Editing The Pen Addict 676/transcript (section)

== Platinum Curie Doss Colors and Rediscovery ==

* Speaking of a pen I like that I didn't know if it was going to still exist. What do you think about the new platinum Curie Doss colors? I had forgotten about this pen. I think. I like saw it in the notes and I was like, it didn't really click to me what the Curie Doss was like initially. And then I opened the Instagram link and I was like, oh, I remember you.
* Well, this is, if you're going to keep this product going, I think this is the kind of thing that you do to it. Yeah. I, I'm holding out hope that this, I want this product to exist. I like this pen. It is far and away not for everybody. This, so if you're not familiar with the Curie Doss, we have, it's a retractable. Platinum's attempted a retractable pen. They leaned into it hard. Like Myke even went to a special event for the launch of this in London. Mm-hmm. And then it kind of fell flat because it wasn't a great design, like a physical, like in-use design. It was uncomfortable to hold. Yeah. For a lot of people, including me. And then they had a fault in them. Yeah. Yeah. So the, the whole, the whole, we did episodes of issues with the original launch. They've dialed in the construction and, and feel of the pen. What I find interesting. So this new one is kind of like a gemstone collection. They're kind of metallic, iridescent color barrels. I'll totally get one of these. On, I'm looking at platinum pen, the official platinum pen. On Instagram, they're calling this the Curie DAS, D-U-S. And before it was the Curie DAS, D-A-S. And I'm a little bit confused. Like, is there anything different here? I probably not. It looks physically the same, same setup. I mean. So I'll try to get some info. This is a good one for me to get more information on at the DC pen show because I'll get to talk to the U.S. distributor and see, is this going to be a worldwide release? What is the release here? It's just a spelling error, Brad. Like, I'm looking at a picture of the pen and it has Curie DAS written on the side. I know. But it's funny coming from, and this isn't even a translation. It's on their, it's on their printed image that they call it D-U-S. And I've never seen that before. Which coming from platinum is like, like how bad are you outsourcing this or AI-ing this? I wouldn't. Spelling. Don't just start saying, don't be one of those people that just says AI to everything. It's Curie DAS, Myke. I don't know how to, I'm curious about the Curie DAS. I don't know why we're doing this. They've either gotten it wrong or it's like. Repeatedly. Yes. They got it wrong. Like, I mean, you're not out here calling it the Cortux brand. I could, but I could though. And you're going to have like a little bow tie logo. Maybe if I had to translate it into my non-native language, I would make that mistake somehow. That's what I'm saying. But it's not translated. It's in the pre-translated phase. Oh, it could have been translated. It could have been translated. But anyway, that's an error. It's not called the Curie DAS. I don't know why. Maybe it's like gemstones dust and they're like, it's a joke. You know, it's like Curie DAS. That would have been a better name, Curie DAS. Yeah. Except that then you're saying like your product is over. It's like dust in the wind. People make mistakes. We can't. It might not even be a mistake. We can't simultaneously want to protect people who are working and then also rip them to shreds when they make mistakes. Right? We love you, Platinum. Yeah. Because somebody has made this image. Now, are we saying that they're a bad person? You know what I mean? Like we just. They made a mistake. That's all it is. So, yeah. I'll find out more in D.C. See if they're coming to the U.S. I want one. I like this pen. I will use this pen. I will be on an island with this pen by myself. You know, it's not the most spectacular pen, but I just love how it writes and feels. So, anyway. You know, if you're looking for like previous versions of the Curie DAS or a lot of other pens, Myke, where can people go? Beautiful segue. You can take yourself over to our friends over at Pen Chalet who are supporting this week's show. Pen Chalet, have your favorite brands and the products that you're looking for. Whether you're looking for a new fountain pen or a ballpoint. Maybe you want a mechanical pencil. Maybe you're heading to a pen show soon and you want some carrying cases to put your products in so you can very easily move them around. Maybe you're looking for some other accessories. Maybe you'd like some inks. Maybe you'd like fountain pen converters. Or whatever it is you need to fill that stationery shape hole in your life. Pen Chalet have special discounts every couple of weeks and they're always adding new products to the site as soon as they can. But at least every month you're going to find new stuff being added to Pen Chalet. So it's always worth going back whenever we talk about them. Also because of the great deals that we can give you. Because you listen to this show. Pen Chalet have very fast and reliable customer service. They sell internationally with great shipping rates. And if you're in the US, you'll get free shipping on orders of over $75. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go right now to penchalet.com slash penaddict. