Editing The Pen Addict 170/transcript (section)

== Field Notes ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Terrible, terrible. All right. Our good friend, Dr. Jonathan Deans, wrote a very cool article this week called The Field Notes Bubble. And if you haven't seen this, you need to go read it because just my talking about it, it's not going to scratch the surface on the discussion that he had. But it's basically, it's the articles based around Field Notes, but it's more his discussion and his thoughts from an economic perspective about bubbles in general, whether bubbles actually exist. Like in his economic belief, his belief is that a bubble doesn't exist. And then he breaks down, you know, what he's, he's basically schooling us all, which is why I love him so much, you know, you know, teaching us about these concepts and how, and then allowing us to apply them into our little realm and such things as Field Notes. And, you know, I mean, there's no, there's no black or white definitive answer here. He doesn't see a bubble in Field Notes, but he talks about, you know, like what you should expect from, you know, rare Field Notes editions, you know, how people, people such as myself don't care that, you know, one of these packs is, is theoretically worth, you know, $200 or whatever, or, you know, we'll just open it up and start using it. It makes no difference. Um, you know, and one point he made, uh, towards the end is like, if Field Notes wanted to, um, they could actually, you know, inflict, I say inflict damage, but, uh, but basically burst the bubble by reprinting all these old things, which is, I don't, I don't think that's something that Field Notes will ever do. Um, they never saw this coming in to begin with, and that doesn't seem like their business model at all. Their business model isn't to, to rehash the old. Um, it's to keep inventing new, um, in my perspective. So there's, there's a lot to take in with this article when we have, uh, Jonathan back on, and we'll definitely explore this more. And, you know, I, I could probably do, you know, I've read this article twice and I still have like bits and pieces I want to pull out there and discuss deeper. So it definitely deserves a, a longer conversation. So yeah, the one thing that, uh, Dr. Dean's pointed out and that Doug Beal is, uh, mentioning in the chat room is that I'm surprised that we haven't seen counterfeits because essentially the recipe for Field Notes is there, right? You know, it's in the back cover. Here's everything we did to manufacture this book.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Um, I don't, I don't think it's going to be worth people's while because I, the market's so limited. I don't think a counterfeit would really work in this situation. People have discussed it before and, and wonder if how, you know, if that was even possible. Um, you know, if we started to see that, you know, prop up, pop up in the marketplace, would we be able to tell? I just don't think it's the end result for a counterfeiter would be worth the effort in this market. I think there's, I think the Montblanc counterfeiters would probably get away with it a little bit more than the Field Notes counterfeiters.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't think it would have reached that point yet. Still, like, even though we've seen these high prices, I just, I don't see it happening. I don't see it working out, you know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. So I guess in general, I don't know if there's a bubble for this. I just, I'm pretty uncomfortable with the ridiculously high prices. Um, just loving the company as a brand. I don't want it to be thought of as something different than what it is. And Field Notes themselves, uh, Brian and Jim have done a wonderful job. Managing that. Um, it's more taking a life of its own outside of the company. And, you know, that's okay. I mean, it's cool. I mean, I was, I've been part of that collecting too, trying to make my own set. Um, but not with the intention to sell it. You know, I just think it's something cool to have. Um, I don't know. Did you have anything to say on this article? It's, there's, it's a long article. It's a lot to take in. I've probably done a disservice just, you know, kind of glossing over some of the high points like this. You definitely need to read it and check it out on your own.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I do have thoughts about it, but I feel kind of uneasy mentioning them because I feel like I am arguing economics of an economist. Like there are just some parts of it that I, I don't agree with from, from Dr. Dean's perspective. Um, like I, I, I don't necessarily agree that reprinting would help because people would want the addition numbers. Right. Um, I don't think that the field notes would be able to stop that, uh, because if they reprinted it, they couldn't pretend that it was back in history. Right. Um, and there will always be something that denotes the, an original as an original, hence why there is still, uh, a market for first edition printed books. Exactly. Um, and also he talks about how the bubble could end up leading to a bust for field notes where, um, they go from print, you know, they go up to print in 20, 30,000, uh, books and then the bottom falls out of the collector's market and then they struggle. But the company have grown over time so they could go back to printing 15,000 again. They might just have to scale back their operations. So I don't know. Like I understand, I completely understand what he's saying, but I don't think it's going to go that far. And, uh, I would be surprised if something like that happened because field notes are completely plugged into what the community is doing. Right. So they know, they know, like, I mean, you can see it, right? That at least on the face of it, I mean, we need to see if we can try and get an answer out of them on this, on the face of it. It seems like they're trying to curtail some of the collector stuff by doing, you know, like the unexposed edition and the, um, the two rivers, which you can't, you can't get the, the set, right? You can't just buy that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Um, it's my opinion and it's strictly that I have no information otherwise is that Brian, Jim, Aaron, the entire design team, when they're making field notes additions, they pay absolutely no intention to what they think the collectability of a particular edition will be.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I agree with that. I believe that's their, their thought process. That's, that's not, that does not even register.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because what their mindset is, what is cool, what will sell well. Yeah. That's what it's about, right? Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And then we'll move on to the next, we'll make something cooler next time.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because you know what would be great for a collector's market? Create an edition that flops and nobody buys. You know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So. We should probably know, right? Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' As we record this tomorrow, it looks like.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's exactly what I was going to say. Tomorrow, the new field notes drops. So I'll be interested to see what's going on. I haven't used these last two editions as much as I've used previous editions. Like I've gotten through like one notebook, each of the last two. I honestly, I mean, I'm not going to lie. I've been using the notebooks. I'm using the one I'm in though. I'm on my last page right now. So if those field notes ones, if they get here before I leave on my trip, I'm going to take one with me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So like I've just been slowing down on my paper usage in general since, you know, going full time at Relay. But I'm still using them and I'm still going to keep buying them. And I'm still going to buy way more sets than I need because I have a problem. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But use them. You know, that's what they're made for. Use them.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think actually field notes are my biggest problem, if you'd call it a problem.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think that's a fair problem to have though. I mean, it's in the grand scheme of things, it's not that expensive of a problem to have.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, you know, maybe, I mean, not even Retro 51 is so much anymore because I can let some of those ones go. Although I'm really gutted that I missed out on the one that looked like a plane.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That thing was sick.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't know how I missed it. And I can't get one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's not my type of pen, but I don't know that I've seen a cooler design than that one. That one, I keep staring at the pictures of that one and it's like, wow. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What is that one called?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I can't remember. I was just looking at someone was talking about one yesterday. Inktronics did a review of it. So look up Inktronics. That's where I read it yesterday.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'll report back in a moment.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Well, then I'll keep going. Dr. Deans did want me to send out a shout out to a new Facebook group he created for Fountain Pens Australia. We have a lot of Australian listeners. And I think this is a great community for the Aussies to get together and discuss some local pen things available to them that aren't available to us and vice versa. And if you want to check that out, we will have the link in the show notes to the Fountain Pens Australia Facebook group and get in touch with Dr. Deans. And I'm sure other our other Aussies like Pete Dennison and David Brennan, they'll all be in there. We have lots of awesome Aussie listeners. So I look forward to seeing what they have going on there. And as a matter of fact, I'm on that page. I'm going to join the group right now. So I don't think you're allowed. That's all right. We'll see. It's a closed group. So I sent an invite. I'll let you know if I pass or fail. Don't let him in.