The Pen Addict 542/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	542
Title:	This Love Has Conditions
Release Date:	December 7th, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 542
Audio File:	Audio Episode 542
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 542
Length:	5959 min <br />0.983 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 542. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace, StoryWorth, and UniPizzaOvens. My name is Myke Hurley, and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hey Myke Hurley, how are you? I'm good, I was just looking. This is my first podcast since November 21st.

Brad Dowdy: Wow, on any show?

Myke Hurley: On any show. I have not recorded anything since the 21st of November, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: How does it feel? Do you remember which buttons to push? No idea. Do you remember how to talk?

Myke Hurley: We'll find out over the course of this episode.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, well, welcome back. We've held down the fort. I've had a little bit of help holding down the fort. Yep. Here recently with our gift guide episode. Great episode. Yes, thank you very much. Anna was always wonderful.

Myke Hurley: I appreciate the cyberbullying, but you know, that just happens sometimes, I suppose.

Gift guide selections and corrections

Brad Dowdy: You submitted your answers. Did I? To the gift guide segments, yes.

Myke Hurley: Well, I have some corrections that I would like to make.

Brad Dowdy: Are you sure? You forwarded those to me in a document. This is lies. You edited the document. This is lies. This is absolute lies. So, I don't, like, are you taking back what you said?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, I wouldn't have gone with the Montagrappitude and Kamun. Are you sure? Are you sure? I would have chosen a Mark I. That's what I would have gone with. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Mark I was on the list. I couldn't quite work that one in.

Myke Hurley: I wouldn't have gone with the, um, that, what ink do you want with Fuyugaki for me, right? Yeah. Come on. I wouldn't have chosen that one. I would have gone with one of the pilot inks. I don't remember the number off the top of my head. It's the gray one, which is also got the pink in there. You mean the Sailor, the Sailor. Yeah. The Sailor one would like, it's got like the gray one with the pink and the green in it. I would have picked that one. I don't know. Do you remember which one that is?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. No, I do. I do. But it's a great color. But like, I mean, you were gone for, for two weeks and like, now you're just spouting all this nonsense.

Myke Hurley: I would have picked the Sinclair even though I don't own one.

Myke Hurley: Cause I still love my old Sinclair. So you would have got that one right. And you are correct. Both of you are correct. I would have picked the theme system journal in every category that it could have applied in. So you got that right at least.

Brad Dowdy: I told Anna I was going to do this and I was just like, I'm just going to do this. And like, I don't even care.

Myke Hurley: So I'll tell you how I knew this happened. I hadn't listened to the episode yet because it was being edited, but you sent me the links, right? Yeah. And I was adding the URLs to the CMS and I worked out what you'd done. Just by saying, it was when I saw the Tutankhamun, I was like, hang on a minute. And then I started looking through it. I was like, oh, I see what's going on here.

Brad Dowdy: I was pretty proud of myself on that one. Very funny. I love you, Myke. Hey, it's got 541 episodes, which I misspoke last week that we can still have this much fun talking about pens.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I think that says a lot. Jim tidied that up. No one will know about your mistake until now.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it was brutal. This is what Brad does when he has to be in charge for a week at a time. Because when I start recording things out of order, I just look at my Ulysses note files. Like, each podcast has a note in there. So, I would just pick up, okay, so the last episode I recorded was 539, right? So, I just called this one 540, even though I was, we had already recorded 540.

Myke Hurley: You did it today. So, at the top of our document today, it said episode 541, and I've just changed it to 542, which is the correct episode number.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I had the doc title correct. I didn't have the internal title correct. So, welcome back, Myke, to Brad's, Brad screws up everything. How was your vacation?

Myke Hurley: It was perfect. Wonderful vacation, but rip-roaring, ready to go for the rest of this episode. I know. There's some great stuff in today's show.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this is a, this is a very standard issue pen addict show. Kind of turned up to 11 with some of the topics we're going to talk about. Just, we're going to talk about a lot of new topics. You know, when all it takes is for one of us to go away for a week to have a bunch of new releases or new, you know, just fun stationary news, right? And I can't think of anything better to lead off with than the shown design Monarch nib, Myke. Had you seen any teasers of this? Probably not. You've actually been kind of gone a little bit, and I don't think we've spoken about it specifically before. So, give me your initial thoughts when you were, when you were checking this out. If you'd seen it before, what do you think about it?

Discussion of Ian's blog post and design work

Myke Hurley: I hadn't seen it before, but I read the blog post that was on the shown design website that Ian put together. And I would say that I am curiously, cautiously optimistic about this product. Because this is, so, shown design have designed and manufactured a nib of their own, right? That's kind of the situation here. The whole nib unit, including the feed, everything. This is a very complicated thing to do and get right. So, like, I am very intrigued to know about the performance of this product and the reliability of it. If there's anyone that could do it, Ian could do it. But I still remain, like, intrigued about it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, having talked to Ian, obviously, for years and years, probably well on a decade at this point, he has always wanted to make his own nib. Once he started making fountain pens, he's always said, like, the dream scenario is I make my own nibs, right?

Myke Hurley: It's the ultimate design challenge.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And I think for a time, he was testing out and trying to make essentially a stamped nib, right? Something that comes off a flat sheet and he turned it into a traditional nib shape, right? And, like, I don't know all the ins and outs of the pros and cons and the good parts and the bad parts of trying to make that. Right. And until he ended up, you know, scrapping that idea. This is, like, literally years in the making. Right. He scrapped that idea. And now we're on to this is what comes out. And he showed this to me at the San Francisco Pen Show. And I got to test around, like, a very early prototype. And, like, it's just, like, so cool. Like, these tubular nibs are great. And you've seen manufacturers make a tubular nib before, but not a fully integrated nib unit.

