Editing The Pen Addict 215/transcript (section)

== Franklin Kristoff ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I've... I always enjoy when I break it out is my Franklin Kristoff needlepoint. It's a steel nib that Myke Masayama did for the stock Franklin Kristoff pins. It's an upgrade to their regular nib. I love that stinking nib. Um... It's... A little bit finer than an extra fine. Obviously the needlepoint. It's... But it's not so crazy that it's unusable. Like a Pilot Hi-Tech C .25. It's not like that. So... I like the needlepoint. Steel needlepoint. That Franklin Kristoff sells. That's an awesome one. And plus it's... It's easy to acquire for everybody. Alright. So you talked about your... Your M90 earlier. So I'm gonna do something and get... Get someone in trouble here. Let's see if I got the link. Yeah. Cause this is still going. Alright. So we got sent a link. And it is for... The... The... I guess this is... This is one of the early Pilot Vanishing Points. This is like the most famous... Like... This is the gotta catch them all. Number one. Pilot Vanishing Point. It's the Black Stripe. Um... It looks brand new. I got sent an eBay auction. We want to know how much it will go for. I had the opportunity to buy one in Chicago for $650. That was probably... Close to this good of shape. And I couldn't pull the trigger on that. That was too much. Um... This one's at $427 right now. It's got 15 hours to go. So it's probably gonna go higher for that from the people watching it. There's already been 8 bits on it. So you know people are watching it and buying it. I don't know how much it's gonna go for. It'll probably stay under $600. But it's... It's an amazing pen. I hope to own one of these one day. I don't know... If I'll be able to pull the trigger on it. Because...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'll have to use it. I don't... The reason why I didn't buy the... Buy... Spend $650 on that one. Is because I wasn't convinced I was gonna use it. And I don't buy pens that I'm not gonna use. Right? So... This is one of those... This is like the grail pen of all grail pens for me. But I am... It's like an undecided thing too. It's like... It's like... I don't buy pens that I'm not gonna use. So would I be comfortable carrying this out of the house? Carrying it to the shop? Whatever. So... Once I get to that point like I did with my Nikai. That's why it took me two years to buy it. Once you get past that mental hurdle... Maybe I'll end up owning one of these. But... Right now... I'd say that's a pretty good price. $427. I won't say it's a steal. But that's a really good price. If this is... Looks as good... In real life as it does in the pictures. Because it looks brand new. $650.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So you said no to $600. $650. $650. What would you pay?

'''Myke Hurley:''' $500 seems like a good number. So you're gonna put a bid on... On this eBay auction?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Probably.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh! I wasn't expecting that answer. I'm going for $550. I'm blowing you out of the water. That's fine. I couldn't... I don't... I don't... I have none.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I may or may not be the current high bidder.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh!

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. Now see... See everyone? This is... This is like my next... My next foray here... Is into investigative journalism. Because... Uh-huh. Now I have exposed... I've exposed Brad Dowdy.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. But, you know, it's... I'm not going any higher. Right? You're not gonna go any higher? At all? No. Because... It's still eBay. You know? I still don't have this in my hands like I did at a pin show.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So $427 is your maximum bid?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's a weird maximum bid. I can't remember what I put in.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Oh, because they do this... I don't use eBay much now. And they do this thing is... They do this thing where you can just click a button. And it's like, we recommend this. And it already has like the number filled out. So I just clicked it. Yeah. I know I'm doing this. I know I'm doing this wrong, Cindy. Because I'm convinced that it's gonna go for much higher. So I'm not gonna... I'm not planning on winning it. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. This is potentially the worst eBay strategy of all time is what you're employing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So I'll take it for this. But it's not gonna go for this. So I'm not worried about it. I don't need to... I told everyone I'm not spending money before the DC pin show. And like, I've put money in there now. So it'll be gone like in the next... You know, before tonight, someone will have outbetted for sure. So maybe it's just my way of exposing myself just to not purchase it. So... It looks pretty sweet, though. It's pretty sweet. So one of my good friends bought one recently for $4.50. So that would be a nice... That's a good price. Good price. All right. So let's talk about this DC pin show, which we'll dedicate most of next week to talking about it. But this question from Ann Splat on the Twitter bot says, Any recommendations about what to do at the DC pin show when you can only attend one day? This is my first pin show. So you want to go first?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. It's difficult. If it's one day and it's your first... My feeling would be... You want to make sure that you are going to get everything that you might want to get. So what I mean is, you may have a list of stuff that you're interested in. But my experience of pen shows is you will find something you didn't know you wanted, right? Something you've never seen before. Something that really catches your eye. It fits your style. That kind of thing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That almost always happens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So you only have one day. Usually people have multiple days, right? So they see something and then they might get it another day. What you don't want to do is walk away from the pen show and regret not buying something the next day. So I don't know if I'm giving good advice here. I think it's a mix between good advice and bad advice. But my feeling would be make sure that you go and look at everything and then buy everything you might want. Within the budget that you've set, of course. But if you think you might want something and it's within the budget that you've set for yourself, I recommend buying it to avoid disappointment. And I've just become the best friend of all pen vendors at the DC Pen Show. I know, right? But you know what I mean? Like, I know it's kind of a ridiculous thing to say. And obviously, money is not unlimited. But, you know, that's why I say, like, if you have a budget for yourself, just go and enjoy yourself and buy a bunch of stuff. Because it's very unlikely that you're going to regret it. And it's also very likely that if you buy something and you don't like it and you've treated it well, you can probably sell it on and not lose much money.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I want to add one DC specific thing. If you can, go Friday instead of Saturday. You're going to pay four times as much to go Friday. You're going to deal with four times less the crowd. It's worth the $45 or whatever for the weekend pass to not have to wait in a line around the block on Saturday and not have to deal with the crowds. If you can do that and you can only attend one day, paying the extra money just for Friday is worth it. So, there you go.