The Pen Addict 353/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	353
Title:	Live from the Atlanta Pen Show 2019
Release Date:	April 7th, 2019
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Jessica Coles
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 353
Audio File:	Audio Episode 353
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 353
Length:	8181 min <br />1.35 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 353. Today's episode is brought to you by Squarespace and ExpressVPN. My name is Myke Hurley. We are live in Atlanta. Say hello, everyone. And, of course, I have the pleasure, as always, of being joined by my partner in crime, Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad. Hello, Myke Hurley. How are you? I'm very well, and this would not be The Atlanta Pen Show if we were not joined by the wonderful Anna Reinhardt. Hi, Anna.

Myke Hurley: Hello.

Brad Dowdy: So we have an action-packed show today, episode 353. We are off by three weeks, but we made it back to The Atlanta Pen Show. We have some great guests, and we have probably some purchases to talk about, but we do have some follow-up. I wanted to talk about that sailor, that crazy sailor, the Japanese blue. Smallpox. Yes, the smallpox. Forever being out. As we spoke about last week. So in case you need to remind, this is the, as is, there are many, many, many limited edition sailors. I've seen limited edition sailors over the last couple of days where people go, oh, you know about this one, right? Never, just never heard of it, which is one of the things I love about them. But this is the one where it's, is it a Rialo? No, it's a Pro Gear. It's a regular Pro Gear, but it's wrapped with like this blue metal, which has been, I'm assuming, like hand-shaped, like marked. We didn't realize when we were talking about it last week that it has no clip, which makes it more interesting.

Pen Show Logistics

Anna Reinhardt: We haven't found a picture with a clip, and we've worked at it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it does not look like there is one. So I pre-ordered it.

Brad Dowdy: I was, this was one situation where time zones were helpful for me. Wancher had a selection of them, and I woke up, and I had an email from them, because I signed up to their newsletter, and I was able to get one of them. They have like a very limited amount. But the company that's making it, which name escapes me right now, they, if you remember, I said I emailed them. They also emailed me. I only bought one of them, though. Good for you. It should be coming in a couple of weeks, and obviously I'm very excited about it.

Anna Reinhardt: So here's the issue I'm beginning to have with your sailor habit. Okay. I'm getting direct messages from the companies when these pins go on order saying, hey, we got one. Would you like one for Myke? I'm like...

Brad Dowdy: Why can't they talk to me? Yeah. No. Actually, I prefer to have a gatekeeper between me and these purchases. Yeah.

Anna Reinhardt: These are not like, for some reason, I'm like your go-between to all these companies, because I guess they have access to me. They don't know how to get to you. It's like companies I've worked with, like our good friends at Wancher. You know, I've worked with them plenty of times in the past. They're like, by the way, we have these pins. Do you want one?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this is kind of funny. No. It's like I got the email, and I ordered one through the regular channels. But then I got another email from the other company. Then you told me, and then Wancher DM'd me. So I could have had like... I think I could have ended up buying about half of the available inventory of this band. There's probably only like 20 of these pins or 50 of these pins. And I could have got like a good quarter of them just for me. But I didn't. I've only got one of them. And I just wanted to say, like, I bought it through like the regular channels. Didn't have to use my Brad Dowdy hookup for that one. It was just because sometimes with some of this stuff in Japan, the time zones work out for me, which is great. Because it did not work for the US. So this is becoming an issue. It's kind of fun. I'm not going to lie. You told me you wanted to talk about the Pilot 101st Anniversary Inc. Yeah.

Anna Reinhardt: So this Inc. that has arrived within the past week for Pilot's 100th anniversary. All of our good friends and vendors, we love you all. Thank you all for bringing this Inc. in for Pilot's very special 101st anniversary, apparently. It's well known that I've had taken great issue with Pilot's handling of their 100th anniversary. But I'm glad I finally got to participate. And I did pick up the beautiful yellow ink. Anna, I know at Vanes Pens, y'all are selling the ink. Is there a hot color of the 101st anniversary ink? I'm not going to call it anything but that. But just out of spite, I believe it's well-deserved flack for Pilot this year. So is there a hot color?

Myke Hurley: A lot of people seem to like the green-black. Please don't make me say them in Japanese. The names are like a foot and a half long.

Anna Reinhardt: We do get enough emails about pronunciation.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. A lot of people really like the green-black. I like the red color.

Myke Hurley: It's got a bit of a golden sheen to it, which is really pretty. Those are my favorite.

Anna Reinhardt: So they're pretty cool. And I'm not going to lie. So I did break down and get one, like I said. And some of the pens have started to arrive. They're kind of cool. Like they're way out of my price range. They're way out of most people in here's price range. But if you want to see them, I'm pretty sure the Dromgools have at least one of the mid-range ones. So you can go check them out. They did a really good job. So props to Pilot on the workmanship and the craftsmanship. But negative points for dragging this out for like two years.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I saw both the Pilot 100 and Platinum 100 anniversary pens. The Platinum 100th anniversary pen looks cool. The box is madness. It's like the size of an aircraft carrier. It's wild.

Anna Reinhardt: But they came out on time. So good job by them. They sure did. They came out in the beginning of the year of their anniversary. That's shocking.

Atlanta Pen Show Impressions

Brad Dowdy: I know. Can you imagine such a thing? You only had 100 years to plan for it. Anna, how has this year's pen show been for you? What's kind of been the vibe that you felt at the show? How has it been so far? We're only like just over halfway through or one more full day.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. This show feels at this point almost like home, like family. Like this is the show that I've been to the most. We know now so many people here, both vendors and attendees.

Myke Hurley: So it's, I mean, everybody here is, I mean, it's family. And so, I mean, I just get to, I get to see everybody in a lot of cases. There are people here that I haven't seen in a year. And then, you know, and with the vendors, in some cases, I saw them three weeks ago.

Myke Hurley: So I just, I love this show. I really enjoy it. And every year for us, I feel like it's gotten better and more welcoming and just more like home. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It is wonderful. What about you, Brad?

Anna Reinhardt: I mean, it's clear I have a huge bias for this show, right? So I'm coming from that place, but. It's the best pen show in the world. Woo!

Brad Dowdy: I can say it. I can, I can burn any bridge. I don't care. Big words.

Anna Reinhardt: The amount of friends and old friends that I get to see every year and new friends I get to make every year. Please don't cry before our first guest. I'm good. I'm good. Cool, cool, cool.

Anna Reinhardt: It's unparalleled with this show. And I don't quite know why. I mean, I kind of know why. Like, we do this thing and we like to bring out people. And, you know, we started this by, hey, Myke and I had never met for the first two or three years of the show. Let's fly Myke over and do a show. Fifth year this year. Yes. Five years. It has a very different feel for me personally because I actually get to work less at this show because I have more help at the table. When I travel, a lot of times I'm by myself, so I'm stuck behind the table. Well, this year, you know, this time at the Atlanta Pen Show, I get to mix and mingle and walk around and talk to people and see friends and talk to vendors and annoy people like Jonathan Brooks and, you know, at their table. And, but that's fun. Like, I have a good time doing this. Like, Myke got to see me, you know, like in my, you know, you know, my, my space today, you know, just seeing me like nerd out over pencils to people like for 20 minutes.

Brad Dowdy: It's a question of I'm looking for a Blackwing 602 20 minutes later. And like Brad had assembled a selection of them like that weren't sharpened. I think they were Jesse's unsharpened Blackwings of which he sharpened four of them, I think. And then just kind of went from there, I think.

Anna Reinhardt: I don't get to do that. Like, I like doing that. I like the minutia part of this. I think that's why we all get along so well because we can have these highly specific conversations that you don't say out loud in public. Right. Like, we don't, we don't talk like this outside of these walls. And, you know, when I'm at home working by myself, I'm not going, boy, that, you know, the tip of that Blackwing really didn't sharpen up as well this time. You know, you know, I don't get to have those conversations. And here I do and it's normal. Like, and it's fun. And like I get more enjoyment out of that 20 minutes that I had today than anything I'll have at this show. That's important to me. And that's what I enjoy. So I'll always love this show more because I get to put more of myself out there at this show other than like standing behind a table selling cases, which I really do. I'm at Knock Co. The booth is in the front of the first room right over there. There's lots of cool colors. Come see us.

