Editing The Pen Addict 356/transcript (section)

== Pencil Sharpener Discussion ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. And it's extraordinarily well done. But I knew better. And I would have never ordered this Perfect Pencil if other pencils didn't fit into it. Which they do. It has kind of like this clamp system on the interior, right? That it can adjust to various sizes of pencils. I wouldn't have expected that was going to be the case. Right. So, it can adjust to narrower or maybe a little bit fatter. There's a limit to the range. But it fits most basic size pencils. So, I knew better than to buy the pencil refills. They're not, I don't like the hardness, the lead grade of the pencils that much. I like the looks of them. Like, they obviously fit the package very well. But I'm not spending $10. It's funny. I have a harder time spending $10 a pop on a single pencil than I did $260 on the fancy pencil cap, right? So, I'm bringing all this now because I've been starting to share it online because I just got it last week. This is going to be like a long-term review. I'm not going to come out and review this anytime soon. This, I need to live with this for quite a while to get a better picture because it's so different. But there's no way my end result is going to be that this type of money is worth it. But I want to see, I want to learn more about it and how I use it and how I carry it. Like, I've already, like, kicked the pencil to the curb and I've just been using other pencils in it right now. Like, I have a Carondash CW Pencil Special in there that fits it really, really well and looks really nice on there. The only thing is it's really long in it right now. So, this is better for, like, a three-quarters to a two-third length wooden pencil, you know, just for general carry. But, you know, as you use it and sharpen it down, it'll get to be a better fit. But I like it. I'm glad I got it where it's not going to – I just have a gut feeling that in the end I will – I'm not going to regret buying it. But, you know, maybe I'll sell it to someone, right? It's one of those products.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Maybe my pencil bias is going to show here, right? I cannot fathom any world in which this is a thing that people should be spending their money on. It's a $260 pencil cap. Right. Right? Because the sharpener isn't even that good.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, like you alluded to in the beginning, the Graf von Faber-Castell lineup is positioned as the luxury lineup. There's obviously a market for this and that's what I want to try to explore.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think that a $20, $30, $40 version of this thing would be great. But starting at $260 is mind-boggling to me. Like I get it. It's a luxury item. But it sounds like that the performance is not good enough.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, we'll see. I need to spend some more time with it, you know?

'''Myke Hurley:''' $260 you were expecting to be using the best pencil sharpener you've ever used. Right. Right? You know what I mean? Yeah. Isn't that what you want from this?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I mean, that's part of the deal, right? Mm-hmm. It's not just a cap. It's a cap with a built-in sharpener. So, we'll see. This is going to be a long-term type of review. Like, I'm decently good at short-term reviews. Like, can figure out, you know, the story that I want to tell in a short time frame with products. This one is not going to be that way at all. This one's going to, we're going to have to see how this goes. So, it's very interesting. That's mostly why I wanted to buy it. I think it looks killer. It's a very interesting space, like in the stationary world. And I want to figure out why this exists. So, we're going to work on that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. So, I want you to tell me about this image that you retweeted of what appears to be a orange Platinum 3776. The exact thing that you've been asking for.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. So, I've been a bit of big fan of Twitter polls recently. And I should do a poll on what did Brad get contacted more about? The Platinum 3776 in orange? Neil Gaiman on Tim Ferriss' podcast.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, no Gaiman on Tim Ferriss.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Or, oh, I already forgot the third one. I interrupted. I interrupted. I missed it myself. Or the IndieGraph snafu from last week. So, Twitter poll. What did Brad get most mentioned? That's a tight race, Myke. And it might be the orange 3776. This is everything I want them to do. But there's two problems with this. One is very, very obvious. It has gold trim. Which, I think gold looks great on orange and brown. So, I'm not hugely crazy about this. Number two, it's limited. I want this to be a stock release. Yep. So, I don't have any issue with this. I'm not buying this pen. You know, if it was Rhodium, I probably would have hunted this down. Just because that's the one. But I'm holding out hope, among all hopes, that they're saving Rhodium for stock. And I can cross my fingers. And seeing this makes me actually worried about that opportunity, right? Is there an opportunity for an orange and Rhodium trim 3776 to hit the stock lineup? Those odds just went down with this release. Because this is generally a very basic release, right? It's not crazy special. So, although I haven't looked at the nib. The nib could have, you know, the specific branding for this limited edition. So, I love it. It's awesome. And a lot of people reached out. I've had people offering to pick it up for me. And I appreciated that. But I've passed on this one. I love seeing it. Just bring me the Rhodium to the stock lineup, please. Let everyone have the opportunity to get in the amazing orange 3776 market.

'''Myke Hurley:''' My Japan blue ship this morning. Ha ha ha. Nice. Do you know it's bigger than a Pro Gear?

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's like a little bit longer than a Pro Gear.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, that's cool. I really want... I can't wait to see you again so I can see this pen in person. I mean, I know you'll be talking about it a bunch. Oh, you bet. But I want to get... I need to feel this. This is a pen you need to feel, right? This one's way different than most of what they've done in the past.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. There is like this part of me that's a little bit nervous about it. Right? I don't think so. I'm confident I'm going to love it because I know who I am. But there's, you know, this is like I'm like, interesting, right? Like this is going to feel very different and I'm wondering what that's going to be like. Like, you know, I was looking at the images today on Wontor's website and they have like some comparison images. And now that I spent like more time looking at it, it's like, oh, this is a very different pen, right? Like not only is it a little bit longer, you can... If you go to their website, I put it in the show notes, you click on shape and material. There are some like real key differences between this pen and a regular Pro Gear. So like it's wider and longer. Like the cap is much wider, which makes sense because they wrap this material around it. But the end is much bigger. They've like added this whole piece to the end of the pen. And the bands that go around everything are larger.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's very different. So I'm looking at the comparison pictures now, which I have not seen before. This makes me actually want it more. I think that's enough to move the needle for me. Still no clip, huh? We were just... We were saying no clip.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Very confident about that now. Yeah, no clip.