The Pen Addict 496/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	496
Title:	Pen TMZ
Release Date:	January 12th, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 496
Audio File:	Audio Episode 496
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 496
Length:	5151 min <br />0.85 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 496. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad. Hey, Myke. How's it going? Good, my friend. How are you?

Brad Dowdy: I'm very good, I think. You know, I always say that. I was like, I know Myke's going to ask me how I'm doing. I'm always going to say very good. But am I? Am I really? And actually, yes, I am. I'm very good. So, hey, it's good to be very good every Wednesday to record this show. Myke, only four episodes until episode 500.

Myke Hurley: Don't mention it.

Reset Theme

Brad Dowdy: As listeners can tell, we have completely not thought about episode 500. Y'all should be set up to be let down.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think.

Myke Hurley: Look, I was thinking about this earlier. I give up, yeah. I was thinking about this earlier. Here's what we'll promise you. That we'll do it. That's the promise. The promise is we will be recording episode 500 on February 9th. That's the promise, right? That's all we have committed to. And it has taken, at points in the last couple of months, a lot of work to keep that commitment.

Myke Hurley: But that's the commitment we're making. Outside of that, we make no promises for what that episode's going to be.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, there you go. That's the best we can do. When in Rome, we'll promise. We'll promise something. All right. We had some really good follow-up this week that I wanted to get to. First bit around my theme, where last week I talked about my theme for the year being the year of the reboot. But I also mentioned that I had real trouble if that word is the word that I want to use to define my theme. And emailer Kelly sent me an email who said, I think the word you're looking for is reset, right? Because the reboot can be this big, broad thing. And I'm wanting that transition reset as I move from task to task to be able to flip this switch, kind of move into work to play or play to relaxation or relaxation to work. Like, you know, it's a reset, you know, not really a reboot. That seems that's a little bit bigger of a word. And reset, I think, is a more accurate word for like what I'm thinking about in like a little bit of a shift. What do you think about that word?

Myke Hurley: Reset's good. I still want to, I think I pushed it last time and I'll push again, foundation. It's a really good theme name that I wished I would have used that name for my theme because it was quite similar to yours in a way last year. Yes. Yeah. And I used the year of reinvention, which is not too far away from what you're saying. And in doing the review, came across foundation and realized that I liked that way more. So both of these work, ultimately, you've got to go with what feels right for you. Right. What, you know, like what makes sense to you on a poster, you know, like of your life kind of thing.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. So Kelly had a couple of good points in the email. One was like consider creating a ritual between, you know, in that, you know, reset phase. Right. What is the ritual between, okay, work is done for the day and now I'm free. Like my brain is free. My mind is free. But like, is there something that's like a marker, right? That ritual. Right. And then secondly, I've had this before or had these thoughts before about the racing brain, right? Like the brain just constantly going as making just like a trash notebook, essentially. Right. Like just a complete garbage notebook that you can just like literally scribble in. And I mean that in the most, you know, exact sense of the word, like just grab the notebook and just draw a bunch of lines, scribble, you know, whatever comes out, comes out. And that notebook is for that just trying to, you know, rewire your brain for a second, you know, whether it's, you know, in the middle of the day or in the evening. And, you know, just try to try to escape for a second, but have like a kind of a no commitment notebook type of situation that just gets purely destroyed and, you know, tossed when you're done with it. So I thought that was some good stuff.

Foundation Discussion

Myke Hurley: I was thinking maybe habit could also be an interest.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I hate that word. Right. But that's an entire other podcast. Like I don't hate that word. Like I get the word, but like it's got some of the like hashtag productivity connotations that I. Yeah. I just can't. I can't. It's the whole thing. Which is good. Like I've tracked. I track a lot of things. Right. But like the the recurring scheduling habit and stuff, it's just the whole whole thing for me. So I like I'm like I believe in habits, but I don't like go like full like habit habit days. Yeah. In the way that I do things. It's never really worked for me in the full sense of the words. But I do know that that's a very it's a very positive term. But like I just I don't do good with it.

Myke Hurley: OK.