Brad Dowdy: And a new product from Knock Corporation. Could you tell us about that? Yes. This was a surprise to everyone, including me.

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah. So we try to do something a little different. We always like to, I think anyone who's familiar with our brand knows that we always like to mix and match the colors. And we like to launch cool things randomly. You know, we're not very good at our job. So we just kind of do it. And so we wanted to have some people always like pen show exclusives. And we've never been able to manage those types of quantities, which is like a low volume type of product for a very short time frame. So this year, Jeff, who is a magician with like product ideas, he like literally said to me like in a text one day, he's like, I made a water bottle case. And I'm like, cool. I don't know what you're talking about. It's what everyone needs, right? A case for their water bottle. And then he sends me a picture. I'm like, oh, sweet. It's a stand up pen case. He's like, what do you mean?

Brad Dowdy: I like that you can both look at something and you both have completely different ideas of which neither of you can conceive of the other person's thinking. That is what makes you two such a good pair.

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah. So I go, well, can we put pen slots on the inside? And he goes, give me a minute.

Anna Reinhardt: And he's like, yeah. And I was like, we should make this. That is literally how production works for us. So that's product design. It's like ballet, really. Yeah, it really is. It's very strange. And it generally works. So we made this case and said, well, can we get like 100 of them just to bring to the Atlanta pen show? So we did it and we got it. And we've had a manufacturer make these for us. And we brought them to the show. And Jeff's like, well, let's take some pictures, put them out there, you know, send them out in the world, drum up some hype on it. And I was like, let's not. Let's do the opposite. Let's not tell anybody because I just want to see what happens. Like we're in a position like it's just me and Jeff. Like we can mess around and do types of things. I wanted to say instead of like running a hype train on a product, let's not and just show up with new stuff and see what people think. And, you know, I think people like it. It's just a fun, you know, stand up case product. And it also allows us to for it to be a test bed. Is this a viable product where we don't have to outlay for thousands and thousands of cases? We can make 100, see if people like it, give them something cool, do something fun and creative for us. So it's called The Coleman. If you want to know the story about the name, you'll have to come see me at the show and I will relay the name. But we will be it is a not safe for podcast story. So but it's a good story. I promise you. But it's Coleman's a river in Georgia. We name all our products around Georgia natural resources.

Brad Dowdy: I'll give people the ability to Google for it. There's a mountain with a name that can't be said on the show that is in this. Coleman is the closest river to said mountain.

Anna Reinhardt: There you go. And it's a it's a. And so that's it. Thank you to our longtime customers. You know, the story of how we name products. They've been clamoring for a certain product name. And this is close as they'll ever get. Yes.

Myke Hurley: I already heard the story. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's not great. So, Anna, have you bought anything at this show?

Myke Hurley: No, actually. What? What? I haven't bought anything. I have acquired things.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Of which I exchanged for cash. Did I buy? No, no. I just left money and then took it.

Myke Hurley: No. No money has exchanged hands.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Trades or just gifts?

Myke Hurley: Let's just say no money has exchanged hands.

Anna Reinhardt: Whoa. I thought my stories were risque.

Myke Hurley: Oh, good grief. Not that kind of exchange. There are things on hold. Things like hold this. I'll be back later. There are things that, oh, look, that fell into my pocket. I'll pay you later.

Brad Dowdy: So, just light theft. Light theft. Okay.

Myke Hurley: And then there are just things that at this point, okay, keeping in mind that the Little Rock show was three weeks ago. And boy, did I spend a lot of money there. So, I had to dial it back a little bit this trip. But I've received a lot of gifts, little things from friends and people who read the blog and people who listen to the podcast. And so, that's been lovely. So, and they've just been little things, stickers and postcards and notes. And we got a cheesecake. Cheesecake.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's a pretty, that's a pretty serious thing. Like a full on, like a full cheesecake?

Myke Hurley: Yes. I'll let Jesse tell the whole story about the cheesecake. Okay. But yes. There's a cheesecake. There's some other things in our fridge too. But yes, so we've, in general, like particularly this show of all shows, everybody here is super generous about everything. Food, beverages of all sorts.

Myke Hurley: And so, like no one here ever goes hungry or thirsty or, I mean, and so that's part of what I love about this show is last night there were all sorts of snacks and goodies and cupcakes and cookies. And beverages and of all sorts that were being passed around. So, while everyone was also sharing pens and, hey, try this pen. Hey, try this paper. Hey, have you tried this ink yet? And then, hey, have you had these from Canada? There are these really cool little maple cone details about them, please. I heard about them, but I had eaten so much already. I couldn't have one. But, I mean, just everybody, like by the time we were done, we're like, I might have to check myself as overweight baggage at this point.

Myke Hurley: So, yeah. So, not a lot of goods, but lots of things to eat and lots of great experiences.

Brad Dowdy: Other types of goods. Good stuff. That was a terrible joke. Brad, what about you?

Anna Reinhardt: I have made two pen purchases, I think. I always go into the show recently. We've talked about it recently, how I've gone, like the whole transformation of this podcast, right? It's like, I hate fountain pens to, okay, I need very specific fountain pens and I'm going to have a list. And I'm going to stick to this list and there's very specific things. The Vanishing Point Grail pen. Yep. Yep. So, I've, you know, learned enough where I feel comfortable to not have a list. Let's see what we can find kind of thing. So, I bought a pen from a gentleman named Matt Martin who is in our room who, so there's good and bad about having close friends at this show. The good is we have fun. We talk about things. You know, we share stories. We share food. The bad is they also know what kind of things you like. Yeah. And they go, hey, I saw this pen. You should go see it. By the way, it's going to be a problem for you. So, that's what happened when I went and talked to Matt. And, you know, we'll show this pen later if anyone wants to see it. And I know a lot of you saw Matt's work in the room because the other thing I noticed this year about the show is we have a ton of new vendors and new makers here. And that's always been, like, a great thing for me to see. And I always like to support those type of people like Matt, like Will Hodges from Tactile Turn. You know, like all kinds of new people and new companies. That is the important growth of this show.

Brad Dowdy: Like, one of the worst things that could happen as much as we love all of the bigger vendors is that a show, a small show like this one would get completely swamped by, like, big companies wanting to come to it. Right? Like, it would change the way the show feels at that point. And so, for us, as anyone that listens to this show will know how much me and Brad value the independent creator, having more and more people come to this show who have a small starting up company who have brought together some money and some product to come here and then sell a bunch of it. It's, like, the very best thing that can happen to a pen show like this one.

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah. It's the right mix because this will never be, like, the biggest pen show in the world. You know, it's never going to be a DC-level pen show or a destination pen show for some of the, like, a worldwide level. But it has the right mix of great retailers, great vintage, you know, sales, and, you know, great new companies. And people have done, you know, really neat and innovative stuff and wanted to get out. Honestly, they want to get it out in front of a different crowd. And this is a little bit of that, too. Like, I honestly think they choose places like Atlanta and Baltimore and some of the smaller shows because they'll just get overrun at a place like DC until they kind of have that experience, you know, under their belt and feel more comfortable doing that. So, I really like doing that. So, Matt's pen, come check it out. It's, like, a full titanium pen. It's kind of right up my alley. You know, it definitely did cause me a problem when they told me about it. And I probably bought the cheapest one on the table, which was not cheap. So, that was problematic. The other pen I bought was just kind of something I did have, like, on a mental list. And I want to say it was kind of a hate purchase. So, like, you should never. You bought one. Yeah. So, you're like, you should never do this. You know, do as I say, not as I do. Never make a hate purchase. And it's not really that. I'm over-exaggerating that. But we've talked about the Montblanc M fountain pen for years, just how poorly it was received, how poorly it was designed when it was supposed to be this pinnacle of design. And I finally kind of wrapped my head around seeing a bunch of reviews around the rollerball model. Like, I was never going to buy the fountain pen. I held it. It's genuinely poorly designed for what it is. The rollerball is not a lot better, but it actually works. And I finally found one for a really good price. Like, I can't pass it up type of price for a pen that I've talked about enough just to have to, like, mess around with and see, like, what is it really, you know, all about. So those are the two things I've bought. I don't know that I'll buy anything else. I don't really have anything on my list. I still got to get the Leonardo. I'll probably pick up one of those just so I'll stop talking about it just to have.