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com slash penaddict. And you'll be able to get 10% off anything at Pen Chalet. And also see some exclusive offers for listeners of this show. So one of the pens I'm most interested in, and it's on this list. And we haven't gotten our reviews done yet. I bought the Monteverde MP1. Pen, which is their piston filling, demonstrator barrel, aluminum, anodized color cap pen. Kind of an entry level, not an entry level, like a mid-price pen. Very, you know, very, very good price. And I bought some at the California Pen Show and have distributed them out to the review crew. We just, like, things take a long time for us to get reviewed. The price of this one. So they have specifically the yellow one because it comes in a set with the Monteverde Honey Yellow ink. Like, I'm not going to tell you the price, but I will tell you it's 50% off. And it's kind of ridiculous. More than that. Yeah. Like, it's crazy. Yeah. Like, yeah, because you get to use our code on top of that. It's kind of nuts. Kind of nutty what the price is here. Honey nuts. So y'all should go check. Cheerio, mate. Then they have the Conklin. I think I mentioned the Conklins last week in the Brooks materials, which are super cool. I'm going to look at these in person. So they have the Cool Tone Primary Manipulation one out there for us to check out. They have a couple of majoras in the, a couple of the more expensive majoras that are a really, really steep discount, which I've reviewed the majoras before. They do a really, really good job. It's kind of a chunkier delta size fountain pen, but has a nice tapered or concave grip section, which I like. And then there's an interesting ink sample. So pen chalet has kind of been leaning into the ink samples. And I've shared some of these before. And, you know, you look at them and there's like, oh, that's a big list. I don't know where to click. Go click on the Platinum Classic sample because these are some of the coolest colors around. I will say that these are an iron gall type ink. They have a little, they have permanence in them, but their behavior on the page and in the pen is perfect. And they're a feature, it's like a plus black color scheme. So cassis black, which is a red, citrus black, which is the most popular. It's like a yellow black, but it's, it sounds terrible, but it turns out amazing on the page. Forest black, khaki black, lavender black. Actually, lavender black might be the most popular. Then sepia black. These are some of my all-time favorite inks. I could put all six of these colors like really, really highly in the chart. And I don't ever see these in samples, at least not very often. So I would go click this like immediately into some of these inks out and you will be very, very impressed. So they're great. That's penchalet.com slash pen addict. That's where you'll go and check out these offers. Our thanks to Penchalet for the continued support of this show and relay. All right, Myke, we got our shout out of the week. Makar tools, Myke. I don't know that I've ever shouted them out on the show, but as a teaser for some DC talk, DC pen show talk, we're going to have later in this episode. They're on my list. You're on the list, Marcin. I'm coming for you. This is a, this is a maker whose work I've seen for ages. I've never seen any of the pens in person and I want to check them out. Like, I don't know that I'm going to buy one. I don't know who knows what I'm going to buy at the DC pen show. So, but everything they post makes me go, wow. And this is part of the list that I've made that we're going to talk about, like I said, later in the show on DC. But I want to give them a special shout out because I've been following them for years. Everything just looks spectacular. And they're going to be making an appearance at the DC pen show. So add them to your list to go check out. And if you're not going to DC, go over there, follow them on Instagram, like Makar underscore tools. Spectacular work. If you're into like metal and machine pens, the work that they're doing, it just, it's jaw dropping to me. Like it's right up my alley. So check those out. Do you have any, are you a fan of any metal fountain pens, Myke? This is a random off topic question. I was thinking of Makar tools and was like, this is for me, but like, I doubt this is for you. And I'm not talking like you, we use the studio needs and, you know, for like our roller balls and things like that. But from a fountain pen perspective, do you use any, like the larger size metal? We're going to talk about a small one here in a minute, but do you use any? I don't think. Okay. Not that I can think of. Yeah. That's what I was thinking. Small. Yeah. I mean, I guess the largest metal pen that I use of any frequency is the, that, that sailor that where it's, I've forgotten the name of it. It's hammered. It's the hammered one. Japan steel, is it called or something like that? Oh, what a beautiful pen. Yeah. You did good on that one. Yeah. Japan blue. Japan blue. Japan blue. Yeah. It's like a hammered barrel. The biggest pen that has metal on it in any way. I mean, cause otherwise my most used metal pen is the pilot M90. Yeah. Sure. So that's a small pen. And even the sailor, like compared to like a lot of like what, what I think of as like a metal barrel fountain pen. That's still a small pen. Correct. Wow. What a good pen. I wish you didn't bring that up. That's one of my favorites. It's just one of the best ones. What a good pen. We'll have to put a link in the show notes to that one. If you can find something for that. Oh, definitely. Just to show people. It's been years since we've talked about it. Yeah. What a good pen. What a good pen.