Brad Dowdy: Just me. Just me. So I like reset. I'm going to look at I wrote down foundation. I'll think about this a little bit more. But I'm still the whole point of this is like this is a process. Right. Like today we don't solve the reset. Right. But we think about it and we work on it, you know, for the rest of the year and the years to come. Right. That's that's what this is about. So I appreciate the feedback, Kelly, and I think it was very, very smart. And I like it a lot. Second bit of feedback, Myke, from another smart listener by the name of CY from our friends over at Tokyo Inklings reached out about the Sailor Bespoke conversation we were having. Yeah. And he let me know. And I think you were copied in these tweets that this is actually what we were talking about. The website, the Sailor Bespoke website was the Sailor customization that you could physically do at the Ancora shop that CY had talked about going in and doing. So this is the next phase in that original customization and building. I like to build a pin or build a gear. Right. The build a pro gear at the physical shop. This is now the online version of that. And like I asked, like, where are these pins being built and CY confirmed that they're actually built at the factory. You know, you order on site, you order through the website, factory build, like all the parts are made. It's just an assembly type of thing. And that's how they'll be able to like shift in like, hey, this is this limited edition barrel type of type of thing. He also mentioned that I forgot to mention that the Naginata nibs are available as an option on these, which is a big deal. And I saw that before and it was in my notes and I forgot to mention it. So that's one of the Sailor Bespoke nibs that they're offering with this. Obviously a premium price on that. And I couldn't get that exact premium off the website. I'm a several hundred dollars premium. But what's good about that is for someone like myself who actually has always wanted one of those nibs. The only option for me to easily get in the States was that nib in a standard black pin with gold trim. Right. Right. So which has never been something that I'm interested in for that pin. So I would hold off. And now I can look at that nib. Still just a gold plated nib. Right. The other 21 carat Pro Gear nibs for this bespoke thing you can get in the rhodium plated or the ionized plating. But I can get the Naginata nib at least in a cool barrel that speaks to me a little bit more than the basic barrel that it ships in for now. I think the model, if you get the Naginata nib and just the basic black and gold barrel, I think it's around $600 US, somewhere in that ballpark. So I imagine there'll be a little bit more in that custom thing. And I don't know that that's ever going to be something like totally worth it for me. But that is pretty cool. I think that Sailor is doing that as an option to have that specialty aspect into this.

Myke Hurley: Yep. And hopefully we get them one day. I did have a vague memory when we were talking about this last week, feeling like we'd spoken about it before. But what we had spoken about before was that store thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And the thing we mentioned, I mentioned last week, like the website, when you go to the Sailor Bespoke website, the shop link is to the Ankora store. Yeah. Right. Like it's not just like to Sailor's main website. It's to Ankora itself. So anyway, this is cool. Like if they keep working on this and building on this, like, and I feel like the price is right for it. I think it could be a thing. You know, it might be something. I don't know if we'll ever, like, you know, if they'll be able to like ship to the US type of thing, like a worldwide type of thing. But it's fun to watch and see what happens here. So I think it's pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: Maybe. Maybe.

Sailor Cocktail Series Launch

Brad Dowdy: And since we've been missing out on so much Sailor news, Myke, I thought we'd talk about a new Sailor launch real quick. Yeah. One that you might be interested in.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Things have changed. But the Sailor cocktail series has always been a real popular series. The first series was, what, 12, 15 pins? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I've never owned one of these. I've never had one. I've never got one of the cocktail ones.

Brad Dowdy: I have never owned a cocktail one either. And now they have cocktail series two. So this is five pins based on gin drinks. So I don't know what most of these drinks are outside of the gin martini. There's an Argentina, a Blue Train, a Violet Fizz, and around the world. Yeah. Great looking pins.

Myke Hurley: Let me tell you right now. What do you think? This set, I think, includes the very best cocktail-themed pro gear they've ever made. Can you guess which one I'm talking about? I think the gin martini. It is absolutely perfect. I agree. It is. The main body of the pen is like frosted clear, like the alcohol. Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And the grip section and the end finial are olive green. And the end finial on the cap is the, what is it that is inside of the olive, the little red thing? The pit. The pit. Yeah. It's the color of the, no, like, you know when they, you know when you get an olive and they put that red part in the middle, like, they hole it out and they put it in there and oh, man, what is that called?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I don't know. I'm not an olive or a martini person, so. It's, oh.

Myke Hurley: I don't know if it's a pepper. Is it not like a.

Brad Dowdy: I always thought it was the pit. Pimento.

Myke Hurley: I think that's it. Yeah. I think that's the word I'm looking for. But it's pimento, the pepper, whatever it is that goes inside. But it's the red.

Brad Dowdy: It's like that visual that everyone knows. Pimento was what I wanted to say. Yeah. So it's that color.

Myke Hurley: It's, it's just absolutely perfect. It's really, really fantastic.

Brad Dowdy: Right? Like, it's, it's the least, like, visually stunning, right? When you're sitting next to, like, orange pens and mint green pens and purple and blue. But it's the most accurate, correct representation of an idea.

Vodka Martini Pens

Myke Hurley: It's also, like, if you like vodka martinis, this is, it's the exact same color palette, right? Like, it would work just as well. Yeah. I think this absolutely, they nailed it with that one. The rest of them, I mean, they just look fun, right? Color-wise?

Brad Dowdy: They look like they've done, yeah, they look like they've done them before. Especially the orange. Like, they've done a lot of orange. I think the blue train is actually one of the more interesting ones. They've done a lot of blue pens, but not in this type of setup. Yeah. The purple and the green are, you know, pretty common types of mix and match colors that they use a lot of. But yeah, I think it's cool. Like, all these are the standard Pro Gears, the 21, 21 karat gold nibs, you know, the full-size Pro Gear. They're all at the new price point, you know, which makes them probably like around $380 US.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, if you've got, you can buy, so Fontaplumo, the link for Fontaplumo in the show notes, they've got them all up here. You can buy it all five at once. You can buy a set, yeah. And it's 16, oh, that's not including VAT. Ah, you see, that's how they get you. So they're like, yeah, $390 each. You don't get any, if you buy the whole thing, they're $390 each. So it's like €1950 including VAT. So you do not really get savings for buying all five at once. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I think these will be popular. This is also an international release, which means not available in Japan, I believe is how they define international. But, so this will be a worldwide release if you're interested in these types of pins. You know, you should be able to, you should be able to acquire one.

