The Pen Addict 446/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	446
Title:	We Are Now Under New Ownership
Release Date:	January 27th, 2021
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 446
Audio File:	Audio Episode 446
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 446
Length:	5858 min <br />0.967 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 446, and today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley, I am joined by Brad Dowdy. Brad said before we started today that this was going to be the best episode ever, so let's see how that holds up. Hi Brad. Hey Myke, I'm pretty excited about today's episode. I'm going to go on record, yeah, best episode ever, incoming. Wow. I don't know why, I'm just in a good mood for a change, and there's actually some interesting topics that we've talked about ad nauseum, but we will continue to, you know, go down the path of repeating ourselves in a really awesome kind of way. You just summed up the entire show. So, did I win? Is it the best show ever now? I think so, you know, that's it, right? Like, there's some topics that are esoteric, and we're going to keep talking about them over and over again.

Myke Hurley: It's our move. Welcome to the Pen Addict. Like, as excited I am as I am for this episode, I do have a little bit of follow-up from last week's episode that I need to, I need to correct the record. I got the nicest email from my friend Stacy, who I recommended as a Schaefer restorer for one of our Ask TPA questions, right? So, a vintage fountain pen, a very specific fountain pen restorer, and Stacy emailed me. He was like, oh, I was blown away by the nice comments. Thank you so much. I love what I do, and I no longer do this. So, I do not send Stacy your repair requests for Schaefer pens, because he is no longer taking outside work. So, that is my bad. Sorry about your inbox and your Instagram messages, Stacy. My apologies. So, hopefully people don't end the show last week and never listen to the following episode, because they will continue to email him for repair work.

Brad Dowdy: Can I just say how weird that would be if you were the type of person that needed vintage Schaefer repair, and you heard that episode, and then you were like, I'm done now. I don't need the show anymore. Yeah, yeah. That would be quite peculiar. We're never going to hear from that person. We're never going to know.

Myke Hurley: No, I mean, they waited 445 episodes for that bit of information.

Brad Dowdy: Right. They've just been tuning in every single week, hoping that now would be the time that they would finally get the answer.

Myke Hurley: Right. Right. Right. Right. So, in the event you do need a Schaefer repair, or more specifically, a general pen repair, there are a bunch of pens. People that I want to link in the show notes. So, if people hear this in future for vintage pen repairs, these are all people I know that I've spent years with at pen shows. So, you have Martin's Pens, and you have Ink Pen, and you have Ron Zorn, and you have Indie Pen Dance, all of whom, you know, are well represented at pen shows. You take your pens to repair, but they all take online work. So, I want to put all these links in the show notes. If you do happen to listen to this episode and didn't quit after 445, these are some great repair people. You can get your vintage pens repaired at. Awesome. So, there you go. Anything else happen this week?

Retro51 Ownership Change

Brad Dowdy: So, there was a... All right, we're going to talk about Retro51 again. So, the new owners have seemingly taken some level of control over the company, and have posted a blog post onto the same blog that we spoke about last week. The Retro51 blog where they kind of spoke about the way forward. We have a blog post called Retro 2.0.

Brad Dowdy: And the blog post I will read. Yes. To the worldwide fans of Retro51 and beyond. In early 2020, George Katsotis... Is that how you say George's surname? I've never actually known George's surname. I just always know him as George from Retro51. Yeah. Katsotis announced that after 30 years, he and the Retro51... ...would be retiring. How could we let Retro end? The answer is we couldn't. We are now under new ownership with the same outstanding team members. We are thrilled to announce that Richard, our lead designer for 20 years, is staying with us. You will also still be hearing from Dan and Sales, as well as our frontline customer service experts. Thank you to the team for the dedication throughout the unknowns of 2020. Additionally, George and Vicky will stick around a little longer to share their 30 years' experience of insights. We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank George for working with us and helping us put this team together. We are honored to be the new custodians of Retro51. There will be more details to come, but rest assured we are 100% committed to continuing the high level of quality, unique designs, and exceptional customer service everyone has come to expect and love about Retro51 products. We are fans, collectors, and yes, we walk among you. We can't wait to get popping. Adam, Jeff, and Joe.

Myke Hurley: I can't stand it. I just want to do Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, and Myke, or every little three-name, four-name group I can think of right here at the end. John, Ringo. Yeah, the post is fine. The post is fine, but here's what my expectations were.

Myke Hurley: That you say all that and say, give me a sentence that says, hey, we're also going to let you know who we are. Once we get things, we just started, we're going to dial things in for a few weeks, figure out what's the game plan here, and then we're going to tell you a little bit about ourselves and why we bought this company. Like, is that, here's the question to you. I'm asking this question to you. Is that too much for me to ask?

Brad Dowdy: No, man.

Myke Hurley: But we're also not, I mean, we're a big part of the Retro50 community, Retro51 business. Like, I'm not saying this show. I'm saying this, the community of pen lovers, but there's also an outside, you know, group of people that love this brand, too, who know nothing about pen addict stuff, right? So I feel like they don't care, but like we care. And is that fair of me to say, can I at least get a little bit of background of your thought process and why you decided to, this Adam, Jeff, and Joe decided to purchase this company? You don't even have to tell me today. You can tell me that, hey, we want to introduce ourselves. We're going to do that, you know, in a month or two once we just kind of get, you know, our feet on the ground and get everything running.

Brad Dowdy: The thing that frustrates me the most about this is they also put a post on Instagram and people asked, who are these new owners? And they keep saying, like, more info coming. I don't understand, like, this step of, like, here's our first names. Bye. We'll tell you more later. Like, just don't do anything. Like, if there's some reason that you don't yet want to introduce yourselves to the community, don't take a half step. Like, right. Because if you are part of the fan base of Retro 51, you know there has been a lot of questioning around the future of the company and who might own it. You must know that if you are a fan of this community. Because it's not just this show, right? Like, you can see it in the fact that the comments on the Instagram posts wanting to know more. The big fans of this company want to understand who these people are.

