Editing The Pen Addict 334/transcript (section)

== Pricing and Products Shift ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. Let's talk about some not so fun stuff, Myke, that just came across my radar here in the past few days. It's about pricing and products, including a product we know and love and recommend wholeheartedly. The Pilot Metropolitan, Myke, is getting a price change for 2019. And not just any price change, Myke. The price of this pen is going to be $29.50. What are your thoughts? Go. Seems high. You think?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So what was the price before then?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You could get them for as low as usually $15 to $18. Yeah. You see?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Now, when I saw this, I had one thought that jumped into my mind, which was, finally, we can say there's a different pen. Because I've never been that keen on the Pilot Metropolitan, right? Like, I know lots of people love it, and it's a great starter pen. Not at $30 it ain't. Like, that's too much. Right. $30 has, like, hit it into a different price point, which I don't think it holds up in.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. And the chat room is saying, well, that's what it should be priced at to begin with. And that's what we agree. I mean, that's why we loved it so much. Because it was a deal, right? For what that pen was, that's why we recommended it so much. Because it was excellent for what it was. But this is kind of outrageously raising the price by a lot. Like, 40% at least. If not more, if not closer to 50% in some cases. Like, it's crazy. The price change year over year for what was considered their entry-level fountain pen. Now, I know they have lots of other fountain pens. You know, like the Varsity and, you know, the Plumix and Penmanship. And even the Kakuno. Hopefully the Kakuno price isn't getting raised. But this seems like a lot. And I don't know. Either they were toying with us in the beginning. Or they made a mistake. Or something happened. Because this doesn't seem normal. And, like, I understand prices have to change. But this seems like a big, big number to me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I just think, now that it is equally priced with the TWSBI Eco and the Lamy Safari, it has changed the conversation. Yeah. Because I think both of those pens are better than the Pilot Metropolitan. Yeah. Right? But would agree with the general consensus of recommending the Pilot Metropolitan. Because it was excellent for its price. Which made it a perfect starter pen. But now, I mean, I would recommend the Lamy Safari over the Metropolitan for convenience. I think the Safari is a better looking and performing pen. But if you really want the best in that realm, you would say TWSBI Eco because TWSBI's nibs are so good. But you then had the complexity of bottled ink. But I think that this has been blown wide open now. And I'm intrigued to see what fills the Metropolitan's old place.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, what if I told you it was the Pilot Explorer? I would say... So that's their new... Ew. I don't like this pen. I would say ew. I don't like this pen either. But now, that pen has launched as of this past week or two in the US. It's in the low 20s. Something like $22, $23, something like that. This is probably why they've done this. It is not a... Right. But this is not a good pen. No. Like, it's... I mean, I've gotten the chance to see them and hold them. Like, it's fine. It's fine. But it's not good. Right? There's a difference.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, like, if you got the Explorer and you inked it up and you wrote with it, you'd say, this is a perfectly fine fountain pen. But related to its price, related to what else is out there, like, it's just not going to hold a candle. It's not going to hold a candle to the Metropolitan. I would never recommend the Explorer over the Metropolitan, I don't think. There'd have to be some really odd reason. So, that's why I'm sure they, you know, were able to move that price. But it's just... Yeah. It's a weird... Weird decisions are being made. But weird decisions don't stop there, Myke. My good buddies at Lamy, you know Lamy, the crystal ink that I was talking about, what, it's been months now since those came on the scene. First, you know, their PR launch and then they started showing up in the European stores and we were really happy, even though I feel the colors are pretty boring and kind of not required. The price of the ink seemed good. 30 milliliter bottles for like eight or nine pounds in the UK, which without the VAT, like if I was to order them, it'd be $10.50 US. The pricing came out in the US market. They're going to be $18 in the US, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Suck it. Suck it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Suck it, America.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You finally have to pay more money for something.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's like, I don't know. I mean, in the big picture, that's kind of priced okay. It's kind of like the Pilot Metropolitan. It was really underpriced for the value that it gave you. I felt the Lamy Crystal inks were really underpriced for the value that they were going to give you. $18 for the 30 milliliter bottle. That's pretty much right on price. Like, that's probably what it should be. But if I go over to Colt Pens and click the button, it's $10.40. So, I'm throwing my hands in the air on that one. I don't know what Lamy's doing, but I guess they're doing what they normally do, which is whatever the heck they want, whenever they feel like it. So, that's Lamy for you. I just thought I'd bring that up because we spent a lot of time talking about that ink lineup and found it to be interesting and compelling. I'm not so compelled anymore, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They still look good. I look forward to maybe picking up some of my cheap inks. I'll get one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I know, right? You'll have them all. I'll have one. So, yeah, it's just, hey, that's Lamy for you. So, a couple more things before we get into an even bigger topic today. I want to give some shout-outs. We've been missing our shout-outs on the past few episodes. We've been so busy with the shows that I've been forgetting to mention a couple of these. One is self-promotional, Myke. I was on the 421 Archives podcast where they talked to pen addict Brad Dowdy. So, I had a really good conversation over there about how the pen addict came to be and what makes a good pen and different ink types. Lots of 101 type stuff, but it was a really good flowing conversation. I had fun on that. So, we'll put the link in the show notes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Second is a podcast that I think it was tweeted at you as well by one of our listeners. It's called Bob and Marge.