Myke Hurley: And these are regular size Pro Gear?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the full, the big size Pro Gear.

Myke Hurley: Ah, $400, man.

Brad Dowdy: We're going to talk about that in a minute with our wonderful show sponsor. I actually have a tip, a pro tip. I love pro tips. When we get into our good friends at Penchelle, let's talk about them.

Myke Hurley: Penchelle sell everything you're looking for from all of the brands that you love. Whether you want a rollerball or a fountain pen, maybe you want something from Sailor, maybe you want something from Caveco or Monteverde. They've got everything. They do very fast and reliable customer service. Penchelle have fantastic deals. And every couple of weeks, you're going to find new fantastic sale prices over at Penchelle, as well as brand new products being added all the time. Penchelle also has limited edition products and accessories. So whether you're looking for refills, inks, converters, maybe you want some carrying cases, maybe you want some mechanical pencils or, you know, like whatever you're looking for, Penchelle will have it. And there's a few reasons why you should always go there first. You can get free shipping on orders of $50 in the US. They sell internationally with great shipping rates. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. And because you listen to the show, you can get 10% off anything at Penchelle by going to Penchelle.com, clicking the podcast link at the top of the website, and using the password Penaddict. This is where you will get your 10% code, and you'll be able to feast your eyes on some special offers. Isn't that right, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: It is. And this actually has something on the list that I've been shopping for, which is the new Montegrappa Elmo 02 fountain pen. I've talked about how much I love the Montegrappa Elmo. I'm guessing I'm going to call it the 01 now. So this one is a little bit upgraded in like the trim design of the pen.

Myke Hurley: Do you think, Brad, that this pen has a problem with Rocco?

Myke Hurley: That's cool. That's, you know what I was hoping that was going to happen? I like you there.

Brad Dowdy: I like you, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Has that gone over your head or did you get it?

Brad Dowdy: I mean, I kind of get it. Like, I'm just trying to think of Elmo's pink friend. What's her name? Katie. Katie. Yeah. That's all I'm thinking about. But yes, I get it. Good memes.

Myke Hurley: I enjoyed that one a lot. I'll put a link in the show if you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about.

Brad Dowdy: Good job by you. So, yeah, Zoe. That's who I'm thinking of. Zoe. That's who I'm thinking of. Maybe that's like an American British translation thing. I don't know. Anyway. Oh, Zoe.

Myke Hurley: No, I just got that wrong. Zoe, not Katie.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, Zoe. There's also, I'm kind of shocked to see this Visconti opera carousel. These demonstrator ballpoints at a really, really outrageously low price. Like, that's not normally my thing, right? That style. And I know you're not a Visconti clip person, but the price is pretty, pretty great. They also have the Piniter Alchemist, which I think is a killer name for a pin. I think it's a cool color. Yeah, I don't have one of those. So, yeah. And then if you scroll down to the bottom, there's a Platinum 3776. They have a few of the celluloid models, Myke, which people have been checking out in the past.

Myke Hurley: Let me tell you, one of the ones that they've got there is the Cherry Blossom. Yes. It's great. And Adina has that one, and it's awesome.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. All right. So, let me get to you. Before we wrap up this ad, since this is still considered the ad, let me get to this. It's not a tip. It's more of a confusion in a positive way for consumers. So, the Sailor Pro Gear Limited Edition T-Time Series, the red one in the slim body is only $200. And they just came out with this pin. I don't know why the price is not $280, since this is a newly launched pin. It's, if you're into sailors and haven't been able to, you know, justify the price since the price increase, this is a brand new launch, like, within the past month. And the price is crazy low for the red T-Time Series. So, it's, you should check it out. Like, there's not many left. Oh, look at that. But it's only $200, so. It's nice looking, too. Yeah. It's great. It's a great pin. And it's as good a price as you're going to find sailor these days. And you can get it through our good buddies over at Penn Chalet. So, yeah. All right. There's my sailor tip.

Myke Hurley: Good one. Go to PennChalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, and use the password PennAddict by clicking the link for podcasts at the top of the website. Thanks to Penn Chalet for the continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Listener Email Segment