Myke Hurley: What is tubular? What does that mean?

Brad Dowdy: So, circular, round. So, Visconti Typhoon, if we'll look. I didn't put it in the show notes. So, if you go look at a pen called Visconti Typhoon, and you will see essentially a circular tubular nib.

Myke Hurley: Now you're saying that, like, I've been looking at this picture today, and I'm like, what is it about this that doesn't look normal? And that's it. It's that the nib unit forms a circle around the body and, like, is curved, right? Like that.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, even the Visconti that we'll reference in the show notes is still more of a bent or formed nib material. This is a drilled nib from a singular rod of metal or, you know, a singular piece of metal, which is completely different, completely unique. And it kind of breaks my brain a little bit, even getting to test this in person. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Seeing him come up with this and knowing the years of work that have led into this, I know he's excited. I'm excited to see this final version in person.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, obviously, visually, it's stunning, right? Like, it's just not something you see done a lot. And, you know, technically, we'll see, right? Like, he's not going to put something out unless he feels, like, technically competent in the performance of it, right? So, we'll have to get this in hand, see how it is. It's a titanium barrel. Excuse me, a titanium material nib. Thoughts on titanium? As the choice, it's great. Because I think there is, with the titanium, you get a little bit of give. But the way that this nib is designed to have these thick walls, it's going to be a very firm nib, which you know that I prefer. Like, this is my preference. And again, like, let me just jump completely, you know, off topic right here. This is not going to be for everybody, right? This is not a universal nib application that you're just going to start finding in fountain pens. And, hey, this is, like, a new standard. Like, this is a very unique, almost, like, bespoke couture type of situation nib, which are the things that I always talk about wanting to see from these manufacturers, right? Like, he is putting a lot on the line to create something like this. And I, like, fully support that. Yeah. You know, getting it in hand and testing out. I mean, I'm 100% getting one of these, right, whenever they become available. We don't know availability and we don't know price yet. So, this is just the, essentially, the notification of launch coming soon and the details behind it and kind of all the specs and, you know, what you can expect from the nib, you know, as far as what the tipping looks like, right? It's a singular tipping design. It's not a traditional tipping like you would find on a fountain pen. It essentially has to come to a point. And I can't wrap my head around how this is manufactured by a machine, even, you know, even though machines make all kinds of complex parts. But, you know, just the slit for the tines as part of this whole thing, I don't understand it in the best way possible. Like, it's really cool. And I can't wait to get my hands on one. I will be in line whenever they come up. No matter the cost, I imagine it's going to be very expensive, right? This is not a cheap product to make. The work that went into the years of work going into this and the final, getting to this final version, I'm sure it's going to be very expensive. But, like, I'm in. Like, I'm going to get one. And they fit into Yovo, like, threadings into other pens. I thought that was a smart choice. Yeah, yeah. So you can buy this nib and put it into, like, an existing pen that you have. It should be a shown pen or any other pen that takes Yovo fittings. But, like, yeah. I am anxious to try this. Yeah. Right? No matter the cost. And just to get, we don't get new technology very often in our little world, right? We might get some weird filling system or some unique material, right? The materials have been on a big run, you know, with the machine plastics here the last three, four years. You know, that's been, like, a new technology, if you will, for, like, technology is a little bit of a stretch for a word. But, yeah, you know what I'm saying. So getting something new like this to test out, I'm in. Like, I want to support this type of creativity in our industry. And, yeah, I'm completely excited. And I'm thrilled for Ian to get to this point because I know how hard it's been and I know how long it's taken him. And for him to put, for knowing Ian like I do, for him to put a product on the market means he's super proud of it. Like, he just doesn't throw stuff up there. I mean, no one does, you know. I mean, I think we would all say that we don't do that. But, like, I know my expectations are high for this because I know how Ian makes products, right? It's his own fault. Yeah. Because I know he's going to deliver the goods because he always has. So, yeah, I can't wait. So we'll have more on this whenever I'm able to order one and get one to test out. So I just wanted to bring this up because it's been a topic here in the last couple weeks while we haven't talked. And I'm actually kind of glad we waited a little bit because he just came out with this post like a day or two ago. Or a few days ago to kind of lay out all the details of the Monarch nib. And, yeah, I'm ready. Give it to me.

Myke Hurley: I'm very intrigued. Yeah. Very intrigued.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like I said, like, this is not going to be for everybody. Like, I totally get that. But, like, this is the kind of things, like, I want to see. Yeah. Like, in our little world.

Myke Hurley: So I like, you know what you said about the couture-ness of it? I like the idea of that because, like you say, just naturally this product is not going to be for everyone. Titanium is odd and interesting. You know, I've only ever used one titanium nib with any frequency. It was, like, very squeaky. But I loved the feeling of it. But it was peculiar in its own way.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. This is not going to feel like any titanium nib you've ever used. No, no.