Anna Reinhardt: Which brings us to you. Yo, what's up?

Myke Hurley: Hey, how long did it take you to make a purchase?

Brad Dowdy: Pen show opens at 9 a.m. on Friday.

Brad Dowdy: 9 a.m. on Friday, I bought King of Pen. I knew what I was doing. As Brad said a minute ago, do as I say, not as I do. And we very frequently say, if you're coming to the pen show for the first time, get a lay of the land and understand what you're doing. Now, I came into this pen show knowing what I wanted. Right? Like, I've done this many times. I can now, as I have done and did today, walked around the entire pen show, didn't buy anything. Right? Because now I'm kind of much more in control of understanding what I want and the money that I want to put aside for it. What I knew I wanted was one of two sailors this year. I even wanted the 1911 Royal Tangerine King of Pen or one of the mosaics. Right? So, just a regular 1911 mosaic. So, I kind of came in, looking around a bit, see what was there. And I went to see Dan Smith at the Nibsmith. And he had the 1911 Tangerine King of Pen. I picked it up. I knew it was the pen for me. It is a problem, I think, if you are making a purchase for someone before they have turned on their carb machine.

Brad Dowdy: We had to just, like, chitchat while he's setting it up. But, yeah, I have it. I have a broad nib. It's filled with Fire on Fire by Mr. Brad Dantley, which is a great ink, by the way. I will say, now that I've used it, it's a very, very good orange, Brad. Thank you. You did a good job there. Appreciate it. You didn't make it specifically. Mr. Oster did an excellent job. You made a very good decision on it. And I have to spend more time with it, but, like, it is as funny and as incredible as all King of Pens are. Because it kind of looks like a prop pen for a TV show where you have to make... So, like, you know in Harry Potter, right?

Brad Dowdy: I'm going somewhere with this. The guy who plays Hagrid is not actually a giant. So, whenever they're showing him... Sorry, spoilers. Whenever they're showing him, they have to have, like, they have to do a bunch of camera trickery with the other people in the room to make it look like he's a big guy. King of Pens look like what you would give someone to make them look like they were small. Like it would adjust the scale of them as a person. Because it looks just like the 1911 Tangerine, but a little too big. And that's what I like about them, where they're so ridiculous.

Myke Hurley: Little tiny hands. Great big pen. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: If you have ever used a King of Pen, you understand immediately why they're so incredible. And I, like Brad, did for me. I've been able to have a few people try this specific King of Pen because people wanted to know what I bought at the show. And people immediately understand it. Now, you should not be buying a King of Pen as your first sailor. You shouldn't be doing that because all of the other sailor pens are incredible. And I think you actually can't appreciate how good the King of Pen is until you understand what other fountain pens other sailors are. So you kind of understand where it is. It is definitely a think about it, super considerate purchase. I mean, it took me from something about six or seven months, maybe getting up to a year from deciding I wanted one to buying one. Because I wanted to find the one that was right for me. And I wouldn't buy just any King of Pen. I see them all the time. Like the Ocean is available. I have no interest in that. The Fresca looks very nice, but I'm not going to get it. The 1911 Tangerine is a color that I adore. So that's it. Like I am not going to start a King of Pen collection like my Pro Gear collection. Show opens at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

Anna Reinhardt: There's probably some Frescas available.

Brad Dowdy: I've seen a Fresca, but that is a great color.

Brad Dowdy: But that's not for me. The Fresca, you know, it was exactly as you told me with these two. It's just like, and I think even initially and again with the King of Pen, like they are both amazing. But the Tangerine, once you see it, you're like, oh boy, like you've seen it. And that thing is incredible. So you kind of can't describe the color of this thing. So yeah, I bought King of Pen at 9 a.m. in the morning. It's just another great Myke story, really, I suppose. I'm a caricature myself. It is definitely consistent with the lore of the show.

Brad Dowdy: All right, should we get ready to bring on our first guest? Yeah. All right, let's take our first break for the episode. And then we will introduce our first guest for this show. So today's episode is brought to you by Squarespace. You can make your next move with Squarespace because they will let you easily create a website for your next idea. They let you grab a unique domain name, take advantage of and customize award-winning templates and so much more to give you that perfect place online to put whatever it is you want to put there. Whether you want to make a blog or an online store. Maybe you hear something and you're like, I've got some stuff to sell. You can set up a website with Squarespace and put everything that you need on it and have all of that functionality at your fingertips. It is an all-in-one platform that will let you put whatever it is you want to put online, online. There's nothing to install or patch or upgrade. You don't have to worry about any of that. Squarespace have got you covered and they back it all up with award-winning, 24-7 customer support. I love Squarespace. Brad loves Squarespace. We've been using them for years. Anytime I want to put something online, I go to Squarespace first because it's so easy to me. I know how to build a Squarespace website. Typically when I want to make a website, what I don't want to do is spend hundreds of hours learning how to build a website. I have an idea and I want to make the thing. That's what Squarespace lets me do and it can let you do it too. If you go to squarespace.com slash penaddict, you can sign up for a trial. There's no credit card required to do it and you can play around and tinker to your heart's content and get your website set up the way that you want to. Then when you want to launch it to the world, you sign up for one of their plans. They start at just $12 a month but you can get 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain and show your support for this show by going to squarespace.com slash penaddict and using the code penaddict to get that 10% off. Once more, that is squarespace.com slash penaddict and the code penaddict for 10% of your first purchase. We thank Squarespace for their continued support of this show. They have actually been sponsoring the show for as long as the show has been around, which is kind of incredible. Clearly a lot of you need to build websites. Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website. All right, Brad, do you want to introduce our first guest?

Anna Reinhardt: I will. So we started doing a thing a couple years ago where, okay, we appreciate that y'all listen to us once a week, every week, and this is our opportunity to maybe tell you a few more stories that aren't about us. You know, like we can regale you with tales of sailor and, you know, all of the funnies. I regale thee with tales of sailors.

Brad Dowdy: Come from far and wide.

Anna Reinhardt: But what we've been able to do with this platform at this show is bring on some people that we really love and really respect, and we want to share their stories with y'all. So we have two great guests tonight. The first one is Chris Roth from Write Notepads. So come on up here, Chris.

Anna Reinhardt: Oh, boy.

Write Notepads

Brad Dowdy: This should be thrilling. Oh. Chris, could you tell our audience just a little bit about yourself and about Write Notepads, kind of how it came to be and what it is you guys like to make?

Chris: Yeah, absolutely. Well, we have many hours, right? Yes. So how it came to be was in 2011, to make a long story short, went down with a buddy of mine who was a blogger to South by Southwest. Was looking for an exit from the family bookbinding business. And got down there. From bookbinding to notebooks. So we'll catch up to speed here. So go down there. I'm introduced to all of his blogging friends. And I realized I just can't sell intellectual properties for the rest of my life. I've got to make something tangible, brick and mortar, if you will. Came back to Baltimore and had to sit down with my father. So we have a third-generation commercial bookbinding business. And I'm like, you know, I've got an idea here. We're already five steps ahead in any sort of burgeoning new virgin endeavor where we have the machinery. So what if we take a concept that isn't foreign to us and readapt it to now creating a product that allows us to interact with everyone? And that was 2011. And I think we're going to hit eight years. I don't know. I don't even count my birthdays. I don't even know how old I am. So, yeah, that's August. But, again, it was two years before we decided that we were comfortable enough with doing the backroom beta testing of products before we were comfortable enough to actually present them and actually put a price on them, you know, gave away,

Chris: I can't even tell you how many hundreds, and went through so many different iterations of paper combinations until we got to the point where we are today.

