The Pen Addict 433/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	433
Title:	Why would you do that‽
Release Date:	October 21st, 2020
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 433
Audio File:	Audio Episode 433
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 433
Length:	7272 min <br />1.2 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 433. Today's show is brought to you by Harry's and Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley, I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

Myke Hurley: Hey Myke, how are you? I'm good, how are you? Good, good. Word on the street is that there was a big package delivery at your house recently, something you may have been waiting an extended period of time for? Yep. This is the word I'm getting, the pigeon carrier told me that the delivery arrived.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, finally.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, settle down over there. Yeah, finally I got the parcel that I was waiting for, which was the parcel from you.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. The Retro Celebration parcel, which you had never, I'd never sent you a prototype of the pen, right? No, it was the first time I got it. First time. All right, so what do you think about this pen that we designed?

Brad Dowdy: I think everyone involved did a great job, because I think it's very fun, it looks really nice, and I'm very pleased with the design. I think that the, I'm surprised by like how much detail there is in all of this, including the fact that there's actually some silver, like there's quite a lot of silver ink in the pen, which I think is fun in the design. So I'm like, I don't know if that came through in the images that I'd seen, especially in the prototype. So yeah, I think it's really, really great. I'm very, very happy with the design, and it feels like the good celebration that I was hoping it would be.

Package Arrival

Myke Hurley: Exactly, yeah, yeah. You know I'm super happy with it, and the poster came out great as well. Like it's letterpress, it's nice, you know, it's super quality. I've already gotten pictures of people framing them on their wall, which is cool to see. Oh yeah, the poster is fantastic, it's so good, it's so, so good. It's so good, so good. Yeah, good, I'm glad you approve of the product that everyone else in the world has that you were yet to have. Did you know, Myke, I'm going to get in trouble here, are you ready for me to get in trouble? Yeah. Because I'm preempting future trouble, but there's already been one of these that sold on eBay and Retro 51 sent me the link. Do you want to know for how much?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: $500. You're kidding me. I was shocked again.

Brad Dowdy: Why would you do that? Who did that?

Myke Hurley: People don't, it was a completed, it was a completed sale. Like people don't even have all these in yet, in their hands yet, and I don't, I still don't get that. I don't have a problem with the seller, I have a problem with the buyer.

Brad Dowdy: Because surely the, you'd only, well, I don't know if, actually you probably wouldn't just buy it if you knew who we were, right?

Myke Hurley: Sure, yeah, you may not know. It just may be like a Retro 51 collector that doesn't know about us or whatever. Who knows? But I was stunned. I was like, is that, because I went after they sent me that link, I went and looked for it and it wasn't there. That meant that it was already completed. So I asked him again, I was like, wait, did that, that was actually a sold one for that price? And he was like, yeah. I was like, wow, it's crazy.

Brad Dowdy: That is really bananas.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, good, good. You got the package. I'm glad it sailed right through customs with no charges and like no further issues for you. That was awesome, huh?

Brad Dowdy: No, of course I got charged customs on something that I didn't pay any money for.

Myke Hurley: So I did something this time, not just for your package, but for all international packages with Kickstarter. Since you're supporting a campaign, I mark these as gifts, right? Like not merchandise, because you didn't necessarily pay for the merchandise. You know, it's a, it's a Kickstarter gray area, right? For, for shipping. But I have no qualms shipping these internationally marked as gift, which puts a, you know, it should give the parcel a pass, right? Because technically that means you didn't pay for the goods. But you still have to put, you know, you have to put in like small fees for that. How did you manage to get charged customs for this? This is what blows my mind. I don't, I'm guessing you don't know. Like it just happened.

Brad Dowdy: No, the, the, what they've done is, I mean, this is what's so annoying to me. Like they, they look at the insured value and they charge me customs on the insured value, which doesn't seem correct to me.

Myke Hurley: Like. What's the insured value? It was like $30 or something.

Brad Dowdy: No, I think it was more than that. I think you put it in the hundreds.

Myke Hurley: No, absolutely not.

Brad Dowdy: I don't still have the, I don't still have the box. But there was an insured value, right? On the, on the parcel. And that might be the, you know what it might have been? Like a standard insured value based on the method of postage or something. That could be possible. But that, I just find it so annoying because like I'm, it wasn't just handling. Like I also paid taxes and I just, it just is, it feels like a joke to me because I didn't give you any money for, like me specifically. I gave you no money. Right. For this. Um, so just you sending me a gift, which is a lot of this is, is actually just a gift from you. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I like other things in the box. Yeah. Yeah. Like I gave you, like, there was a couple more pins in there. I give you some stuff from, um, listeners that had mailed that I needed to send you.

