Editing The Pen Addict 608/transcript (section)

== Best pocket notebooks for fountain pen use ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Jason asks, what pocket notebook, three and a half by five and a half, kind of like field note size, has the best paper fountain pens? By best, I'm thinking less bleed through, dries quickly, and for me, is extra smooth.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Classic pen addict question that I've never had the perfect answer for, right? This is why the question keeps coming up. Because it's not easy to find something like this. In the past, you would have to go to some smaller makers who would do small runs. I'm thinking of someone like Pebble Stationery. We can put a link in there. But I haven't checked into them recently. But they would make small pocket notebooks, three and a half by five and a half. And they would use Tomoe River. They might have even done a Cosmo Air Lite one. So they would take these popular fountain pen papers and make them into pocket notebooks. For an easier accessible pocket notebook, Write Notepads have always used a very good fountain pen friendly paper. It's fractionally bigger than three and a half by five and a half. I don't have the exact dimensions. But, you know, add in just like a small fraction on each size, just being a little bit bigger, but smaller than like four by six.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's not like a super specifically feature set for fountain pen inks, but works extremely well on them. And then if you want to venture out into something a little bit bigger, you can get the Midori A6 notebooks. I hesitate to call those pocket notebooks, but I just have such a love for that particular notebook because I love the paper and I love the size format of it. It's basically like a, it'd be like a double, double thick field notes, right? Or maybe even almost like a 3X field notes. But it's around that same size. It's not purely pocketable though. I will freely admit to that. But I kind of think more people might want to consider some A6 type of notebooks when they're thinking about like having a pocket notebook option because it's a really compact size. Although like if you put it in your pocket and like it's going to be too big and bulky for that. So look at what Pebble Stationery is doing. Check out Write Pads. And then if you want to experiment, look at something A6-ish. Because A6 is, if you look at some of the companies that make A6 notebooks is where you're going to find some of your real fountain pen friendly stuff, right? You know, you can get some Hobonichis in that size. You can get Midori's in that size. Life in that size. Like all your Japanese brands that are good for fountain pens are going to come in A6 size. They just really don't make many smaller than that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Do these companies use, are they using like specific good fountain pen paper or do they just use good fountain pen paper? You know what I'm saying?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So Hobonichi has actually made pocket notebooks before where they've used whatever Tomoe River they have in stock, which is now, you know, the Sanzanese. So they'll use that for their just traditional notebooks. Whatever main product line paper they'll use, they'll make some basic notebooks in. Midori uses their own paper, which is freaking fantastic, right? It's probably just like my favorite all around paper. And then most of the other Japanese companies fall into that same using their own paper. Life, Kukuyo, Styology, all of those brands will use their own formulations, which are almost universally fountain pen friendly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Alan asks, why do the markups, like the price increases for imported pens, differ so much pen to pen, even within a single brand? Take the Pilot Metropolitan and the Prera. On Amazon or eBay, I can find them for roughly the same price. A Metropolitan is $20 to $25 and a Prera is $25 to $30. I assume that reflects the price in Japan. But when buying from U.S. retailers, the pens are priced very differently. The Metropolitan stays at around $25, but the Prera jumps to $60. Why?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Another great question that I can't answer other than to say Alan's 100% right, especially I've been called out on the Prera like a lot. Like that one doesn't add up. The only thing I can say is when you ask or when you think about it from a retail perspective, their price is fixed. Like they don't get to make up whatever price that they want, right? They're buying from a distributor who has a rule set in place that says the price can only be this. So as of why you can buy a Prera for $25 in one place and then $45 in another place, that's always boggled my mind. The Prera is always one of my favorite fountain pens, and it is one of the weirdest priced pens that I've ever seen. They fortunately backed off that high MSRP a few years ago to where you can actually get them in the 30s now, which I think is much more reasonable. But for a time there, there was like a 100% markup difference depending on where you bought the Prera, which is just ridiculous. And it makes you wonder, like, I don't know if Pilot can control these things or not, but I mean, who doesn't want to pay $25 for the exact same pen that's listed over here for $50, right? So I don't have an answer other than the retailers are bound by agreements. And the sourcing of the other pens, you know, might be perfectly fine, but they may just not have the maybe more of a gray market situation, right? Like an Amazon or eBay type of thing where it's the exact same product and the product's perfectly fine, you know, not fake or counterfeit or anything, and they're just able to usurp the rules into making a better option for you. So, like, I really can't say definitively why. But the retailers, you know, again, this is buying through traditional retail channels versus gray market channels where you get the support and also supporting the businesses. But I do admit it's a hard sell when the price is doubled going through traditional routes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I feel like you – I know people don't like stuff like this – but you just can't ignore if a market's wanting to pay for something, you'll charge it. And it might just be the simple fact of, like, for whatever reason, the Pereira is perceived that it could be charged at a higher price here and the market maybe bears out, so they do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I actually think that's what happened to the Pereira, and then people stopped. Like, they found the limit and they had to roll it back. Yeah. Because there was a clear time probably – it's been years. There was a clear time where the Pereira's were, like, $50, and it was a joke. I was really, like, adamant that that was just, like, terrible pricing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But being an effective business is finding that. Yeah. Right? Like, what is that limit? Getting to it and then stopping.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah. Like, now that it – then a few years ago, they started seeing them, like, you know, starting in the $30-something. I was like, okay, they're at least, like, back to normal. Like, for a minute there, it was really, really bad. So, yeah. It's – and the regional pricing stuff is always interesting. So, who knows? And it's always in flux, right? Like, apparently there's another Pelican price increase coming, right? Like, I tried to find some information on that before the show. Like, I've only seen, like, a banner image. Like, hey, Pelican price increase April 1st. I was like, well, is that a Pelican price increase? Is that a store price increase? I couldn't find anything about it. So, I can't really say what's happening there, but, like, the stuff is always in flux.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If you would like to send in a question for us to answer on the show, please send it in by going to penaddictfeedback.com. We have an all-ask TPA question coming up in the next couple of weeks, right? You wanted to do one? Next week. Next week. So, if you have questions for us, please send them in. We've gotten some great ones already that we'll be putting for next week, but please send them in. Go to penaddictfeedback.com. Whatever you want to know. Hey, look, you could just want to ask things about me and Brad. Maybe there's stuff you want to know about us. Sure. Ask it. See what happens.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Absolutely.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode. Thank you to Pen Chalet and Ooni for their support of the show. If you'd like to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com and spokedesign.com. Brad is at penaddict, and he's also over at twitch.tv slash penaddict as well. You can find me at RelayFM. Like, this show is a part of RelayFM. You can find me on other shows here. By going to relay.fm slash shows, you can find other shows that I'm not on, but we have a wonderful selection of podcasts. If you want to add something new to your list, you can find my work at cortexbrand.com. You can find me online. I'm at iMike. I-M-Y-K-E. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

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