Anna Reinhardt: So what was your father's first reaction to this? Like, so the bookbindery has been around a long time, and you're the steward. You're the future. Yeah. And do you have any siblings?

Brad Dowdy: I do.

Chris: I have a younger brother.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Chris: And was this? He is along for the ride as well, as we like to call it. It's along for the ride. Yeah.

Anna Reinhardt: So what was Dad's initial reaction? It was like, hey, let's, you know, continue with the bookbindery. Let's mix in this little pocket notebook that I'm thinking might be okay.

Chris: It was positive, but with a good bit of apprehension. And, you know, ideas come and go, but are you willing to stick with it? And that's, I think that's where the apprehension initially lay. And after it was sort of like, wow, this really isn't a bad idea. And there's no harm, no foul at play here. And realizing that, first off, we didn't have to take money from one company to experiment with the other. It's like, man, sure, why not, you know? And really, in essence, it was sort of devised that, yeah, it's great. So there are tides that flow with the commercial bookbinding business. And, you know, initially it was thought that, sure, we have this secondary stationary company that we're just growing, just creating, that could sort of create a gap fill. Boy, was I wrong about that because both can get really busy at the same time. And, yeah.

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah. So I'm going to make a huge mistake right here in that I'm going to stroke your ego, which does not need to be stroked. No need. I know you. I know you pretty well. We've got to know each other pretty well over the last couple years. Myke doesn't know me well enough. Myke doesn't know you well enough yet. I've heard stories, so we're good. But I've said these things publicly already. I feel, as someone who uses a pocket notebook more than any other, like, paper product, that you make the single best pocket notebook on the market. And that comes from someone who makes their own notebooks, who is proud of the notebooks, who uses local printers to make their notebooks, who enjoys making notebooks. There's something different about yours. And I want to see if we can figure out why. And that's what I'm trying to understand. Why is this little notebook, why do I feel that it's different? Is it because you have some, like, design magic in your head? I know that's not the answer. Is it that, you know, you've been around the bindery and you know your way around these machines in a technical fashion that produces output that surpasses most anything that I could even come up with? What do you think it is about your books that makes me personally say something like that? I'll start by saying thank you. Yeah.

Chris: But I don't know. I mean, really, in essence, a notebook is made of paper. Paper is paper. We're all here today and speaking about pens on this podcast because it's different strokes for different folks. You know, a 10-cent Bic pen is satisfying to someone that just needs to jot a note, much like a $3,000 Mont Blanc limited edition is. Now, when circling back to write notepads, again, all we're doing is we're taking paper, be it board, be it, you know, white, 97 bright. We're putting it together in a folio that it's still paper. But what we hope to do and what we choose to accomplish is have we selected the best paper that meets the needs of the most customers? Is it a matter of the format? Is it a matter of, you know, the layout and things of that nature and also the printing attributes, which I think we're going to get to shortly here, that really come together and culminate in a way in which, you know…

Anna Reinhardt: I think the best answer to this question is I don't know.

Chris: I really don't know. I mean, there's no legitimate answer.

Anna Reinhardt: Well, maybe it means that you do.

Chris: That's the point, right?

Brad Dowdy: I would assume from a third generation business, the idea of putting paper products together in a way that is pleasing to you and the standards that will have been set by your parent and your grandparent is it gives you just this natural understanding of how to get it right most of the time, right? Where other people maybe have different standards or maybe they're like trying to get it going. So, you mentioned about the fact that like you probably had a little bit of unfair advantage that you already had a new, all of the machinery you needed before you started the company. That's not normal in making these types of products. Correct. So, like you guys could kind of get started with like you can kind of get off the ground running, right? You know?

Chris: Yeah, but we kind of came about it in a… We started the race at the finish line as opposed to the starting line.

Letterpress Printing

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Chris: So, you know, as far as how to make a book, few know how to make it better or had made more than we had. But as far as designing and creating a product that we can bring to market and a brand and creating a brand, that was all foreign to us. So, you know, it's really kind of like an inside out sort of race that we've run to this point.

Myke Hurley: So, from the perspective of the exterior, I mean like you had all the mechanics for making the actual book, all the binding experience. But the exterior of your book, one of the things that people like so much about them is that you chose, in a lot of cases, letterpress for the outside. Is there a reason that you decided to go with that? Is that something that your shop had to start with?

Chris: It was a personal preference of my own. I was going to outsource the letterpress and then I realized that I already had run the big brothers to these presses when I was 13 years old on a summer job. So, there was no way. When the opportunity came for me to purchase them, I couldn't resist. And from there, having knowledgeable people around me that I had known throughout the three generations of our company existing, we were able to bring them in. And even though as a bookbinder, I was taught early on that you don't put ink on paper. You don't put ink on paper. That is, you bind the book. The printer puts the ink on the paper. Don't touch it. So, it was a bit of a taboo topic, especially when I told my father. I'm like, yeah, I'm going to print. He's like, now you're a printer.

Chris: You know what we say about them in this household. I know. I know. I'm like, well, come on now. Come on now. It's now considered. So, letterpress printing. I'm not a competitor of a printing company. I am no different than a foil stamper because it's more of an artistic process in this day and age for letterpress printing. So, you know, I gravitated toward it. I always liked old stuff. I, forever and a day, love 1920s, 30s flat-top dual folds. I had an incredible collection that I neglected in a Venlo box and decided like, hey, this should be for everybody to see, not just for me. So, I had sold it years ago. And this is long before Right Notpads came about. So, you know, it was always this sort of personal attachment to antiquities and, you know, the fact that it's not just push a button and hit 20 copies and out comes 20 identical prints. That makes letterpress printing so fascinating. It's an art. It's a craft every day. Sometimes you get it. Sometimes it gets you. And you're able to adjust the amount of impression that you put onto a sheet.

Chris: Maybe the control of it, but it's also sort of creating a one-of-a-kind piece in essence even though it's sort of pseudo early manufacturing in a large scale.

Myke Hurley: A little push and pull. Yeah.

Chris: Oh, a lot of it. Yeah. Yeah. It's like operating the console of like an alien spaceship. Really. Truly.

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah. Those machines scare me just to look at. And the two of you like know all about it. And I'm just like, how far away can I run from it? So, I'm like, I'm good.

Brad Dowdy: It's so pretty. I like it.

Anna Reinhardt: So, I found you by, I don't even remember exactly when, but it was definitely with the pocket notebooks, right? So, that was like, oh, this is a cool pocket notebook company because this is what I use the most generally to this day with all of the pads and papers and everything that I have. So, what goes into like your next like pocket notebook design? How did you, you know, get feedback in the beginning from what was working well? How did you decide to like really go out on specific editions like say a gold field? Like if y'all aren't familiar with Chris's work, like they did an edition called The Gold Field that had told a great story, but it was also exquisitely made. Like what goes into like the creation of a pocket notebook for you?

Chris: I would say a lot of inebriated brainstorming sessions. Yeah. But, you know, I mean, you know, prior to that, there's a general loose outline at play. And what we'll do is we'll sort of figure out, okay, we know that it's spring or it's summer or it's fall or it's none of them. And it's, you know, case in point, the Year of the Pig book that we released. I can't even tell you when we released it because it seems like as soon as I finished the edition, I've already long since forgot about it and moved on to the next thing. Like four to six weeks ago, like recently. Yeah, something like that. So, that was something that was devised and sold in a matter of three, four days' time. It was, yeah, hey, we're going to push this. We're going to try this and we're going to do this. And then we're going to surprise everybody because they have no idea that something's going to be released. And that's kind of, we kind of get our jollies over that where it's like, you know what? I don't want to be predictable ever, ever, ever. Predictability is, it's just, everybody expects it and people give it to them and it's, there's no fun in that. I like to surprise people. It's a surprise for us as a manufacturer to see people, oh, whoa, didn't see that coming. And also time it to where it's not everybody one, two, three, same two or three days. It gets boring.

