Editing The Pen Addict 229/transcript (section)

== Sailor Pens ==


'''Brian Anderson:''' Well, we started carrying sailor, I guess it was about three years ago and started as their, you know, newest account. And it was a brand that I had had sailor pens in the past and thought they were good. You know, it's hard to beat a beautiful pen with a gold nib. Good brand, wonderful reputation. And we would sell one and buy two and then sell two and buy six. And we just kept building and building. And in order to be able to offer all of the standard pens in any nib combination that was possible, we had to keep buying and buying and buying. And we just really feel we believe in the brand and the support from the sales group and from Atoya out in California is amazing. It's just it was a good fit.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, and it helps that not only you're, you know, online, you can get that, but then you bring that out to shows. Like I walk up to y'all's table and, you know, like I'll bug you at a show like while you're setting up. And Lisa will give me that. She'll she'll know like why I'm over there and she'll just like cut her eyes. And she's like, go talk to him. And he's like got some he's got something new. And it's like, oh, man, this is going to be bad for me and my wallet. And Brian's like, hey, let me show you this. And it's always something new from Sailor. Brian gets so excited about this Sailor lineup. Like what's your what what should people know about this bespoke lineup, Brian?

'''Brian Anderson:''' Well, bespoke in the United States is limited to three dealers. So in bespoke essentially is a series of handcrafted nibs, which include the Naginata togi and everything else from the Fude, Concord, Cross Point, Cross Music, even the King Eagle and the King King Cobra that people see online. But in addition, there are special bespoke only bodies. So unfortunately, they just discontinued the ribbed version. But many people are familiar with the ribbed Sailor 1911s. There are different colors, different color and trim combinations. And probably most importantly, Arushi, King of Pen. And most of the variations are in the King of Pen family. Ebonite, King of Pen, Arushi and the limited editions.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So what is if someone's new to this? Like I've I'm obviously a huge Sailor fan. I love their pen designs. I love their quality. I love their nibs. And I bought my first King of Pens from you this year in Atlanta. But it was just, you know, a standard. It wasn't in the bespoke lineup. I didn't get, you know, one of the the big, you know, crazy looking nibs. When people are looking at these, like what type of things do they offer? Like from a writing experience that someone might be interested in adding that to, you know, like one of the one of these pens that in the end of the spoke lineup.

'''Brian Anderson:''' Well, most of the the bespoke nibs have the ability to write on both sides of the nibs. So upside down is maybe a finer line or a different line width in the the other direction. And the interesting thing about bespoke nibs, they don't except for the Naginata togi, they don't actually come in nib widths. So you can't get a you can't get a food in a fine. It is what it is. And every every single pen has its own unique characteristics. They're all made by hand by Yukio Nagahara. He has two assistants. But depending on what you what you like, many of them are very, very juicy, very wet. Some act like architect's nibs. I mean, there's just there's a whole range of whatever you can imagine, essentially.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So there's a cool link on your site. We'll have it in the show notes and that I've shared a bunch and talk about a bunch where you can go read about these nibs. Look at the different styles. Look at the types of lines that they offer. They the thing about those nibs is they're not just going to write one way, kind of like you're saying. I mean, depending on pretty much everything across that lineup is going to write, give you two different lines, depending on how you're holding it. And some, you know, much more variation than that.

'''Brian Anderson:''' Right. Right. Yeah. Some of them are some of them have the line variation based on direction, similar to an architect or cross point. Right. It's very similar to an architect. Some of them based on angle, like the food or the concord. And then some based on which side of the nib you've got it. You've got it turned to. Yeah, that's very cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And you bring these out to the shows, right? I mean, if you have them in stock, right, you sell a decent amount of them. So sometimes you don't always have stock in on these, but you're bringing these out. People can look at and check them out. Right.

'''Brian Anderson:''' Right. We do have a decent supply of Naginata togi nibs. Most of the rest of the Nagahara lineup are in such high demand that Sailor Japan is having a difficult time keeping up with stock and quantity. And so we actually get them when we can get them. And they'll send us an email and say, hey, listen, we found three food days. Do you want them? And I say, absolutely. And then we have them and then they're gone. So we carry whatever we have to the show and we do the best we can to get the inventory that we get.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Do you keep any kind of waiting list if someone's looking for a really specialty item like that?

'''Brian Anderson:''' Well, it's difficult. Sometimes we can. The problem is they're literally on the order of thousands of orders behind in Japan. So they're really not not really taking orders from us on some of the specialty nibs. So we have a lot of people ask about the most most common is the King Eagle. Everybody wants the King Eagle, which in and of itself is a thousand dollar nib. Right. Oh, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And that's the thing. I mean, since there's no there's no I guess there's no time manufacturing time frame. So there can't really be a waiting list.

'''Brian Anderson:''' Yeah, it becomes difficult. Even Naginata Togi nibs right now in specialty bespoke bodies with Naginata Togi nibs are nine month wait right now. So, you know, that means if we're even able to order a King Eagle or a Fude, it's going to be, you know, really it's over a year or more if we can even order it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So the King Eagle, if anybody doesn't know, it's like three nibs laid on top of each other.

'''Brian Anderson:''' Yeah, it's three layers. Like Sailor actually has a couple of different steps. So their cross point is two layers that are that are split. And then the King Eagle is a third additional layer of gold that's split. So essentially it amounts to six times. Wow.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I assume you have a long waiting list for these.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Or none because you can't get them. It's hard.

'''Brian Anderson:''' We have access to one King Eagle nib, but it comes in a very special Maquia body. So if you're interested, it's for about $4,300.

'''Brian Anderson:''' Let me know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Brian Anderson:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Let Lisa know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So Lisa, you mentioned something kind of in passing earlier, but it was something I wanted to point out and something I wanted to get your take on. So having a brick and mortar shop allows you to carry certain vendors that you can't if you have an online only shop. So number one, what are those vendors? And number two, do you find products that do far better in brick and mortar than online or vice versa? Like you can't sell something online, but it flies out in the shop or things like that?

'''Brian Anderson:''' Well, the first question, we, Lamy used to be, you know, anybody could carry Lamy. Then they went to brick and mortar only. And so we, as soon as we signed the lease at the store, we could order Lamy. We could order Visconti. And I don't remember how long we'd had the store. And Mont Blanc called. We had been in touch with them and we were the first pen store account to be opened by Mont Blanc in seven years.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Whoa.

'''Brian Anderson:''' Yeah. So it was, it was quite a, quite an honor, quite a surprise when the sales rep called and said, hi, I'm so-and-so from Mont Blanc. And I thought it was a friend just teasing me. I'm like, yeah, who is this? I was like, no, really? Here's my phone number. Call me back. I'm like, no, who is this?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That is cool.

'''Brian Anderson:''' Yeah, it was, it kind of took us to the next level retail wise. But there are certainly things that sell better in the store than online or at shows. When we opened the store, Brian only wanted to carry fountain pens, period.

'''Brian Anderson:''' And that didn't last long.