Myke Hurley: I don't think it will. My point is, like, I have no doubt that this is going to have its own interesting quirks and features. And I, like, you want more products like that? Like, this is, the fountain pen hobby is, like, so particular, right? Like, we want the certain shape that we want, the certain filling system that we want, the material. But there's so few nib choices. I want there to be more particular nib choices that people can make, even if it's aftermarket.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Like, even though, like, I still, to a degree, even though I'm not new to fountain pens by no stretch of the imagination, I'm not, like, the most experienced, and I never will be. But now I'm at the point where, if I'm buying a pen, I have to do something to the nib, usually, to where it's not a stock nib. Like, that's why we talk about nib grinds so much and have a bunch of nib grinder friends, because we can get these customizations and these changes. And, oh, someone came up with something new. Or, oh, someone reimagined, you know, a traditional shape. And, like, what are these things? Like, that's what gets me going, is how can I make different lines on my page? And not as much of, hey, great, it's another medium gold nib. It's like, okay, yeah, I mean, that's cool. It's like, I've got five. Like, I'm covered. Right. Let's try something else. And maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. But I want people to keep trying. Right.

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Insights on Ian's Monarch nib and related developments

Brad Dowdy: So take everything I just said about Ian and the Monarch nib and the things I want to see and keep that in the back of your mind as I get ready to discuss the Pilot Custom 74 30th Anniversary Pen.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So if y'all aren't following Fude Fan, Jacob, and also CY over at Tokyo Inklings, Tokyo Station Pens, and Fude Fan, we'll have a link in the show notes to all their stuff. Y'all should be following them because Jacob always gets, always has like the quick links on the Japanese releases and see, that's where I see most of my Japanese pen information first. So of course, when he posts a link to, hey, look, Pilot has made a Custom 74 30th Anniversary Edition, I was like, whoa, like I didn't expect that, number one. Number two, like it's one of my favorite pens ever and like, okay, this is going to be cool. So, and then I went and looked at it and I was like, okay, what's going on here? So it's like a black, it's like a black finish, a black cap and black finial, Custom 74 with the same color translucent barrels. So you can pick, you know, blue, teal, or orange. And I was like, wait a minute, like, why don't the other barrels have the cap on it? I was like, oh, it's like a swappable barrel, right? They give you the singular nib unit and then they give you three barrels and then like one cab. And I was like, cool. Like, I love like the customization things, right? Like if I can mix and match and make my own pen, like that's what I want to do. Like I like having that choice. So Pilot is saying, hey, we're going to give you this little kit of the Pilot Custom 74. And we're going to give you like one nib. You can pick out the nib size you want. And we'll have more on that in a minute because they're introducing a new nib in this, which is cool. And then give you like three barrels for like whatever your mood is. You can use the blue translucent or the teal translucent or the orange translucent.

Myke Hurley: I was like blue and teal. It's like fun. Is there not like another color? Like, anyway. Well, here's the problem. They call it turquoise green. Just saying.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So that's the one I have. Like the one I use. I actually have the orange and the turquoise green. And then I have the same blue color in a Custom 92. And that's the problem I have with this. In a vacuum, I think this product is cool. It's actually priced very well for what they give you. Right. It's a little different style of Custom 74, which I'm down with. Right. With the black cap and the black end caps and finials. Right. I'm down with that. A little, you know, different, you know, cap band logo. And they give you a bottle of ink, which I'm going to, I'm going to circle back to that in a minute as well. And it's all 30,800 yen, which translates to like $225. And like the normal Custom 74 is like 165 bucks. I'm like, yeah, that's, that's pretty good. Right. That's not like a $500 set of pens. I was like, yeah, this is great. But, and then, and then Brad shows up. And as like, I literally, I really like this product and I don't want to give it too much of a hard time because I've give pilot a really hard time on some of their limited editions.

Brad Dowdy: It's just one of those. It just feels like we have all these parts laying around and let's do something for this 30th anniversary edition with just like from the parts bin. And I just can't help, but feel a little bit disappointed in that to where I'm getting the same color barrels that already exist and just getting a black cap on it. And it doesn't make me feel special for a special edition, right? Give me the, make a singular new color. Charge me more for it. Call it the 30th anniversary edition. Even make the black cap edition. I don't care. And make it with a pink barrel, whatever. It's, it's, it falls a little bit flat because it's just using parts of other pins that they already have. The 74 barrel and the different black caps and black finials that they already have in use for all these other pins that exist. Like it doesn't stand out enough. Even though I love it. I love the idea of it. The price is awesome. Um, and they have, um, this new nib options called the S nib, the signature nib. I guess the idea is that it's, you know, kind of like a writing, like a cursive writing nib. It's a bit, I wouldn't call it a stub nib. It's a very rounded, large tip. Um, it's something I will have to test out, but it looks like a big, it looks like signing

Myke Hurley: things. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Like literally, I think that's kind of like the, the idea about it. You lose a little bit in the translation, right? So like they, you know, they talk about it and it doesn't really, um, tell you much. So I don't know, like I literally love this product and also feel extremely disappointed in it. Right. It's a weird thing as a huge pilot fan to, and a huge custom 74 fan to see this and just go like, what are you trying to tell me here? Like, I like the option, but I already have these options from you pilot. Like if I'm a pilot fan, this is not going to be my first pilot pin. So I probably have something like this already. Yeah. And then, I mean, limited color ink anniversary blue. I mean, is this not the stock? I am so flummoxed by some of these choices.

Myke Hurley: It's not a stock blue if you put the word anniversary on the phone.

Brad Dowdy: Is it though? I like, what color is this? Is it, if it isn't pilot blue? It's anniversary blue. Everyone knows that. Come on. It's, it's anniversary blue.

