Editing The Pen Addict 467/transcript (section)

== Kaweco Elite Royalty Sport Pen Discussion ==


'''Myke:'''  Okay.

'''Brad:''' Because it took me a while to sort this out. Like, why does this pen exist? Myke, let me tell you why this pen exists. This U.S. exclusive, you know, with all the monarchies that we've had here in the U.S., this U.S. exclusive is co-branded elite royalty for Kaweco's U.S. distributor, Elite Accessories.

'''Myke:'''  Oh, this hasn't helped, but okay.

'''Brad:''' It's definitely not helped.

'''Myke:'''  What is Elite Accessories?

'''Brad:''' It's a distributor. A distributor got their own Kaweco pen that they're selling to all their U.S. customers.

'''Myke:'''  Am I supposed to care?

'''Brad:''' This is kind of grotesque.

'''Myke:'''  About Elite Accessories, which is a brand that Google can't even help me find?

'''Brad:''' This is one of the most mind-boggling... This is, like, wrecking my brain. And, like, you know, I've had a lot of beers on vacation, Myke.

'''Myke:'''  Yeah.

'''Brad:''' But I'm completely sober right now, and I don't know why this exists. Like, I love my friends at Kenro. You love your friends at Kenro. I do not want an Estabrook with Kenro plastered all over it.

'''Myke:'''  Yeah, because I have no... Like, I, as a customer, have no affinity for what is ultimately a hidden brand for me. Right? Right.

'''Brad:''' That part should be invisible. Yeah.

'''Myke:'''  Like, the brands that we know are, like, Estabrook. Right? Or Monteverde. Or companies like that. Right? The distributor has no relationship with a customer. Until now, Myke. It's like if DHL were like, hey, we ship pens.

'''Myke:'''  We're gonna... Although, to be honest, that is at least a brand that people know about, right? Like, shipping freight... Acme Shipping Freight Company. Like, oh, people want a pen with our brand on it. Right.

'''Brad:''' Like, I mean, you know, a lot of us are sports fans. And, you know, we have the, you know, all the brand merch. And, you know, we cheer for laundry, basically, is how we joke about, like, brand merchandise. You know, if you're buying a jersey or something like that, it's like you're actually rooting for laundry. But in this case, like, I'm on Kaweco's team. I couldn't give a rip about Elite accessories. Why would I want them on my pen? Like, just give me the Kaweco stuff and tell me a different story about why he chose crown blue and deep red for these colors. Not that I'm... Not because it's of the U.S. distributor Elite accessories. My mind is... Like, I've seen a lot of things, Myke. This one is ruining me. I don't know what to say. I don't have anything nice to say, like, about what has happened with this decision. It was like... I think Kaweco... They're perfectly fine. I actually, I don't hate the logo. Like, it's a kind of horny logo. It reminds me of, like... Do you remember the old British Knights brand?

'''Myke:'''  It's like medieval times or something is what it looks like. Yeah.

'''Myke:'''  Kaweco made to make a sub-brand to do this stuff. Because right now, for me personally, all they are doing is, like, chipping away at the great brand that they possess. By...

'''Brad:''' And we thought, to your earlier point, we thought they fixed that.

'''Myke:'''  Yeah. But it seems like no. And also, like, making a decision like this is so weird to me. Like, this pen should only exist as gifts for the distributors' partners. 100%.

'''Brad:''' Right. That's exactly what this is.

'''Myke:'''  Like, that's who... Like, this should have been included. Like, for example, my watch brand, Nomos. They partnered with Kaweco and made a Nomos-branded Kaweco. And they sent it out to watch dealerships. And you would get given one if you bought one. And I have one. And it was, like, a fun little thing for me. Because it's like, hey, I know this. So I have a Kaweco with the Nomos watch branding on it. But they're not selling that. Right? It's a gift. So, like, this is, like, such a weird choice for me. It's like a corporate sponsorship type pen. It's like a corporate branded pen.

'''Myke:'''  Sold to people.

'''Brad:''' That's going to be widely available. Like, this isn't a one-off. For money. Like, every retailer has this pen.

'''Myke:'''  You want me to pay you for this. Yeah, it's weird, man.

'''Brad:''' I don't get it. The person who it's made for. Yeah. Wow. This one's really, really messing with me. It's fascinating. Like, I love everything about this. Because it is so bad. Like, I'm trying to be, like, metered and nice. And, you know, I love Kaweco. I love Kaweco and I love the pen. But this is a gigantic error. Yeah, we say this because we love you, Kaweco.

