Editing The Pen Addict 718/transcript (section)

== Discussion on the Uniball Zento pen ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' You doubled up. You doubled up. All right. I want to talk about the Uniball Zento because, um, Derek is also, uh, Uniball Zento connoisseur. And, you know, I want to dispel some myths and I want to, uh, you know, maybe uncommit to the bit a little bit. Cause I don't want to, I don't want people to think I'm too, too wild about this product. That's yeah, it's just an okay product. But when I see things in the stationery world, and I think you're the same way that hit the hype train and then they hit the FOMO train and then they just get out of hand with like retailers and like cues and like premiums and scalpers. It's like, I find it humorous in the case of the Zento. I don't necessarily find it humorous in like some like big expensive, like crazy hard to get stuff, but on small products, like what I think I consider the Zento to be, I find it funny. So I've leaned into it very, very hard. Um, but I will say it's, it's pretty much a bit, but I kind of love it. It makes me laugh because it's kind of ridiculous what's happened to this product. Right.

'''Derek DeWeese:''' It's beyond ridiculous. Honestly. I mean, my first one, I happened to be on a mailing list, got it for retail price for retail price. It's a fine pin. Yeah. And we are talking about the signature in case you're new. It's not just all the Zento's into it. It's technically the ink, but yes, you know, the signature, I got the same one. Yeah. That Brad has the 0.5 millimeter black body. Got mine from Yoseka. I think it was like $30. So shipping like 35 bucks.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's aluminum bear.

'''Derek DeWeese:''' It's a premium, premium pin product. Great. Yeah. And it's a fine pin. The refill is decent. It's not the best thing in the world, but then when I saw the special edition come up, I was like, okay, but once again, I got it for retail price. It was like jet pins had them pop up and I was able to place an order, but I did this time. And I just put a video out that would already have been out with the time of you're listening to this, where I took the Brad advice and I ordered the Zento one refill to go into the signature. So that's my video. Literally, I get a brand new pin, take the ink out and set it aside and put in a different refill. And so far that's made a huge difference. I enjoy this even more. So now I need to go get, look at the other Zento one because I are the other Uniball one. Cause I guess these are technically Zento ones. Now, like you're saying, once you put a one in the Zento signature, you've made a product that doesn't actually exist.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, Uniball actually has made it exist. Not in the signature. They actually took the Uniball one P barrel, which is their shorty pocketable and put in a Zento refill. And I actually just have like a huge, just a huge marketing problem with this, because to your point, Zento is an ink formulation and one is an ink formulation. So you can't have both in a pen. You can have, but in our case of the signature, we have a Zento barrel and I have, and now you have put in a one ink formulation refill in it. And that's because the Zento refill is just fine. Like it's fine.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' There's only three colors in it right now. Even though I'm using black in mine, my, the, my one refill is black 0.38 millimeter. You know, if the Zento had some other color refills, what I've maybe gotten a purple, if it came in 0.38, sure. I think the ink formulation on the one is better in black. And that's been kind of my go-to now. The one as a refill itself is another product. I wanted to kind of lump in here too, because I actually think the color gel one refills are not that great. I think they have some like skipping problems. Like I've had just amazing luck with the black. It's been like perfect. It's, it's been so good. It's almost knocked me off of the signo DX is my favorite gel ink refill, but it won't ever be because the colors are just not as good in the one. So I don't know. I'd stick with the black or the blue black. Maybe.

'''Derek DeWeese:''' And I went with blue black. So maybe that's why I haven't had any bad issues or any kind of questions on it. It dried a little bit quicker than the Zento ink. Cause I had the blue 0.38 Zento refill. And that's what I have in my one or my, my first one. And then in the special edition, I put that Zento one and I've been using them back and forth side by side. And I already in advance thought, okay, there's probably something to this. So I have a black 0.38 one refill that'll probably get, go into where the blue Zento ink is. Cause I just like how the other one writes better. It seems to be a better fit for me. And that's the big thing. Find what writes best for you. That's what's most important at the end of the day. It doesn't matter what cylinder is holding the ink. You want good ink that you can write with.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And so like the ones, it's that's so hard to like say accurately the one gel ink refills. I didn't have a good luck with orange and then sky blue light blue, whichever color they're calling that. But the black has been fantastic. So I've leaned into that. I've leaned into the, the whole signature, the, the, have you seen my Zento signature? It just cracks me up. Um, because it really honestly quite, it shouldn't be a thing. Like it's a great, great pen for like, you know, an upgraded, you know, gel ink refill barrel. I think the barrel is my favorite part of this. I think they did a really quality job of building this. Um, the stock Zento signature, stock Zento refill, give or take it's fine. Like you won't have a bad time with it. I just have, uh, some preferences, especially with Uniball making so many ink formulations. They kind of do it to themselves for us to experiment and figure out what's our favorite. So Uniball, Zento signature, good pen. I wouldn't pay the premium for it. Um, but I'm going to enjoy it while the hype cycle is going and I'm going to keep, uh, I'm going to keep big upping it because I think it's just hilarious.

'''Derek DeWeese:''' No, it is a bit. Cause I was, I still think I wish we would have been able to at Atlanta, just go find an empty table and sit down and just set, you know, next to each other and put ours into signatures in front of us and just have that sitting there. Just,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' yeah, you know, yeah,

'''Derek DeWeese:''' it'd be a funny, it adds to the bit, but yeah, you know, the premium, if you're going to pay that premium, get a spoke, get a tactile turn, get a Arto. You know, there's so many other small business makers that are making something worth the premium price than this. For this at retail, great. Go for it. Yeah. You know, if you like the refill, it gives you some options to change, but don't pay the aftermarket price on here. Cause that just makes the aftermarket stupidity continue. And we don't really need that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We don't, we don't. And yeah, Uniball is a little bit culpable in this too. I'm not going to give my future employer. That's also a bit just for the record. You know, I'm not going to let them off the hook for like some of their decision making with the dive, which we, the, the Curitoba dive, which we mentioned a few years ago. And it's still never come down from its preposterous highs. And the, the, the Zento signature, they're at least putting a little bit more out to where people can get them if they want them. So I don't want to let them off the hook. They're partially responsible for this.

'''Derek DeWeese:''' So I just find it odd that I have a special edition when whoever wants a normal edition can't get one. Why are you releasing special edition colors? If you can't manufacture enough and get enough out there of the first two you did. Yeah. Um, because essentially the barrel should be the way to sell more of your ink versus, you know, vice versa.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So last thing on it, if you're interested in the Zento, just buy one of the $3 ones and see if you like the refill first. And then if you do, I think the barrel is interesting, but you know, just pay your regular prices for it.

'''Derek DeWeese:''' Definitely.