Brad Dowdy: I paid 11 pounds in import VAT and a 12 pound clearance fee. That's insane.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Myke Hurley: That's crazy. Yep. For something you literally did not pay for any of.

Brad Dowdy: No. Where no money changed hands between the two of us. Wow. Yeah. So, Matty is saying in the chat that there's like built-in insurance. So, I reckon that that's what I was charged on. But I. Sure. And just because something is worth something doesn't mean that, you know, I, it's so annoying. It's so annoying. I hate it. I really hate it. I have no problem paying taxes, right? Sure. Like, when I do a lot of stuff that I buy from overseas, uh, I have no problem paying the tax on it. The handling fee gets me annoyed sometimes because I don't know why it requires that amount of money. Like, I wouldn't have paid it anyway. But, like, whatever.

International Shipping Issues

Myke Hurley: But you know, you usually know ahead of time, like, I'm assuming I'm going to get hit for something if I'm ordering it from out of the country.

Brad Dowdy: You know, me buying it from overseas, it is cheaper than if it was something I bought here because there isn't any tax on it. So, like, you know, you just like, right, well, I know I'm going to pay the tax on it. But then there are times like this where it's, it's just, I shouldn't have had to pay. It was incorrect. So.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. So, well, at least you got the package. Everything that was supposed to be in it's in it. And we can now move on with the rest of the show, right? We're all good.

Brad Dowdy: No, because you forgot some stuff again.

Myke Hurley: What? So.

Brad Dowdy: That's not possible. You included in quite a few extras in this package. So, one, there were two Retro 51 celebrations in my package, which I was not expecting. So, one, which I will keep closed, is my one, number two. I'm actually not going to open it. And then you also sent me number 807, which is one I'm using today. I got my bump in the night, Retro 51, that you procured for me. Nice. I really like the new stickers. Yep. They're bananas. They help my eyes. I don't know how you do that from a sticker. You sent me, there was a lovely letter, which I need to go through in more detail. I've just skimmed that so far from a wonderful listener. Yep. You sent me two of your great Caran d'Ache pants. Mm-hmm. You did not send me the spoke roadie that you had agreed you would send me. Son of a... And also, we had a conversation about you procuring some Califolia in Trenopel for me. Oh, yeah. I like that you immediately remembered both things. So, it wasn't one of those situations where, like, I was expecting something that you were just not aware of. So, I'm not upset at you. I was expecting it. But I'm actually kind of happy that you did forget something because then I get to needle you over it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Which spoke roadie color did you want? That's what I don't remember. Was it Gecko?

Brad Dowdy: I need to look at them now. And then I'll remember.

Myke Hurley: The only one that would come to mind was Gecko, which were sold out of. I think it might have been Gecko. Yeah. So, that's why I didn't send you that.

Brad Dowdy: No, it's not why. That wasn't why. Could be. The reason you didn't do it is because you forgot.

Myke Hurley: Because, like, I would have asked for it before it was sold out, surely. Possibly. But, you know, why would I send you one for free if I can sell it, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. No, I think that that's a very...

Myke Hurley: I thoroughly agree with that. Secondly, Califolia in Trenopel, you can get at Cult Pens for, like, mega cheap.

Brad Dowdy: I said all of this, but you were like, don't worry. I've got an order I need to make and I'll just get you some. Yeah, that didn't happen. No. But now I will go to Cult Pens and get it for myself.

Myke Hurley: It's all vaguely. It sounds familiar.

Brad Dowdy: No, Cult Pens doesn't have Califolia.

Myke Hurley: They did when we were talking about it because everyone emailed me afterwards, like, just tell Myke to order from Cult Pens.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, here it is. For some reason, it didn't come up when I searched Califolia. Yeah, probably you spelled it wrong. Yeah, I think I spelled it with one L. So there we go. I'll make that order later on today.

Myke Hurley: All right. So you got the majority of the things. The vast majority.

Retro 51 Market

Brad Dowdy: And some extras. So you came out ahead.

Myke Hurley: You know, I sent you those extra pens, like the extra Celebration and the extra 849s. I thought maybe you'd have one for you, one for Adina, but apparently it didn't go that well for her.

Brad Dowdy: The 849s, yes. But the Celebration, no, I want to keep mine all sealed up. That just feels like the right thing to do for me.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's for eBay later.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I can sell it for 700 pounds on eBay. Right. I mean, it's 002. If number two pops up, you'll know it's mine.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, no, it's been stolen. Someone broke in and stole just that pen. Well, currently it's one of the most valuable things in this office.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, true.