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke. A little different segment this week. We get into this, I don't know, a couple times a year, we kind of do, like, a behind-the-scenes business of podcasting, blogging, you know, business of pens type of stuff. And people always enjoy this stuff. And we got a couple of good questions in the email inbox this week that I wanted to kind of roll together and talk about this in one big segment. So, how about I read this email? Read this email. You want to read it.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Let me read this email. All right. I'll let you read the next one. It's pretty short. This email is pretty short, but it covers a, I have a lot to say about this. So, it says, hi, Brad. Always interested in the podcast and yours and Myke's thoughts. But here's the thing, and it's come up before, and I've never bothered to comment, but why not? So, you made an obverse, oh, this is like last week. See, this is why I should read it. I wouldn't have struggled with the word observation. So, you made an observation about the similarity of the Mayora and Leonardo pens and noted their roots in Delta. You noted that Mayora had bought the Delta name in their leftover stock. But why not go the step further and reach out to the distributors and ask what's up? We are all great admirers of Tokyo Inklings. What distinguishes their podcast is the element of investigative journalism. What happened to Tomoe River? What's happening with the newly reformulated sailor company? What's going on in Ankora? And so on. So, reading Japanese is one thing, but you could reach out as the major authority, this is in all caps, on pens, and ask the distributors at least what's up. Just pointing out the similarities is good, but as our representative, as our journalist, couldn't you use your clout and ask around a little?

Myke Hurley: So, Brad Dowdy asleep at the wheel here.

Brad Dowdy: So, I appreciated this email, and I asked Nick if I could share it on the podcast. That's who sent me the email. And I said, I think this is a good podcast topic. We can address what I think about as I do my job, right? Like, what do I think about, you know, digging into things a little bit more, being an investigative journalist, and asking the tough questions, the hard-hitting questions, right? And putting on my journalist hat and going for it. So, there's a lot I have to say about this. And the first part of it comes up is, what are my goals with what I do, right? So, what are my goals of the Pen Addict, the Pen Addict Podcast, talking about stationery, and, you know, this whole business that I'm in. And while, yeah, I am, you know, one of the authorities. God, I hate that word. You know I don't like that. What did we decide I was? Tastemaker? That was the word. Yeah, tastemaker. The things that get me going about what I do are education, entertainment, and fun, right? And when you start getting into being a journalist, which I'm not, being a newsbreaker, which I'm not, it stops being fun for me, right? Like, I've done those things before where I've tried to, like, sort out, like, the dealings and the backends and figuring out all those things. And I get why people like that type of information and that type of, you know, a lot of it's gossipy, right? I just don't think it's valuable to me to spend time on. I don't think it's worth the drama that comes up from this. I understand that we're dealing with pens here, right? We're not dealing with climate change, right? Like, I'm not trying to dig up, like, all of the business details, right? So, do I passively not ask some of these questions? Sometimes, but sometimes I do ask the questions. So, let's talk about the Delta conversation from last week.

Myke Hurley: Wait, can I, before we do?

Brad Dowdy: Please, please, please, please.

Myke Hurley: So, like, I, this, you know, if someone could ask me this question similarly for all of the shows that I do in general. Like, all of the shows I do about Apple and stuff like this. Like, I consider myself, like, sitting in a few different camps of, like, pundit, communicator, and commentator. I am not a journalist. Right. And I have no desire to be a journalist. I do not reach out for comment to come to any tech company. Neither do I entertain it, right? Right. Like, I don't want a PR person blowing up my inbox to try and suggest to me why they're doing the thing the way that they're doing it. Because, by and large, because, look, this is the thing of, well, right, like, companies are only ever going to tell you what they want you to know. Yep. And so, asking for comment all the time constantly is kind of pointless. I feel like there is more interest in us just talking about how something makes us feel and what we think might be going on inside. Like, we can pontificate what's going on inside. And, like, every now and then, it's like on one of my other shows, you know, some of my tech shows, I get to talk to people that work at Apple. And that can be interesting for sure, right? And, like, from the way that we like to approach it, we try and just have conversations rather than, like, why don't you come on and give us a keynote? But, you know, it's like, I don't know. I feel like that there is more to be said from an entertainment perspective from the two of us talking about what we think and how things make us feel than there is really trying to, like, hunt down the answers. And, like, I'm not saying that it's wrong, right, to suggest what was the name of the person you didn't put in the document? The name of the one? Oh, Nick. Nick. Like, I'm not saying that what Nick might want here is wrong, but it's a different kind of thing. Correct. So. Yep. I'm happy. Like, we're happy that Tokyo Inklings exists because every now and then they uncover a thing that we want to talk about. That's exactly right. But I don't want to be the person chasing down Lamy's PR person to try and understand where their colors are this year, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. So, yeah, I think the commentator name is kind of what I landed on as well. I'm not a journalist. I'm not an analyst, right? Like, I'm a commentator about this. So, the Delta thing specifically, before I run back some of the things you just said, because I want to expand on them a little bit more on where I do get information from.

Brad Dowdy: The night after we posted the Delta, last week's podcast, I got a text and said, hey, I have all the Delta information you want. Here it is. And told me all the information.

Myke Hurley: Did you speak to Deep Throat?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Down in the car park?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and it's all told to me in confidence, right? So, like, it's no longer, it's not going to be a topic on the show. Like, I'm not going to repeat what was told to me in confidence.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, just because I don't talk about the questions doesn't mean I don't have the answers either, right? So, I'm not going to share all the information I have, again, because it goes back to what do I enjoy doing? And it's not getting into the weeds of the...