Myke Hurley: You can't spot anniversary blue when you see it? Yes. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: So like, like I, when I saw this, I was like, yes. And then I was immediately no. Then I was like, okay, maybe. And like, I, I just don't know how to feel about this. Like, it's, it's cool. Like, I'm down with this. I like the new nib. I like the price point. Um, but I also really like, what is pilot telling me here? And that's where, that's where I get lost in my own mind. It was like, this is what you came up with, right? This is what you sat down and had the opportunity to make something cool for the 30th anniversary. And you decided to go to the parts bin.

Brad Dowdy: That, that's, that's kind of the end here. So I, I, I just have high expectations for some of these companies. Pilot, um, is at the top of that list, right? Because the, just the opportunity is there. Yeah. The opportunity is really there to move the needle.

Myke Hurley: I think this is a great idea, right? One pen, a bunch of like bodies to, to, to customize it with. Yep. You said they just, they picked the wrong colors. Like they should have done something a little bit more special than this.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Give me three new barrel colors. And, or, you know, yeah, I don't know. Like it's, it's just the choice that they made that it just seems just like really, really obvious that they didn't put any time into it. Yeah. Yeah. Like that. And that's all like, should I expect more? Maybe. Is that unfair to me? I don't know. Maybe. But as someone who is a super fan and like raves about the 74 and has it, like I have no interest in purchasing in this while I do think it's a great product at the same time. Right. So it's just weird. It's, they put me in a weird spot pilot. I don't like that. I don't like when you put me in weird spots. I want to tell you, I love you unconditionally. And well, this one has conditions, Myke, this one has conditions. And that's before we get into the price increases. Oh, it's price increase season, Myke. It is price increase season. So end of, end of the year rolling into 2023 is the time where we see price increases in, in a lot of industries. Um, it's definitely the time of the year for stationary companies to move their, move their prices up, which we've seen, you know, they've been some drastic movements over the last, what? Three, four years. Uh-huh. Um, I'd say like, so it's, it's been pretty extreme given world events and supply chains and all the things we've talked about over the past three or four years that are causing these prices to go up in every industry. So, uh, Dan Smith from the Nibsmith sent out a couple of notes about some upcoming price increases. Let's hit this pilot North America one first. So, because it affects probably the 74. It's not specific to specific products, but it is, the note is up to 17% on pilot products and up to 25% on Namiki products. What that means for individual products, it's unclear yet, right? So, but let's just say the custom 74, which Myke, I just put it at number one in my top five pins between 150 and $200. Uh, it's number one, it moves it from like, what was it? 165 or so to 187 or 160 to 187. So this, I just wrote up this whole thing raving about the price and the value. And it's like one of the best gold nibs out there and it's less expensive. And I hasn't seen a price increase in a long time. Um, and then boom.

Myke Hurley: What you're saying is you did this.

Brad Dowdy: It's my fault. Yeah. It is literally my fault. So thanks Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Rip. So yeah, like I, I, I, yeah, it wasn't lining up.

Myke Hurley: Does this change your feeling? Like all the stuff that you said, does a 17% increase change your feeling about it?

Brad Dowdy: No, because that's the whole issue with that price point anyway, is that everything is getting moved. Everything that's good in that price point is getting shifted out. And we're going to talk about that more specifically in a minute to one that does change my opinion. This one does not change my opinion. And I don't know for a fact that it's 17% on the 74, right? We'll find that out coming up in 2023. What specific products are impacted the most or the least or not at all. But we're, let's just assume that that 17% is on probably a pin that uses a gold nib that probably deserves to be increased. Makes it 187.

Myke Hurley: Whatever's most popular will get the highest price increases. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So now that just puts it like equally. Now you have to like really decide between that and the Platinum 3776.

Myke Hurley: Ah, okay.

Brad Dowdy: Because the Platinum already did their price increase. So now they're like 189 to 199 for just like the basic colors, which is essentially what 74 is.

Myke Hurley: That's going to make that decision a lot more complicated. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Like where before the 74 was like almost $30 cheaper, which is, I mean, that's sizable. I mean, that's a sizable percentage.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Cheaper. And for an equivalent in my mind, pen, you know, they're different, right? They have different, people prefer, you know, the way Platinum nibs feel over Pilot nibs. And, you know, there's a difference, but just from a purchasing like idea, they're always in the same category. So would a $30 difference make a difference? Yeah, I think it would. And now that difference is gone. So we'll see, you know, this is just this category, this price category is completely in flux. And I actually think we have a bigger price increase to talk about here in just a second after we hear from our good friends over at Squarespace.

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Lamy 2000 price increase and market trends

Brad Dowdy: Lamy 2000 time, Myke. Guess what? Guess what? What? We're moving on up the charts here with the next price increase. So the 2000 has gone through some price increases over the last couple of years, unlike the Custom 74, which really didn't move over the past several years, which is why it was kind of like an obvious candidate. The Lamy 2000 only in the past two or three years, I think, had a price increase. So it's a $249 MSRP. And this is one where the company just allows for just like the straight 20% off street price. So like all retailers sell this, the Lamy 2000, the standard Lamy 2000, the Macrolon barrel for $199.20, right? So it's this magical price point. We're under $200. So I got to put it in my price pens from $150 to $200. It stays there. Not anymore. Like I literally just updated this list a month ago, put the Lamy 2000 in at number three. And now I'm going to have to remove it because the new MSRP is $279, which is about a 12% increase, which makes the new street price $223.20. What do I think of the Lamy 2000 at that price in relation to the conversation we just had about the Custom 74 and being okay with that price increase? It's around the same dollar amount, you know, that $20 to $25 to $20 to $30 more price increase. The Lamy is going up, you know, $24, $23. This makes it weird now, right? It's those numbers that shouldn't matter, you know, from a technical perspective do matter in a marketing and a visual perspective, right? The Lamy 2000 is now $223, right? Where the Pilot 74 stayed at $187. $187.