* Late entry to the list. And we're continuing on the new product list. I have plenty more to go through here. Which, again, is just wild to me. We're usually, end of July, like mid-summer, you know, northern hemisphere summer, is usually like a quiet zone. August usually gets it ramped up, but like I guess everyone's getting ahead. So there's a new Kaweco Lilliput coming out. It's like a rainbow anodized Lilliput. It's spectacular. It's just out for pre-order. Like I'm not going to be able to see this at DC, but I don't know exactly when the date's coming out. But I wanted to share this because a lot of people love the Lilliput. I love the Lilliput. But I'm like super content with the ones I have. The aluminum barrel ones are a little bit too light for me. And see, this is a steel one. So this one probably would fit me better. So I have a stainless steel. Then I have the fire blue. Both of those are steel. This is a steel one. I might have to be tempted on this one. It's kind of ridiculous, right? I like the rainbow shades. My fire blue has dulled over the years, which is good. I like that patina age. I actually have a clip on the fire blue. I should ink that one up. But that I've used for so many years. It's been on this, on the pen. It just lives there. Like I don't think I could get the clip. The clip is kind of like, you know, you see things growing into a tree. That's what I feel like this clip. It's like a bronze clip or a copper clip on a steel barrel. And it lives there now, Myke. So that's one to check out if you're a Lilliput fan. Is this one hand burned by Michael Gubillet from a desk, from a blowtorch and he's a top desk drawer? I don't think so. Certainly that had to make the episode 400 and 401 recap as one of the great stories of our time at the pen attic. The hand torched by Michael Gubillet at his desk. The original fire blue. That was the story behind them. And I just need some Michael Gubillet sunglasses, I think is where we're at now. That was one of my latest ones. So anyway, I love that. This one, Myke. This one I put in here for you. I really didn't. This doesn't need to be in the show for any particular reason. Like, I don't have a lot of thoughts on it. What do you think? I'm curious of what your thoughts on the Visconti limited edition Homo sapiens full demonstrator fountain pen. I like it. It's great, isn't it? Yeah. For as much as I could like a Visconti, I like the way this one looks. The nib. I'm very confused. Is gross in a way that I like. Yeah. Like, it ain't right, Brad. Like, I know that. It's not right. So the nib has got a bunch of holes cut into it. Like, just like a bunch of holes that don't really seem to do anything. Yeah. Straight through to the feed. You can see the feed. It's just like straight through. Which feels dangerous. It does. But I don't know. Like, I have no idea. Like, I think that there's a lot of hardware on this pen. And they're like accentuating it. They got freaking screws on the cap, which I don't think need to be there. Yeah. They went in on this. Yeah. Like, this is, to me, in a way. Like, what all Viscontis are trying to be. You know what I mean? Like, they're all aspiring to be this kind of, like, gaudy. I think. So I do. I respect and like this for what it is. I just saw the price. Yeah. I would never buy it anyway. But I especially wouldn't buy it for an $18.50 retail price. Well, yeah. Less than that. But yeah. I mean. Well, that's the suggested retail price. MSRP. It's priced correctly. Like, for what Visconti does. Sure. I don't even blink at the price. And they designed this correctly. Right? Yeah. And I think that's what you're saying. This is a Visconti. Yeah. Right? And this is my expectation of ostentatiousness. Yep. And I just want. As Jan points out in the live chat, they have even color matched the rubber gaskets. Yeah. It's like, I'm actually more impressed at the section. The section matches, which is a bigger piece than the gaskets to fit. So the section is blue, which matches the feed, which is blue. I just want someone else to go first on this nib. Like, I have no, I mean, I'm not buying this, but I really need to know, does this nib hold an ink flow? Like, when you're writing. Like, I'm super curious about this. I mean, the Pen Chalet description talks about it being flexible, which, yeah. To me, that's worse. To me, that makes this worse. Yes. Because there's so much air gaps in there. But anyway. What they're going for, I guess, if this is, you know, or at least what they're trying to say that those holes are doing is to make it, is to make the nib more flexible. Add flex. Yeah. Yeah. I feel it. It's just, it's weird to see them such over the top of the feed. It's a bit much. As opposed to, like, on the sides. It's a bit much. It really is. So this is a limited to 1,088 pieces. They will sell. This is Visconti's customer. This should be, like, the customer special. You know how the pilot every year does, like, a shareholder special pen? This is, like, the Visconti shareholder special pen. Like, this is so good. Or it's, like, the Wes Anderson pen, right? Where it's just, like, they're sold before they... Before they even go on sale. Yeah. Yeah. This is crazy. This is... I genuinely love it. Like, this is one of those pens that I love to talk about that is zero for me. Correct. It's a 100. It's just, like, a complete 100 out of 100 for Visconti, right? It's so good. It's so good. Is there any kind of, like, reason?