Myke Hurley: And because we've been built up to this point to be a part of the company.

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: As customers of the company, we feel like we are a part of the company, by the way, the company is currently built.

Brad Dowdy: Not ownership, but you have the looser term of ownership.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: Like, this is a very normal thing in small businesses that work online, right? Including, like...

Myke Hurley: And I'm not saying we as we in the pin addict. I'm saying we as the pin community.

Community Sentiment

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. But it's like, the listeners of this show have a sense of ownership over the show, too. Yes. Right? Yes. So, there are decisions that we make, keeping that in mind, to make sure that we're doing right by our listenership. When ultimately, me and you own this show, and we can do whatever we want with it. But we choose not to. Right? We make smart moves.

Brad Dowdy: This is a really weird one. And it... I thoroughly believe everything's on the up and up. Nothing weird is going on. 100%. Maybe there's like some I's and T's to dot and cross, right? Right. But these kinds of things can't help but make people go, what's going on here? Mm-hmm. And this is maybe not the best way to start your relationship with a very engaged, obsessive community.

Myke Hurley: I won't go that far in that, like, you know, I'm definitely on the benefit of the doubt train right now. Me, too. That's what I'm saying. I know you are.

Brad Dowdy: 100%. What I mean is, you...

Myke Hurley: But, yes. We would have done things differently. Yeah. But my... I'm also saying, I catch myself a lot now saying, I would have done it differently. Who am I to say how to do it? Right? Those are two different things, right? Correct. So, you know, this is...

Brad Dowdy: I mess things up all the time, right? Mm-hmm. You know, everyone finds their own unique, weird, and wonderful ways to mess things up, right? Yeah. Like, you know, but this is... Look, it's not terrible. I haven't done anything bad. Gosh, no. They're just getting started. They just haven't, I believe, started this off the best way that it could have been.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So... And they don't have to answer it. It's just say, hey, we know you're interested. We're going to tell you soon.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Like, they didn't even... Like, there wasn't even a sentence of that. So, let's kick the can down the road a little bit. I was not going to email Retro yesterday when this news came out. I was just like, you know what? I see what's happening, right? If they wanted to say what's going on and who they are and all that stuff, they would have said it by now. I'm not going to go bother to them. But then I just kept getting the question. I was like, fine. I'm going to email Richard. Richard's my good friend over there who was mentioned in the post. And I was like, okay. Give me something. And he copied me in with Adam. And eventually, you know, Adam and I went, you know, exchanged a few emails and copied me in with the whole new team. So, we're going to get Adam on. Great. And he told me basically what I said before. They're going to take some time, get all their ducks in a row, give them a few weeks, and then we can talk. And then he'd be happy to come on the show at a later date. You know, first, I'd like to, like, hey, let's just talk and, you know, give me some background here that, you know, maybe I can help explain. And then we'll get you on the show. So, I have talked to Adam.

Brad Dowdy: You know, we want to get them on the show to talk to them, but also to help. Right. Like, we're not looking to do a hit piece here. We want to help introduce these people to the community maybe more than they have been previously. I don't know. Or when we could hear the sun and say, oh, I know that guy. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's like, like, with any, especially online business these days, you have to feel good about spending your dollars with the company. Because most of the time, we're dealing with purchases where we don't have any, like, direct human interaction. Right? Like, we're not, especially in COVID times, we're not getting out and about. We don't see the brick and mortars. We don't get to support the mom and shops in person as much as we do online. So, you want to feel like you have a relationship, especially with a company like Retro 51, where I think it's definitely a two-way street in the way the business is built and the way they manage products. So, we'll have a lot to ask Adam. I know that when he comes on. So, yeah, we'll, I've talked to them, you know, just, we've exchanged a few emails. Very nice. Seem very nice. Very anxious to, like, you know, talk more. Yeah. But they just want, you know, they want to get things going their way and then they'll be ready. So.

Brad Dowdy: I super agree with that. Yeah. They may have just, I think they just jumped the gun a little bit. They should have waited just a little bit longer until they were ready to really go. Because, like, I wasn't expecting a blog post this week. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: You know, I thought we were going to be a little while. Like I said, you don't have to say, you don't have to say it. You just have to plan it. And so, you can say it later. You don't have to say it today, but you can lay some groundwork at, you know, hey, in the next month or two, we're going to let you know, like, who we are, what our plans are, where we came from, things like that. And no, we didn't get that today. We got, like, when you sign it first name only, with no allusion to the past or the future, it just makes everyone scratch their head.

Brad Dowdy: There's also, okay, this blog post is written really weirdly.

Brad Dowdy: We are now under new ownership. What does that mean? Right? So, like, it's just strange. Like, I don't get, there's nothing wrong with that, but it's like, maybe that needed to be cleared up a little bit. Yeah. I remain curious. Anyway, good times.

Myke Hurley: I'm so glad we have this show.

Brad Dowdy: There is some truly good happy news. My understanding is, this week, you were bringing fountain pens back into your life after a hiatus. I wanted to know how that has been so far.

Myke’s Recent Fountain Pen Purchase

Myke Hurley: It is so good. I'm so excited. Yeah. I love my handwriting when it's good. Um, so I have a, I've, I'm still only inked up one pen, which I can't believe that's probably going to change today or tomorrow because I've got some work to do, um, with some other pens. Um, but I inked up my Montegrappa Mia Meteor Shower.

Brad Dowdy: That is a fantastically beautiful looking pen.