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I'm very interested in what you have to say about this. If you've had the chance to kind of go through this. You may not have, but I have gone through this. Have you had a chance to listen to Bob and Marge or read what it's about? I haven't listened to it yet, but I have read about it. Okay. So, basically, this is a podcast where the letters between two people, Bob and Marge, during the Korean War are read in chronological order. And you get to hear their love for each other and their daily drama and all kinds of neat tidbits. And the thing why it was sent to us is because for each episode, you can see the scans of the letters. So, you can see their handwriting and all the letters that they wrote between each other while Bob was off in the army. And Marge was moving around in her job. So, it was really neat to see that. And then, there's also, we'll put it in the show notes, the link to Marge's Estabrook that she wrote these letters with. So, it was super, like, pen addict adjacent podcast. So, like, her Estabrook's a black Estabrook and it's stamped Bell System Property. She was working for the Bell companies at the time. But I like how it says Bell Systems Property, Myke. Like, it's not her personal pen. It's like, this is your work pen and it may not leave the premises. I thought that was pretty funny. So, I've enjoyed that. Like, each episode's only, like, three or four minutes long. So, you could get through, like, I don't know how many episodes are out now. Like, 15 so far. You could get through the whole thing in, like, an hour. So, it's really neat how everything's, like, consecutive chronological through there. So, it's really, really cool. I liked it a lot. Finally, one that I've been holding. We had a really good post on the pen addict from Sarah Reed, who is one of the writers at the pen addict. How to keep analog alive in the edit minds. Number one, we got a lot of feedback on that post. Or Sarah got a lot of feedback on that. About how she writes and edits her books. And by books, I mean, she's getting published, Myke. Her first novel is due out in early 2019. So, I wanted to give a shout out to Sarah Reed. So, stay tuned to the pen addict. Stay tuned to her. Her blog will have a link in the show notes to that. And she's on Twitter at Inkwell Monster. Her novel is coming up soon. So, I will be pimping that big time. Congratulations, Sarah. Very proud of you. That's exciting times. So, that's our shout outs for this week. I appreciate everyone who sends these things over. Even though they were mostly my stuff this time.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And this episode is also brought to you by Squarespace. You can make your next move with Squarespace. Because they will let you easily create a website for your next idea or project. Squarespace very simply allows you to register a unique domain name directly with them. You can take advantage of and customize award winning templates. To let your website look exactly how you want. And you can integrate complicated functionality. Stuff that would be super difficult to do if you were trying to do it on your own. Stuff like having an online store. Or creating a portfolio. Or creating a player for music. So, people could listen to your music if you were a band going to your website. Squarespace is an all-in-one platform that lets you enable all of these things with just a few clicks. There's nothing to install or patch or upgrade. There kind of isn't really anything to learn either. It's all super intuitive. It's really easy to work with. But they also have 24-7 customer support. So, if you do need help with absolutely anything. They're there for you when you need them. I've been using Squarespace for many years. As has Brad. Both penaddict.com and knock.co are both on Squarespace. So, you know. Like, if we trust them. Like, and I have done for like 10 years at this point. For various projects that I've had going on. Squarespace plans start at just $12 a month. You can sign up for a trial today. With no credit card required. Just go to squarespace.com slash penaddict. When you decide to sign up. Use the offer code penaddict. To get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. And show your support for this show. Once again, that's squarespace.com slash penaddict. And the code penaddict. To get 10% off your first purchase. Our thanks to Squarespace. For their support of this show. Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, continuing our theme of us not talking much about the show before the show. Aside from our document that we share. How do you want to tackle this next topic, Myke? Well, let me set it up.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, on the last episode. I kind of requested that Brad would begin sharing his own personal top five. Because, for a couple of reasons. One, because I felt it might help add some context to some of the picks that Brad made. But also because people come to the penaddict. And they listen to the show. Because they want to hear what Brad is enjoying. Because that might be something that they want to get in. So, I referred to Brad as being a tastemaker in this industry. Which was a phrase that he took.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Too heavily.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Are you saying that before you read what I wrote or after? Both. I believe it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because at the time you were like, I can't talk about this now. We're going to talk about it next time. Too much to say. And then I read what you wrote today. So, I know that the idea of being a tastemaker is clearly something that is very... It weighs very heavily on you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't know that specifically. I would say that you know me better than most people. Because we can talk about things that we can't talk about in public. And I don't mean that in some elusive, you know, sketchy kind of way. But we can talk business behind the scenes, you know, or things like that. Without it being out in the open conversation, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' There are also some things that happen to you when you are what I refer to as micro-famous. Which is what me and Brad are. Like, people know us but only in a very certain slice of the world. But in that certain slice of the world, people know who we are. And, you know, in the pen industry, Brad has... At least in the portion of the pen industry in which Brad operates, he has an opinion that people care about. So, when you are in this type of... When you have this type of life, there are things that you can talk about with people that are also in this life that they will understand. But if you talk about publicly, you sound like a tool.