'''Myke:'''  Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, we are trying to protect you from yourself. Like, make a secondary company. And don't put your logo on it. And make as many of these things as you want. Right? But stop co-branding in these really weird circumstances. Like, it's very strange to me. Or if you're going to do it, make something that I can't say no to. Right.

'''Brad:''' Yep. All right. So, as usual, please send me feedback if I'm missing something about this. Because this one, I'm actually pretty convinced I'm not missing anything. I think it just is what it is. But I'm always open to, like, learn more if I'm, like, really overlooking, like, what we're missing here. Hello at penaddict.com. Please feel free to reach out and let me know about your elite accessories, Brandon Kaweco. What is happening, Myke? All right. I don't know, man. We should do some STPA. We got some good STPAs. But, man, I have a feeling there might be follow-up on this pen, unfortunately.

'''Myke:'''  All right. Got a longer one to start with, right? So, this comes from Myke. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I'm getting groomsmen gifts ready for my wedding. Congratulations. That was rescheduled because of the pandemic. I'm sorry. You had to do that. And my lovely bride suggested personalized stationary gifts for my three groomsmen. So, what we have here is kind of like a description of each person with my expectation of, can we make a suggestion? Or can Brad make a suggestion for a gift for each person? So, groomsmen number one. I've selfishly wanted to get this guy into fountain pens for a while because he is easily addicted to collecting things like baseballs, vinyl toys, etc. This person is perfectly in the warehouse for fountain pens. Yeah, exactly. I recently found out he has a brass pen and it feels criminal to get him addicted, but I want a pen friend and I think I can hook him in. I wanted to get him a conpecky for its closeness to cubby blue. I assume this is like a baseball thing. Is that the Cubs?

'''Brad:''' Yeah, so that's the Chicago Cubs, yes. Yeah, look at me. And like their cubby blue is, it's a very, it's a kind of a royal-ish blue.

'''Myke:'''  Oh, well, we got the perfect pen. It's called the Coveco Elite Royal Sport. There we go.

'''Myke:''' It's already personalized.

'''Brad:''' Oh, my God. Actually, like the red and the blue, one of those would be a good match because the Cubs are, it's this royal blue and red. We found a customer. I'm going to erase what I wrote.

'''Myke:'''  We found a customer. There you go, Myke. There you go, Myke. There you go, Myke.

'''Brad:''' So, I actually picked out the TWSBI 580 ALR Prussian blue.

'''Myke:'''  Okay. Right.

'''Brad:''' Even though that blue is, yeah. It's not the color of, it's not cubby blue, blue. But what you can do with this pen, since it's a demonstrator, you can get like a red ink and kind of have that blue and red look, you know, for the pen. So, that was kind of my thought on this. And like, there are a couple rules here. We had to stay under $100, right?

'''Myke:'''  Yep. Yeah, I didn't get to that point.

'''Brad:''' And then Myke was also going to do, so like he was talking about the personalized stuff, he's talking about doing personalized notebooks. So, I didn't really rank the pens that I've chosen for like customization, right? So, the TWSBI 580 ALR would be a little difficult to customize, but these other ones I chose would. But I think this is kind of, I think this kind of like hits on what we're looking for for groomsmen number one. And so, I feel pretty good about that answer.

'''Myke:'''  Grimsman number two. This guy studied painting and loves camping. He's into city planning and public transit as well. I'm thinking maybe some kind of tasteful tactical pen.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, this is like EDC type pen. Like, the tactile turn options, I think, are kind of the, they're the classic EDC type. They can be, it's tasteful tactical. Like, that's a good terminology to put in there. You could go with something like the spoke pen, just the standard pen with the gel ink refill. That's always, that would be kind of fit into this mold as well.

'''Myke:'''  I guess you could, depending on the way you look at it, it's like some of the spoke products could have that tasteful tactical vibe. Yeah.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. But I would stay away from like the extreme and like the, like the, when you get into the trade. It's got a knife in it.

'''Myke:'''  And this one got a GPS signal in case you get lost in the woods.

'''Brad:''' So, um, like Karis customs, I think those also fall into the same category as well. Like the tasteful tactical where you can get that style of pen for a good price, good quality. And these, you could actually probably could get engraved on the barrels, these metal barrel pins. So yeah, I think that's a, that's a good choice. Probably something tactile turn or Karis customs.

