are involved. Right. Um, I'm just keen to see who these people are. I look forward to hearing from them. Uh, I look forward to hearing why, you know, like, why did you want to buy this company? I, I don't feel like, I'm not saying this is like prove your credentials to me. Like, I don't care, you know, like you don't have

'''Brad Dowdy:''' to prove nothing to me. Yeah. So the sentence is the new owners are fans and collectors. And so I'm looking forward to hearing as well as accomplished business professionals. It seems like it's going to be someone we know, but it may, I'm opening the door to that. It's not, but

'''Myke Hurley:''' so like, I'm just excited to hear from these people, right? Like I want to know what made them do it. Like, I want to know what drives them. What do they want to do with the company? Where do they want it to go? What areas are they looking to focus on? I'm excited, I'm excited about that. Um, I never wanted it to go away. Right. That's like the whole thing. And then the, the frustration that we've had over the last few months is nothing happened. Right. And, and it, it's not that we deserve to be answered or whatever, but it just seemed like the announcement was made and then nothing changed right in any direction. Right. It was like, we're going away, but also we're going to completely continue with our cadence and pretend like it never happened. And it was very peculiar. So I'm pleased that we have at least a partial answer now, like we know what's happening. We know that retro 51 will continue under some new ownership, maybe some new, well, definitely a new direction of some kind. And I am eager that we will maybe by next week's episode hear a little bit from these new owners. Um, and I guess we'll extend an invitation to these people. If they want to come on the show and talk about it, we would very happily welcome that. Yep. They have big shoes to fill. Yep. So I would love to be able to talk to them as well here and ask them my questions.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Uh, yeah, absolutely. Cause I have them. We'll say. Yep. So interesting stuff. A long time in the making, I guess it was, it was, it was a weird journey to be perfectly honest. Um, I'm glad we're finally getting somewhere now, no matter what that somewhere is. Yeah. And, um, we'll go from here and, uh, see, see what's next. I, I look forward to it. Just like you said, have you seen the Nemisu N1 pocket pen, Brad? So I saw it pop up yesterday in my email and in the tweets, but I didn't see a picture and I didn't click the link until you put it in the show notes this morning. Then I went over and clicked it and checked it out. Should I continue from there? Yeah. I backed it. Okay. Um, it, it looks cool. You know, it's like my style. I like the pocket pen style. Of course I am once again shocked at the price. These things confuse me as someone who makes stuff. Not that I want it to be more expensive. I mean, if you can make it for this, that's awesome. But I'm like, wow, that's a price. Like that's a good price. It starts. Okay. So this is the

'''Myke Hurley:''' Nemisu N1. It is a pocket pen. Um, they have fountain pen and rollable options. Uh, there's no price difference to choose between either. Um, they have a couple of different materials that they're using. So the entry level is aluminium and steel. And then they also have some different finishes and also titanium is the, um, kind of the best material. It's interesting to me that the product is actually called the N1 titanium pocket pen, but most of the versions of the pen are actually not made out of titanium, but you can get it made out of titanium and they're offering titanium nibs as well. Um, but yeah, they have aluminium, aluminium, steel or titanium, um, in a couple of different colorways. Like they have one called petrol, which looks like it's been, it looks like it's been through the fire, but I don't know how they're doing that. Uh, exactly. Um, and the steel and aluminium entry version is for me, it's 37 pounds. Um, I don't know how much that is for you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I wanted to see if it auto translates it. I just backed it and I don't, I don't recall what the, what the, um, exchange rate was at the time. So I can look it up real quick, but that's the level I backed, um, to just, you know, just the basic aluminum model, but even like the PVD coating. So $50, 37 converts about 50, $51. So yeah, I mean, that's a good deal. Then the PVD coating ones, you know, getting up there closer to like a hundred dollars. They're like, what, like 60, $70. Yeah. $69. Um, nice. And they, I don't know, it looks cool. Like Nomisu does a good job.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I like that product. They traditionally have. Um, I know that I think one of them, the campaign didn't go very well, but I have always loved it. So the campaign that didn't go