* Yeah. Or it's just, like, this is what we did? Yeah. It's Visconti. Like, if you close your eyes and dream about Visconti, like, I know you do, this is what you come up with, right? Even more than, like, the swirls. Even more than, like, the Homo sapiens. Like, this is the most Visconti pen that has ever Visconti'd, I think. There's a bunch of stuff in this, in the penchilent description I don't understand. Like, this... True innovation lies in the way each detail has been executed. Traditional threads have been replaced by micro screws, ensuring perfect transparency and an immaculate finish. I don't know what that means. I don't know what part... Yeah. It's what it is. You know? It is what it is. All right, Myke. Choose Visconti, Lemon Edition, Homo sapiens, full demo, or Montegrappa Pac-Man. Which one do you want? Brad, this pen... Same price. This pen rules so hard. It freaking rules. It straight up rules. This pen goes so extra. I'm kind of bummed that it's not the full treatment. Like, it's not one of those ones. You know, this is one of the branded ones, the expensive branded ones. You know, I was kind of hoping that, like, there's some kind of Pac-Man ink bottle that you stick the pen into, you know, and it, like, piston refills it or something. Or I'd just take a box with a maze with movable parts in the maze. All of it. Yes, I love it. But, you know, like, your ink bottle's one of the fruit or whatever. Yeah. This is just a very, very heavily branded, very heavily branded Pac-Man pen where all of the work is in the body of the pen where they have etched the Pac-Man course and all the characters and everything. It's fantastic. It's truly, truly stupendous. I love it. This is their stock, like, fancy pen, not the over-the-top set. So they do a lot of these. They do more of these than, like, the over-the-top, like, Houdini ones we talk. I love the name. It's called Ghost Rider. Like, I would not have. I don't know that I would have come up with that name. And that name is great. Like, I just saw the ads for this and just saw the pictures of this. I was like, it is so good. Like, they just executed this so, so good. So, anyway, I will look for that at the DC Pen Show. I would actually like to see that pen in person. And then, hmm, who will have that at the DC Pen Show now that Kenro is no longer the distributor? Now I have to think about it. Maybe some of the retailers, like, I'll see there, like, maybe Drumgoals has it. But I want to check this one out in person. So, speaking of DC, I want to go through a couple things as I head out to the show. Tomorrow, as we're recording. And I'm pretty, I'm not going to say I'm pretty excited. I'm overly excited. Like, I think this is going to be a really good show. I think it's going to be packed to the gills. Like, you know, we'll talk about that next week. Like, I'm trying to, like, you know, I've been there plenty of times. And the times I don't go, I see other people's content. And it just kind of doesn't change. It's packed to the gills. And everyone's there. And it's really, really good. But this is one of the few shows, this one in San Francisco, where it's more important to have a list. And I think not all pen shows are like this. Like, I don't need a list when I'm going to the Atlanta pen show for two days. Like, I can do what I want over two days and get it all in. The last time I was in DC was 2023. I did the same schedule where I was just there all day Friday, all day Saturday. I took no classes. And I still didn't get to see everything at the show in 2023. And they've even added an extra room this year. They started last year growing outside of them. Well, there's already one extra room from what you have experienced. I just don't understand where it keeps getting bigger. Like, it's incredible. Like, I just don't understand it. So it's going to be big. It's packed. Like, the hotel sells out. Like, I didn't book my hotel ticket, like, in February. So, like, I'm in the alternate hotel, which is fine. Like, I've gotten over that. I was kind of whiny about