Myke Hurley: Well, I mean, frankly, you have the information. You could now share that information. Right. Confidence is nothing if you are that type of journalist. Right. Like, you know, if you feel like there's a story to be told, you can tell the story, right? Right. Right.

Brad Dowdy: But I have, like, literally no interest in repeating anything about that conversation. So, Nick mentions about Tokyo Inklings. We obviously love CY and Jacob. We had great follow-up from just the conversation a minute ago, right? That, like, they're, like, really, really good friends. And they have a really, really good relationship with a lot of manufacturers over there or a lot of people in the businesses over there. So, I wanted to discuss, like, where I do get information from. So, like Nick mentions, you know, maybe ask the distributors at least what's up. The distributor is the last person you want to talk to. The distributors are some of my best friends in the U.S. All my distributor friends are going to listen to this. I'm not talking about you specifically, but I'm talking about your job. Your job is to be the PR arm for the companies you represent. So, there will never be any information I get from a distributor that's not, that doesn't have a public relations spin that I can repeat. Sure, I will get stuff, again, in confidence. That is not something I'll ever repeat. And I've never, you know, I've never gone back on my word with anyone that I've ever talked to about business stuff. They told me I can't repeat it or this is, you know, on background. Like, it stays there, right? I'm not in the business of reporting that information. Companies would be nice to talk to. But, again, like Myke's deal, the bigger the company, the more impenetrable they are, right? Like, you're only going to get, you're going to get, if it's a big company, you're going to get talked to my distributor. And, well, that's a no-go because the distributor is only going to give me the PR version of what I want to know. And small companies are willing to talk because they have a more direct relationship to the customer, which gets us to the retailers. That's where we get the most information from. Because the retailers, their number one priority is to take care of their customers. And if they have information that needs to be available for their customers, they're going to do their best to share that. So I get most of my, like, inside info from retailers. And the same thing goes, I think, for, like, CY was able to go to Ancora, work with the salespeople there, and figure out what's going on, right? The retailers are willing to share kind of the ins and outs of what's going on. And, you know, nothing from Sailor Corporate's coming down about this, right? You know, Tomoagawa is a public company. Jacob's able to get the paperwork dealings. And the sailors, a public company, get the paperwork dealings and figure out what's going on business-wise there, right? That's really, really valuable information, and I'm glad they get it. But if I'm going to go to someone, I'm going to retailers. Those are the people on my speed dial for, let's say, the dirt, right? Not stuff that I need to share, but, like, hey, if I really need this information, and I think it's really, then I'm not going to get it from a distributor or from a company. I'm going to ask a retailer because they're going to know a lot. So that's kind of how my, you know, if I need to find out information, that's how things work. Because you have to realize when you're dealing with a company or a distributor or a retailer what their endgame is, right? And a distributor's endgame is to sell as much of their companies, the companies they represent's product. So what are you really going to get from them, right? Nothing bad, right? Even if something's going wrong, like Platinum Curidos, you know, this is no knock on luxury brands, but when we had a problem with the Platinum Curidos, when it came out, it was impossible to get information, right? I'm asking luxury brands. Luxury brands is going back to Platinum. They're telling me Platinum's not telling them anything. What am I supposed to do, right? So, and no one wants to have any negative publicity, so you end up getting nothing. We pretty much got nothing out of all that until it was just like, hey, we'll replace any crack feeds through your retailer. So, again, I get through retailers to get that information. So, I think about all this stuff. This is why this was an awesome email from Nick. And I love this email. But it's so complex to say, to take, why don't you just ask them into what the reality of the situation is, one. And the desire for me to spend my time doing that, too, right? So, it's almost nothing good ever comes out of spending all of that time doing that. Nothing positive will come out of the amount of time. It's just not the right balance to really dig into that stuff for me. And then that's why I'm lucky we have people who do do that, right? So, we can just comment on the things. So, there you go. I think I covered what I wanted to say. But, yeah, like it's super interesting. Like we all want to know. We all want to know like the gossip, right? We all want to be the pen TMZ, right? Ooh, drama. And it's just like I used to get involved in that. And I've had my regrets and made some mistakes back in the day of just like leaning into the drama. And I just don't do that anymore. It doesn't do it for me. I'd rather just help people on their pen journeys. And if we can figure out other things about how the business side of things work, we'll share them. But like I'm never going to go like full journalist mode and nail some of this stuff down. It's just not in my best interest.

Myke Hurley: The next question came from, I don't know. You also haven't put this person's name. Oh, I'm sorry.

Brad Dowdy: This is from Carol. So, I told her I would answer this on the show as well. Carol has two questions. And this is kind of related but a little bit different.

Myke Hurley: One, have you, this is to both of us, but have you ever found a brand or item that you first reviewed and used only to find months or years later it was worse or better than you originally thought? If so, do you hand or have a way of communicating this?

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, I'm trying to think if I've had a product that I was really, really happy with in the beginning for even a lengthy period of time and then something changed. I couldn't really come up with one. But I would 100% communicate it, right? Like these are living, you know, items that get used. So, right when you're dealing with products, like things change over time to where the story is different from at day 100 than it is on day one. It's hard. Like I can update a blog post all I want, but that only kind of helps for like future like searches on the blog post. I would rather just talk about it here on the podcast. I don't know that we've ever like. Well, I think. Okay.