Brad Dowdy: And, you know, we don't like to be boring. Do you have like a typical list of product, like product ideas? Or do you typically, as soon as you've had an idea, you go and make it? Or like, oh, we need it. We want to do something new. What do we want to do? Or do you have like a list of stuff that you add to over time? There is always a list.

Chris: There's always a list. There's currently a list of, be it great ideas, bad ideas, but they're still on the list that you never know. Maybe something graduates to a good idea because of a trend or something. Or some new process you discover. Absolutely. Or maybe it's a new paper that comes to market that, boom, this fits this really well. And, you know, there's always a list. And, yeah, we pick and pull from it. I mean, case in point, from October to this day in April, it's been nonstop where it's just push, push, push. New sizes, new styles, new interiors. Fortunately, we still have the same paper that we have been using for the past couple of years that we absolutely love.

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah, I'm going to need to get a note on that. What's that? I'm going to need a special note for that. Tell me what paper it is. No, you're good.

Chris: We, unlike other companies, we don't kiss and tell. I agree. I agree. 100% I agree. I go through. I go through. I have a whole room where there's an entire shelf, well, a shelf, a bookcase dedicated to swatch books of paper and such. And, you know, we've experienced it twice where a paper has just gone. The mill discontinued it. Okay, well, what do we do now? So, fortunately, we have, like, a backup. And then I pull, like, a war room together with my paper vendors. And it's like, all right, let's just break out the arsenal of pens and everything and test this out and see what we come up with.

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Brad had a good question that I'm going to steal. What is your favorite product that you've ever made? That's a good one.

Chris: I've got it right here. It would be the landscape ruled notebook. Landscape ruled notebook is one because I'm a left-handed person. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Lefties unite.

Chris: This was a setup.

Brad Dowdy: You set it up.

Chris: I can't take full credit for this. It was actually going to be, and I'm going to botch the name of this little subsect of Detroit. I think it's Hamtramck, Hamtramck, Hamtramck, Hamtramck, Hamtramck. There we go. Our good friends Bon Bon Bon and Hamtramck happened to just text me at 5.30 p.m. on a random weekday and say, Hey, got a long layover at BWI. What are you guys up to? Like, come on down. We'll grab some beer. Let's hang out. And we do. And she's like, I want you to do a long notebook. I'm like, hmm. She wanted blank paper, I think, at first. And I'm like, let's do long lines. Let's make it the king of run-on sentences notebook. But, you know, what eventually started as just some sort of a weird, bizarro idea, it then morphed into something that was like, hey, we're actually going to do this. I caught a lot of flack from my internal marketing team. I'm like, this is not going to work. Don't listen to them. We're going to do this. Why? Because I said we're going to try it. And lo and behold, as soon as I got the first prototype in my hand, I'm like, this is awesome.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So in case people haven't seen it, just imagine you took like an A5 or A4 notebook, turned it on its side, and then put the spiral on the top. And that's what you've got. So the great thing about that for, I mean, and it's the same for left and right-handed people. But for some reason, left-handed people struggle with spiral band more. Or your hand never touches the spiral because it's not in the middle anymore. The spiral's at the top. And then you just flip it over like a kind of like an easel sketchbook kind of idea instead. It evens the playing field. Yeah. Because then it's fine for everybody. So I hadn't seen that product until today. And I think it's a genius. And I'm one of many of them. So I think it's great. I think it's a really, really good idea. And it's one of those things where it's like, I mean, I know I've never seen it before. And then it's like, oh, but why does nobody do this, though? So that's, and those sometimes are the best kind of things. I can answer that question. Okay.

Chris: So we have parent sheets of paper. And we can make this work for any orientation. I could cut this into a little thin slat. I could cut into something that's 22 inches long. And that's the beautiful part about it is that I've got these stacks and stacks of paper that are just lined. And it's all in the head as far as what size comes from it.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Chris: So that's the fun. It's also the real troubling part of it is what do you decide on doing?

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah. I've got a lot of text about that notebook and the excitement in your typed voice. It was pretty hype. You were excited about it. Oh, super, super happy.

Myke Hurley: Very cool. Yeah.

Anna Reinhardt: So what's the plan?

Myke Hurley: Now you stole my question. Oh, you go for it. No, it's all good. You go for it. Just throw it out there. Table flip. That's right. Yeah. I'm out.

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah. Like, there was pretty much no plan. Like, when you started, like, let's try to make a notebook. And it's grown. It's become a thing. Right? Like, I think this is a legit thing. Like, I don't necessarily care about, like, what percentage of the business is this now compared to, like, the bookbinding part. But write notepads is actually a thing now. So what is the future, like, looking like, like, the near-term future look like for write? Um, a lot less fun.

Chris: Um, a lot less fun from the early days. Uh, a lot more employees, uh, to handle the way too many tasks that I currently handle. And, um, you know, it will then free me up to then go back to being able to design and create and work in fine-tuning everything that comes and bears the right notepad logo. Um, so, for instance, you know, the custom work has grown considerably over the past several years. And, you know, did I think that it would? I hoped, but I didn't know that it would. And it has. And, you know, it's gotten us to a point where it's, it's like, it's too much for a team of few to handle. So it's adding, adding, adding.

Brad Dowdy: When you say custom, it's like a company comes to you and like, we want a notebook of our logo on it kind of thing. Or we want a notebook in a very specific layout. Can you make it?

Chris: More so our current products that would just be, I guess, you know, case in point. You know, you have a Mill Thomas notebook where instead of our logo on the front at a certain quantity, you would have your company's name at the top of it. So, you know, the fact that a lot of those products that currently exist, they come out of China. So it could be blanks that are then stamped by an organization or company here in the States. You know, we're able to sort of shift and change and not just give you one option, but give you several. And that's sort of, you know, sort of a unique embellishment point that we have going on.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. All right. Well, Chris, thank you so much for joining us. Oh, wait. I have one more question.

Myke Hurley: I'm supposed to ask him a stumper.

Brad Dowdy: Uh-oh.

Myke Hurley: Spell Heidelberg. I can't say it. Heidelberg. Do it.

Chris: H-E-I-D-E-L-B-R-G. Nice. Wonderful. Chris, thank you so much. Thanks, Chris.

Brad Dowdy: You can find Chris and Write Notebooks at writepads.com if you want to look at their products. So before we bring on our next guest, we can thank our second sponsor for this episode, which is ExpressVPN. So we could probably all hold our hands up and say that cybercrime is something that we think happens to other people. Well, the bad news is that stealing data from people like me and you using public Wi-Fi is one of the simplest ways for hackers to make money. If your internet connection is unencrypted, your passwords and credit card numbers could be vulnerable. But there's something you can do about that. You can start using ExpressVPN to protect yourself from cybercriminals. ExpressVPN works by securing and anonymizing your internet browsing, encrypting your data, hiding your public IP address, with easy-to-use apps that run seamlessly in the background of your device. You can turn on ExpressVPN protection with just one click. Then you're free to safely surf on public Wi-Fi without being snooped on or having your data stolen. ExpressVPN is rated the number one VPN service by TechRadar and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. I am in a hotel right now. My phone is connected to hotel Wi-Fi. I have ExpressVPN turned on. I turned it on when I got here. I'll turn it off when I leave. This is a lovely hotel, but it's an open Wi-Fi connection. So I want to make sure I have that peace of mind, which is what I do have with ExpressVPN. For less than $7 a month, you can get the same ExpressVPN protection that I have. If you ever use public Wi-Fi and want to keep the bad guys away from your data, you need ExpressVPN. So go to expressvpn.com slash penaddict to learn more and protect your online activity today. Find out how you can get three months free at expressvpn.com slash penaddict. That's e-x-p-r-e-s-s-v-p-n.com slash penaddict for three months free of a one-year package. Our thanks to ExpressVPN for their support of this show and all of RelayFM. Anna, would you like to introduce our next guest?