Myke Hurley: It really is. Yeah. And the nib, it's stainless steel, uh, Montegrappa switched over to Yovo a couple of years ago. This is like one of the most awesome stainless steel out of the, out of the box. Like I haven't touched this nib and it just writes exactly what I want, like a firm extra fine steel nib to write. So that makes it even better. It's a comfortable pen for me. It looks cool. It writes awesome. I inked it up with Robert Oster fire on fire because it's got these little orange streaks running through the meteor shower. I like this pen just because I think it represents kind of sweet spots and maybe not the right term, but it's a really good bang for the buck pen, right? It's an expensive pen. Like it's like low $200. I think I don't have it pulled up to two to two 25, two 50. Like that is by no means an inexpensive pen, but like materials and fit and finish wise. Like, yeah, it like meets the expectation of what I paid for it. And on top of that, it gives me joy and happiness to look at and use. And I'm, I'm really, really happy. So now the, it, it put a smile on my face and it's cool. And I want to get more fountain pens inked up and I'm trying to go slow. But I, once I start, once I get past one, it's like all bets are off. So I'm just trying to meter my usage right now at first. Um, I have some reviews coming up. So like, I'll have to ink up these pens for reviews of pens that I've been using and things like that. So I'm going to end up with, you know, six or eight ink pens up, you know, maybe by, by the time the weekend's out, I have some inks that I just got in. So, you know, all of that stuff, you know, just ramps up my fountain pen usage, which I'm totally happy about. I'm glad my handwriting, um, doesn't really hurt my hand so much. Right. It's like my hand gets tired when I write with a fountain pen, you know, more than it did before the, the, the wrist break. But, you know, I'm working on like strengthening it up and loosening it up now and there. So that's, that's where we're at in the process. And I'm, I'm happy to be back with fountain pens.

Brad Dowdy: And getting some like kind of layer vibes from this Montagrappa. Totally.

Myke Hurley: So they have three colors of this one. There's a blue one. And then there's kind of a really, really pretty like kind of gold and yellow one. Like that one. Oh, wow. Maybe the choice. That one is kind of special. The blue one looks like a lot of blue streaky ones.

Brad Dowdy: It's only the, the one that you have that gives me those vibes. Cause it's volcano. We like, right. And yes, they've done a few like,

Myke Hurley: and it's a black, white, and orange color. Like a couple of real striking canalea materials are like that, but these other two are not. Oh, Spice Explosion. Yeah. Spice Explosion. The names are pretty funny. Great names. Spice Explosion looks, I think Spice Explosion, like that might be the best looking one. This is the best one for me. Like we always talk about that, right? Like this one's for me, the one that I think it might be the best looking overall might be the Spice Explosion. And the, um, the deep sea one is, you know, your standard blue striations. And then they have some upgraded ones. They have two limited edition ones, which are like mega, mega expensive. They have, you know, gold nibs and different features like that. The one I bought was, so like the MSRP is 290 euros, but I think, you know, by the time I got, you know, the 20% off and whatever discounts and minus the VAT, it was like, it was less than 250, I'm pretty sure. So yeah, very happy with this pen. I really like what Montegrappa has done over the past few years and I'm considering me a fan.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they're, they're, they are a company that seems to really be getting it. Um, and main and kind of like they're moving with the trends, but they're also continuing to do their classic stuff when previously they kind of just did most of the classic stuff. Um, and so I think, I think it's super cool. Like it's interesting to see them grow, um, and to, to maybe lean less on, we want to be the pen on the executives table. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And I think they're interesting story and we can get Giuseppe on the, the owner and, and the, the guy who runs it and talk about this because they compete against Mont Blanc on the high end, right? Like that's part of their brand and it's really, really good for that part of their business. But then they also have this business of people who are buying this pen who would never know anything about that high end business, right? Where Mont Blanc just seems way up here in the high end business. Um, Montagrappa is there too, but then they have this business down here. That's just, it's really dang good. And how they, you know, adjust that in their creative on the creative front, right? How do they manage those two really, really different lineups is interesting to me. So maybe we'll effort that one day.

Brad Dowdy: Montagrappa, Montagrappa.

Myke Hurley: Mm.

Brad Dowdy: One of my, just just one of my favorite things ever. That if you don't know, they made a pen called Montagrappa. It's just great.

Myke Hurley: And that was the actual turning point pen for me. Yeah. Um, that's when the Yovo nib started to become more universal in the lineup and it had a ratchet fill and it had a name that we could talk about.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: It's great.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Let's take a break and thank our friends over at Pen Chalet for the support of this show. They sell the best products that you're looking for from all of your favorite brands, whether you want roller balls or fountain pens, ballpoints or mechanical pencils, they've got them. Whether you look, if you're looking for accessories too, maybe you want ink, maybe you want converters or refills, maybe you're looking for a carrying case, not just the writing products, but also all the accessories too. So you can go to Pen Chalet and find exactly what you're looking for and you keep going back, keep checking it because every two weeks, not only are they adding new products, they're also adding new discounts on their stuff as well. Pen Chalet do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the United States and they also sell internationally with great shipping rates too. And I've found their shipping to be really speedy and reliable myself. Over in the UK, I've ordered from Pen Chalet multiple times. And one of the things that I love about them, they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. They want you to be happy with their products. They offer high quality pens at the best prices possible and they want to make sure that you are a happy Pen Chalet customer. So go to PenChalet.com, that's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website. You want to enter the password Pen Addict and you will get your hands on some special offers and the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Pen Chalet. So Brad, what's catching your eye this week?