that, to be honest, that I didn't get the regular show. But I'm actually cool on that now. So, this show, you need a list. And what I will advise, it's kind of like a two-part situation. If this is your first pen show, the list actually matters less. You should have a list of things you want to see and things you don't want to miss and stuff like that. But a lot of experienced users, a lot of people who go to mini pen shows or who are, you know, following pens in the community a lot, you know, big stationery buyers, they're going to have lists to go buy from the jump on Friday. And that's what I think I'm looking at, which I have never done this at a show. It's like, okay, first thing Friday, I need to do X. And this is one of those shows, right? There's not a lot of shows that fall into that category, at least that I've experienced in the U.S. It's D.C. and San Fran. So, some of the things on my list, not to blow things out, you know, blow my own list.
* Tono and Limbs is going to do what's called an Ink Labs. And I think it's going to be a problem. I don't know that they know what's about to hit them. So, they're going to do it like an ink. Like, you get to make your own ink while you're at the show, right? Like, I did this at Stationery Fest with Kakamori. You can make your own inks. That's one of the things you can do. Tono and Limbs is going to allow you to schedule a time to come and make your own ink. But you can't schedule a time anywhere but at the table. And I'm interested to see where this table is. So, I'm not interested in making the ink myself because I know it's going to be a madhouse. This is going to be a super popular thing. And I want to know the feedback on this because it's going to be cool. So, they just finished a kind of like an installation at Yoseka last week where they did like a spacewalk thing doing sharing their new inks. You got to go make inks. You know, that's a lot smaller scale than the DC pen show. I'm really concerned for them that they don't know what's about to happen by doing this. So, I hope for their sake this space is set right. At least they have time booked. The fact that they've known that you have to book a time, that's going to help them a lot. Because if it was just show up, then you're ruined, right? It is. But I'll say but. Like, the time sheet for Friday is going to be filled in the first 30 minutes of the show. Yeah, well, that's not their problem, is it? I know. But I'm saying like by the end of the show, people are like, I'm curious how it's going to go. So, anyway, we'll see. So, that's on my list. Mostly just to witness. I don't necessarily want to make my own ink. I'm really not good at that. I end up making some cool teal color that already exists. I always end up with like a teal. Everything comes out brown. They're all brown. Every ink is brown. Yeah, it's either brown or like bright blue teal. So, that's usually what I go with. What is on my list and what I will probably do first thing Friday is to go see what Hanabi Glass has brought to the show. I don't know that I'm going to buy anything. I'm not committing to buying anything. But I want to see it because this is a company that I think if they do have some really, really impressive stuff. So, this is a glass pen maker. So, it's called Hanabi Glass Studio. I got to meet them at, again, Stationery Fest last year. I got to talk to Lucas Mahoney who makes all these products and he's going to be there at the show. Based in Japan. Really just over the top dip nib pens. Glass dip pens. So, I'm going to look and see. I've seen some examples online of like a finer nibbed glass dip pens, which kind of scares me, right? From fragility perspective. But the output looks exactly what I would like from a writing glass pen. So, I want to go see what he has. And I know that that's going to be a popular table. And, you know, if I do am considering buying something, I'd want to get it Friday early because they'll probably like by Saturday afternoon, my options I'm going to assume will be less. Because that tends to how it goes with like the very unique tables like Hanabi Glass that don't have, that are traveling from Japan, have very unique items, generally don't have an off the chart type of stock, right? Like if I was looking for like a new Leonardo, like one of their new releases, I could probably find it. I wouldn't have to get it the first thing Friday morning, right? So, Hanabi Glass is on my list. Also on my list, fresh from yesterday and my texts blowing up. Shown design, Monarch Evo, Myke. Mm-hmm. Thoughts? Did you put this in here before I could put it in here? Yeah. I was like, oh, look, Myke's already on it. What do you have for me, Myke? I can't remember the last time I was excited about a pen. Yeah. Because