Brad Dowdy: So my initial thoughts on this were that stinks. Like I don't like it at this price as much. My second thought was this is not going to make a dent whatsoever in Lamy 2000's market. So the way Lamy has been working their business over the last few years and we're seeing the proliferation of the pop-up retail stores, right? The little shops in the big city, San Francisco, New York. The way that they are increasing their brand awareness. I don't think they're going to have any problems selling it for this price. I just think where I fall in is that I think my first Lamy 2000 that I bought was $140. So I can't remove that information from my head, right? So I'm looking at it from a different perspective from a lot of people who may be going to buy their first Lamy Safari. And, oh, is it a good deal at $223?

Brad Dowdy: It probably still is, right? Like I, yeah, I don't necessarily have a problem with it even though we're quickly encroaching, you know, $100 in the past decade price increase. And it does kind of change my thoughts on, hey, should this be your first gold nib upgrade pin? Where it was a pretty clear answer not that long ago. Yeah, like you should really consider this. And I was like, huh, I need to think about that a little bit more. Because it still offers something unique in this price point, right? It's a piston filler and it's an interesting material. And it's a classic, right? Like the style has not gone away. It's what, 50 years old now? Everyone loves the Lamy 2000. I love the Lamy 2000. So I don't, as much as it stinks, I don't think it's going to change the popularity or the recommendation of the Lamy 2000 all that much, right? Because everything's shifting this direction.

Myke Hurley: How much did you say you bought yours for 10 years ago?

Brad Dowdy: I want to say 140. I could be wrong. I couldn't find the exact information.

Myke Hurley: Adjusted for inflation, it's $173 in those 10 years. So it's still higher than inflation. Sure. But it's not just inflation, it's market. And I actually think that you're right. I think $223 is still a good price for the Lamy 2000.

Brad Dowdy: Right. In today's market. Yeah. Like we just have, you know, if you take today's market in a vacuum, it's fine. But we have this information that we can't, you know, get rid of that we have been through, you know, all these price increases and still have this idea in our head of, hey, like I only paid this much for this. This is kind of ridiculous. But it's really kind of not, right? Like, I think it's okay. Right. As much as like, I don't want any of this stuff to go up. Right. It's inevitable. And if you're telling me the Lamy 2000, it's now $223, you know, right off the shelf.

Brad Dowdy: It's probably right. You know, like I want to eviscerate this, but like there's no reason to, like, it's a good pen. This is the, you know, the cost of materials, the cost of marketing, the cost of doing business in 2022 and 2023. And, God, it seems, yeah, it seems right as much as it just kind of stinks because this is always, you know, a harbinger of what's to come when we see these price increases. Like, it's like, well, this is just, you know, we haven't even started to rip the Band-Aid off yet. We're probably going to see more from all the brands. Like, Sailor, you know, they did that huge price increase, what, two or three years ago, two years ago? And then had, like, another small one, like, right after that. It's like, man, this is just, it's non-stop.

Myke Hurley: So everything's getting more expensive. Like, the resources are more expensive. People are more expensive. Like, everything's getting more expensive. And so I don't really know how much choice a lot of companies, these companies will have, but then to just move in that direction.

Brad Dowdy: What I keep looking for and what I always keep in the back of my head is just, is just like someone who follows the stationary industry is who is going to backfill some of these spots. Where we're just going to, we now have these huge gaps, these huge price gaps in the mainline pens, right? What are we going to get between, like, $75 and $175? You know, custom makers have filled a niche in there, you know, pretty well. But, like, we're probably never getting gold nib pens in that price point again, right? Like, when we used to. Which, I mean, that's the state of the world. Like, I get that. Like, I'm not complaining necessarily about that. But, like, I haven't seen anything that compelling, you know, outside of, you know, pens that are closer to $200 than that are closer to $100, right? Like, I really want to see, can someone make a difference for $125, right? And I'm not sure, you know, is it, like, is that just going to be a steel nib pen now? Like, that's it? Which is fine. Like, you know I love steel nibs. But, like, you know what I'm trying to say. It's, like, I think that era is gone where you could get a sweet gold nib pen for, like, $125, $150. Like, it's just not really an option anymore. Like, we used to be able to buy Pilot Custom 91s for, like, $70 to $90. So, it's getting to be a tough sell now when you're getting upwards of $200 for your entry-level gold nib pen. But, like, that's just the way this is going. So, I'm always looking in my mind for this backfill. And I don't see anything yet. So, we'll see. We'll see if someone can come up with something interesting that's compelling enough for people to spend $100 less. Then, like, a gold nib pen is, are they going to find something that's worth it to them? So, we'll see. Something I keep my eye on. It's something I think about a lot. Because there's, we're getting this real disparate price points now, right? For standard pens and then gold nib pens. And there's a huge, huge chasm in between them is the way it's tracking right now. That makes me love my Lamy Safaris even more, Myke. And I want to talk about this special edition.

Brad Dowdy: That's a fun one. And, you know, it's also from Lamy. And Lamy has really blown up in the Japanese market over the last five years or so. Maybe even longer. You have participated in Lamy Pokemon collaborations. You're still waiting for arrival. It's in the UK.