Myke Hurley: So two things before we get to the deal, which the top most deal is definitely a deal. They just announced, I saw this morning, they're going to have some Robert Oster exclusive inks this month. I don't know if they're up yet, but they're going to have three Pen Chalet Robert Oster exclusive inks and they look like they're going to be very pretty. They've also, it looks like they have some of the Sailor Cocktail series that was popular going into last year where some of those were some neat sets of pens. And, you know, a lot, I think a lot of people got the sets and were able to break them up. So they have some of those available. And then, Myke, you click on the radio podcast button, put in the code Pen Addict and you get to see the magic that is the Visconti Rembrandt Special Ops Fountain Pen. This one's been on my radar, not necessarily because I love the name of it or, you know, necessarily need a special ops fountain pen. But what they did with this model is use a really non-Visconti looking green. It's like a matte green and then all black hardware. And the price of this pen has dropped enough to where now I'm like, huh, that's pretty interesting because I've always been, I've always kind of had like a little fondness for how this pen looked, but I never really, really needed it. And then you scroll down further, Myke, interesting find in the list today, the Pilot Vanishing Point Ballpoint. So the interesting thing about these, it's the Vanishing Point you know and love, but with a ballpoint. It's kind of tailor-made for it. I don't understand. I understand this more. Who wants that? Or I understand this more than the little twisty knob, you know, three times the price Vanishing Point LS, which is, you know, that's a, that's a entire other podcast. We've mentioned it in passing before. So I kind of want one of those one day, maybe the ballpoint just to have. And then, oh my gosh.

Brad Dowdy: I'll say at the price that Ron has it, it's worth checking out. At its retail price, I wouldn't. Exactly.

Myke Hurley: Like, exactly. That's what makes this page so cool. Like, and it go, it runs the gamut from, you know, less expensive pens. Like, I've, I've bragged about the Pilot Ageless, you know, being like in the, you know, half the price, like in the 20, there's lots of pens in the $20 range. And then you just keep scrolling and then you get this random, like really unique one-off Leonardo Memento Zero. And that's kind of like a special edition that is very expensive, but it's also in here too, for people who are into that. So lots of cool things over at Pen Chalet. Lots of cool things coming up at Pen Chalet. So definitely check out what they have going on.

Brad Dowdy: So one last time, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password Pen Addict. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for their support of this show and Relay FM.

Myke Hurley: I want to talk about Lamy a little bit. You know, we're going to, all the greatest hits today, Myke, is what's happening. So we got Retro 51, we got Lamy, which is one of my personal favorite brands.

Brad Dowdy: We've got Identify This Pen. Yeah. It's a certain later on. And then we're going to talk about some weird sailor stuff. Yeah. Best episode ever.

Lamy Annual Sales Figures

Myke Hurley: Best episode ever. So I'm so happy, except I have a little bit of sad news right after I tell you how good of a mood I am in. Myke Manfred Lamy has passed away at the age of 84. Now, never heard of Manfred Lamy before a couple days ago. He has not been part of the business since 2006, but he started there in 1962.

Brad Dowdy: So I'm assuming, I mean, obviously part of the Lamy family.

Brad Dowdy: So I assume inherited from.

Myke Hurley: Yes. Oh yeah, the founder's son. Right. But since 1973, Manfred was the sole managing director. Wow. All the way until 2006. So big deal, right? Big deal guy. Like ran. This guy made the Lamy. He made the company. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because like we only know the Lamy from like the 60s onwards. Right. And they weren't around that much longer before then. But like this, you know, Manfred Lamy was obviously core in getting Lamy to where it is today. So I just thought that was, you know, a news point to bring up. No, the thing that struck me, which is different than what struck you, according to these notes.

Myke Hurley: I'll do mine first. If you've probably read it by now, but they have their 2018 annual sales figure in here. And that number caught me off guard on the low side. Mm-hmm. So do you know the number? Like, did you read it? Like, we can't play a guessing game.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: What did you think about annual sales in 2018 of 118 million euros? I would not have expected that. In which direction? It's very high. You think it's high? See, I think it's low. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Interesting. All right.

Myke Hurley: Because, like, you look at it, they're a big company. 380 employee company. You know, worldwide brand. 118 million euros. I mean, that's nothing to sneeze about. But I don't know. If I had just, like, a blind guess, I probably would have guessed, like, 200 or 300 million. I don't know why. But I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: I wouldn't have gone. I don't know what number I would have gotten to, but it wouldn't have been as high as 118 million. Okay. So then maybe it's in the right place.

Myke Hurley: It is. It is. And we're on different sides of it, which means, you know, it's not something outrageous like I think it is. What you think is outrageous is a little bit different. What did you find interesting about this article?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know what this website is. Archive.com. I have a story. Or whatever. I have a story about that. Do you know what this website is?

Myke Hurley: No, but finish your statement, and then I'll elaborate.

Brad Dowdy: So what I don't, I find really weird is the headline is Manfred Lamy, longtime boss of the Heidelberg writing instrument manufacturer is dead. And then the opening line of the article is the longtime boss of the writing instrument manufacturer Lamy, Manfred Lamy, is dead. I find is dead to be really weird as a way to write this. Like, I would say has died. Not like, he's dead. Like, it's just, I don't know, there's something like way too cold and final about that language to me.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So two things. That caught me, right? So first thing I did is, okay, when was this article written? Like, did I miss something from a few years ago? And then number two, can I verify this somewhere else? Right. Right. Because I thought this site might be sketchy. And I actually tried to find a better link, and it was just some other generic links, but Lamy actually, I actually went to Lamy's press room and all that stuff. They did not have anything, but they did have something, I think, on Instagram that mentioned it. So I just left the link as is. But I thought this site was a little bit weird, and I tried to find something a little bit different, but there really wasn't that much.

Brad Dowdy: It's kind of something I could imagine you would say if it was many years into the future. So, like, yeah, on Lamy's Instagram, they say, has died, right? Yeah. Because that's a bit more respectful, I think. Oh, yeah, he's dead.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Right? It's just like such a weird way of saying it. I don't like it.