Myke Hurley: Sure. Our next guest is known on most social media as Jessie Rain, but it is actually Jessica Coles, also known as vintagepenshop.com or, as I like to call her, Jesterbrook. Thank you.

Brad Dowdy: So, Jessie, I would like to, at this moment, thank you for the great episode that you and Brad did in July whilst I was on my honeymoon. So thank you for stepping in for me.

Jessica Coles: You are very welcome.

Brad Dowdy: I have great memories listening to that episode in Hawaii.

Jessica Coles: I'm hoping that I wasn't the best memory from that.

Brad Dowdy: I would not like to talk about that.

Jessica Coles: Don't need to do that.

Brad Dowdy: So, Jessie, you have the great honor of being behind the knock table. Maybe. Yes.

Jessica Coles: That is my great, great honor.

Brad Dowdy: So, we've been happy to have you as our table mate at this show. And I noticed immediately the layout of your setup, and it's very interesting to me. So, I wanted you to describe it a little bit to our listeners and also kind of talk about how and why you considered the table layout that you have and why you want it to be engaging to potential customers. Okay.

Jessica Coles: Well, I have my pens laid out by color and by size and by design. And I have a tester station right in the middle.

Brad Dowdy: That's the thing that's super cool to me, is tester station.

Estabrook Nibs

Jessica Coles: Well, actually, that's what got me into Estabrooks very specifically. As I found out while getting into restoring pens, Estabrook had a huge variety of different nibs. And when I started out, I tried to have all of my pens laid out so that as people came up, I could ask them what they did or didn't like about a certain pen that they would start with and then help guide them to something that they would maybe like even more. People would come up, had only tried extra finds, and I could get them trying even abroad just to see if they liked it or not. But with the testing station, I'm able to have all of those laid out right there.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and this is like, can you explain what the testing station actually is, where it came from?

Jessica Coles: Yeah, actually, well, it's from the 1950s. This is how Estabrook had, I guess they had sent these out to different department stores, different stores, to help the salespeople show customers the different nibs that they had, have them out there so that people could see, you know, this is an extra fine. I can try it in the two different tipping materials that they have. There's a pen holder, a nib holder, that is friction fit, and you can just fit any of those nibs into it and test it right there. You don't have to have 50 different pens laid out. It's only, you see the different nib, you put it into the holder, dip it, and try it right there.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's really cool. And I mean, the fact that it is a vintage one makes it even better, right? Like it wasn't just something that you made, and it would be amazing if you made it, but the fact that it has all the old logo on it, and it's like, clearly it was once white, but it's now like a little yellow, because it's made of like an acrylic, right? So like it's kind of aged over time, and it's just super cool. And I speak from my own experience. I find a lot of vintage pen stuff to be really intimidating.

Jessica Coles: Okay, yeah. I think a lot of people do.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and having, I would never want to pick up a vintage pen from your table and try it, because I would be scared. I would just be scared I would break it.

Jessica Coles: Well, if you did, none of them have nibs, so you couldn't, didn't I?

Brad Dowdy: There you go. You thought about that. But having this system, I would be way more likely to try something that I've never tried before.

Jessica Coles: Well, that's why I call it, I call it the gateway drug to vintage pens.

Brad Dowdy: It's 100% that totally is.

Jessica Coles: People are used to being able to go see, you know, a pilot vanishing point, and then you can choose whatever nib you want in that. All of those are being manufactured, and you have your choice. So with vintage pens, you know, you look at all these trays of vintage pens, and you look at something that's really pretty, and you open it up and you hope that it's a nib that you want. You don't have your choice of seeing a Parker 51 in a dark blue and opening it up and having your choice of nibs. You just have to take what is there. With this, though, you can look for the pen body you like. You can find the color you like, but then you can put the nib in that you like as well. So it's less intimidating, I think. It's a step-by-step process instead.

Brad Dowdy: Now, you are an Estabrook expert, and we'll get to some of that a little bit more. But is that idea, because of where Estabrooks came from and the fact that there were so many nibs and so many options, was that what initially drew you to them? That idea of, like, yeah, they're vintage, but you can also do more mixing and matching than you can with a typical vintage pen.

Pen Shows

Jessica Coles: Well, what got me into them, first of all, was that they are everywhere. I could find them, and I could fix them. Yeah. So those three things, you know, made them convenient. But as I got into those, what I really enjoyed as I looked at the whole process of selling to people was helping them find something that would end up making them very happy as they walked away from the table. Yeah. And Estabrook was what had that very available.

Brad Dowdy: So how many pen shows have you exhibited, I don't know?

Jessica Coles: Oh, my gosh.

Jessica Coles: I don't know. Probably 20.

Brad Dowdy: 20. Okay. And how long have you been exhibiting? Like, coming to shows, having stuff to sell?

Jessica Coles: Three years, maybe?

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Two years? And I'm assuming of the 20, there's quite a few repeat shows. Like, repeat places. And this is your first time in Atlanta?

Jessica Coles: Yes, it is.

Brad Dowdy: What do you think of the Atlanta Pen Show? What is different about it?

Jessica Coles: Well, you know, there's different shows that sometimes we're all in one big room together. Sometimes there's people in one big room and a couple very small rooms. In this one, we're in three different rooms and a lot of hallways. But it seems like...

Brad Dowdy: It didn't used to be hallways. Yes.

Jessica Coles: Well, it's growing all the time now, I guess. But what I do like about that is that the sound is somewhat contained. It's not, you know, 2,000 people all trying to talk over each other. But each of those rooms has enough people in it. And it's split very well so that there's a very different mix in each room.

Jessica Coles: But it feels like you're in your own miniature show in each area. It feels contained, but it also feels very inclusive for a wide variety. I do like that. And I absolutely loved the cookout yesterday.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that was cool.

Jessica Coles: Not the barbecue yesterday, as I was corrected by my roommate, Anna.

Brad Dowdy: I would call it a barbecue. That is, to me, like, literally what a barbecue is.

Jessica Coles: There was no barbecue there.

Brad Dowdy: Not to me, though. As an English person, what we had yesterday was a barbecue.

Jessica Coles: There was no barbecue there. There was no barbecue sauce there.

Brad Dowdy: Don't worry about it, Dad. None of that matters to an English person. A barbecue is there is a grill and you put meat on it. That is all vegetables, but that is it. Because the thing, what is called a grill, is that we call them a barbecue. I'm not saying it's right. Oh, my gosh. I'm saying, no. Well, we call them, everyone's going, no, in the clothing. In England, we call them barbecues. If you would have said it to me, I would have said, you know what, Jesse? You're right. Yes, that is what it is.

Jessica Coles: You know, Myke, I'm shocked that you guys invented the language. And you get so many things wrong.

Brad Dowdy: I don't want to get into this right now. Don't applaud that. Come on. It's called English. So whatever I say is correct. Brad, can you move on from here? You are the English then.

Myke Hurley: Okay, great. You're seriously outnumbered in Atlanta. Barbecue requires smoked meat. Please, we don't need to have this conversation anymore.

Jessica Coles: And maybe even just a pit. You don't need a grill to be barbecue.

Myke Hurley: But you need barbecue to be a barbecue. I live in Kansas City. Do not. We're not having this conversation.

Anna Reinhardt: All right. Save us, Anna.

Myke Hurley: All right. We're moving on. So over the last... We've been doing this for five years now. And when we started doing this, there were not nearly as many women attending pen shows or vending at pen shows.

Jessica Coles: Yes.

Women Vendors

Myke Hurley: As a woman vending at a pen show. Yes. How has your experience been? Not just here, but in general.

Myke Hurley: Okay. So that's a very big question. It is a big...

Jessica Coles: It's a very important question. I'm also fishing. Okay.