'''Myke:'''  And then groomsman number three studied graphic design, loves drawing, doodling, cartoons. I'm torn between a nice stub and a fine nib for drawing. So that's both ends of the spectrum there.

'''Brad:''' I feel kind of happy with all of my choices here, but I feel especially happy with this one. And it's kind of a, it's an interesting pen and I'm going to be doing a review of it soon. And we're going to, we've already had some reviews on it, but it's the platinum procyon. And here's why, um, it's in that price range. It's about $60, I think. And it's a, it's a lightweight aluminum barrel. Platinum's nibs are amazing. I would go with the fine side of the ledger here. I'd go with EF and EF platinum procyon in any color. There's like six different barrel colors you can get. And then I would especially add in platinum carbon black ink for drawing. And I think that's kind of like a really great art drawing technical writing setup is having a platinum procyon with those great platinum nibs, steel nibs that are very fine. And with an ink that is like an artist favorite and works spectacularly well in this setup. I don't know. That feels kind of like the right move to, to me for, for like a graphic design drawing doodler that we're trying to find here for groomsmen number three.

'''Myke:'''  Very nice.

'''Myke:'''  Congratulations again, Myke.

'''Brad:''' Yep. And, uh, let us know. Yeah. Let us know if you go with those. If you go with any of this, if they, what they think.

'''Myke:''' Yeah.

'''Myke:'''  All right. This episode is also brought to you by express VPN. We all take little risks every day when we go online, whether we think about it or not. I think our connection probably won't be interrupted by someone trying to get data from us that it wouldn't be used against us. Cause why would you even consider that when you're out and about on the internet? Be using the internet can be like kind of like not having that insurance policy in place. If that makes sense, like something looking after you, there could be unnecessary risk because every time you connect to an unencrypted network, this is in public places, you know, like airports, hotels, cafes, that kind of stuff. People on the same network have the ability to get access to some of the information and data that's passing through. So your data is valuable to you. People could make money selling out your information, but also it's yours. It has your value. It's your stuff, right? So express VPN can act like that insurance for these connections. It creates a secure encrypted tunnel between your device and the internet. So nobody can steal your personal data. And express VPN is simple to use on all your devices. You just fire up the app and click one button to get protected. And that's what I love about it. It's on all the devices that I have. So when I'm in an environment where I'm connected to a network that I don't know, that I feel like I can't trust, I will turn on express VPN and it just gives me that little additional peace of mind. It's so easy to do. Why wouldn't you? Secure your online data today by going to expressvpn.com slash penaddict. That's exprssvpn.com slash penaddict. And you can get an extra three months for free. That's expressvpn.com slash penaddict. Our thanks to ExpressVPN for the support of the show and RelayFM.

'''Brad:''' Did you know, Myke, that I am currently on vacation and I'm running ExpressVPN currently while we podcast.

'''Myke:'''  This is like perfect for you today.

'''Brad:''' And it does not touch the internet speed, nothing. Yeah, this is like, like it's what I said. This is the perfect group of sponsors.

'''Myke:'''  I will say, like, this is a great example of it. Like we're having this call and there's no difference in the, there's no lag or anything like that. And you're using ExpressVPN for it. It's like perfect.

'''Brad:''' Yep. It has been turned on this whole call. So yeah, it's great.

'''Myke:'''  So Luzgen asks, following up from last week's conversation, is the $100 to $200 like pen range, fountain pen range, kind of a bad entry point now? Would it maybe be better to consider a sub $100 for entry and then upgrade to $200 and over?

'''Brad:''' So short question, but a lot to unpack here. Let me go, I'm going to, I'm going to answer this question directly, but let me give a little bit of feedback that I got from last week. And it was generally like almost, there were very few arguments about what was in the price range. But the question that has come out of it is, is the price range valid, which gets to Luzgen's point here. Is the price range the best representation that we can give for what we're seeing? And I think the price range can be adjusted to, you know, maybe have a $150 to $250 price range and have a $75 to $150 bracket than a below $75 type of thing. But none of that, I still would say this is the best entry point. Well, I would never send anyone here, even in a hundred to $200 range for their first fountain pen. Right. So like we'd have to redefine entry point because $100 to $200 has never been a good entry point. Right. So that doesn't mean it's a bad entry point. Now it means it was never the point where I'm sending someone in the first place. I'm sending them probably that $75 or less, you know, Twisby's, Prerra's, you know, Metropolitan's, Safaris, Ecos. That's the entry point. The step up point is when you get into the $100 and $200 range. And I still, I think like $150 to $200 is probably the best step up point. So like, I really like, I'm a firm believer in the products in this price range. And there's even more, like I can, that's one list where I don't have a problem filling it out. Right. That, that's one of the few lists that could be twice as long. And I'd be very comfortable with every entry on there. That's how good that price range is. So to specifically answer Lodgen, the $100 to $200 range was never a good entry point. Like that, we just, I would not work that way unless I was, you know, being asked under a specific set of constraints. And that came the answer, right? We would never go there, but I think it's a great step up price point. So in the future, hopefully this year, you know, I will break out. I think we're going to go zero to 75, 75 to 150, 150 to 250. I don't know. I got to think about it, but we're going to break these out a little bit differently because I think, I think the wrong things are getting left out of what has now become some of the default price points in our community and what's offered. For sale. So I think that needs to be adjusted. So I hope that answered some of the question.