Myke Hurley: All right. That's enough Manfred Lamy news. Let's get into just a little tidbit of what's currently going on with the Safari. So my friend Frank at Fanta Plumo put out a tweet, and he was a little bit, I don't want to say concerned, but he was, like, you know, curious. As a retailer, Lamy's changing the Safari box. And you know the Safari box on site, right? Like, people who are into this thing can pick out, and it's not just the Safari box. They use it for the All-Star and a few other things, but that slotted dark gray charcoal Lamy box is very, very well known, right? Wouldn't you say? I know.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. I mean.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, like, you know it on site. Oh, that's a Lamy box, right? Yeah. And, like, people, even the knockoffs knock off the box because it's so striking. And Lamy's going to do away with the box or at least charge more if you do want the box. And they're going to do a standard Lamy silver box sleeve. Like, it'll be a tighter fitting, basically, you know, your standard sleeve type of box that the pens will go in. And from Frank's perspective, he thought it was – he didn't know how customers were going to take it, right? Would customers be upset that this classic box was going away? And they were essentially getting, air quotes, an inferior box. But, you know, Lamy's position is like, you know, hey, we're going to do what we can to, you know, shrink our footprint. You know, which I find hilarious that we're packaging, like, super plasticky pens in a smaller box now. And we're going to take the box is going to be the thing we're going to save on. But it's something, right? It's not nothing. It's something. And I think it's totally fine. Like, Frank was worried that people were going to be upset. And I think he kind of got satisfied that people, like, it's okay. Like, people are not totally caring. Do you have any comments on the box change?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know who would care about Safari packaging. Like, that would bother them. Like, what are you keeping it? Like, what are you keeping it for? Yep. And there's no reason you couldn't just keep the new box. Like, it doesn't look as nice. But, like, what are you doing with it? I mean, clearly, it's a cost-saving environmental measure. Yeah. Right? Less packaging. Easier to move. It's a whole thing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And they'll just flat pack these boxes. It'll reduce on shipping as well. Like, less volume in shipping. But I think it's funny. As great as the Lamy Safari box is, it's actually terrible once the pen's not in it. When the pen's not in it, it's just, like, this wonky box that you can't really use for anything else. So, why not? Let's just, like, get rid of it. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And if you squeeze it in the wrong way, you dent it. Yeah. Because it's got the, like, slits in it.

Myke Hurley: Last Lamy topic for today. I wanted to find this image when we talked about the OG Safaris being brought back, the Terracotta Orange, Terracotta Red, excuse me, and the Savannah Green. And I couldn't find the true packaging. But someone on Reddit posted the real packaging and the desktop displays that came with the Safari. Yeah. These are, this is, like, they should come back with displays that they sell. Like, the pen stand alone. Like, so I wanted to, the reason why I wanted to bring this up is because I wanted it in the show notes. Yeah. Because it's an awesome image of what things used to be. Of what things used to be back in the day. And you can tell it's, there's, like, a writing display. Like, these are countertop displays. So, the top left and the bottom right image are packaging displays. Like, if you bought the pen, that's what you'd get. And then the rest of it is, like, your desktop sales POS displays, which are awesome. Man, they're awesome. I would love to have some of that stuff. So, anyway, I just wanted to revisit that previous topic so we could put this into the show notes. Because I was looking for this image that week and I couldn't find it. So, it just really gets me going. I love those images. So, there you go.

Brad Dowdy: Kate has made a good point in the members' Discord. That I am familiar with, too. Like, they said that they're only used to seeing the Safari in this kind of very different packaging. Which is, it basically goes on one of those, like, I don't know what you'd call them. What is it? This type of packaging where you...

Myke Hurley: Like a pegboard hole. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Where you have them all stacked up and you just take one off the row.

Safari Packaging Discussion

Myke Hurley: Kind of, you know. So, it's clam shelly, plastic, pegboard packaging.

Brad Dowdy: It's a piece of cardboard with a bubble pack on it. And it comes with a little pouch and one refill in the pen. Like, that's how I'm very, very used to seeing Safaris. Like, that's how they're sold in all the stationary stores here.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I've never seen that pouch. Oh, okay. I've seen different styles of packaging. I have not seen that hang-up packaging.

Brad Dowdy: I've seen the box, but the only place I've ever seen that box with the slits in it, now I remember, is in the Lamy store in San Francisco. Yeah. Other than that, I'm very used to seeing them in this kind of blister packaging kind of thing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. So, I lied about the last Lamy topic. It was just down a little bit further. The Tipo limited editions, I might have mentioned these before. I just want a quick mention on these. I'm in on both of these. I'm a Tipo fan. I'm actually surprised that this product keeps making the cut year in and year out because I don't think there's a lot of Tipo fans, but apparently there must be if they're putting special editions out for them. It's a unique, retractable, low-cost Lamy pin. Like, normally they're about, I don't know how much these are going to be, normally like $12, $13. The interesting thing and why I like the Tipo so much is because it is one of the few Lamy pins where you can swap a better refill into, right? So, they still use the Lamy refill, but these fit Pilot G2 gels, which means they fit Pilot Juice, which means I put 0.4 millimeter Pilot Juice refills into my Lamy Tipos and enjoy them. So, these are the two killer colors.

Brad Dowdy: Is that on purpose or by accident? By accident. All right. Okay.

Myke Hurley: Complete accident. Right. I mean, Lamy uses proprietary refills all over the place. It just so happens that this one is designed to where it will fit other things just by how it's built. Without modification. Like, you don't have to hack the refills to get them in. So, it's great.