Myke Hurley: The easiest way I can answer this is kind of, but it's slow. Like I can't think of any product that I've used where like all of a sudden, maybe, but for me, all of a sudden my opinions changed. My opinion changes over time. And I talk about that. Like when I first got a vanishing point, it was like, oh, this is incredible. I love it. And then the more I used it, I was like, actually, this is uncomfortable for me. And then I followed that through on the show over time. Right. It's like this originally blew me away. But then I started to find other stuff that I liked as much, if not more, and then realized that like it isn't a comfortable experience. So like that's kind of like for me, it goes more slowly. I can't think of a time where I've had something where I've like done a big 180 on it all of a sudden.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I found, I have one. Do you remember my Optima that was in the Shoptima? Yep. So what happened with my Aurora Optima clear demonstrator is it snapped in the middle, right? There was a weak point in the barrel to where one day it just snapped. And this was an expensive pen. It was a pen I wanted very, very badly. And I ended up having to send it back, you know, basically did like a warranty claim on that. And I got it back. And like it's fine now, but it's never been fine in my head to where I'm comfortable with it. As much as I loved it in the beginning, I now like it less and rarely use it because I went through this whole experience of it. Now, I have a different Optima that I use, the gray one that we got at Fountain Pen Hospital. I use that one all the time, but I never use my demonstrator Optima just because it has like this cloud over it. So I talked about that here on the show, right? Like how this was a problem that some of the Optimas had that I found out after the fact that, yeah, this is something they'll fix and replace. But it doesn't mean it's not annoying. And it changed my opinion of that pen, even though I use a similar model for that. But yeah, so we communicate that on the podcast is the easiest way for me. But, you know, that's just a little bit lucky that we have this outlet to share those. Because if I had a blog post and then updated the blog post, who's actually going to really see that unless I like resurface it to the top?

Myke Hurley: So, yeah. Okay. And then there's the second question. Have you ever been so taken or so repelled by a brand or item that you find that you're not balanced enough to provide a fair assessment? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I've talked about this one a lot. The Vinvestis pen that I received early on, like right after their Kickstarter, is I think one of the only pens I've ever received. Tested it out and sent it right back saying, I can't use this. Like there was nothing good is going to come out of me just eviscerating this pen in a review. So please, here, have it back. So, yeah, I've talked about that. They've changed owners like three times now. The previous owner would basically like verbally attack people who reviewed the pen badly like in mails and direct messages. And I've seen copies of these things. Again, it goes back to the previous thing. It's like I see all these things. But it's like I don't really need the drama to like have a spend a whole episode going through like back channel Vinvestis emails. Right. But now they have a new owner. So, like that's done. But it's still the same pen. And so, like, I just don't have any. They've changed the pen. They've made a bunch of modifications. They're actually getting some more positive reviews. But, like, I just have zero desire to to mess with that again. You know, it's just kind of one of those. Like, I'll give products a second chance plenty of times. But there are cases that I won't as well.

Myke Hurley: Well, I have an example for you, too. Estabrook.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Which one?

Myke Hurley: Well, Lincoln, you didn't talk about the company for a while.

Estabrook Controversy

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. Sure. Right. Oh, yeah. So, the Robert Rosenberg period of Estabrook. They were banned from the show.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because there was some issues.

Brad Dowdy: And Kenro, as a distributor, was banned from reviews. And I told them. Like, I just straight up told them. Like, but I don't sit here. And, you know, we're not going to sit here and just, like, discuss that every podcast. Right? You know. But there was a time where I would not work with Kenro. And they know this. This is not a secret. And this is not, you know, not public information. But it was like, while this man is an employee, I'm not going to review Kenro products. And he was gone. And we just, we turned the faucet back on again. And they respect, they respect why I like. So, when you work with a distributor, even though, like, it's the PR arm, they understand where people like myself, good distributors understand where someone like myself who reviews products has an opinion, takes a stand, and they respect that. I could not respect them anymore for listening to me and going, Brad, we get it. And we'll talk to you soon. Yep. Like, it's one of the best outcomes I could hope for. You know? And, you know, as soon as the situation was taken care of, we had an email, we had a phone call, we turned the faucet back on, and everything's good to go. Like, it's this mutual respect that we have for working with each other.