Myke Hurley: I think it might be at home today. It's just unfortunate that it arrived and I will collect it.

Brad Dowdy: Nice, nice. So, this one is in collaboration with the biggest stationary retailer in Japan, Atoya. And it's called the Lamy Safari Atoya Copper 01. So, this was sent to me on Instagram.

Brad Dowdy: And when you look at this pen, do you, like, I had some initial thoughts when I saw this. Do you want to give it a go and tell me what you see when you see this pen?

Myke Hurley: It's boring.

Myke Hurley: It just doesn't do it for me.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So, what's weird about this? I didn't disagree with you. My initial thought was the exact thought that you had. But, as I looked at this more, what they've done is made some type of combination of the Lamy LX, the Lamy All-Star, and the Lamy Safari into one pen. And I am here for it. And here's why. This is a Safari barrel with almost a metallic finish to it. I want to see this in person. It might just be the lighting on these images. They might have, like, really highlighted the edges. Like, they turned up the lighting to make this look metallic-y. But one of the reasons I always prefer the Safari over the All-Star is the All-Star has that translucent section. So, there's, like, this visual discrepancy when you have this great, like, say, a magenta All-Star barrel, and you have this kind of, you know, gray translucent grip section. I thought this was an All-Star when I first saw it because it looks like it's an all-metal, and it has the copper-colored clip. I think it's just kind of they combined several of these pens into this pen, and they turned it into a Safari, which is my favorite, like, by a long shot. And I'm kind of into this, right? It's like a very modern-looking Safari instead of the traditional Safaris, where they've normally saved these colors and these ideas for the All-Star or, more specifically, the LX. So, this is more like an LX Safari, and I like it. I actually genuinely like this a lot. It's $40, so 5,500 yen. It's currently into $40, so is the current exchange rate. So, you know, it's a premium for a Safari, which are normally about $30, but, like, that seems right, right? I don't really see anything, you know, too out of line with that. And, yeah, I want to see someone get this in hand, Jacob, and take real pictures and see if this is more of a flat gray barrel. So, my opinion might change, right, if the real imagery of this is not as metallic-y looking.

Myke Hurley: That would be my question.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm not sure. But, you know, it's a limited edition, but it's also at the biggest stationer in Japan, so I imagine people can get them if they want them. Like, I'm not going to go run and hunt this down. Like, it's – I don't care that much, but it's an interesting design choice and something I haven't seen in the Safari lineup before. When over here we're getting, hey, let's redo the black clip and white barrel from the 90s and the navy blue barrel and red clip from the 90s. Here you go. We went back to Lamy Safari Originals. Yay. Enjoy. It's like, that's so boring. Like, come on. Like, this is not boring to me, even though it's still, like, a combination of several other products that they're already making in style-wise, like, in appearance. So, I'll be interested to see this one in person. So, I was exactly the same thoughts that you had about this. I was like, what is this? Like, this – okay. Like, is this not the Lamy LX? I was like, oh, okay. The more I looked into it, yeah, I'm in. Count me in on the Lamy Safari Atoya Copper 01. I want it.

Myke Hurley: All right, this episode is also brought to you by our friends over at Ooni Pizza Ovens, the world's number one pizza oven company. Ooni Pizza Ovens makes surprisingly small ovens powered by your choice of either wood, charcoal, or gas to let you make restaurant-quality pizza in your own backyard. That is because they can reach temperatures of up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit – 500 degrees Celsius. This lets you cook restaurant-quality pizza in as little as 60 seconds. This high temperature is what separates these ovens from those that you may find in a regular home. That's why you can get pizzas of this quality in this time. Ooni Pizza Ovens are really easy to use and incredibly portable. They'll fit into any outside space. They have a couple of really – they have a whole range of products, but two of their most popular is the Uni Coater 16, which can cook up to 16-inch pizzas with an innovative L-shaped burner at the back for even heat distribution, and the Uni Karu, which is multifueled, so you can choose wood, charcoal, or gas with this model. They start at just $299 of free shipping to the US, UK, and EU. And Ooni Pizza Ovens also make an awesome app so you can help perfect your dough recipe. They give you loads of pizza-making tips, and their store has all of the tools that you're going to need, from cutters to oven tables to an awesome thermometer that I know Brad enjoys, right? The laser thermometer. Is it pizza time at the Dowdy House?

Ooni Pizza Ovens and their 10th anniversary

Brad Dowdy: It's 1,000% pizza time. And first up, before I get into pizza time, 10 years of Uni. Can you believe that? Yes. That is so awesome. I just love them so much in seeing what they're making. But yes, it's, I mean, isn't it always pizza time?

Myke Hurley: Always pizza time. But you know, Brad, I'm really excited because we moved. Did I talk about this in this show? No. So we've moved. We were in an apartment before. We have a house now. We have a garden. And I've got to do some cleanup in the garden. But you know what's going in the garden, baby? Yeah, baby. One of these bad boys. I cannot wait. And I am going to eat pizza every day. Yeah. I can't wait.