Brad Dowdy: So, we had a bunch of people send this question in. I even put it in my notes. Yeah. Anyway, because there's a couple. So, President Biden. Oh, that feels so good to say. President Biden is at work and has been signing loads of papers. He's been signing all the executive orders.

Myke Hurley: Executive orders are flying across the desk.

Brad Dowdy: They're all over the place, these things. Stacks upon stacks on stacks. And so, there's been a couple of images floating around that people have been asking for our help on. One is what is the pen that Biden uses to sign the executive orders in. You may have seen him in some pictures. And then, two, there was an image posted to the POTUS Twitter account and Instagram account that included a fountain pen with Joe Biden's name on it. And people wanted to know what these pens were.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I love this so much. Just that we, any time, it doesn't matter if it's the president. It could be anyone that uses a pen in public where it happens to be widely spread across, you know, TV or the internet. We always get messages and I love it. Like, keep sending those always. So, the document signing pen, I thought for sure it was the Cross Townsend, which was, you know, the same size and shape of what it actually is, which is the Cross Century 2. So, Cross confirmed that like a day or two after the inauguration evening where he first did that batch of executive orders, he had a tray on his desk, like a nice, like a wooden, looked like a walnut tray, held about a dozen pens. And they were all the same pen because we've, as we've said before, he'll use one pen for one document and then someone in that room gets that pen and it's like a big deal. Right? So, it's the Cross Century 2, which looks like the Cross Townsend, but is narrower in diameter. I liken it to the Sailor 1911 small versus the Sailor 1911 large. Like, from a distance, you say, oh, that's the shape of the Sailor 1911. But then there's like a smaller and like a larger. If you put them side by size, which we have a link in the show notes that someone sent me, they're close to identical, you know, maybe a couple little minor things, but basically one's a bigger version of the other. In this instance, the Townsend's the bigger one and the Cross Century 2 is the narrower one. But still, I think a pretty decent size pen looking at them on the desk. And the fountain pen kind of blew up because they made this image of all the orders, like the names of the executive orders. And they had this blue background where they put a pen on there to signify the signatures that President Biden had made. And it was this blue wood grain fountain pen with kind of silver accents and a silver nib. And the first thing I looked at was the nib on this. And it's a super generic scroll.

Brad Dowdy: I think that this is just some stock art that they put his signature on the side of it.

Myke Hurley: Totally my guess too. I don't even think it was blue. Right. So someone in PenX Slack found like the mahogany version, you know, like on Alibaba or something like a generic, a basic generic fountain pen. They found kind of like the exact, it looked like the exact model, but in like a mahogany red. I think the whole thing, yeah, I think it's Photoshopped, right? The color and all that. So what we're saying is we're exposing the president now. No, not even that. No, that's, it's basically just clip art they threw in their Photoshop and colored it to match the thing. So the fountain pen does not exist as far as we know, or if it does, it exists in a different coloration than they modified.

Brad Dowdy: I have a question for you. Yeah. The cross pens Instagram account. Yeah. The image they posted, what is going on with the tip of that pen?

Myke Hurley: I can't tell in that image because it looks like a felt tip insert. Yeah. Right. But I've never seen that kind of insert. Well, so here's the question. And they even call it, they call it a roller ball.

Brad Dowdy: Well, maybe it's a roller ball to me and you, Brad. But the president gets a felt insert that cross make for him.

Myke Hurley: Maybe. But even like some of the people, I recognize some of the names that crosses pens, like four wheels, like comments on my Instagram. It says, looks like a felt tip. And, you know.

Brad Dowdy: But the images of Biden signing documents, it does. It looks like he's using a roller ball. Like if you zoom in. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So they must make like a felt tip refill, just like Montblanc makes a fineliner refill. Yeah. For their big Montblanc pens, right? Yeah. So this is probably just, I bet it's a stock cross refill option that we never see.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Just like the Montblanc fineliner.

Myke Hurley: So it's probably just in the stock cross lineup that we just haven't seen. But it didn't look like he was using this, the felt tip. Right. To me.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: So it's good stuff. Good stuff. Keep sending that. But if you see President Biden at a desk for the next four years with a tray of pens, it's almost certainly not going to change from the cross century to. It's always cross, right? It's always cross. I just thought it was the Townsend in the past, but it looks like it's the cross century too.

Myke Hurley: But yeah, cross is one of the few American made brands that could deliver this type of pen. What do we have to do to get? And they've been using them for decades.

Brad Dowdy: Spoke on the desk of the president.

Myke Hurley: Well, for starters, we'd probably not have to not make our pens in China.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's going to be...

Myke Hurley: But then, you know, if we did that, if we made them in the US, then, you know, the White House could probably pay the price that we would have to charge for them. So maybe it's something to look at. I mean, if they pay, you know, like hundreds of dollars for a screw, we got some pens we could... We'll do our... We'll set up something in the garage, set up our machines. Oh, Myke, we haven't even gotten into Sailor yet. No. What is going on here?

Brad Dowdy: I don't... So, Adina told me a couple of days ago, she's like, you know, Choosing Keeping? Choosing Keeping is a store that we have here in London. It's closed right now, but their online store is still going. She said, they have all of the Sailor Ink Studio inks. And I was like, no way. Because I know how hard these are to get. So, in case you're not familiar, or in case you just need a refresher, the Sailor Ink Studio inks, all of the Sailor inks that are named by a number, they're a three-digit number, and they are done so, because if I remember rightly from the way this is explained to me, Sailor make lots of inks by request for lots of different companies, for lots of different promotional uses, as Sailor is known to make pens as well. They also make lots of inks. And they are mostly cataloged by number, and the best ones also make into Sailor Ink Studio, and they sell them. They don't have names, they just have numbers. Right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it was essentially a... I don't want to call it... Maybe. Maybe. A traveling roadshow of their ink maker. And these ended up being the most popular formulations from, essentially, people making inks. Yes. Yes, you're right. So, similar to what you're saying, yes. I don't know that it was necessarily store-related, but it was basically, for lack of a better real name, Sailor Ink Lab type of stuff, right? These ended up being popular mixtures that weren't in their normal stock lineup.