Brad Dowdy: Those kind of prices.

Myke Hurley: Right. Yeah, the Retro 51 market's pretty crazy. I still don't know what's going on with them for the rest of the year or in the future. Like, no clue. So who knows? All right. I guess that's a good lead into our business topic with Retro 51. We don't know what they're doing. And this is going to be a very kind of businessy, stationary businessy heavy episode because there were a couple of emails that I received and some notes that I received from other people. You know, did you see this? You can talk about this. You know, what's going on? And there's kind of like three or four separate topics I want to hit just on the business of stationary. And we can talk about how, you know, what we do and how it relates because I find all this stuff interesting. So the first one, I think it's the biggest one. It's from CW Pencil. So Caroline Weaver put out a huge blog post and an email. The title is Big Changes Ahead. The short version, it's a very long and detailed email, which we're going to get into some of it. But I want to read one specific little section, if you will allow me, and then use that as the jumping off points. Just bear with me for a second here. So this is, again, from Caroline Weaver. This is her writing. Six years ago, when I first put our website online, I had the goal of opening a shop that specializes only in pencils. Emphasis Hearst. The products on the website were extremely edited and carefully selected through the lens of a person who wanted to convince New York City that pencils are indeed an object that deserves more appreciation. Since then, we've moved to a bigger shop, multiplied the number of products we offer, and navigated our way through a global pandemic so far. The thing is, I don't feel like I need to convince anyone of anything anymore. And as I spent months working alone in my shop this spring, just trying to figure out how to save my business, I realized that since this website went live in November 2014, the thing that had become most important to me in my business over the past six years is not the concept itself, but the community built around it. So there's a lot to unpack. And that is like 100 words in an 800-word blog post, right? But that, I think, gives you the gist of what's going on here. So, you know, Caroline, what CWP started as was like a pencil-specific shop. Like, that was our go-to pencil shop, right? That's what they carried. They carried pencils. They did it very well. Caroline and her staff curated it perfectly. And it was beloved, right? Or it is beloved. I shouldn't. There's no was. It is beloved. You know, we have obviously met Caroline. We've been to the shop. You know, my thoughts on how she does her work and how, you know, she presents the store and everything. Like, I think she does great. And, you know, reading this, a couple of things. One, this last year has been a bear. You know, that's me reading between the lines. And that goes for all of us, especially us in the stationery industry and especially us in the niche stationery industry. You know, I've had, we've struggled with Nock, you know, over the past year or two, just trying to get things right. You know, this is hard to do correctly, right? And especially Caroline with a physical storefront in a city like New York. You can just imagine. And then having to rely on a lot of tourism to sustain the physical storefront. So I find it all interesting, you know, about that and the challenges. But what she gets to here at the end where she mentions the most important part is the community built around the shop. That's the most important thing to me when dealing as a business myself. You know, whether it's Pen Addict, Nock, SpokePen, whether it's working with other companies, you know, and choosing who I work with is that they are mainly community focused. But that's not something you necessarily see, like visually. Like we don't say we're community focused. It's how we act and how we present ourselves and how we approach our customer service and how we do our marketing. And the respect towards the customer is paramount. So that's going to allow Caroline to fully reboot what CW Pencil Enterprise is into a more local office supply shop first and foremost. And you can read all of this in her explanations in this wonderful blog post that we'll link in the show notes to build a place for the needs of the neighborhood around her and the city. Right. To build an office supply destination for the people locally that need her. So it's number one, not so heavily, heavily reliant on tourists and number two, not so heavily reliant on what's really, I don't want to say a small margin product, but a low sales product and a single pencil. Right. If you go in there and buy even a handful of single pencils, what are you, you're getting out there, you know, for 12 or $15, which is great. Like you feel awesome about your purchase and like, you know, they've made, you can't sustain on lots of, you know, $5 profits throughout the day. In New York City. Right. So there's a bigger opportunity to broaden the office supply space and destination for office supplies for local businesses.

Brad Dowdy: At a time when, especially in a city like New York, people need to get their own office supplies more than they ever did before now. Right. Because our homes have become our offices for many people.