Brad Dowdy: You really can. So here, uni tip. You can pre-make your dough, right? So, you know, a lot of times, you know, if you're getting into, like, a lot of times we've done unis for parties, right? Like, if we'll have people over, everyone gets to make their own pizzas. And then I just take them out one at a time, cook them in like, you know, 60 seconds and then bring them back in. And like, you can still all eat at the same time. But what we'll do ahead of time is like pre-make dough. So you can just pull it out anytime. Sometimes you can even freeze it if you're going to keep it for a long time. And that way you could literally have pizza every day because it doesn't take long for the uni pizza oven to heat up. You can have your dough already made. So all you got to do is throw on the toppings you want, you know, throw on your sauces, throw on your cheeses, throw on your veggies, throw on your meats, whatever. And you could literally have like a pizza in five minutes. You know, if you just have everything kind of prepped ahead of time, you could throw it together, pop it in the uni and you're good to go. And you have an awesome pizza. So yeah, it's great.

Myke Hurley: They make it. I just went on the website. They make a 16 inch version of the Caroonel, the multi-food one.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Interesting. Yep. Yep. So they're great. I obviously love them. The best. And yeah, they're really good. And 10 years. I'm still wrapping my head. 10 years as well. Huge, huge congratulations. They are. If you're not on the uni bandwagon now that I feel like there, it's been 10 years, but they're just getting started. They are just blowing up. And I really, really appreciate their, their longtime support of this show.

Myke Hurley: Listeners of this show can get 10% off their purchase of an uni pizza oven, which you could save, for example, in the uni code of 16 up to $50. Just go to OONI.com and use the code ADDICT2022 at checkout. When you're there, you'll also find a great range of accessories as well, as I mentioned. These things are always popular, especially around the holidays. People are buying them as gifts. So if you want one, go now. OONI.com and use the code ADDICT2022 for 10% off. OONI pizza ovens are the best way to bring restaurant quality pizza to your own backyard. Thanks to OONI pizza ovens for their support of this show and Relay FM.

Restock of Spoke pens and manufacturing updates

Brad Dowdy: Restock alert. Restock alert. We have, we have, pew, pew, pew. We have new spoke pins in stock, which has been a long time coming, Myke. So the spoke pin was my initial collaboration with Brian at Spoke Design to get a barrel for my beloved Unisigno DX refill. And we did a whole Kickstarter campaign. You know, we've had them, you know, in, in the intervening years since the Kickstarter are in stock and we had been out of stock mostly for a while because we had been tweaking the design a little bit. Like it's a very small minor tweaks, but we have a bunch of new, new models in of the spoke pin too. So it's essentially the same general idea still holds the Unisigno DX refill. But as a few design tweaks, we added in like a really bright, fiery orange color, anization color called Lava, which is a knockout. So these are in stock as of yesterday. So a couple of little feature changes. The grip is a little bit more defined, like the ridges in the grip are a little bit more defined. There's also a slight taper at the end of the grip. It helps us with assembly. So you see like a little barrel highlight in the middle of the pin now where the cap slides onto the, the edge of the grip section and just a little different finial shape and design on the top and the bottom of the pin and a slightly shorter clip on there. So if you put them side by side, the differences are clear, you know, but from far away, it was like, it's pretty, you know, it's just the updated version of the spoke pin to, as we keep manufacturing products, we keep wanting manufacturing and design them better. Right. So we kind of tweak things a little bit to help with either assembly or functionality or durability and things like that. So, yeah, we have, have these up now. They've been a long time coming, right? So they've been a long time coming. So I wanted to let everyone know that these are out now and available. And this is, this is the group of colors we have now. We'll probably have some more colors next year. And we have a lot of other things in the pipeline, Myke. So finally ramping things up and spoke, you know, how manufacturing goes, Myke. Manufacturing is hard, but we're, we're dialed in right now with the two of our most popular products. The model for pencil and the spoke pin are, are fully formed and in stock. And then, you know, we'll have some, some roadie information coming soon. And then hopefully some new shapes and designs coming in 2023. So yeah, things are going good over on the spoke front. So I wanted to mention that.

Myke Hurley: They look great. I love the colorways.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they're really good. Really good. So I have to figure out which one I'm going to steal. I haven't stolen one yet. So I'm always good for, you know, it's really hard having all this inventory laying around and, you know, not wanting one of each. So I, I limit myself to one. So I'm pretty sure it's going to have to be the orange because we've never had that color before.

Myke Hurley: It's called Spidey, but it's also could be cap, you know, you could cap it. Yep. All kinds. I know.

Brad Dowdy: So we've done some of the icon fountain pens. You can make it into an Iron Man version with the brass parts that we have to it. And I've done some of those before. So, but yeah, I have to limit myself. So I got to pick one. So I'm probably going to go with orange this time because I've, I've used different, different ones before. So yeah, we'll see. We'll see. I'll decide today because I have to go ship a bunch of them since we launched them yesterday.

Myke Hurley: How are things going in general at Spoke? Good?

Brad Dowdy: Now that we have inventory. Yeah. Right. Like I love the product so much. So here's, here's the little, the little inside thing of how I operate. And if y'all have seen me on Twitch or, or no, I mean, I've done a podcast about pens 542 times chat. So like, this is, you know, I'm talking not like Twitch now. Um, I love pens and pencils. So the little things, even though like I'm part of this company and I get all the early looks and you know, I'll go through all the design process and you know, all the picking of things. When the final product lands on my desk and I open the box and I just chuckle, like that's how much I love these products. Good. And you know, like it sounds fake and phony, but like, this is like what I do for a reason because I love this stuff. Right. And I'm just like, so happy with the style and quality and design. Like I, I just, I love this stuff. Like I, you know, it's, it's, it's weird to say because I'm part of the company, but it just makes me smile. This stuff's going, stuff looks great. All the pens and pencils look fantastic. And we're both excited, Brian and I to do more next year. It was a pretty slow year overall for us just on the manufacturing side is slow. Yeah. Um, so if we can, um, work on that a little bit next year, just to be more consistent. Right. So hopefully we'll be more consistent next year throughout the year, instead of having these like peaks and valleys. So that's on the business side of things that that was the only issue with 2022. The product is excellent. The management of making things is always up and down. And, uh, if you can ever like be really consistent on that, you'll, you'll, you'll do super well. So that's our goal for next year.