I can't fully understand what Shown design I've done here. Mm-hmm. What they have made is something quite beautiful. And it looks like when I first saw it, I thought it was like one piece, but I don't think it is. Mm-hmm. I think that the, I'm not sure though, right? I think that the nib is screwed into the body. It kind of looks like it. Yeah. But like, I wasn't sure because he says integrated, but I think what he means is they're making the whole package. The nib is an integrated type nib. I guess, yeah, because all the Monarch nibs are. But, right. But like, what I was thinking, is this like an M90, right? That was my first thought, but I don't think it is, but it looks fantastic. They've built their own piston filling mechanism. I am really, really keen to understand more about this pen. Yes. Because just the visuals of it are incredible. And I've wanted to try a Monarch nib for a long time. Mm-hmm. And so, I mean, well, then I'm like, well, maybe this is the way. I'm not going to be able to buy this. Like, you know, this is going to take a long time before I think it's on general sale. Online store sometime in August, but we'll see. I think it's going to be really hard to buy. But this looks very, very special. I'm really excited about this pen, and I want to get my hands on one. Yeah, it looks spectacular. The fact that it's a piston filler, which I didn't, like, I wasn't even reading the description, right? I was just looking at the nib. Yeah. Going like, oh, my God, like, this nib is great. You have to go look at the pictures to kind of get the full scope of what we're talking about here. It's basically, you know, like an integrated nib, but not kind of like an M90 or a Murex. It's more like if, like, the M90 or Murex had a baby with, like, a Schaefer, I guess, what is it, a Triumph nib? It's a little bit bigger and rounder. It's kind of get that feel from it. It looks great. Yeah. Like you said, you said it right. I want to get more information on this this week and see. Like, I'm not in the market for this now, but this is one of those things. Like, I didn't buy the Monarch when it first came out. It took me about a year before deciding to buy a Monarch. Side note, you would love a Monarch nib. Yeah. Knowing you like I do, that's right up your alley. You would love a Monarch nib. Okay. Which means maybe you'll get an all-in-one with this one one year. So, yeah. Like, I want to see this. I want to use it. I want to try it. And then, you know, I'll think about it for later down the line. Because I'm sure it's going to be, like, super, super expensive. Right? Like, and rightfully so. Right? This is probably, like, in that Visconti range that we were talking about before. I don't know the price on this, but I know Ian's work is spectacular. And to make something like this on a small scale, it's got to be just, like, super expensive. So, this is definitely on my list to check out. Maybe I'll get to try someone who goes first. Maybe I'll try their pin. So, I'm trying to, like, you know, balance myself. DC is one where it can get out of hand really, really, really, really quickly. So, make that list. So, that's kind of, like, the quick and dirty highlights from my list. My other list of, I made, like, a little checklist yesterday of things. Like, I just want to make sure, like, I go see some of the people that I haven't seen before. Or, you know, I know where to find Kenro, right? I know where to see Leonardo and get to talk to Salvatore. And, like, I'm going to do all these things. Like, I'm going to go talk to Pilot and see, you know, what's going on. They usually have something fun to announce or fun to tell me about. So, yeah, like, that stuff I don't put on my list. But I want to put down the people that I haven't met before. Like, the aforementioned, you know, Tono and Limbs and Makar Tools. You know, there's a few other small makers that I want to make sure to see. So, what you can do if you are going to DC and you want to make a list, go through the exhibitor list and just kind of read off to yourself and note down which ones you want to see. And then what I did, so Alexander has made an interactive map on the DCPen website, which I have a link in the show notes to. And since it's in so many different locations, essentially four different rooms, I went, so I have my list, my checklist of people or vendors I went to see. And then I have their room location. So, I can kind of knock them off at one time and not have to, like, backtrack or miss something. Because you can miss something in a room. It sounds silly to say, but the crowds get big. And you might be going, like, against the flow of traffic and not get to somewhere that you want to see. So, it's good to try to do things in the same