Myke Hurley: Right. So she's going to use her experience in curating CW pencils to do that for a broader base of goods and have a focus on, you know, local, you know, smaller businesses, transparent businesses, sustainable businesses, ethical businesses. And pulling in these type of goods and then hopefully, you know, bring in a wider local commitment to the, to help the shop and then still have this great online business that she has. So there's a huge amount of changes that, that come into that. And she's working through those. And I just could not appreciate a post like this more. And we're going to talk about several other options like this in throughout this show. Like I have other things I want to talk about, but I just wanted to shine a light on this. Going back to her community statement and her transparent statement. Like I, I am very adamant in my stance on transparency with businesses I work with and for them to come out for Caroline to come out and say like, this is like the challenges that we've had. This is, you know, why we've had problems. Here's the changes we're going to make. And here's what we're trying to do in the future. That builds community around a product. That's something that the community can get behind that have supported CWP in the past. And it makes you want to support them in the future where companies that are not that way and hide behind marketing and hide behind, you know, obfuscation. It's harder to support them wholeheartedly when you don't feel like you're part of the business. And you don't have the commitment from the owner that they're putting the customer first. And that's what I see with Caroline. That's the way Caroline's always been. So I just appreciate this type of thing. And this is how I try to run anything that I do with just 100% transparency and openness. Because while, you know, these ideas may not be the most profitable, I think they're going to be the most sustainable. If you build that customer base, that's going to return because they believe in you, not necessarily the product, right? They believe in the person behind the product. And I think that's the most sustainable form of business. But it doesn't mean there's not challenges and there's not growing pains. But that gives you the opportunity like CWP has to make this pivot. And I am convinced it will be successful. I just know it is. But it's not going to be without challenges. And it's not going to be without the need of support from the community that Caroline's built over the years. And I just look forward to seeing what she's going to do in the future with this. And the continuation of the open, transparent conversation that she's having with all of her supporters. So I thought it was very well done.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. One, I wonder if Caroline will rebrand. I wonder if that is in the future.

Brad Dowdy: I think that in a parallel unit. So I think that the idea of going from expanding from just pencils to all types of stationery and general office supplies is a very logical next step for Caroline and her business. One that you could imagine she would have eventually made because people want to grow. Right? And this is a growth. I would imagine in a parallel universe, she would have opened a second store. Right. We're not in that parallel universe. And business is trickier to manage a little bit right now. Right? So I could have imagined a world where if the pandemic wouldn't have happened maybe in a year or two, she might have been like, I want a second location. And I want it to be a general office supply store. Right. But this time she has decided, no, I'm going to take what we are good at and apply it to a wider field. And I know that for me personally, I will be even more interested in CWPE because of the fact that I like pencils, but I'm not big on pencils. But I always really appreciate the team and their ability to curate. So taking that superpower and applying it to a wider space is very intriguing to me.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I think that's the right word. It's interesting to me to see what they can do because I already believe in them wholeheartedly as it is. And now you're going to mix it up, not because you want to, but honestly because you need to survive and already have the utmost faith in them to begin with. So to be able to see what they do next is going to be cool. So one of the bits of fallout from the changes is their pencil box subscription is being discontinued.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Subscription Services

Myke Hurley: And this kind of segues into the next topic that I want to talk about is just subscription services in general and stationary. Stationary subscription services. Over the years, like you and I have subscribed and unsubscribed and re-subscribed to plenty of stationary subscription services. And in general, I think it's a great idea. Right. But I had wound myself down to subscriptions. This was my last remaining stationary subscription. Right. Like I no longer subscribe to Field Notes or Blackwing. And we're going to get into that in a minute. But the CDW pencil box was a cool one for me because it allowed for discovery. So I got to thinking about, you know, why do I or don't I subscribe to some of these popular services? And who does it well and who does it right? And I was just trying to think big pictures, like what makes these services successful and what makes them, you know, I don't want to say fail, but what makes them like be discontinued or have to be stopped? Or change. Yeah, or change. You know, just in the general sense, it is an extremely difficult thing to do. Again, like that's going to be the common theme of this show today is business is hard. So any subscription service, man, what a challenge that has to be to come up with a new product every month, every quarter, every six months, every year, however you do it. It doesn't matter what the time frame is.

Brad Dowdy: You're asking people to blindly give you money for and you must delight them every time.

Myke Hurley: Every time, whatever your date is, every time. And the stress of that would freak me out. Like I could never be like a subscription person. Like I would just be in anxiety attacks like all the time, just trying to fulfill those needs. All right.