Myke Hurley: To be more consistent. Yep.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Well, I hope it works out. I mean, I, I can tell you 2021, 2022, even very difficult for me for manufacturing too. Absolutely. It's just like a long running trickle effect of stuff, right? Like exactly. And just as we said before, like trying to find resources is difficult. Trying to find them at a decent price seems even more difficult. Um, right. So had the spoke pen been out of stock for a while then? Like the. Oh yeah, definitely.

Brad Dowdy: Definitely.

Myke Hurley: I didn't.

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely. It's been out of stock for a long time, like six or eight months, like really long. And like you're saying, like just about manufacturing, like it's never one single devastating thing. It's death by a thousand paper cuts. Yes. In manufacturing. Right.

Myke Hurley: Because it's like, it's constantly like, oh, this thing's going to take a week longer. Oh, this is now going to be next week. This is going to be two weeks. And like, well, over months you just accumulate months more. Like it just seems to go on forever.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So good times. Good times. So 2023, the plan is consistency. All right. So we'll, we'll see how it goes. We'll check in at this point next year. It would be our theme spoke theme next year.

Myke Hurley: You know what? You could track that in.

Brad Dowdy: What do you got Myke for me?

Myke Hurley: Theme system journal.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, boy.

Myke Hurley: It's the time we just, uh, probably. Oh, it's out of stock as well. Not the journal. We just did a special Mark one. We did a blue. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Did you see that? It's a really great color.

Myke Hurley: We only had like a hundred of them. Um, cause it was a test like to see what, what did, what did we think of it and what people like it? It looks like people liked it. Uh, especially because, so we did a thing with, with, with, uh, with Cotton Bureau where people can put their email address in right for when a product restocks. And so people will put in their email address in for the Mark one, but we didn't send out the email when we put out the blue one because it wasn't what people were asking for. If you know what I mean? Right. Like they were putting their email in for the black one. Um, and then, so I figured we have more black ones on the way. Uh, hopefully somebody end of the year or it'll be early next year. So I figured we'll just wait and send that out then. But I put out the blue one and I put it on Instagram and we sold out them already like in a couple of days. So now I know we will do more of the blue ones too. So hopefully we'll be able to try and get two of them in stock with, I think we'll probably keep doing it in waves. Um, but yeah, I like that. But anyway, you can go get a journal. Uh, we've got tons of these things now, which is good. Uh, that's kind of the plan. I think we pretty much, unless something wild happens, which I'm not expecting, I feel like I've gotten the stock like stuff pretty set for the journal now. Um, but you can go buy one, you can subscribe and, and, and you can go buy one for yourself right now if you want to. Would appreciate it. Uh, it is around that time. The yearly themes episode of Cortex will be out real soon too. If you want to learn more about, uh, what yearly themes are and why you should have one. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And we'll talk about, um, our planning and even though I've talked about some of that back in September when all the new 2023 stuff comes out, we'll talk about, um, after your episode comes out of Cortex. So either at the end of this year or early in January, we'll talk about like our stationary usage and how we're using things in relation to things like themes and planning and journaling for 2023. So we'll definitely recap and revisit that.

Myke Hurley: Good reminder before I wrap up today. Just, just a scheduling note. So next week's episode is Brad and a guest. Do you want to tell you who the guest is?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it is Myke Rohde of sketchnoting fame. Also our very first interview ever on the Panatic podcast, episode 17, Myke. So over 500 episodes ago, 10 years, 10 years later, Myke Rohde is still a sketch. Etch noting machine. So we had, I had Myke on, uh, we recorded our conversation yesterday. It is in the can as they say. So that'll be, uh, next week's episode on the 14th, uh, that will launch. And then, uh, what do we got after that?

Myke Hurley: So we're taking the week, uh, the 21st, we're going to be off, um, taking a week off for the holidays, which we used to do every year, but didn't do last year. So we could match up episode 500 of our 10 year anniversary. Uh, and then, so me and Brad will be back with a regular episode on the 28th of December.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yep. So, uh, just one week off in your podcast feeds, you know, I'll have a great conversation with Myke Rohde next week and y'all should definitely, uh, I know y'all will enjoy that. Y'all, uh, I know a lot of y'all are, are sketchnote fans. So, uh, that'll be great to revisit the, the past decade with Myke. And then, uh, this Myke and I will be back in a couple of weeks after that and, uh, get everything set for 2023. I think it's going to be a big year, Myke. I'm looking forward to it.

Myke Hurley: Me too. Thank you to StoryWise, Squarespace, and Ooni Pizza Ovens for their support of the show. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com, twitch.tv slash penaddict, where Brad streams three times a week now.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yeah. Uh, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

Myke Hurley: 10 a.m. Eastern-ish most days.

Brad Dowdy: 10 a.m. Eastern-ish. Correct.

Myke Hurley: Uh, he is penaddict on Instagram and dowdyism on Twitter. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E. Please go to cortexmerch.com and check out our wares by Sofa Theme System Journal. We'll be back, uh, later. But the show will be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.