Editing The Pen Addict 551/transcript (section)

== Price adjustments in the pen market ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' But now it's an automatic, easy recommendation. Like you've just fit into the under $150 bracket, which is like, that's the new starter price, right? Of like, I want to get a nice pen, right? It's like, yeah. $150 is where you're starting now. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because we used to be at like $125, $140, maybe $150. Now we're like $169 to $199.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So under $150. Again, it's also miraculous to me that like they've reduced their prices on the product line that they surely have the smaller margin on, which is what goes to retailers. Right. It's just like, this is wild.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is wild. Yeah. I like, I read it several times with like several different hats on. Like, okay, I'm going to read this with my consumer hat. It's like, yay. And I'm going to read this as my manufacturer hat. It's like, wow, that's like impressive. Yeah, this is serious. Things like that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, of all of the companies that could do this, it makes sense to me that it's Edison because they are the OG, I feel like. Right. Like of this type of pen, which now so many companies do, they have been around doing it for longer than anybody else. Right. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I mean, Franklin Kristoff's, I'm sure, been around that long. And there's probably like, you know, some, some, some, a few other ones, but that list, it's a very small list to your point. And they're considered, you know, definitely one of the OGs. And I, I just thought it was worth shouting out because that's not the news we usually see coming across our feeds these days. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, I think this is more worthwhile talking about than all the price increases. Yeah. I agree. Because like price increases are inevitable in general. Right. Like. Yeah. As time continues, prices will go up. Like that's just how it goes. And especially right now, because material is more expensive again and shipping is expensive and like all this kind of stuff. So I just think it's, it's incredible. And my hat is off to them. Like, bravo.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. Bravo for sure. So go see them at a pen show near you or check out their, check out their stuff online. We have links in the, in the show notes. Um, speaking of pen shows real quick, I don't have a lot of details on the new California pen show that just took place this past weekend, but I wanted to give them a shout out. Because I've had an outsized number of people reach out to me at how good of an experience they've had, um, at the California pen show. So this was a new show that replaced the old LA pen show, a new promoters, new location. So people were obviously curious, Hey, how would this play out? And everything I've heard has just been positive. Like some, you know, people I've solicited answers from some people have reached out to me just blindly saying, Hey, I was there. We had a good time. Um, you know, it was lots of positive feedback and I think it's going to be good. So, um, yeah, I wanted to point that out. If you have any feedback on the California pen show, Kimberly's going to have her write up. She was there. She will have a review up on the blog soon, uh, for her experience. I haven't talked to her too much other than, yeah, she had a good time just like everybody else. And, um, that's always real positive when you have a new, a new show, even though this was a, you know, traditional market for a pen show in time of year. Um, it's great to see so much positivity around it. Um, one note that I did want to put in the show notes for people to read, um, unrelated directly to the California pen show. Um, one of the vendors, um, Arushi pen had their car broken into like at a restaurant, you know, outside of the pen show, um, after the show was over. And I have a link into, uh, their Instagram because they pretty much got everything in their car stolen, like their luggage, which their luggage contained their pens and their pens that they sell are very expensive. So, um, this is a, a heads up to keep an eye out. If you see anything, um, you know, for, for these pens showing up on the market, they're very unique and very expensive. Um, you know, who knows, like, you know, if anyone even knows what these pens are or would be selling them, but this is a, uh, something I just wanted to shine a light on in case you see anything weird in the market. Um, so, uh, I, I hate to hear that, uh, for, for Jason and Arushi pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, uh, hopefully, uh, sometimes these thing, things feel targeted. This one doesn't. Yeah. The way they, because they, they describe it all the luggage, right? Like, you know, I've, we've seen stuff, unfortunately over the last year or so where people have had like pens stolen from pen shows, like maybe someone will steal something from the table or whatever. Right. But this one feels more like somebody saw luggage in, in the parking lot and went for it and maybe didn't really know what they were getting. Yeah. Um, but it's just so, it's such a shame because these kinds of things, like, obviously this is somebody's livelihood, right? That's exactly right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like, these are small retailers we're dealing with. Even someone that we think is large, like Edison, who we just talked about. Yeah. It would be devastating to them just even as a small business. And this is even smaller than that. So, yeah, it's, uh, it's, it's tough.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And, you know, these kinds of things can deter people from wanting to, to, to come to shelves and stuff like that because you're putting such a risk on the line. Right. Um, yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. The travel with travel with inventory is, is, is always a tough thing. Like that's always, you always have to worry about that type of thing. You know, when you're traveling with just a high dollar amount of inventory, it's tough for sure.