Brad Dowdy: Let's put a pin in this for a second because there's more talk to have there, but I want to take our first break. Okay, sure. This episode is brought to you by Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing rollerballs and fountain pens, ballpoints and mechanical pencils, and so much more from your favorite brands. Pen Chalet are always adding new products to the site and they're also running special deals very, very frequently indeed. Every couple of weeks, you're going to find new deals at Pen Chalet as well as new products. They also sell accessories. So if you need a carrying case or you want some refills or some ink, maybe you need some converters. Maybe you need some general stationary items. Go to Pen Chalet because they do great prices and they give a satisfaction guarantee. 100% is what they guarantee. They want you to be happy with the products that you buy. If you are in the U.S., they do free shipping on orders of over $50 and they have great and fast shipping for overseas orders as well. So go to Pen Chalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password Pen Addict for this week's special offer and to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time. Pen Chalet. Now, Brad, what do we have as a special offer from our friend Ron at Pen Chalet this time?

Myke Hurley: There's two sneaky things in here. Number one, the Diplomat Traveler fountain pens. So we talk a lot about the Diplomat Arrow and how great that pen is. And that's what kind of put Diplomat as a brand on everyone's radar. But their entry-level pricing pens have gotten rave reviews. And this is like the one up from the base entry-level pen. So this is the Diplomat Traveler. And it's in this cool like flamed finish barrel. And it's a thinner profile than the Arrow. And it gets rave reviews. And it's like half off of what it normally is. So like if you're, you know, kind of figuring things out as far as fountain pens go, that's a great one. Oh, one I missed here. The Cross Townsend Rollerball is always a good choice. It's a classic design that everyone's going to like. And this is like a crazy price off of the MSRP. And it's a really sharp looking pen. But the one that was snuck down here and jumped out to me is the Monteverde Engage One Touch Ink Ball Rollerball pen. Do you know what this pen is, Myke?

Brad Dowdy: Is this the one where you can fill it with fountain pen ink? Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.

Myke Hurley: This is a very cool pen. And this is a hard thing to get right. Pens that you try to be a rollerball pen to use with fountain pen ink. This is one that does it well. This is the one that gets recommended a lot. There's a few different colors of this, including like a gradient rainbow and an all black and then like a transparent one. So it's basically a rollerball with a converter in it. So you can use your fountain pen inks in it. And this is, Ron snuck that one in there. And I think this one's going to do very well.

Brad Dowdy: I think that there's a very, very good price on a Pelican M120, which is just above it. And the M120 is a shape of Pelican that I'm not personally that familiar with. It's actually shaped a little bit more like a Sailor 1911.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's more of their retro throwback type of design. It's not a current line that they've done a special edition on. It's a bringing back something from the past shape. That's not as part of their regular product lineup. So those always do well. So they're great.

Brad Dowdy: All right. If you want to go and get your hands on these special deals, just go to penchalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com. Click the link at the top of the website for it says podcast and enter the password pen addict. Our thanks to Penchalet for their continued support of this show and Relay FM.

Myke Hurley: So back on the subscription services, I think there's a couple in, I'm just talking really in our realm in the stationary world because there's a lot of options. I think there's two or three subscriptions that get it really right. And you can tell because they've been around a long time. Obviously Field Notes. They do one thing. Yeah. They're the OG, right?

Brad Dowdy: When it comes to stationary subscriptions, they are the OG. They innovated. Many of these other services have emulated what Field Notes have done. And companies will continue to do it in this space forever because not only do Field Notes create this idea in this space, they continue to execute at a very, very high level.

Myke Hurley: Right. And to me, it's the epitome of doing one thing and doing one thing well, right? Even though it's different every quarter. Not just well. It's right. It's not just well. It is premium. Like it is the best service. Blackwing falls right in line with Field Notes using the Field Notes format. You know, it's identical, right? In the idea of what a subscription service should be using that framework that Field Notes built. And, you know, it's a great product and it's no doubt that they've been successful.

Brad Dowdy: Are one of the very few companies that have taken the Field Notes model and actually lived up to it. Yes.

Myke Hurley: Not everyone can do it. No.

Brad Dowdy: Because it's really hard. That's why. It's not that people are not up to it, right? Yeah. This is such an incredibly difficult proposition. Yep.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Yep. And then I think Art Snacks does it extremely well. And that's more of a discovery base.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. This is more of your, like, typical curation box. Yes. Like how you would see in different worlds, like in the makeup world, in science, in tech communities, all that kind of stuff, right? Yeah. It is another example of a subscription thing, but it's totally different in the sense that, like, Blackwing and Field Notes, they are making the products. They are coming up with the ideas. They are producing the products. They're sourcing them and they're shipping them. They have to come up with the whole story around them. Where for something like Art Snacks, which is a more typical subscription box, they come up with the idea and then curate and source the products to go in an addition. Difficult in its own right, but different.

Myke Hurley: Absolutely. Absolutely. And they've been one of the few that's been able to curate the right products. They've been able to get the quality, the delightfulness, and the usability. I can't even fathom the logistical.

