Editing The Pen Addict 372/transcript (section)

== First Pen Show Experience ==


'''Adina Hurley:''' Woo-hoo! Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' First real pen show, right? You've been to the London pen show. Yeah. But this is the first kind of big, big one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is the first pen show that we would class a pen show. Like, the London show. I mean, I'm not trying to be mean, but like, the London show doesn't have any of the brands.

'''Adina Hurley:''' It's very vintage pen focused.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Gotcha.

'''Adina Hurley:''' So I didn't get the full experience. I think we went there twice. And, but I keep seeing the photos from the other pen shows you guys go to. And I'm very excited about that because it looks like there's a whole lot more to do. There's more modern brands. There's more, I guess, like indie pen makers, inks, paper. So I'm very excited about all of that. But, well, I'm also a bit worried about buying too much because I've never been in this sort of setting either. But I'm excited.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You're going to buy too much. Everybody does.

'''Adina Hurley:''' Everybody does. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's a pretty safe bet that at the San Francisco pen show are where budgets go awry. Between Washington, D.C. and San Francisco because you get such a huge list of kind of what you mentioned. You get a lot more independent makers and you get a lot of vendors who travel from the Far East to attend that you won't, you know, you're not going to get in London and I'm not going to get like on D.C. on the East Coast. Right. It's just a longer trip a lot of times. So, it's hard to make a budget for San Francisco because there's just so much cool stuff you're going to run into.

'''Adina Hurley:''' What budget do you two have in mind? Don't. No, we're not going in there. It's going to go over anyway. You see,

'''Myke Hurley:''' the thing is, we used to budget. We don't budget.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think I've ever, yeah, it's been years since I've gone in with a hard number to a pin show but I've also never gone like completely dumb at a pin show so I'm not overly concerned about it. Like, I know mentally where, like, what my breaking point is and, like, I have no intention of going there this year. Like, I'll find something that I didn't expect to buy and buy it but in general, I'm just not going to go crazy just because I don't need, like, all the things but I'm sure I'll find definitely some things that I wasn't planning on getting.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, like, one of the reasons that, like, me and Brad don't budget anymore is because our collections are so large we don't see as many things to fill them as we used to. So, like, that's one of the big things for me that over time is I spend, I either spend less or I spend about the same but I come home with less things. The things that I buy now is, like, here is that king of pen that you've wanted for the last six months and now you bought it at this pen show, right? So, like, it's a different, it's kind of different now.

'''Adina Hurley:''' It's more about limited editions, I think, for you.

'''Myke Hurley:''' things that are harder to get or things that are so expensive that really you want to see them in person. Things that, like, I would have bought before but I needed to see it and hold it and feel it before I would make the purchase.

'''Adina Hurley:''' I see.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But you should budget and you should set the budget comfortably for yourself, like, set it within your own means and then stick to it and don't go over it.

'''Adina Hurley:''' Well, I've thought about it and I think that I have about $250 for a pen or multiple pens but we'll see. I have no doubt that I'll end up buying a lot of things around and a lot of ink.

'''Myke Hurley:''' $250 is a good, like, I want to buy a new pen.

'''Adina Hurley:''' Or a few. Yep. I don't know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Or a few. Or a few and then that's a good budget for that. We can talk about, I mean, honestly, I think that you will be best served like using that on maybe one because of where you are in your pen journey right now. We're going to get to that in a little bit but I think that maybe like one or like the majority of that money on one pen is probably going to be the best bet for you.

'''Adina Hurley:''' Interesting.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And that's more than a good enough budget number. Absolutely. To be like super happy with like your pen show experience.

'''Adina Hurley:''' Good, good, good. Just talking as we were talking about the pen show, I think what I'm very excited about this year because we're going to a big pen show is to have Myke and maybe you, Brad, take me around and tell me all of the backstories about all of these pens and everything because I really love we went to the store choosing keeping the other week and I absolutely loved how excited Myke was getting about everything and telling me stories about why certain pens are more special than others. I think you were telling me about this Kaweco that's blowtorched by the CEO and that's why it's more expensive and it's like I want to hear all of that and explore what's out there not always see it through Myke's eyes because I guess I see his collection and I see how he looks at the pen world and I want to explore what's out there to see what I like and in preparation of this show I have been following more Instagram accounts and funny enough in following more Instagram accounts I fell in love with a pen and bought a pen even though I was only doing the prep to know what to look for at San Francisco but I just did it I gave in and bought one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' yeah so what you just said is now going to make a lot of sense to our listeners because I have asked for help working this show at the knock table so I'll be bringing knock there and we'll be selling our pen cases but this is one of those shows where I don't want to be tied up behind the table all the time because I have other friends coming to this show like you who I want to take around and show and share you know my love for all of these products and meet these really interesting people who are making like really cool stuff and you know that you don't always get to see or you get to see it like on Instagram you get to check it out in person and you get to you know maybe learn the stories behind someone like Bung Box who Myke and I have been a fan of for years and I've gotten to meet them you know in different shows and get to talk to Daryl who makes Misubi Notebooks and why he you know he makes these notebooks and all these different stories and I want to have that opportunity to spend some time with you and our other friends who might be attending this show to kind of give you like that full experience of what the show is about especially since you're going to be there multiple days right you're not just you know going to be like an attendee who's just going to have to come Saturday afternoon and kind of you know not rush through it but you know the pace will be a little bit faster for them where you can take it a little bit slower and we can do these other things and yeah so that totally totally is right up my alley and I can't wait to be able to walk around the show with you

'''Adina Hurley:''' can't wait everyone's going

'''Brad Dowdy:''' to know what

'''Myke Hurley:''' the pen you spoke about you have to you can't like just be like oh I bought a pen and then move on like you have to talk about what that pen was

'''Adina Hurley:''' yeah that's not yeah that's not how this show works

'''Myke Hurley:''' you can't just be like oh I bought something and then never talk about it

'''Adina Hurley:''' so just because just to understand what an amazing purchase this is for me and the fact that I fell in love so hard that I let myself buy it I have to put it in the context of the rest of my collection so my other pens are a Pilot Metropolitan that I've replaced like five times because I constantly ruin them but that's one that I found and loved I found through this show and absolutely loved that's why I keep replacing it and the other one was the Twisby Eco again also through this show at the same time absolutely loved it then Myke also got me a few pens from other pen shows that he knew I would love like the Pilot Kakuno and the Caran d'Ache 849 fountain pen so considering I only had beginner fountain pens under $50 it was amazing that I fell in love with this Sailor Pro gear Sailor because I keep seeing Myke buying Sailor so I thought that should be good also it was in ivory so it was absolutely gorgeous with rose gold accents and when I saw it in the picture I was like I must have it and I was a bit like Myke should I get it should I wait to see if I can find it in San Francisco and actually try it it's it's I think it was about $250 anyway which is why I probably have this budget for the show still but I just went in and bought it and then I went through the fun experience of matching an ink with it which

'''Myke Hurley:''' everybody wants to know what nib size you're using now

'''Adina Hurley:''' generally I love medium but that one it wasn't fine so I just bought it I do like to have the variety I think I would have preferred it in medium but I love the pen either way it's beautiful it's gorgeous and the ink what I put in it was Robert Oster's rose gilt tint which is absolutely gorgeous and it works perfectly

'''Brad Dowdy:''' yeah you're gonna have a problem at the San Francisco pen show

'''Adina Hurley:''' no don't tell me

'''Brad Dowdy:''' that that's why

'''Adina Hurley:''' I'm worried I said I'm worried