Editing The Pen Addict 430/transcript (section)

== Sharpie Variants ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Got it?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Definitely. Make complete sense? Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So the original Sharpie pen is now called the Sharpie art pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But the grip pen is the best of the three for if you're writing, doing things like that. It's that really good drawing style pen. You know, art marker, fine tipped, plastic tip. But like it and the Paper Mate Flare, which is more of a felt tip, you run into tip breakdown, right? They're just never going to be as durable as a metal tipped pen like everything else we've spoken about. Even the Pilot Precise needle tip, you know, which is more fragile than the conical tips of the G2 and the 307 and all those other pens. The Flare and the Sharpie pen, there are, you're essentially, you know, destroying the pen every time you use it. So it's not going to last as long as some of your other pens. So you just have to be aware of that. But the writing experience, if you like those style of pens, is going to be exceptional. So next on the list is the Pilot Acroball. That is Pilot's version of the Uniball Jetstream. I have always found it to be exceptional quality, but I have always found it to not be findable, right? They do not push that one as much. It comes in and out of the lineup. You'll see it on the shelf for six months. Then you won't see it for a year and then it'll come back. And I don't know, I think they can't decide what they're going to do with that, even though it's a pretty decent competitor to the Jetstream. I think the Jetstream just has that market on lock and Pilot hasn't been able to break through. They're going to stick with the G2, I think, is their main store shelf pen. But I do appreciate the Acroball for what it is and for trying to go up against the Jetstream. I just, I think maybe that ship has sailed.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't like the design of the Acroball. I think the Jetstream is a better looking pen, personally.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't dislike the Acroball. I actually prefer the Acroball's grip. It kind of has a crosshatch pattern on it, which works very well in practice. It's the right tactile-ness, if you will. It feels really good. I like it. But overall, it is a more generic style. Like the Pilot Acroball Pilot wants to sell these in dozen boxes to the office supply cabinet. Right. That's what that pen is made for.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Next on the list is a bit random. And you will find this at office supply stores. It's the Pilot G-Texi, which is the high-tech-C model for the United States market. And I think the UK market, they also call the standard ones the G-Texi. Don't ask me why. I have no idea. That's a great pen for a very particular use case. It's needlepoint. It's 0.4 millimeters. It's very finicky. I adore it, but I never recommend it because people really need to know what they're getting into with that. And they don't sell it very often.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They don't push it very hard on the store shelf. Like you'll see rows and rows of G2s and rows and rows of Jetstreams and EnerGels. And you'll see like one little row of the Pilot G-Texis, you know, at the bottom of the shelf, not really in primetime location. So, you know, try them. I really, really enjoy them. But there are people who just flat out hate them. And I understand that because they're very finicky is the word I use for them very frequently. Last one on this list, Myke. This happened a few years ago to where the Uniball Signo DX was only available in Japan and stores that import from Japan. And then a couple of years ago, out of the blue, I don't know if it's an 8-pack or a 10-pack, started showing up at like Staples and Office Max of a rainbow of colors, 0.38 millimeters, the legit, for real, Signo DX. And I don't rank this up there with the 307s and EnerGel and PaperMates, even though it is singularly the best gel ink refill on the market, just because of accessibility. If you can find it on the store shelf or if you see it on the store shelf, you have to commit to like a big huge pack, like a $25 or $30 pack of these pens. And that's just a hard sell to someone who wants to try a new gel ink pen, right? The people who are buying that probably know what the DX is already. Say, oh, these are fantastic and I can get them here. Yes, please sign me up. That's a good price. But if you're trying to sell that against the G2 or the EnerGel or the InkJoy, where you can buy a two or three pack of black pens or two black and one blue pens, I don't know how the DX is going to get a foothold selling pens like that in the U.S. So it's been a weird decision the whole time for me with that pen in the U.S. market. I'm glad it's here and I'm glad people are getting to try, but I just don't think it has kind of the... There's not a way to get there to really raise the profile of that pen in the U.S. at least, right? Because I can buy a three pack of the Uniball 307s for seven or eight bucks or spend 25 bucks on these DXs and I don't know what they are. They're also capped, which is one thing you'll find in a lot of these pens, Myke, that we've discussed. A lot of them are retractable. Big retractable market on the store shelf and the DX is a capped pen. So people really, really like their retractables. I'm good with caps or retractable pens, but that's one thing you'll notice on this list is probably, you know, nine out of every ten pens on this list is a retractable pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So that's kind of it. That's my store shelf recap. And that tweet about the G2 reminded me that it was a good time to refresh this conversation because I wanted to give the G2 a shout out. I don't hate on the G2. There's a lot of pens that are better. And I wanted to give them a special shout out because if you're a G2 fan, you should really try some of these other ones.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But the G2 is good. It's not one of those situations where it's a bad pen and we give it better options. It's like, it's a good pen, but there are other options. Some of them could be better for you. But even if you're not sure, there are at least things to try that will give you different experiences. Yep. Especially when it comes to colors, I think.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. I think Pilot's color gel inks are actually the worst of the color gel ink pens. Like the G2 black is great. But once you start to get into like the purples and even just the basic blues and reds, I think every other gel ink pen makes better color gels than Pilot does.

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' I had an interesting topic come up on stream yesterday. By the way, I stream at twitch.tv slash penaddict. Tuesdays and Thursdays. 10 a.m. 10 a.m. Eastern. We had a great crowd yesterday. Really, you know, I think we had a lot of new viewers yesterday, which I always love seeing. People are like, oh, wow, you're talking about pens? And they're like, yeah. And they're like, I like pens. Can I hang out? And we're like, yeah, come on, hang out. So anyway, we just talk about like most of the time I have nothing planned to talk about unless I'm doing an unboxing. So we just kind of see where it goes. And we got on this thing about journaling where I was writing. I've written, I'm doing a whole thing on writing, handwriting and journaling right now that I'm working on for myself. And I mentioned it during the stream. I don't know how it came up, but it was basically I showed my journal and I only write on the right hand side of the page, basically one side of the page, right? As opposed to like front and back of the page. And I always knew that people, you know, a lot of people write on both sides of the page, right? That's a totally legit thing to do. What I didn't know, and I'm still shocked, is it how many people actually do use both sides of the page in as far as a ratio to people who just use one side of the page. So I know you're not particularly a journaler, but I do have a question for you before I really dig into this. You use a specific...

'''Myke Hurley:''' I journal every day. Well, you theme system every day. So this is a...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a journal. And that you use both sides of the page because it's pre-printed. It's planned to use that. Yes. My planner, I use both sides of the page of my planner because it's set up and designed to use that. Right. We're talking about unstructured notebooks.