Curation Challenges

Brad Dowdy: It's a magical nightmare of pulling together 12 items or, like, say, 6 to 12 items from 6 to 12 different places at the same time.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Every month. I think it's monthly still. I'm not. So I'm no longer a subscriber to anything. You know, Field Notes, it doesn't mean I don't love them. I just don't use the Pocket Notebooks as much. Blackwing, I have too many pencils and I'm fine just buying the one-off stuff that I've seen. Like, I've bought two dozen Blackwing pencils for the first time in, like, a year. And then Art Snacks, there was actually too much art for me, right, when it starts including, like, acrylic paints and paintbrushes and things. Like, which is the focus of the box, right? There's lots of markers and pencils and erasers and cool things that I love. But it got to be more stuff that just didn't fit for me, but that doesn't mean it's not great. So I think it's that it's really kind of these three main ones. There's lots of other subscriptions that have come and gone. There's some that are active right now. And I just feel that that's kind of the best. And then this whole topic hit not only because CW Pencil was discontinuing my last remaining sub, my favorite box. I got an email from TI2 Design, whose pens I love and have consistently loved. And who Myke has been a good friend over the years to myself and to us at Spoke Design. And he's come out with a new club. And it's a pen of the month club. And this is a different category, I think, than the subscriptions. This is more... This is an aficionado super fan club, right?

Brad Dowdy: This is more like a Patreon.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So there is a mug maker that I like. His name is Brian Giniuski. And he makes mugs. His company is called Drippy Pots. You may have seen these online. And he has a Patreon campaign, which has a limited amount of people that can subscribe to it, I think. Where he will make you and ship you a mug every month. Right? So like this... And that is if like you are a big fan and you just want loads of their products. And you'll take a new product every month. And that's your thing, right? So this is the same with the TI2 Design. It feels much more like I am the biggest fan of this brand. And will just take whatever they make me. Yep. It's slightly different than what we're looking at with the... And I think part of the reason is it's a scale thing. Right? Where like if Field Notes did this today, what they do, we would call it this. Yes. But like if TI2 Design scale up to the point where they're selling 20,000 of these pens every month. Right? Which who knows, right? Who knows what the world can give you. Then we wouldn't call it that. But we will naturally assume that these are probably quite small numbers. I believe that there is limited slots. So this definitely has more of that like super fan feeling to it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Which I like equally as you know, all of these other things. Like if you're a TI2 Design super fan, I would sign up immediately. I think Kara's Customs does something similar or at least has some type of club type of aspect as well. So it's cool to see these brands being able to commit to a pen of the month club, which honestly blows my mind. I mean, Myke Bond is crazy prolific as it is. So it doesn't surprise me that he wants to give this a shot. But, you know, it's also probably over $100 commitment every month for a pen you don't get to see ahead of time. Which is like scary if you're not into TI2 Design, but perfect if you are, right? It's like sign me up today, right? So I think it's pretty cool. So all of these things kind of got my wheels turning a little bit. Not that I have any more to say about these topics, but I think it's always cool to think about the subscription services as part of businesses, you know, where the CW Pencil Box was a subset of the business where Field Notes, it is the business, right? I mean, they have retail, you know, where they just send the extra netbooks to retail partners and retail partners.

Brad Dowdy: It's a way to get rid of the stuff that didn't sell.