area at one time. This is more, this is like, hey, let's plan a trip to Disney World and figure out where we're going to go line up first. That's almost what this DC Pen Show feels like to me. So, I want to make sure I get to see the things that I haven't seen before first and then everything else will come after. So, that's kind of my game plan. And on top of that, I have three classes over two days and a lunch date in between. At least one, if not two, lunches. So, probably off-site or at least off the show floor. So, my time on the show floor is really limited. Like, I'm thinking about it. And it's like, I might have to start rethinking my plan for the bigger shows and do three full days instead of just two. If I'm going to do this many classes. This is going to be the good, this is going to be a great test subject show for me personally and how I do shows. Because I'm going to have, this is the biggest show in the U.S. and I'm going to have the least actual time on the floor that I have at any show probably ever that I've been to. Yeah, it's not great. Which is a weird, it's not a good match. No. Because like I said in the beginning, in 2023, I had zero classes and I was there for the same amount of time and I didn't get everything done that I wanted to. So, yeah, I'm setting myself up for failure kind of. But at the same time, I'm really happy with what I'm doing. So, we'll see. You know, maybe it's as simple as, hey, next year I'll add a day to the biggest, if I go to like a giant size pen show, right? San Fran, D.C., something like that. You know, so it's going to be good. It's going to be fun. We did get a question. I want to cover this one question before we wrap up today. Myke, just, I think it's a good insight into pen shows from a vendor. So, this is a new vendor asking a question. And then I still think it counts for like, you know, just attendees as well, just for the questionnaire. I'll let you read the question, then I'll dig into it. This comes from Jeffrey who says, This year's DC Pen Show will be my first time selling pens at a show. I've been making pens as a hobby for a while, but I've been making them as a side business with my wife just for over a year. She introduced me to your show. Thank you. Shout out, wife. Thank Jeffrey's wife. The DC Pen Show is a little intimidating as a first show, but it's our closest. We attended the last three years as buyers, so we're familiar with its size and layout, although it's the only pen show we have attended. I'm a little nervous that I don't have as large an inventory as some of the other sellers, but I believe I have a nice assortment and I think I have priced my pens fairly for the fully handmade acrylic category. Do you have any advice for a first time seller? Is the Thursday trader day worth me spending time at other than picking up my paperwork? Awesome question. So much advice. Let's start with the specific question at the end. Is the Thursday trader day worth me spending time at other than picking up my paperwork? It is not. I would just spend Thursday taking it all in, getting your paperwork, finding your table, setting up any small things you want to set up. You know, obviously not your pens. Yeah, if you can set anything up, if you have anything you need to set up, set it up on Thursday. You don't want to be doing that on Friday morning. Yeah, yeah. Friday mornings get early. Like you're going to end up being there pretty early to set up, but you kind of want to have some of it taken care of because you want to eat before you start Friday. Please, please eat Jeffrey. Before that was like, there was a comma in there. Is that like to everyone else? Everyone at the DC time, please eat Jeffrey. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I would not put any stock mental or physical into Thursday trader day. Take it in, walk around. You're going to be behind the table so much. Just, just cruise around Thursday. Don't be in any type of rush other than to like find your stuff, find your, find where your table is, and then set up anything you want. It may not be much. The second part, getting into the inventory, worrying about inventory size. And I think Myke would agree with the statement, and Myke's probably already yelling at it, yelling this out. Like this is a marketing event for you and your company. So you want to be able to show what you have. It doesn't matter how much you have. You want to be able to tell your story, right? You want someone to stop by and you can say, hey, here, here's, here's what I make. Here's why I make it. You know, we pour our own resins. We make the pens and do all this type of stuff. So that's, you know, you're going to sell some pens and you may sell less than you think. You may sell more than you