Editing The Pen Addict 276/transcript (section)

== Top Five Pins Update ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. N-O-C-K-C-O. Great. Yep. All right. So let's get in this top five pins update, Myke. Yeah. It's been a year since the last update, which actually seems about right because, you know, I've never counted the total amount of lists I have on there. It's got to be at least 10 or 12 or so. And a lot of them didn't change. So over the span of a year, there were groupings of top fives that either had no new products or had new products that were not any good or that didn't, you know, crack the list. But there were a handful of products where there was either an important minor type change or kind of a bigger change throughout the entire top five. So let's, before I get into it, do you have anything you want to say? But I want to get into some of the changes first.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think one of the things for me is realizing every single time I go to this page that there's more top five lists than I think there's going to be. I only added one this year. No, but it's like, I'm thinking in my mind, this is Brad's top five pens. Yeah. But it's actually top five in all of these different categories. Which is a better way to do it, but it always surprises me. I always forget that there's all this stuff. But I don't disagree with anything that I see. I mean, there's stuff that I can't attest to. Like the $200 to $500 fountain pen list is one that I struggle with because I've only really used in depth like one of these pens. And there are a couple of them that I just flat out don't like. But I think that's what happens when you get into that bracket. Like everything else is mostly standard. And like, I'm like, yeah, okay. I agree with basically everything. You know, I might move one around here or two around here, or I don't have opinions on this entire category. Like the machined pens. I mostly don't have a lot of feelings about those pens because there's a bunch of them that are just not my type of pen in that list.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But it is the expensive fountain pen line, especially when you get $200 plus, where I think it becomes a lot more personal taste than the other lines.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Totally. So the list, the top five page as it's set up is a recommendations page. So it's not necessarily what Brad would use, although it's mostly what Brad uses, even though like the best example of recommendation versus my usage is always going to be in the micro gel pen category where I love the Pilot Hitec C. I rarely recommend that pen to someone looking for a micro gel pen, right? So that's kind of like the perfect summation of recommendations versus personal taste. And then, like you say, when you get into the more expensive products, it really starts leaning more towards personal stuff. And there's just some really good kind of baseline options on the more expensive pens. We'll talk about in a second, but let me start at the top with the micro gel ink pens. It really didn't change other than the Uniball Signo 307 is now part of that list. It's such a good pen. And they finally got it in the micro tip size. I think they call it ultra micro because in the store they call 0.5 micro, which drives me insane. The 0.38, I believe, is called ultra micro, which, okay, whatever. I'm just glad that they're available now. And even though it is available in the store and that's a completely separate list than just micro gel ink pens, it's good enough pens to warrant inclusion in both lists. So the top five micro gel ink pens, Uniball Signo DX is, I don't see that thing getting beaten anytime soon. It hasn't for years. The four pens behind them and even the Just Mist are all really good pens. And, you know, I just kind of move them around sometimes as I find myself using them more. Like I've used the Zebra Sarasa clip more than the Uniball Signo RT1, which the RT1 is a great pen. And, you know, it's very useful in its own right. I just kind of fell back in love with the Sarasa clip. So I tend to recommend it more. And the Pilot Juice, I tend to only use their refills. So it's a really, really good refill, but I use it for pens that take a G2 refill, not the juice on its own because the barrel is not good. And the Pilot Hi-Tech C, which is my favorite, is number five on the list. And I probably use that more than all of those other ones combined. So, you know, it's actually not a lot of change other than the 307 getting added into there and maybe a little bit of shuffling of the deck in those. Another one that had a decent amount of changes were the top five pens from $100 to $200. I added the Sailor Progreer Slim and the Platinum 3776 and moved the Pilot Vanishing Point up all ahead of the Lamy 2000. I haven't been using the Lamy 2000. I still recommend it a lot. It's really good. But there's so many interesting options in that range, depending on what you want to do and what you're looking for in a pen, you know, any of the top four, I think, are valid first purchase in that price range. I think the Pilot Custom 92 is a great pen. I would pick one of the either number one, two, three, or four, probably ahead of the 92. But any of the first four, I think, on their own could be your first foray into that category. They all offer something very different. Like the Sailor has much more variety in barrel styles and colors than the