Myke Hurley: Right. You know. Yeah, but it's kind of their primary. I guess Blackwing, it's not really their primary, but like Field Notes it is. Where CW Pencils, it was, you know, it was down the list of things that were important to them. So it's not a surprise that this eventually, you know, had to head to the chopping block, especially as they transitioned. So, and then right at the same time, I'm thinking about this. I get the TI2 Design mail. I'm kind of like blowing my mind. It's like, do I need something like this? I don't. I'm definitely not subscribing. But it's cool. I like it. So there you go. That's my, that's my treatise on subscription services. It's very hard. All of this is very hard. All right, Myke. We're going to stay on the main topic and we're going to talk about another item in the stationary business world that I got an email on. I actually got forwarded this from a reader because I'm not on all the mailing lists. Like, there's a lot of mailing lists. I love mailing lists. I'm a fan of mailing lists. I subscribe to a lot. I don't subscribe to a lot. So sometimes I get forwarded things. And this one I got forwarded from Galen Leather. And this is more of the transparency aspect, how to run a business aspect. Like we talked about the Musubi email. Like, I love talking about these things because I'm involved in running a business. You're involved in running a business. And I appreciate when companies see a problem and attack it head on. So let me, this, I am actually going to read this entire email, Myke. It's not that long. But I think the whole thing needs to be read so we can discuss it. So here you go. So this is from Yusuf at Galen Leather, the owner. So it says, as you know, as being part of a commercial business, we are part of a pen and paper community. There's that word again. Maybe this is not a written rule, but we believe in our community transparency, honesty, and integrity coming first. We would like to inform you about elastic issues that reported first quarter of this year. So if you, if, for those who are unaware, um, Galen Leather is based in Turkey. English is not Yusuf's first language. So just bear with me as I go through this. He's done a fantastic job at putting this together and explaining the situation. So he says, what happened in March? A user reported that one of our pen cases, elastic stained her Lamy and pilot MR pens on social media. Actually, we were shocked by this news. We have been in pen case business in the last, for the last eight years before a public statement, we decided to make an investigation. Once we contacted the user to understand the issue, we discussed with our elastic supplier about, about the possibilities. They point out that the problem may only be due to moisture, wet hands, et cetera. Then we started to make a detailed test with a wide range of pens, different brands, materials from ABS plastic, acrylics, celluloids, copper, modern pens, vintage pens, from $10 pens to $1,000 pens, light colors, and dark colors. It took six months to complete our own tests. Finally, we can't see any stain, discoloration problems on the pens. So there's more I'm going to read, but just to recap, they had a problem or saw a problem from a customer who shared it on social media. They went through the work of trying to figure out what the problem is. They ran their own test over a six-month period of time to figure out what the problem is. And so far, I haven't come up with anything. So now I'm going to continue the mail. There are many different situations in daily use. Sometimes we touch our pens with moist or creamy hands. Maybe apply disinfectant during the pandemic season. Sometimes pen holders can be exposed to the sun and the outside. We can even write when we are by the sea. To eliminate all these risks, we decided to produce our own elastics some times ago. Our new elastics produced of only cotton and rubber are more softer and safer. They are more resistant to possible problems and not dyed. It is only woven from the thread of the same color as the pen case. As we mentioned in particular, we could not detect an important problem with our previous elastics. We only made this change as a precaution to the problems caused by different usage patterns in daily use. We're always grateful for your support and understanding. Thank you, Galen team.

Myke Hurley: I'm kind of taken aback by this whole thing.

Brad Dowdy: A little above and beyond feeling, really.

Myke Hurley: Honestly, it is. That's why. Because I think this is superior, right? This is what you want to hear. Okay, a customer reported a problem. Let's try to figure out why that happened.

Myke Hurley: We can't figure out why. Look, we did six months of tests. We ran every combination of elastic with every combination of pen. And we couldn't repeat what's happened. Most companies would have just stopped there. But they said, well, just to give everyone peace of mind, we're going to make our own elastics with another partner where we can guarantee that this thing that didn't happen probably will never happen. It's kind of mind-blowing what they did here. I think it's fantastic. I just wanted to, like Galen's, again, to be clear, Yusuf's a good friend of mine. I support Galen Leather wholeheartedly. You know, but I like to think, you know, with my level of transparency that, like, I will call it as it is. If one of my friends does something bad, I'm going to say it equally as praise them when they do something good. But this caught me as such an outlier, Myke, that you just don't see this, right? This felt, this was just kind of a cool thing to see, like, I don't know, in how they chose to handle a problem. Because this is not the first time that they've had production issues. Like, do you remember the warping issue on their writing box? Like, they had many, many issues getting that problem solved. And, you know, they've always been good to handle it. So I just wanted to point this out as a small business owner, looking at other small businesses, the way they handle the customers, you know, during problems, like, tells you a lot about how businesses are run. And I'm prideful in how I handle things. Am I always right? No. But do I try, you know, my best, you know, to do the right thing by the customer? Always. Always. And when you see someone like Galen Leather or CW Pencils, like, lay it out there, like, you just can't help but respect them even more for how they handle their business.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. As a counterpoint or an additional point, which is in a slightly different vein,

Brad Dowdy: the lengths at which Galen Leather have gone to is also, or could be seen as also, the potential downside of the small close-knit community that the pen and paper wall is in. Because one could argue that the lengths that they went to were not necessary for one solo complaint.