Myke Hurley: No vest, but I'm fishing.

Jessica Coles: Okay. Well, as a woman getting into this, I first started coming to shows when, you know, I wouldn't see other women in one room. You know, you could go into a room and there wouldn't be another, a single other woman there.

Jessica Coles: I would get times where I would be included just because I was a woman. Um, and people really wanted to include me, uh, to make me feel welcome. I've had times where I've been excluded because I'm a woman, um, talked over because I'm a woman or people asking my opinion just because of that. Um, I've had a very wide variety of it, but I think it's pretty well balanced that I've had both sides of that. Um, but my favorite is when someone came up to my table and said how nice it was that I was watching the table from my husband.

Jessica Coles: And I said, I'm sorry, my husband's at home watching the kids.

Anna Reinhardt: Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Can I ask? Was that something like that is an incredible answer. Did that just come to you?

Jessica Coles: Well, it was true.

Myke Hurley: Yes. This, this didn't happen this weekend.

Jessica Coles: No, no, no. This was, this was a couple of years ago. Um, but no, it was true. He's at home and he has the kids. So, and he's fixing the dishwasher too.

Jessica Coles: Handy. Yeah. Um, no, it's, uh, I've, I've always been in areas where, um, it's more male dominated. Um, so I am very used to that, but, uh, I guess maybe I'm, I try not to do that. I have a chip on my shoulder about it, but I do want to stand up for that and say, you know, there's no reason why I shouldn't be a woman here. And there's no reason why you shouldn't expect that. Um, but oh my goodness, my husband does not have anything to do with my business. He has his own and I have mine and I'm very proud of doing that, but I don't, I also don't want a special, um, I don't think people need to go out of their way to make me welcome or to give me, um, you know, a foot up. I'm just, I'm another person running my business here. Treated like everyone else. I'm enjoying it. Well, yeah, I think that, uh, we just have to come to accept that it's more common and it's there.

Brad Dowdy: While noticing a change in there being more women, uh, attending and exhibiting, did the average age change?

Jessica Coles: Oh, absolutely. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So it's both you've seen.

Jessica Coles: Yeah. I've seen the average age. I'm not going to, yes, I've seen the average age come down.

Brad Dowdy: It makes sense. And I guess maybe, um, considering that you are more involved in vintage pens, that maybe you had been in more environments where you would see a difference, right? Were you going to places specifically just for vintage stuff and seeing these changes or is it just pen shows in general?

Jessica Coles: It's pen shows in general. I think that they, um, have started changing from being shows that are focused on vintage to shows that are focused on pens. Um, and I don't really see them as being vintage versus new or, um, you know, big retailers versus small makers. Um, but I see it going from people who are trading vintage pens with each other into people who are using them. Um, so it's, it's more people who are interested in the life of using them and that vintage and modern are both involved with that. And I'm excited to see people using vintage pens. Um, it makes me very sad when, um, I come across a stash of pens that are 80 years old and have never been used. I mean, for me, it's great to find those, but, um, to have those just stashed away.

Brad Dowdy: It makes me think of Toy Story.

Jessica Coles: Oh.

Brad Dowdy: Right? Like all those pens are just so sad because nobody's using them.

Jessica Coles: But the pens are not alive though.

Brad Dowdy: Are we sure though? I don't know. Wow.

Brad Dowdy: Have you seen this pen?

Anna Reinhardt: Okay.

Jessica Coles: This is like, this is like a nightmare pen for me. It's, I think it would try. It's exciting, but very exciting. Well, that's what scares me is if it was alive, it would be a vampire, I think.

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah. So I want to talk about the scary things for a second because sometimes like, especially, you know, me being newer to fountain pens, vintage is a scary word to, you know, someone walking in, who's very new and very inexperienced. So tell us like why your focus is on vintage. And at the same time, I feel that you do a great job of getting in, into like, not just experienced vintage buyers hands, but you're really focused on like the customer service aspect of getting into a new people's hands and making vintage, you know, not a scary word for someone who walks into the pen show for a first time. Like how, like, do you explain like that kind of path that I feel like you, you're kind of taking right now?

Jessica Coles: That's a very long question. And there were, I think actually like 15 questions. Probably. That's what I do the best. That's how I do questions. But just before I answer that, you, you sharpened my black wings?

Anna Reinhardt: I did. Sorry about that. I, I, I think I helped someone get a sale and they were a big fan of your, uh, coom masterpiece sharpener.

Jessica Coles: Okay. Um, but you sharpened my black wings?

Anna Reinhardt: At least two, maybe not four. Got it. I think it's 12. Okay.

Anna Reinhardt: So yeah. So yes.

Jessica Coles: I don't know if I've ever used my black wings or a black wing yet. No, you can.

Anna Reinhardt: He's doing you a favor, really. The point looks great on them. They're ready to rock.

Jessica Coles: Okay. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. They are, they are extra sharpened by Brad Dowdy. Yes. I will hold them extra dear. You can eBay those now.

Brad Dowdy: They can go on eBay.

Jessica Coles: Seriously.

Brad Dowdy: Sharpened by Brad Dowdy. I reckon you could sell those for a price. Artisanal. Some people will buy those, I reckon.

Jessica Coles: Well, he's not the one that got asked to sign an iPad today.

Brad Dowdy: We don't want to get into that. It's not official. It's not, it's not. We don't want to.

Jessica Coles: I was really impressed though. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's the whole thing. It's not fun.

Jessica Coles: I got to stand next to you. Um, okay. So.

Vintage Pens

Anna Reinhardt: Make vintage easy for us. Like what, what do we need to know when we go? We're interested. We've got our modern stuff. Like what would make a first time buyer comfortable buying vintage and why should they buy it from you?

Jessica Coles: Well, because I make them comfortable.

Anna Reinhardt: That's right.

Jessica Coles: Um, coming up to my table. Um, I, I can usually tell if somebody hasn't tried vintage before most of the time because they say I'm so new to vintage. Um, so it's easy to tell them. Um, it is overwhelming because when you go up to a vintage, uh, pen, you are not supposed to open it up and use it. Um, what you're looking at is something that has been around for 80 years, maybe, um, on my table, about an average of 70 years old. Uh, you're looking at these, um, that for some reason they have made it that long. Nobody has lost them. Nobody's broken them. Um, they're there. Uh, they're in usable shape. They still have their caps. Most of them. Um, so you are opening up these pens. It, they're a piece of history. Uh, there are some pens there that have people's names engraved on them and they may be, um, long gone, but that pen is still there.

Jessica Coles: Um, as you are looking at all of these traits of pens, it's absolutely overwhelming. Um, some of it is because they are all mixed together. Uh, it's hard for your eye to focus on each individual one. It's hard for you to focus on something when you haven't gotten so involved in it yet, um, that you can pick out what they are. Um, so.

Myke Hurley: I've never understood why the other vendors just mix all of them together. Like they have all, they have a lot of the same brand or type of pen and then they just like one over here. There's like a Parker over here. And then she, it's like, um, come on guys, put like the two Parkers next to each other.

Jessica Coles: Well, but it may make sense to them. They aren't looking at it as people who are new coming into it and being overwhelmed with so much information. They are people who can categorize those as they look at them. I suppose maybe it must be in some sort of mathematical order.

Myke Hurley: I don't understand.

Jessica Coles: It might be, but you know, as a mother, I can look at it and say, oh, that's a guy.

Myke Hurley: You know, um, there, there, there was some, uh, like purchase order. Oh yeah. I got that one in 72. I bought that one in 84. That's why they're in that order.

Jessica Coles: Or they fit in the case that way. Um, I, I, I don't know. I think everybody has their own way of ordering.

Myke Hurley: I seriously need to ask. Oh.

Brad Dowdy: I wonder if there is like for, for a lot of buyers, there's like a thrill of a hunt kind of like mentality. Oh, absolutely. So like not putting them in a discernible order is appeasing to the typical buyer who wants to sift through them all and find one.