'''Myke:'''  McKay asks, if your entire pen collection got wiped out, stolen or destroyed in an unsalvageable way, what are the pens that you would work hardest to reacquire? Current restraints, like if it's a limited edition, potentially you'll have to pay the premium to get it in the secondhand market or something like that. Do you want to start off? What, what, I mean, we didn't set an amount on this or anything like that. Yeah. I picked four that were like, I, I feel like these are the four I would, I would have to replace. Um, I didn't go for any sentimental value personally.

'''Brad:''' All right. So, yeah, I went with three, but I think the list is probably five, but I actually want to have a discussion about trying to answer this question. Right. And I think it's a good question. And then I was thinking about, okay, what are the most important pens for me to, if I didn't, if I no longer had them, what pen do I want to use tomorrow? And it's number one, well, in no particular order, the Namiki Yukari Milky Way. That's like just kind of my favorite, just writing pen. Like if I could have one pen that I knew could do a little bit of everything. And on top of that, it's stunning to look at, stunning artwork, stunning everything. Great nib. Um, that one I would look to replace. The second one would be a Pilot Murex because it's, it's kind of the opposite of the Milky Way, not just in price, but in aesthetic, right? It's cold steel and, you know, industrial looking where the Milky Way is just artistic and beautiful. But I just love the feel and the writing of the Murex. So I would, I would instantly add a Murex back into my collection. The third one I wrote down is I would commission Jonathan Brooks to make me another Lamy Safari. He'd probably turn it down after the difficulties of the first ones. But I kind of want that pen because I, I, you know, love safaris. I love the idea.

'''Myke:'''  I use it all the time. I love it.

'''Brad:''' It's just kind of a great pen. And then what I couldn't decide was my Nakaya Aotamanuri. I love that pen. I love the nib most of all. So I could, like, I wouldn't be dead set on getting that exact barrel shape and color because there are a lot of Nakaya options that I would be just as happy with as that one. So I don't have, I have the sentimentality with that pen that it was like, okay, this was my first, like, really big purchase and my first Nakaya. But I could replicate that even if it wasn't the same, you know, green, black tone, you know, the same setup and, and things like that. Like, I think I could just get a Nakaya with a amazing nib that I like on it. So I didn't put that down, like, in the specific words. And the other one that falls in that category would be my King of Pen Sky. I, again, my first King of Pen, you know, like, it's got great stories attached to it. But, like, I could get another different King of Pen and still kind of have that, that feeling. I think I would be okay with that. So does that make sense? So I had those, like, three definitive ones where the first ones that I would go out and try to replace immediately. And then, like, yeah, I'd want another King of Pen. And, yeah, I'd want another Nakaya. But they didn't have to be the exact specific one that I was replacing. I could go with, you know, a newer model or a different model and be just as content. But, like, the three that I listed, I would definitely want replaced as is.

'''Myke:'''  Yeah, I kind of went with, by and large, stuff that I could buy and things that don't have that kind of sentimentality to them. So I don't have any, like, you know, like, I agree with the Brooks Arushi, but that was a one-off. Like, it's not going to happen again. Like, I can't buy it. And the same with, like, some pens that where I feel like I've picked them, you know, like my Canalea pens or whatever. I feel like they are the ones that I chose. And so I went with a selection of pens that, by and large, I can buy. And they represent, like, the spectrum of stuff that I enjoy. So the first is the Pilot M90. This would be the hardest, right? Because they don't make this pen. I would have to find this somewhere else. This is the one that I feel like I'm least likely to be able to get my hands on. But I consider it to be one of the greatest fountain pens ever made. So I would be super upset if I couldn't get another one of these. I would want a 1911 King of Pen. I would ideally like my Tangerine, but I would take another color. Really, I've just, I want a King of Pen. And I think the 1911 is my favorite King of Pen shape out of that and the Pro Gear. I think I prefer the 1911 because it's the maximum King of Pen. It's like, you know, before you start going into the Ebonites. But I'm not really interested in those so much. The Pro Gear Japan Steel. So this is the one with the little, like, hand-hit exterior. I just think it's fantastic.