think, but you're going to get in front of people. And that's the way I take this show is I go see as many people as possible, right? I can't buy very much, right? I might buy three pens or something like that, which, you know, that leaves, you know, 150 pens I didn't buy from someone, right? Not everyone can buy everything, but I can learn about it and I can learn, you know, you know, maybe down the line, I see something. Now I have a better, better, like I have a personal experience to draw on. You know, when it comes down the line, maybe I see something online or see you at a different show to now I have like this like catalog of information. So you should really be leaning into who you are, how people can find you when they're not at the show, you know, what's your story, you know, how are you interesting, you know, to, you know, maybe a future buyer and just spend your time talking with people, right? Consider any sales. Like I know you would love to have sales and I know you'd like to make your expenses back and I'm crossing my fingers that you will and hopefully you will, but you really want to lean into the conversations at this show, especially if it's your first time. And like, I think you'll do great. Like this is a, it's a really, really tough show because it's so busy and you may feel like you don't get to spend enough time with people. But like when we had knock, you know, we had the benefit of having an online presence, you know, ahead of time. So we had a lot of hype built up, but we sold out before Sunday. That show was insane. I will never forget being horrifically hung over on Sunday because we went to Topgolf the night before and we had nothing on the table, but we were all standing behind the table. And I think it got to lunchtime and I was like, what are we doing here? Like, why are we here? And then we packed up. But like, I wouldn't leave. Like I wouldn't leave. I was talking to people. Like we left, I left a couple hours early, right? By Sunday late. But like I stood there and just talked to people and like I was pulling stuff up online to show people. It was like, hey, or showing like my personal case is like, hey, this is what we do. Like, and I stood there and just talked to people for like an entire day without products. So like. So yeah, like any, you should be going into any show and this goes for a lot of people, like pretty much going into as a marketing expense and exercise and then covering your expenses is, you know, maybe the bottom goal. Like that would be like the good, that'd be the good goal. And then any profit would be like your stretch goal, right? It's kind of like three, three phases of your vendor expectations at a show. Number one, it's a marketing expense. And if you lose money, well, you not, you spent money on marketing. Number two, all right, you end up even, right? Like, hey, cool, we covered our expenses. And then number three, it's like, oh, we made money. And those don't all happen at every show, right? Even with like experienced vendors. So good questions. Hopefully I'll meet Jeffrey there. And, you know, for anyone else who's there as we wrap up this show and I get to get to more packing, come say hi, like interrupt me. Like I am like super approachable at shows. I'm walking around. So the only time I might not stop is if I'm running late for a class, which I'm prone to do because I get, I get bogged down with something else. But yeah, if you catch me, especially this show, because like Jen mentioned in the, in the chat, I might be a ghost this weekend in a weird kind of way. Like it's just a big, it's large in scale and size and things to do. So if you see me, grab me and I have stickers. So come, so come get some. All right. If you want to find links for this week's episode, you can check them in your podcast app of choice. So you can go to relay.fm slash pen addict slash six, seven, six. Thanks to our sponsors this week's episode, pen chalet. If you want to find Brad online, you can find him on social media as pen addict. He's over at pen addict.com. He's over at spoke design.com and at twitch.tv slash pen addict where he streams three times a week. Uh, you can find me here on relay, uh, find my products at cortex brand.com. And you can also find me, uh, the enthusiast.net, which is my blog too. Uh, thanks so much for listening to this week's episode of the pen addict podcast. Uh, we'll be back next week. I'm sure we have a report of the DC full recap. Can't wait to hear it. Can't wait to hear it. Very jealous. Um, find out how much that show on design pen costs for me. Text me and I'll cry. Uh, no worries. We'll be back next time. Until then say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

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