Jessica Coles: There is a huge amount of treasure hunting.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Jessica Coles: Um, I really feel that when I come to pen shows too, but also I get even knowing all about so many different pens. I get overwhelmed looking at that because my eye wants to focus on each individual one. And like when you go to a secondhand bookstore, if they're all just thrown on the shelf there, it's hard to read individual ones. Um, your brain just can't process all of it. Um, so that is hard. Wait, what I was answering a question.

Anna Reinhardt: It was my way of saying you're really good at what you do and you do it different than everyone else. And I don't understand why there's not more of you in that room over there.

Jessica Coles: We can't all be me.

Brad Dowdy: It is a competitive advantage to be you. It is. It truly is. In talking to you about, in talking to Jesse about Esther Brooke over the last couple of days, I've been really interested about the little tidbits of information you've been giving me about like how, um, some of the clips and some of the elements changed on the pens during wartime production because the Esther Brooke would be using some of the will be sending, uh, steel to the war effort. How do you find that information out?

Jessica Coles: Well, um, some, I read everything that I can find, uh, about them.

Brad Dowdy: Um, some of it is more than just the Wikipedia page. Like what are you reading?

Jessica Coles: I think your Wikipedia pages were great. Um, I'm reading, uh, old books or old catalogs. Um, I'm talking to the guys that are, are there. Um, sometimes some people will hear, uh, that I'm interested in Esther Brooks and will come tell me little bits of information. Um, if I find out something interesting, like I'll be repairing the pens and I'll notice, wait, I don't, does this go with the, uh, with these pens or does it go with these others? And why, and why are these clips thinner? Um, why are these engraved instead of a metal band? When did this change? How long did it happen? And I'll go look up that information. Um, some of it is that it's just not collected altogether, uh, anywhere right now. But then, um, that's why so many different books are being written too, is because people, Brian Anderson has so much information in his mind about it that, um, it hasn't been processed in that way yet.

Myke Hurley: So when are you writing a book?

Jessica Coles: Oh, wow. I should do that, huh?

Anna Reinhardt: Yes. Yeah. I'm not, I, I'm not kidding. You know, I would look over, I turn around and look at your table, um, or watch it for you and give away things for free while you're not there. Yeah.

Jessica Coles: I appreciate that.

Anna Reinhardt: And black wings, like, like black wings.

Jessica Coles: Yeah.

Anna Reinhardt: And you come back and like my, my scope of, of the, the table is I'll go, I'll point at something. I'll go, Oh, that is really cool. And then you're just, let me tell you everything you ever need to know about that. I'm like, hot dang. That is awesome. Like, well, that's like, it's so cool. It did. It boggles my mind.

Jessica Coles: I'm just, I'm really good at trivial pursuit too. Um, I pick up random information like nobody's business, but not the, not the important stuff usually. But, um, Esther Brooks, I can talk a long time about, um, there's so much interesting information out there about it. Um, and so much of it gets forgotten unless it's passed along. So, uh, talking to as many people about them as I can, uh, I can pick up all of those little bits of it. Um, I thought it was a lot of fun, uh, to learn about why Esther Brooks was shaving off, um, steel from their manufactured pens, um, because they were contributing that to the war effort. And that was even before the U S was in the war. Um, and you know, Esther Brooks came from England, so they were, their heart was there and they had people there that were family and friends. Um, and that really brings that little bit of history to life instead of it being some ancient thing that, um, that happened to other people. It makes it feel more real.

Esther Brooks

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. What is the most interesting or expensive Esther Brooks that you have ever come into contact with?

Jessica Coles: Well, right now I do have an Esther Brooks that was a relief pen made in England. Not many were made in England. Most were made in the U S. Um, and it was made during the war. Um, that's the only time really that they made gold knit pens. Um, and that was because they were saving all of the steel. So actually it was more accessible for them to use gold than steel at the time. Um, well, you can't, you know, make tanks out of steel, out of gold. You don't want to do that.

Brad Dowdy: It would look kind of cool, but like it wouldn't go very far.

Jessica Coles: It did look pretty. I think it wouldn't, um, make it very long though. Yeah. Um, but the, uh, you know, the, the celluloid on that pen, um, is still an amazing shape. There's gold that is still an amazing shape. Um, and, uh, wow. To know that that has lasted that long in that kind of condition is amazing. But, um, that's probably the rarest one that I have right now.

Brad Dowdy: Because of it, because of the gold, right? Because they were going to make them for a short period of time.

Jessica Coles: Yeah. There just weren't that many made. Yeah. Um, I think people hoard them and put them aside.

Anna Reinhardt: And I don't know that I've ever seen an Estherbrook gold nib before.

Jessica Coles: Well, you haven't been looking at my table very well. It's been over there.

Jessica Coles: Sorry. I really do appreciate you guys. I enjoy it, but you know, it is pretty easy to, to jab it at a few of those things. Fair enough. Fair enough.

Brad Dowdy: So, Jesse, I think people can go to, uh, vintagepenshop.com, right? Which is an incredible URL that is very good. Very good. Thank you. Tell me about your other URL. Yeah.

Jessica Coles: Oh, yes. My other URL. I have it. I have the domain name, uh, jesterbrook.com.

Brad Dowdy: jesterbrook.com. Oh, yeah. Because of Anna. That's great.

Jessica Coles: She made me do it. We, we've come up with all kinds of URL ideas late at night, usually with wine involved.

Anna Reinhardt: That's a recurring theme between our guests today. So everyone work on your, your drinking problems.

Jessica Coles: I didn't call it a drinking solution.

Anna Reinhardt: That's right.

Jessica Coles: Drinking solutions. Oh my gosh. Okay. So, um, uh, a friend, Franklin, he's on the Slack as pens in. No pictures. I have to be careful with that.

Anna Reinhardt: Um, thank you. Thank you for that.

Jessica Coles: Yeah. He, he totally did that on purpose. Um, he, uh, he was thankful that I was trying to, um, get some Franklin Kristoff pens for him. And, uh, he said, you know, when are you arriving? And I, I told him when I'd probably get into the hotel. And he said, just wait. He said, when you get to the front desk, ask for your package. So I did. And, uh, it was a box still cold. Um, opened up the box and yeah, you can feel the cold air coming out of it and open it up. And there's this huge cheesecake and it's just now finishing defrosting.

Brad Dowdy: A cheesecake is a very aggressive. Thank you.

Jessica Coles: Oh my gosh.

Brad Dowdy: Like an entire cheesecake is like a, it's like a very serious. Thank you.

Jessica Coles: He has absolutely said thank you in, I believe it. In pounds of dairy. Oh my gosh. So yeah, uh, Anna and I went and got coffee and came back to the hotel room. Oh yeah. Two forks. And came back to the hotel room, put the cheesecake in between us, coffee on each side. And we dug in. I've never done that before. And I'll just dig into a cake from the side. My gosh.

Jessica Coles: It was decadent.

Brad Dowdy: And that's what pin shows are all about. Exactly. Everybody give a huge round of applause for Jesse. Thank you so much.

Jessica Coles: You're very welcome. Thank you.

Brad Dowdy: So we're going to wrap up today's episode now. Just once again, thank you so much to all of our Kickstarter backers who help make this possible. As they do every year. This year is a special one. Five years is special. And everybody gave us such incredible support to do this. So thank you all again for helping us get here and to do this for you. And we hope that this episode and the video when you see it is going to be worth it for you. So thank you so much for helping us do that. Thank you. Thank you to our wonderful studio audience. Studio. Stephen said that earlier. It's not a studio. This is the room. Not a studio. It's not a studio. Ballroom audience. Ballroom audience for joining us. Thank you to our wonderful guests. I want to thank Anna and Brad, as always, for joining us. Thanks to our sponsors, Define, Feeport, Squarespace, and ExpressVPN. And I think that's about it for the episode, Brad. What do you think? I think it is. All right. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, everybody. Goodbye, everybody. Goodbye, everybody.