Platinum 3776. But the 3776 has a nib that might be better than the Sailor. It's different. And then the Pilot Vanishing Point on its own is just such a unique pen with its retractable mechanism. It's super useful. So where does that put the Lamy 2000? I had a hard time keeping the Lamy 2000 ahead of those other three just because of the usability and differences and the choice that those other pens offer you where the Lamy 2000 is it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The choice is a big point, especially when you're looking at the Pro Gear and the Vanishing Point. Like, I think that they are really good choices because you can get a ton of different colors. And that's a big deal, especially when you're getting into that range. Like a lot of people that are getting into the $100 to $200 range, like it's really nice to have something that visually speaks to you when you're getting into that. And the problem with the Lamy 2000 is you've basically got one real choice, you know. Because aren't the silver ones more expensive?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, they're a stainless steel model. They're upper $200s, maybe.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So you can get the black one, which I will say is one of the most beautiful pens ever made, in my opinion.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Absolutely. Like, it's the Hall of Fame level pen, you know, for its design and performance and longevity. Yeah. But it's tricky. It's a very personal thing, right, that we do this. So, you know, you may want a pink pen and want to spend $150. Well, you're going to have to go to Sailor, maybe Platinum, maybe Pilot for that. And I feel that elevates those brands to a higher placing on my recommendations because of the choice, regardless of how good the Lamy 2000 is. It's really good. But I think I tend to lean to these other ones.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I alluded to it when we were talking about inks for pen chalet that Robert Oster – I switched between Oster and Oster.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, so I don't know which one is right. Just like I do Sino and Signo on a whim.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Robert Oster earlier because it's like it's so many different – the Robo Oster. That's what we're going for. Yeah. Yeah, because there's so many ways to say his surname that I then put that into the first name, too. So, Robert Oster.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, Robert Oster. So, I feel like its place is warranted in this list. I've said it before. I don't know if I said it on the podcast or in the newsletter or whatever. I wonder, are we in some like 365-day experiment from Robert Oster where he releases ink a day for 365 days in a year? He has so many ink releases, but what I found with all of his ink releases is they're such high quality and great colors. It's hard to not buy several of them at a time. I absolutely love those inks. They jumped in. I don't understand him.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't get it. I don't know where he came from. I don't know why there's so much and I don't know why they're so good. And, yeah, it's very peculiar to me how someone can come out of nowhere and produce at such an incredible pace. Right. At such a high quality level. It's very, very confusing to me, but I'm excited about it because, I mean, I think I own two Robert Oster inks now. I have another one on the way and I love them. They're fantastic.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep, they are. They are. So, they slot in at number three on the list from being off the list last year. That's a pretty good entry. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' From zero to third place when you're sitting behind, like, absolute just mega brands like Pilot and Sailor. Like, yeah. To jump in in front of Ackerman as well. That's huge. And I assume knocked J. Urban off the list, did they? Did he?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, it was because I never had J. Urban up there. So, I pulled up my old list here. So, let me find that real quick. I apologize. Because Mont Blanc's in at number five. Mont Blanc stays. I think that's just a good quality ink. So, they knocked off Pelican Edelstein. That's, wow. Okay. Yeah. So, Edelstein is great inks, great color. Not much change, not much variety. They add the one ink a year. And I say that knowing that Aroshizuku doesn't add anything. But they're still, they had so much more variety. It's undeniable. Than Edelstein. Yeah. They have so much more variety. But I still have Sailor. I have Sailor at number one. Aroshizuku was one previously. Sailor is far and away my favorite ink. And it's an ink I recommend the most for the colors. Well, so, we're going to have a conversation at the end about a lot of things like that. Okay. The what about conversation. I have comments or I have unfinalized thoughts on sub brands and custom pen makers and things like that. I need to try to figure out what to do because there's definitely some changes around there. But Sailor in general, because of the colors and the price and the performance, I have them at number one. Aroshizuku. I mean, if you say that's the best, you're not going to get an argument out of me. And then Oster. Then Ackerman number four. Because I don't know why. I've just been using Oster more. And it's a much better price and a lot easier to