Editing The Pen Addict 469/transcript (section)

== Ask TPA Question ==


'''Brad:''' I think it's pretty easy for me too.

'''Myke:''' It's $200 to $500. Yep. But you get, that's at $200 and $500, the variance is massive. Right. It's bigger than $100 to $200. Like. Yep. To be honest, I think Sean's actually going to be easy on us here. Like there's so much in that $200 to $500 range. And you could also like, you could buy one pen that's $500 at half your budget. Then you could buy two more at $200. You've got a great range at that point. That's exactly right. That feels like the easy, like that's the easy answer for me, honestly. Plus as well, I mean, just for my personal tastes, that's where all of my favorite pens live is in that category.

'''Brad:''' Exactly. Like I'm in that category and I'm buying three pens. And I'm going to be ecstatic with every single one of them. Right. No questions whatsoever. Right. So there's a lot of options and choices in there. Now, I don't know if, you know, like we're a little bit more experienced than we used to be. Like we, I might've gone like a hundred, $200 before just because I didn't necessarily have the knowledge, you know, and there's a process over time that gets you into these different price brackets. If you're so inclined, right. You don't ever have to be, you know, you can stay in the zero to $100 and be just fricking thrilled with, with your pen. But depending on how deep you get into the hobby, you start figuring out, oh, well, you know, yeah, I'm paying more for this pen. And, but what am I paying for? Is it just like a nib upgrade or is there, is there barrel materials that actually make a difference in what I feel about this pen? And then it gets into more like personal styles and tastes and aesthetics outside of like writing performance. And I think the 200 to 500 gives you the best mix of both worlds. It gives you the best functionality and the extras that make, can make a, like a highly personal pen really speak to you. So I agree with you completely.

'''Myke:''' I think this is a, I think this is an interesting question, but I think that it's not surprising to me that we both want the same answer. So, so the second part of that question is, do we feel that the category we've chosen is where the most innovation is happening?

'''Brad:''' It's easy. Hmm. I just think, I mean, if I want to be factually correct, the answer's no.

'''Myke:''' Well, where do you think that's happening? Is it in like the 100 to 200? Yeah.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Everything below that. Yeah.

'''Brad:''' Because like you're getting, you can get a killer piston filling pen for $30. Like what are we, is innovation an Arushi Nakaya or is innovation a piston and a $50 pen? Right. And I think it's, I think it's below.

'''Myke:''' It's more like in that range, it's just more colors and materials. It's not actually innovation.

'''Brad:''' Right. So like we're not innovating as an industry to sell you a $10,000 pen because we've innovated this new thing. We're innovating in this industry to sell you something awesome for a lower price. I believe.

'''Myke:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Brad:''' So yeah, it's definitely the lower price ranges. It actually might be the zero to 100 price range. Because companies can absorb the risk better at the lower price point.

'''Myke:''' Okay. Todd asks, So this month I am completing my doctorate, which has been a five-year process. I would like to buy a fountain pen in celebration and I could use some advice. I wouldn't say that money is no object, but I would not consider an Akaya impossible, just on the very tippy top of the budget, probably a little bit over. Here's the hook. My last name is peppercorn, which lends itself to a lot of these kinds of themes. Black pepper and yellow corn, popcorn, spices in general, and the like. Oh, of course, Dr. Pepper. Heh heh heh. Dr. Peppercorn. For nibs, I gravitate towards extra fine and ultra extra fine or italic stub nibs. Some kind of fun acrylic pen would be great, but I'm open to anything that might run with some of these themes. Your recent discussion on episode 466 inspired me to think that going for the ultimate writing experience, like a pro-gyro and Akaya, may not necessarily be the best route to take.

'''Brad:''' There is a pen that immediately came to mind that fits most of these categories to a T. But I don't know. But it's an aesthetic choice that only Todd could answer whether he likes it or not. And it actually might be, as funny as this sounds, it might be less expensive than you thought this might be. But that sounds like the budget's, you know, probably in that $200 to $500 range that we were talking about, Myke. The Montegrappa Mia in Spice Explosion with an extra fine nib.

'''Myke:''' Okay, googling.

'''Brad:''' It is.

'''Brad:''' It's called Spice Explosion. I have this pen in Meteor Shower, and I love it. Oh, yeah.

'''Myke:''' We were talking about this. I love the look of this pen. We've covered these. Yeah.

'''Brad:''' Every color of this pen is great. Yeah. This one just happens to be called Spice Explosion, and it's got orange and black.

'''Myke:''' Color-wise, this reminds me of Maesterbrook. Yeah. It's those kinds of colors. And I really love the combination of the orange and the black and the silver.

'''Brad:''' Yep. And I think if you wanted to fancy this up, I think you might can get like a gold nib in them, but I'm not sure. They do. Montegrappa makes other Mia options.

'''Brad:''' With gold nibs, like in different materials than this, so you'd have to poke around. And they're extra fine nibs. So Todd says he likes extra fine or UEF, which is like me, or italics and stubs. These also come in, like they're extra fine.

'''Brad:''' Montegrappa steel nibs are more than fine enough for my normal writing. And then you can actually choose a 1.1 or 1.5 stub. Those are actually options on this pen. So yeah, it just depends on if you like the style. Because, you know, otherwise, like you're really wide open here. You could go for a Pilot Custom 823. You could go for a Pelican. You could get an M805 for under $500 if you shop around. And they've done some really cool colors that might match like the aesthetic you want. You may not get the issue with Pelican for me, which it sounds like it might be Todd's issue, is an extra fine is still not fine enough in their writing. So yeah, I'm looking at these Montegrappas, and I kind of feel like that's a good place to be for the style and aesthetic. Or, I don't know, maybe you just go for the Sailor Habanero, Sailor 2 Hot Habanero. But I would probably pick this Montegrappa over that, because I would just feel better about the money I was spending, mostly. You know, save a couple hundred bucks and do something like this. But that's the one that popped into my head. I may be way off base in this recommendation, so Todd knows how to get in touch with me. And we can hash it out a little more if you're looking for something else.

'''Myke:''' We'd be interested to know what you end up going with, Todd, as well.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, because one of the caveats is the ultimate writing experience may not be the best route. And I don't know that I could define that anyway, because it's different for each of us, right?

'''Myke:''' I agree with the thinking, though. What Todd's saying is you don't have to make that the thing, right? And that was what we were talking about. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to enjoy it more, because you do get into diminishing returns up at that level.

'''Brad:''' Right, right. So, yeah. Yeah, if I can help narrow this down any, I'd be glad to help.

'''Myke:''' If you want to submit a question for a future episode of the show, you can just send out a tweet with the hashtag RSTPA or use question mark RSTPA in the RelayFM members Discord. Or you can email them to hello at penaddict.com. At penaddict.com, you can find Brad's great writing along with the help of many other fantastically talented pen reviewers. You can also find Brad streaming most days at twitch.tv slash penaddict. Brad is penaddict on Instagram, and he is dowdyism on Twitter, and at Brad on micro.blog. Thanks to micro.blog, Hello and Harry's for their support of this episode. If you want to find me online, I'm at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. We'll be back next time with another episode of the penaddict. But until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

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