Brad Dowdy: So, they are selling 20 milliliter bottles at 15 pounds each. Mm-hmm. And they have, by and large, all of them.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, that started to happen early last year, or late last year in the U.S., where they weren't available, no one can get them, you had to get them from Japan, and then all of a sudden, distributors had them, and then retailers could get them. So, now you're finally getting them. So, I think it's just a matriculation of accessibility.

Brad Dowdy: So, the Hurley household made an order today.

Brad Dowdy: This was spearheaded, not by me, but I figured if we were making an order, I might as well throw a couple in there. So, we have on the way, I'm going to put in the link in the show notes also to what, funnily enough, what I like, that Choosing Keeping also linked to Mountain of Ink. Yeah. So, to Kelly's work of all the swatches, because Idina was showing me this, and I thought it was really cool. What Kelly does with these is groups them into similar color, so you can, like with the swatching, so you can compare, which I think is really good. So, there's individuals of every ink, but then also all of the greens, for example, are kind of bound together, and you could be able to see a swatch of all of them compared to each other, so you can choose your favorite of each color. So, we have 141, which is a light blue on the way, 767, which is an emerald green, 460, which is a green, 970, which is an olive, 223, which is a gray, we wanted to get 123, but they're out of stock for that one. Yeah, that's the one, that's the popular one. Yeah. So, 731, which is a pink orange, 431, which is a hot pink, 437, which is a pink and plummy color, 770, which is a hot yellow, and 452, which is a muted violet.

Myke Hurley: I really like the thumb on the scale of Idina in this list, because this is going to force you to try a bunch of new interesting inks. The greens, for sure. She's very green heavy. I'm here for it. Yeah, I'm here for it.

Brad Dowdy: I'm into that. Also, the gray, it's funny, she wanted 123, and ordered 123, and then while we were recording, I got a message from Idina saying, choose and keep in cold, they're out of 123. So, they're swapping it out for 223.

Myke Hurley: Shocker. Yeah, that's just going to happen. That's the one. The stores have to order like two and three times of 123 than they do the rest of them, just because it's so interesting. Mm-hmm. Well, I'm interested to see what you think about some of these, because this is not a normal thing for you to say, hey, Brad, I tried some new inks today. Like, in the history of this podcast, that's probably happened like a couple times.

Brad Dowdy: I'm very, I've said this before, like, I add to my ink collection very slowly, because it's just how I use pens. I don't really swap out inks very often, so I'm excited to add some different ones in here. Yeah. There were a couple, I don't remember which ones now, but there are a couple in that list of ones that I was like, I looked through, and I was like, oh, I'd like to try this one and this one. I think the 141, the light blue, I was into, because I don't really have a blue like that, and I like blue. I have a lot of pens that suit blue, and I only have like one or two blues, so. Yeah, I'm excited about it. Good deal. So, are you? Maybe, maybe once they've arrived and we've used them, rather than hearing what I have to say, we can also hear what Dina has to say. Yes. All right. Yes.

Myke Hurley: Book it. Book it. So, as interested as you are in those inks, are you interested in the newly announced Sailor North America 2021 Pin of the Year, Myke? Okay.

Brad Dowdy: It's nice looking.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: I'm not like head over heels for it, because it's red. I don't really think, so it's a red pen with really nice sparkle in it.

Myke Hurley: This is my color of pen, not your color.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Red is not really my bag. I don't know why.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, I saw it. I was like, oh, that looks pretty great. Is this the same as the, what do they call it? Piccadilly Night from the cocktail series? I was like, I remember something about red sparkles. I went and looked it up. It's kind of the same red, but the red is solid translucent in the Piccadilly Night, and the cap is clear with sparkle. So, it's really kind of different. But it looks like it's the same tone of red, like a deep red. It's not like a burgundy or maroon. Like, it's a red, but it's really, really deep, I would say. Okay. So, I was like, hey, I like this pen. What's it called?

Myke Hurley: And that's an interesting question, Myke. So, on the Sailor Pen North America, we'll have a link in the show notes. The first Sailor North America exclusive fountain pen for 2021, aptly named the Sailor 1911 Pen of the Year 2021.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: The end. That's the name of the pen.

Brad Dowdy: I don't understand what your issue is. The 2021 Pen of the Year is the Pen of the Year 2021. You know, like, it's easy, right? Sailor 2021 Pen of the Year is the Pen of the Year 2021.

Brad Dowdy: I don't understand a few things about this. So, see if you can help me.

Myke Hurley: Highly unlikely.

Sailor North America's New Release

Brad Dowdy: The image on the Sailor Pen of the North America Instagram page is a tree. Mm-hmm. And it's changing seasons. Mm-hmm. Seems to be completely unrelated to the pen. Mm-hmm. Right? And it says at the bottom, 2021 Pen of the Year. Mm-hmm. So, I don't...

Myke Hurley: What?

Myke Hurley: I have a lot to say about this, but I don't even know what to say. So, let's take the artwork. Artwork is awesome. It is done by my friend Rachel at artisanal.inc, who is also a Sailor Pen North America employee. Nice. Right? So, you look a few pages back, a few images back in their feed. You see him drawing it. There's a picture image. Yeah. How this goes with the pen, I don't know. Because this is a pen with no name.

Myke Hurley: People in the comments are asking, like, what color is it? Like, trying to, like, say, okay, is this the 1911 Pen of the Year 21 cherry red?