recommend. And you can get the similar colors as you can in Ackerman. And you're not getting any, you know, you're still getting good quality ink. So, I think it's more of a price thing between Oster and Ackerman. And Montblanc is just a really nice, high quality ink that's very underrated, which I mentioned in last week's show about some underrated stationery and things like that. So, ink's kind of hard to, you know, give. Again, there's so much variance even within brands that it's hard to give the perfect recommendation. But I usually start with Sailor and Aroshizuku. And then we'll go from there if we're trying to nail it down even further. So, the next list that changed considerably was paper. Rhodia stayed at number one. I think because they just have everything and it's all good. Right? No matter what style, format, shape, size, color, cover. The only thing they're not great at is for pencils. So, Rhodia, it's availability, it's price, it's format, style. Everything like that is just, I mean, it's hard to beat what they've done as a brand in this space. So, to me, like, they're number one. And, you know, it's kind of hard to argue with. They're just everywhere and so good. It kind of sets itself apart from everyone else in that manner. Then I think the entire rest of the list changed. Although, Morriman stayed on the list. Morriman's a great brand. Apica is number two. That's another paper brand I love. Leuchtturm was not on the list. They were in the just missed list. Leuchtturm could be number one one of these years. You know, I think they're getting in that Rhodia type of level. Their paper is fantastic. Their formats are great. The options they have are huge. They're available everywhere. So, yeah, I think that's a list that's kind of always going to be changing. There's lots of paper manufacturers that come in into the market. And there's always something new and neat. So, I try to balance it between styles, formats, and availability and price. And, yeah, so that's kind of how that list shakes out. And then the last big change list was the wooden pencils list, which I'm going to have some news coming out on that soon related to this list. So, we'll just run it down real quick. The Blackwing 602, still my favorite. Tombow Mono 100. Cron d'Ache Swiss Stinkwood. That's the smelly pen pencil. The Camel Pencil. And then the Mitsubishi Office 9850. So, hopefully in a week or two, I'll have some news to share with you about this list of wooden pencils. You can probably take a wild stab at what's going on with that. But we'll save the news until then. So, lists that didn't change were the top five pens in the store, the top five fountain pens under $50, and the top five fountain pens between $200 and $500. I want to tackle the store one first. I actually went and visited an office depot to see what else I could find in the store. And I came away with nothing because there's nothing that I wanted that would move the needle in any significant way in the store. You know, I did see the Sino DX, which I think will, if they keep that in the store, I'd be interested to see if it'll crack the list if they continue to promote that brand. So, you know, that could definitely be an improvement to the top pens in the store list. But it's really kind of boring otherwise. If Zebra could bring their Zebra Japan pens instead of their Zebra USA pens here, which I hate to say, the Japanese pens are different and they're better. So, you know, I would appreciate if they could bring some of those cool ones over there to the store, like Unibraw brought the DX over. So maybe we'll start to see more companies do that. But, yeah, it's kind of boring. The top five pens under $50, Myke, is something we talk about all the time. Right. The entry level fountain pen issue or not issue the conversation.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Metropolitan first, eco second, safari third, then everything else I kind of feel is the general way to go by. So, you know, I could argue, you know, the Kaweco sport and the platinum preppy, the preppy especially because of the price. But I have a feeling if you want to experience a fountain pen for the first time, you want something like the Metropolitan or the Eco, right? I mean, I don't see anything that I would change here. Do you have any ideas on this? No. I mean, there's really nothing, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, there's nothing to change.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, it's good. I mean, I'm okay with that list not changing. I don't love the store pen list not changing. I would like to see some change in that one. That would be nice. The top five fountain pens from 200 to 500, that's a weird category. And we're going to explore this a little bit more in a minute. But I'm really locked in on the Pilot 823, the full-size Sailor Pro gear, the Pilot 912, the Aurora Optima, and the Pelican 600. I mean, there's a lot of choice in here. These seem to be kind of the most straightforward streamlined of the bunch. You know, I really like everything that they do, everything that they offer. There's a wide range of prices. That's a big range of prices in there. But I think those are all solid, solid choices. You know, if I had to make a number one overall fountain pen choice from any price range, it might be the Pilot 823. I just love that pen. One of my favorites.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Sailor Pro gear would probably be second. Okay.