Myke Hurley: Yep. And again, like, on a similar note for me personally, like, again, this happens a lot in tech. People are like, oh, you're biased. Yeah, of course I am. Yeah. Like, humans have bias, right? And I never claim to be an unbiased person. Like, I have biases. And I lean into my biases. Because MKBHD was talking about this really great one. So I was trying to find the video and put it in the show notes. It's like, if you pay attention to my content, you know my biases, use that as the baseline for any opinion you want from me. Exactly. Make up your mind about what you think I'm biased from, and then go with it from there. Like, for example, you know, people would obviously think I'm biased towards Apple, because I am. If I say something's bad, you know it's going to be bad, right? Because if I, you know, like, if I even feel that way, then imagine how someone who is more neutral would feel. So you can use that as a bias and then go on from there. It's like, I really like this way of thinking about it. Like, to try and, for people to say, oh, I'm not biased, you're wrong.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. So, like, I always say I'm biased against bad products, and I'm biased towards good stationery. That's why when there are bad products, and there's plenty of them, I just choose not to spend my time discussing them. That's a bias, right? It's like, but I don't get enjoyment about that. MKBHD had a great tweet just this morning. He's like, hey, you know, my Pixel 6, like, something's wrong with it. It's not, like, I don't know if it was the battery thing. I haven't pulled up the tweet yet.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so he says, he's like, I can no longer recommend this product. Yeah, my Pixel 6 Pro has slowly gotten so buggy since launch in October that I can no longer recommend it at $900. Combined, the latest botched update has been a bad experience. My sim is back in my S21 Ultra until the next review.

Brad Dowdy: And this is, like, the biggest tech YouTuber there is, or one of them, right?

Myke Hurley: I sent this to some friends and was like, there are people at Google PR whose head is on fire right now.

Brad Dowdy: But this is how you do it when you're in his position. That's how you gain trust. It's not that you're biased for Google or for Apple. It's that you're biased towards honest representation of what your experience is, right? Like, that's my bias, right? So I just, it doesn't mean that the product is perfect. It doesn't mean that you're going to like it. It means that, hey, I'm sharing with you my experience. And hopefully this bulk of experiences that I've had makes you understand where I'm coming from, where my biases are, and what you should take from this information. So, you know, I think that was, that tweet just this morning, like a couple hours ago, like really resounded with me. I was like, yeah, that's great. That's how you do it.

Brad Dowdy: So there you go. Good stuff. I enjoy talking about this stuff because, like, context is so hard. We talk about that all the time. Even just, even though I can sit here and ramble, you still don't cover, like, all the context that goes on in these decisions and what happens behind the scenes and, you know, all the stuff we enjoy talking about. But yeah, like, you know, just to put a bow on it, you know, if I'm not enjoying what I'm doing, I'm not going to do it. And being an investigative journalist is not something I enjoy. And talking about bad products is not something I enjoy. So I'm biased in that I won't talk about those things or won't do those things. So there you go.

Myke Hurley: All right. Let's finish out today's episode with some hashtag Ask DPA questions. First comes from Claudio, who asks, something for newcomers to the show, like this, like a kind of quote, got your first Lamy Safari for a while. Now what? So you've had a Lamy Safari for a while. Now where'd you go?

Brad Dowdy: I almost want to do a whole episode segment on this. Then maybe I'll do that later because there's a lot of places to go. Right. And I don't think I'm going straight into like, you know, the Twisbees that that kind of like roll into that next category of pricing or the Pilot Prayers that go into the next category of pricing. I almost want to think about jumping this up into like a completely different category. And I got to put some thoughts behind this because I don't know. It might be too aggressive. Right. If you if you like the Lamy Safari spending like one hundred and fifty dollars on a pen would be like pretty rough. I mean, I have a move.

Myke Hurley: A general idea. My expectation is somebody who is, you know, they've had a Lamy Safari for a bit. They're probably using cartridges. Right. It'd be my expectation. So my jump, like wherever you would be to get a bottle of ink, like a pen where, you know, you are buying it with the intention of you will fill it. So that's why I would actually go Twisbee next.

Brad Dowdy: I think no, I think that's I think that's the right answer. It's probably too big of a leap that I want to make.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And so I think the next logical step for me is like now you get to because like once you've had a Lamy Safari for a bit, you are now over the initial fear of a fountain pen. Right. The next thing you've got to get over is the fear of an ink bottle. And so I think something like a Twisbee Go or a Twisbee Eco and a bottle of ink like that feels like the next step for me.

Brad Dowdy: I think you're I think you're exactly right. And for some reason, I want it to be the next step from a Safari into like a different design or a different feel or gold nib. And I think that's probably just too far of a leap. Right. You're going from probably, you know, nine times out of 10 cartridge Lamy Safari. Well, let's try a bottle of ink and a piston filler next. Right. That type of thing.

Myke Hurley: Because until you've done that, you can't go further. I feel like because it's all too intimidating. Yeah. And then you also you unlock the second joy of fountain pens, which is finding an ink that you like. Right. Right. I'm the pen addict now. It's like that meme with the captain thing. Yeah. Yeah. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. I'm the pen addict now. So, yeah. No, that's good. Question from Jeffrey. For new fountain pen collectors, is it better to go new or restored vintage?

Myke Hurley: I mean, I think we're the wrong people to ask this question to, right?

Brad Dowdy: Well, because we only have one answer and it's the right answer. Yeah. I mean, if you're new and you're buying restored vintage, I think you're just setting yourself up for trouble. Yeah. I don't. If you're new, you're going to buy new until you have this base of knowledge.