'''Brad:''' This one surprised me.

'''Myke:'''  I love this pen so much, Brad. I adore it. It's one of my top, like, five. And it really, for me, it was like, I want a Pro Gear. If I was going to have any Pro Gear, which one would it be? Right? Like, that was the thinking for this. It's like, if I had to replace a Pro Gear, which Pro Gear do I want the most? And it's that one. And then my Platinum 3776 Galaxy Starlight. Because it's a beautiful pen and I would want to have a Platinum in that list.

'''Brad:''' Yep.

'''Brad:''' We definitely thought along the same lines. It's, you know, there's some definitives. Like, okay, I want, like, a one-to-one relationship exact thing. You know, like, in the case of the Murex and the M90. You know, then you want, like you said, you want a Platinum in there. Or you want an Pro Gear in there.

'''Myke:'''  If I'm re-bought, though, like, if I had to re-bought the Galaxy Starlight, I would get a broad nib rather than a medium. I have a medium nib on mine. And I have a broad nib on my Nicely Lass. And I prefer the broad nib to the medium.

'''Brad:''' Gotcha. That makes sense. I think that would be allowed under the rules.

'''Myke:'''  I think so. It's my money. I'm buying them all again. I've had a heartbreaking scenario, which is mean that all my pens, my entire pen collection is unsalvageable. I'm doing whatever I want. Right. All right. Last question today comes from Michael. What type of design of furniture would make up your ideal queen of pens? Ebonite, like the king, or something else? So, of course, we just mentioned it, right? I don't really think of it in this way, but it is king of pen, right? Like, it's a particular thing. And this isn't in an attempt to gender pens, king, queen, for me. But I would want to make a truly fantastic pocket pen as the direct opposite to the king of pen, which is big and oversized. I would want to make something beautiful and undersized as the counter to what the king of pen is about, you know?

'''Brad:''' Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's interesting. I didn't think of it that way. That makes sense. It's the route I went is I want an ebonite piston filler or, at a minimum, a good Japanese eyedropper. No cartridge converter in these thousands of dollars worth of pens, right?

'''Myke:'''  Yeah.

'''Brad:''' It's like, I'm very pro-cartridge converter, but there is a point where you do question going, hey, these king of pens are very large and can hold a lot of additional internal mechanisms. What would a piston or an eyedropper big ebonite pen look like from Sailor? And that would kind of be my one option.

'''Brad:''' And I would probably do it, like, clipless, like some of these, some of the ebonite ones. Like, I would really want them to be shown off without any external furniture but have internal hardware to get rid of the cartridge converter system. That would be my ideal.

'''Myke:'''  If you would like to send in a question for us to answer on the show, you can send out a tweet with the hashtag AskTPA. If you're a RelayFM member, you can use question mark AskTPA in the RelayFM members Discord, or you can send them over email to hello at penaddict.com. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to penaddict.com, noc.co, spokedesign.com. And Brad streams very frequently, obviously not while he's on vacation, at twitch.tv slash penaddict. Will you be back next week for streaming?

'''Brad:''' Definitely. Full schedule next week.

'''Myke:'''  Awesome. Brad is penaddict on Instagram, and he's dowdyism on Twitter, and Brad on micro.blog. We've learned today as well. We'll work on that. We'll work on that. A little bit more confusing for me. I'm I-M-Y-K-E. Thank you to micro.blog, ExpressVPN, and hello for listening. For maybe to listen, but for supporting this week's episode. What I was thinking was, must remember to thank the listeners who've gotten this far through the show and offer our apologies again. And in a way, I can confirm to you this is never going to happen again, because now every time Brad travels, I will say, Brad, don't forget your microphone. That's what's going to happen forever. Even though now, Brad will never forget his microphone, because he will always remember the fact of the time when he forgot his microphone. He will now have me saying, hey, Brad, don't forget your microphone. So thanks so much for listening to this week's episode of The Pen Addict, and we'll be back next time. Say goodbye, Brad.

'''Brad:''' Goodbye, Brad.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]