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: Like, can we, like, tag this somehow? How do we converse verbally about this pen? And they do not let you. Is there usually a Pen of the Year? That's the other thing. I have never... They don't do this. ...seen this nomenclature before this year. There's always been North America exclusive editions for the past several years. Now they're saying this is the Pen of the Year, which is new branding.

Brad Dowdy: Because, like, the thing I find so funny is the pen is called Pen of the Year 2021, but they put the title of 2021 Pen of the Year on the page. Why would you...

Myke Hurley: So this is... I'm really bothered by the lack of naming of this pen. And Sailor Pen North America, as we've learned in the past, is responsible for the namings. They make the names. This came up with the 4AM. They made...

Brad Dowdy: Because is this a cherry blossom tree?

Myke Hurley: No, that's not what a... This looks... This is not a cherry blossom tree. Okay. I have those in my yard. This is not one. Okay.

Myke Hurley: It's going... It's going to do nothing but confuse people. And it's going to end up being called a color, and we're all going to go with the color. And that's going to be the name of the pen. The only differentiation in this pen that's different than any other 1911 limited edition is they did put 2021 on their cat band. You know? Nice. Yeah. It's fine.

Brad Dowdy: It's got a little red band around it. Like, this is very nice. This is not one for me, but it's a very nice looking pen. You know, we've had issues with the effort of some of these, I think, in recent times. This one, super great. But it's... Calling it pen of the year 2021 is also... It's... I mean, okay. But again, it's like it's not a thing that you do.

Myke Hurley: But be very clear when you say that. This is the 1911 pen of the year, which means there, at some point, will be a Progear pen of the year.

Brad Dowdy: Huh. Wow.

Myke Hurley: And maybe they'll... I doubt they'll be a King of Pen pen of the year, but there just will be.

Brad Dowdy: The logic will tell you. Yes. This is the first of its kind, so...

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But wait, Myke. There's more. There's more.

Myke Hurley: These pens for this year will cost you 30% more than last year's and the previous year's limited editions. Hmm. So, the street price for the 1911 large will be $392.

Myke Hurley: And last year was $312. The 1911 small will be $280. Last year was $220. I think we're crossing a threshold here. That's going to be problematic in the long term. Like, this... This... Is a different buying decision for me. I will say, right now, I am considering buying the Witch... The Wicked Witch pen because I can get it for $312. And that's, like, one of the best-looking ones that I don't have. Because it's at last year's pricing. The new pricing is about 30% more than the previous year and the years prior. That's a... That's a huge ask.

Myke Hurley: Especially on the small side, right? The 1911 S is now $280 to get into. Do you remember when the Pro Gear Slims were, like, $140? It's the same pen. Like, it is the same pen. That means the Pro Gear Slims are going to be this price, too, for the limited editions. These are the limited prices. This is not the stock. Like, the stock prices are a few bucks cheaper, right? Like, the black and silver and the black and gold. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that is the expect... You would expect. It's not necessarily... This might be, for all we know, this particular model is a little bit more expensive than what will be a price increase. You know what I mean?

Myke Hurley: That goes back to the Retro 51 conversation in the beginning. Please explain why.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: You don't have to tell me... Like, you don't have to open your books. But you can say, this also increased by 30%. Here are our made-up reasons, like, you know, the world events have, you know, forced us into, like, raising prices. Things are more expensive now. At least you, like, admit to it instead of putting it in a font that you can't read on the page. Hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Hmm.

Myke Hurley: Um, the 1911 L is a great pen.

Myke Hurley: I don't know that it's a $400 pen. So, that's a lot.

Myke Hurley: That is a lot.

Brad Dowdy: So, that's...

Myke Hurley: What would the king of them be? There is a... Yeah. God. 900. Probably 950. I don't know. They're not doing... So, this is just these two models. So, unless it comes out later. Um, that's a lot to take in for a single release of a pen. There is so much going on with this pen that bugs me. Um, aside from just looking great. Like, I'm not... I'm even discounting the fact that it's a two-tone gold nib with a silver trim pen. Like, that's going to grate on my nerves to the last end. Like, why do you do that? Just make it the rhodium nib, but the two-tone nib's fine. But it's like... There is so much going on with this product announcement that... We love to talk about here on the Pen Act. And I'm glad we get to talk about our silly little... Silly little pens and stationary world topics. Because I think it's fun. Like, trying to understand what is going on with something like a new release from Sailor. It's fun. I love it. I don't love the price of this pen, though.

Brad Dowdy: That's too much. It is a lot.

Brad Dowdy: Was that the perfect episode?

Myke Hurley: Um, no. I think it was. It was pretty darn good, though. You think it was? It was a classic. It was a classic. I'm one of those people, Myke, who will never say the thing is perfect.

Brad Dowdy: The one thing we didn't hit? Some weird Kickstarter. That's what we're missing out on.

Myke Hurley: Well, the people won't have to wait long for the weird Kickstarter. We'll do... We're gonna... We're booking that for episode 450. I'm gonna start making notes today. I was looking at things the other day. So we'll get our weird Kickstarter fix in a few episodes from now. And, um... Yeah. That should be fun. That'll be probably the best episode ever.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. If this one wasn't, we'll get another shot at it in like a month.

Myke Hurley: Gotcha. We gotta have one shot every week to make the best episode ever. Wow. Keep working on it.

Brad Dowdy: All right. If you would like to find out more about the things we've spoken about this episode, there's lots of links. You can find them in your podcast app of choice. Or go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 446. You'll find everything you need there. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, knock.co, twitch.tv slash penaddict. And Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. Eastern. Brad is on Instagram. He's penaddict there. And he's also at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M on Twitter. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Myke Hurley: Goodbye, Brad.