'''Brad Dowdy:''' well was at the time a few years ago where Bach could not meet order. So it got delayed. And then on top of that, the QC was really bad. I think it was the Ixion. Yes. Which I loved. It was the barrel one. I really loved it. Most people did. Yeah. It just got super delayed. And then a high rate of failure on the nibs from a QC perspective. So in general though, I like what Nomisu does. I like the, I like the clip design on this. I like the knurling on the barrel. I don't like the O-ring, um, on the barrel as much. So I want to see how that is in action. So that's why I backed it to see like, Hey, does this work, um, better than I think it's going to work or does it bug me? Like I think it might bug me, but for the price, I, um, yeah,

'''Myke Hurley:''' the rollable option is the Kickstarter dialing the Schmidt P8126. Um, I remember calling this a long time ago that this was going to become the refill that every Kickstarter pen ended up taking. Uh, and that has happened. Um, I do, I think studio needed to blame for that. Honestly, because the Mark one, I think exposed it more because obviously it was in the retro 51 and was it always the, um, Baron fig squire refill? Yes. But Baron fig were a little bit, I get it. Like they, they didn't really talk about it too much. Like, because you combine it from Schmidt and brand it and they did. Yeah. So like the first

'''Brad Dowdy:''' one I recalled doing, it was a Johto that came before those. Yeah. And that's the refill that they used for that style of pen. But it was kind of my, my thinking at the time, which

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think is, is, is Baron correct is that, uh, after the Mark one, it was going to like exponentially change. And I think, I think that it has, but nevertheless, well, this is, I want to say one

'''Brad Dowdy:''' thing about the refill. This is a discussion for another day because I get this question a lot. There is no good Parker style gel refill that all of us would get behind. Okay. That is not a product that exists. And if that product would ever exist, we would see a sea change in people, common refill. Uh, it, it just doesn't exist. I get this in my inbox like twice a week. Well, what's a better refill for this Parker style refill? That's a 0.5 gel. I'm like, well, Monteverde makes some and the end, you know, it's a tough, it's a tough jam. And, uh, I would like to see, you know, if that ever happens, I don't know who's, we need Uniball to continue making the Parker style refills just now put their gel ink in it. Like they did their jet stream ink. And that's what I'd love to see. Yeah. And if that ever happened, it would, uh, it would usurp the, the 8126. And in my opinion, but, um, there's still different refills, you know, different, different types of ink. So that's my thoughts on that. And, um, you know, I I'm just, I don't know why that's

'''Myke Hurley:''' such a thing. I went quiet there for a second as I was looking through the original Ajoto page because it is still bears the point that I think I was trying to make is they didn't talk about

'''Brad Dowdy:''' what it was. Right. It was just, that wasn't on the, um, like the, the, the checklist of features.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Where the Mark one campaign was focused around, this is the best refill and we're making a pen for it. And I see what you're saying. You know, so I think it exposed it a little bit more to people that may have otherwise not known too much about it. Um, that it was like this commonly available thing that you could even get branded yourself if you bought enough of them, which is what Ajoto did is student needs done it too, right? Like Schmidt will allow you to do it. You can put your logo on the side of it. So people do it. Um, but anyway, this might not even be accurate what I'm saying, but that's the point that I was trying to drive at. Um, this, uh, Nimisu pen is not for me visually that I don't like it. Uh, it's a little too EDC for me in a way that their upper products are not. And so it doesn't, this, this design style really doesn't work for me very often, like knurling and yes, uh, rivets and that kind of stuff on a pen. Um, it, it's not really what I'm looking for from the Misu. I've found their design to be a little bit more elegant in the past. I think that it looks great if this is your taste, this is not my taste. Plus, you know, I'm not like a big pocket pen person anyway. Uh, Kate's made a good point, which I like is very engineering-y,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' which it certainly is. Which is why I like it, right? Yeah. So this is more your style. Like we,

'''Myke Hurley:''' we, we differ. This is like this type of style was where me and you differ the most, like pen type A, for example, which I really don't like, but you love. Totally. You know? Yeah. Um, I like the options. I am stunned about the pricing. I think the pricing is just unbelievably good, especially that the roller ball and fountain pen are the same price. If you just get a standard one. Right. And they use, they use him Bach nibs? Correct. Your mileage may vary for Bach nib.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They, they've always used Bach. Um, Bach has been more consistent to me, at least in the past year or so then in the past I would avoid just completely. I was like, I just can't do it because it's a crapshoot. And now I think it's, I think they, they must've just gotten over a hump in the factory from a few years ago when they had all those problems. And like they've, to me, they've been more consistent. You know, you're like you said, your mileage may vary, but, um, yeah. So I, I don't have any problem with Bach nibs whatsoever, especially the, the more current models of them.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. April shipping estimate.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Wow. Get on it. Yep. It's fast. Breaking all the rules. Mm-hmm.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Too cheap and too soon. I, I, I believe that they can do it because they're experienced if