Myke Hurley: Understanding. I mean, like I'm this way, really. I have never gotten enough enjoyment out of vintage pens, even restored vintage pens. Yeah. And I. New old stock is a different thing, right? Mm-hmm. I've had that a couple of times, but yeah, I'm not sure about, I'm not sure about restored vintage in general. Look, people love it. It's a great thing, right? And there's some stuff that you can't get, like all of the Estabrook nib stuff, right? Right. Like the old stuff or like the old Parkers and, you know, we have so many friends that collect those and, you know, like, and that's a big thing. And I get it, but I've never been that kind of person, especially when there's already so much great new stuff. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So like that's, yeah, it's, I don't see how I could ever recommend or it would be the right thing to say, hey, the first, you know, pen or two you buy should be restored vintage. It's just such a different beast and it's a different mentality and it's great. Like I have plenty of restored vintage pens that I enjoy. Like I have a Parker Vacumatic that I enjoy that, you know, was restored. Like I would only, I'm not, I'm not someone who, you know, works on their, their vintage pens. So I buy restored vintage and like, I get it. But if you're new, you just have to go. You have to go new. I, I'm just, I guess I'll die on that hill. But, and I don't think we'd get that much pushback, but we'll get plenty of, I love vintage. And like, I get it. Like you should, you should love vintage. It should be your third pen, you know, get, get a, you know, you just, you need some time to do that. That's, that's a really, really deep into the pool to jump in from day one.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I think that there is a place there. I think that there's obviously great communities there and there's really fun, cool, quirky things you can find, but I agree. It's like, take the advantage of the advancements in technology to make the on-ramp for yourself easier. Then go into like, you know, the on-ramp of, of Alami Safari, right? Which is a mass produced product, modern mass produced product. Then maybe look at vintage later on down the line. Right. Yep. And finally today, Josh writes in and says, I just listened to episode 494 where Myke mentioned he is scared of rubber Oster bottles. I'm in a similar position with ink samples and have dumped half of one on my desk. It's cleaned up now. I believe I found a better solution. I use Legos to create a holder for my ink samples. I'm sure of a bit of tinkering on some architecture sets. You can make one for a rubber Oster bottle.

Brad Dowdy: It's brilliant. I know Kimberly, who writes for the pen addict, does that. She put one in her, one of her posts and I think it was an ink sample one. I can't remember if it was an ink sample Lego holder or an ink bottle Lego holder. But you can modify them, Myke, to fit around the different shaped bottles that you have and add a little bit of safety.

Myke Hurley: I could put the rubber Oster bottles inside of my Penwell Traveler. Oh, that one that I have. Not the Traveler. The good one. The big one. That's not going to fit. Craftsman? I'm looking at it right now. There's no way.

Brad Dowdy: If I pop the foam out, it will. No chance. No chance. I think it would. I will, whatever you want to bet.

Myke Hurley: I think it would.

Brad Dowdy: That's, when you take the foam out, that's, all right. The diameter of the bottle is much larger.

Brad Dowdy: No. Are you going to test this now?

Myke Hurley: I don't have any ink here.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I don't have my bottles. I just put away my Oster bottles of ink right before the show. But I have my Penwell sitting right here and I'm looking at the circumference of, after you remove the interior, no chance. Zero. Zero percent chance.

Myke Hurley: I think it's possible, but you're going to know more than me. Nevertheless. Follow up for next week. Yep. Never mind. Nevertheless, I think it's still a thing that, okay, Tony, just try it. It doesn't work. Yeah. Nevertheless, I would like a product like that.

Brad Dowdy: So, I mean, yeah, you just need like some old ink wells and like have bases, but then you're like transferring ink into these bases. I don't know. But yeah, need some, need some pen holder, need some pen holder style ink bottle holders. But the problem is they're only going to fit Robert Oster inks because that's kind of like one of the few tall skinny bottles, right? Yep. But they're one of the hardest to fill. It would be a Robert Oster pen ink bottle holder.

Myke Hurley: What I would want in that product is like it to be on an angle too, so I could more easily get the bottom of the ink. Oh, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Just destroying people's desks one idea at a time.

Myke Hurley: Uh-huh. Do what I can. All right. If you'd like to send out a question for us to answer on the show, just send out a tweet with the hashtag RSTPA or use question mark RSTPA in the RelayFM members Discord. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com, twitch.tv slash penaddict, where Brad streams three times a week. He is penaddict on Instagram and Dowdyism on Twitter, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E on Twitter and Instagram. And you can find some products that I produce at cortexmerch.com. Theme system journals are flying off the shelves right now. So if you still think you might want one, go get one. I will include a link in the show notes to a YouTube video that my co-founder, CGP Gray, put together of how he uses his theme system journal. So it's completely different to how I use mine and how Brad used his. It's because this is the great thing about the product. Many people use it in different ways. I'm thinking about making a video of my own now too, which won't be as good as his, but just showing like this is how I do it because I haven't seen his videos. Like we use this product completely differently, which is very funny to me. Like the two people that work together to make it use it completely opposite. But yeah, that's kind of the point. That's good. Yeah. So much to Penn Chalet for their support of this week's episode. And of course, thank you for listening. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.