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. Shout out of the week, Myke. This is, we're, we're kicking it old school here, but in a new way. Aziza at Gourmet Pens was probably one of the first, uh, blog of the weeks. You know, Aziza is an OG pen blogger. Um, one of the best, one of just an awesome friend, an awesome person and an awesome, um, stationary, uh, content creator. And now has a podcast. So I wanted to make sure everyone knows about the Gourmet Pen Podcast. I think they've got 10 episodes so far out there. Um, Aziza is doing a great job, um, with Gourmet Pens. Expanding the shop. Myke, I don't know if you saw this Bennu pen that she collaborated with Bennu on, the, the true unicorn, uh, Bennu, which I wanted to shout out specifically. Um, it's, it's currently sold out because it is so awesome. Excellent. In the best way possible.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I will immediately, when seeing this in the show notes, send it to friend of the show, Kathy Campbell. Yeah. As I always do. Anything that is these kinds of colors, I send it to Kathy, whether she likes it or not.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is like the legit unicorn. It is like all of the things. This is sick. This is so good. Like, if you're going to do it, go all the way. All in, baby. This is all the way. And I love it so much. So they're, they're perpetually sold out. But, uh, Aziza like is rotating inventory. Right. They're, they're, they come in and out. So you're, you'll have an ability to get one. They're not going anywhere. They're just not always in stock. So check that out. Subscribe to the Gourmet Pens Podcast. Go follow everything that Aziza does over at Gourmet Pens. So I, I appreciate her friendship and I, I hope to see her on the road soon. And, uh, you know, maybe we'll, uh, we'll have a, we'll have a podcast chat. Maybe we'll do a live pen show podcast chat with me and Aziza one day. That would be fun. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This episode is brought to you by ExpressVPN. You may have heard by now that you should be using a VPN when you connect to the internet, when you're on like public Wi-Fi's, norway phone networks that you're not sure of, that kind of thing. Adding in an extra step, that kind of sounds like a hassle. Like, do you want to have to turn this thing on and off? Well, if you knew how easy it was to protect your connection with ExpressVPN, you'd be doing it already. ExpressVPN is the easiest way to browse safely, securely, and better. It's so simple. So on the Mac, I have it on the Mac, right? Mostly I have it on my iPhone too, but it's where I find myself using ExpressVPN on my Mac the most. It just lives in my menu bar. I go up there and I click it. It's very easy to spoof my location if I want to be able to access content, either home content when I'm abroad or vice versa. Super fast. And you can stream HD videos. Awesome. Loads of VPNs might slow your connection to the point where it's not even worth trying to connect. ExpressVPN doesn't lag or buffer. You can stream videos in HD with no issues. ExpressVPN gets rid of all the things you hate about VPNs. It is a VPN done right. You just open the app, click a button, and enjoy instant protection across all of your devices. The fact is, once you connect to ExpressVPN, you don't even know you have it on. Your connection is secure, your data is encrypted, and you can spoof your location so you can access content available outside your region. This is why it's been called the best VPN by CNET and many others. Right now, go to expressvpn.com slash penaddict, and you can get an extra three months of ExpressVPN for free. That is exprssvpn.com slash penaddict to get three extra months of ExpressVPN. One last time, expressvpn.com slash penaddict. Thanks to ExpressVPN for the support of this show and RelayFM. Let's do some Ask TPA questions. I'm wondering, Brad, if we should rename this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. A little bit. What do you think?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, just because now we don't use the hashtag, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Just with a hashtag thing. Still, people will just randomly shoot me an email, hey, I have an Ask TPA.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I mean, so we can keep it if you want, but I'm just saying it's available. We could call it Ask the Pen Addict, right? It's up to you. I'm just saying it is a possibility for us now. We did Ask TPA before because we wanted to shorten the character limit for if it was going to be a hashtag on a tweet, but it doesn't need to be anymore because I think majorly now people even email them to hello at penaddict.com. Or what I prefer is if you go to penaddictfeedback.com and fill out the feedback form that we have. There's also one of the first links in your podcast app, so you can always find it there anytime. It's all on our website, on the Pen Addict website. It's a great way to send in feedback to us. That's where I pulled in a bunch of these questions that we have today. Just a thing that I was thinking of.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, I was giggling so hard because your change offering was we could just call it Ask the Pen Addict. I mean, that's literally what the acronym stands for.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I know, but I'm just saying it doesn't need to be Ask TPA, right? Because we don't call the show TPA. We never refer to it out loud as TPA or anything like that. So it could just be Ask Brad because frankly, nobody wants my answers, which makes sense.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's not true because I'm going to get you in this first one here. So let's tackle this while we think about it. So if you want to rename this segment of the show, send us a penaddictfeedback.com.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, if you have a good suggestion for a name, I'm not saying we will rename it, but the option is available to us. If you have a suggestion for a name.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, like Tony says in the chat, we'll just call it Brad. We'll get to it eventually. Maybe that's the question. Maybe that's the segment. All right. Let's hear this one because I need your feedback on this.