'''Brad Dowdy:''' they think that they always have. Yeah. I mean, I know the Ixium is an exception, but it's

'''Myke Hurley:''' already met its goal. So if you're interested, they've already met the call. So yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' 24 days to go. All right, Myke, we got to get an apology ahead of these Ask TPAs. All right. I requested a bunch of Ask TPAs and I got them. We didn't plan on some of these things happening.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I thought we were going to do pretty much a full show. No, everything up until now in today's show wasn't in the document this morning. Like we've had a lot happen today, I guess.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I guarantee we will get to all of the Ask TPAs. It just may not be all of them today, which was my initial hope. Yes. But I think we can get to all of them by next week. Yeah, maybe. We'll get to a bunch of them. We'll get a bunch of them today. But a lot of these are really good like conversations to have, not necessarily just like black and white answers and we can move on and cut through them, which is why I like these questions so much because we can have these discussions, you know, even if a lot of these are topics we've discussed before. Yeah. So let me lead off with the two questions I got in the snail mail. Is that okay? Yes, please. So the first question from longtime reader Emil, who sends me, writes me letters, you know, a few times a year. Emil would like me, first off, to not forget to shout out the upcoming Enco Rino month of February, where you write a letter a day at a minimum. It's a fun thing. We'll link to it and talk about it more maybe next week because I know a lot of people, get involved in Enco Rino. It's a good way to use your stationery. It's a good way to write some pen pals. It's a good way to write some letters. I'm sure all those letters will be delivered in the month of April. I just opened a Christmas card yesterday. It was cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So Emil wanted me to mention that. But secondly, his question in his letter that he wrote me is, why aren't there many stationary related books? And what stationary related books can you recommend? And what he means is the non, you know, coffee table style pictures of pens books, right? He's talking about like the pencil perfect from Caroline, where it takes like a historical story and explains, you know, the origination of how like a pencil can be. What are the storytelling type of stationary books? And that's a really good question because there's not many of them that I've read. Like I have plenty of, you know, the pens of Japan book and, you know, historical, you know, Parker pens and, you know, all those types of books. But that's not really what he's talking about here. The one I got for Christmas a couple years ago, it has a really long title, I think. Let me read this title here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Ballpoint. A Tale of Genius and Grit, Perilous Times and the Invention that Changed the Way We Write by Gheorghe Moldova.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so I read this book, I got it as a gift for Christmas, and I read it and I enjoyed it. And I remember talking about it on the show here, that it had, I think it took a lot of liberties in the story, right? It was an enjoyable book. But in the forward, even the author kind of alluded to the fact that there might be some embellishment type storytelling. And I was like, well, that's not really the setup I wanted, but it was fine. Like it was a good book. And it was good to kind of get some of the things in the invention of the ballpoint in my head, even if you kind of need to do your own research afterwards to check the authenticity of the author's statement. And then there's a few other ones. The chat's mentioning the perfection of the paperclip, which I've heard about that book. I have not read it, but that has been recommended several times to me. I found a website, which it's called Books About Pens. And it's got like 40 pages of links to books, most of it being the exact book that we're not looking for, right? The, hey, pictures of pens or, you know, the assembly of pens or the construction of pens, not necessarily the storytelling of products. So if you have any more recommendations, I'd be interested. You know, I have a book called The Secret Life of Ink, which I haven't read yet. So that might be a good option too, but I haven't looked at that yet. But yeah, there's not a ton. You know, you can start getting into things like Analog by David Sachs, which has like a one chapter on, you know, pencils or stationary stores or things like that, but you can't, it's hard to get like an entire book. So I'm open to recommendations and I will definitely pass them on to Emil if you have any more. How many, what, what stationary books do you have, Myke?