Myke Hurley: I see where you're going with this. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: But because the community is so tight-knit, one person can make a bigger impact on the overall feeling of everybody towards you. So if it got out in the community that Galen Leather's leather was destroying people's pens, they would be a bigger call for that company to explain themselves. Right. Where if we were talking about, like, Moleskine, they don't care. Right. Because why should they? They have so many millions of customers. Right. One person having an isolated incident or seemingly isolated incident, it's not really worth it. You know, you kind of just, if you want to give that person a refund, do it. But, like, they're not going to affect your brand, most likely. Right. But because the community is so small and your reputation is only as good as the perceived reputation by the community itself, you are held to a higher standard. Like, I am, like, the same with a lot of the ways that we run RelayFM, right? Like, our audience treats us much, would treat us much more harshly than a wider audience of a larger podcast network. You know, like, we are put under a microscope. I like that personally because it keeps me honest. Right. So, like, there are, we turn down certain types of sponsors because we know that our community would not like them. But these are the exact sponsors I hear on shows that are much larger than ours or more mainstream. You know, like, there's a, we get, like, lots of requests for, like, medical stuff that we don't do. Or, you know, like, for example, there is a company that does, like, hair loss stuff and men's health things. I won't go into much more detail than that. But we don't feel like it's a fit for our audience and we feel like our audience would be quite critical of it. So, we turn down deals like that. And it's, like, a similar thing of, like, because so much, because our entire company is built on the back of having such a strong and engaged community, that is what makes us able to do this, right? It's why we're so thankful to people because our communities enable us to produce this content and enable us to have homes, right? Right. But if you want to have that type of community, you have to be honest to it. And that means you must be willing to be scrutinized. And the other side of having that willingness to be scrutinized is you need to make decisions and the outcomes of those decisions could be seen as, in typical business circles, a wild overreaction. But it's important to our community.

Myke Hurley: That's exactly right. And that goes back to, to put a bow on it, it goes back to my point where these decisions and more the way that you run a business, like you being you and myself and Caroline, and there's ways to make a lot more money than we make. Oh, yeah. But that is a choice to not because it compromises something about us. Your integrity. It makes us successful in the first place, right? We wouldn't be successful in the first place by compromising our morals and our integrity, like you say. So, yeah, I fully support these types of businesses. And that's why we have, you know, these great communities that we have and super supportive communities and wonderful listeners and fans and readers. Like, it's great. Like, I'm thrilled.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because I just think it's like one of those things where it is worth noting the other side, right? Yes, that is a good point. But like, Galen clearly went to that level for two reasons, I would assume. This is my assumption is one is they were confused about it because they'd put the work in in the first place to make sure something like this wouldn't happen. And then two is they don't want to be seen as producing a product that would be seen in the community as damaging to expensive products, right? Right. I guess one of the worst things you can do in our subsection of the community is to make a product that damages your $1,000 Nakaya. Right. You're done, right? Like, if that's the type of product that you make.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, Galen, a lot of these companies that we love, they have a lot of give a damn. And that's not every company has that.

Brad Dowdy: So, it puts you in the fight in the first place, though.

Myke Hurley: Yep. All right. Let's talk about one of our favorite advertisers.

Brad Dowdy: Definitely one of yours. Yeah. One that you treat your own face to. That's our friends over at Harry's. You know Harry's by now. Well, I want to tell you about their sharpest blades ever, which is something that Harry's has recently brought to the market. Unlike some other razor companies, they don't charge you more for their product improvements. Harry's new sharper blades are still as low as $2 each. And new customers in the U.S. can redeem a trial offer of Harry's new sharper blades right now by going to harrys.com. Harry's blades are delivered directly to your door on your schedule with or without a subscription. These new blades are so sharp that in a study with people shaving four times a week, they reported that Harry's new blades, their eighth shave, was as smooth as their first. Harry's is able to do this because they own their own factory based in Germany that's been honing razor blades for 100 years. They source their steel from Sweden and own the entire manufacturing process from research and development to the factory floor, which allows them to keep those prices low and lets them confidently stand by their quality with a 100% quality guarantee at harrys.com. So, Brad, tell me something about these Harry's products that you love.

Myke Hurley: So here's the thing. Okay. We've been talking about these new blades for a little while now and I don't have them yet. So I'm going to go order. I just made myself a note while you were talking order Harry's blades.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: The reason why I don't have them is because they already make the best blades I've ever used in my life. They last forever and I don't burn through them. Right. I just don't have the opportunity to constantly churn through blades because they're so good to begin with. And now you're telling me that the one that's available now is even better. So I'm going to have to just go order these, keep these separate from my existing sash, you know, make sure I know which one is which and do a little comparison. You should shave one half of your face.

Myke Hurley: See how that goes.

Brad Dowdy: You can give Harry's sharpest blades ever a try today because they have a fantastic offer for pen addict listeners. New U.S. customers can redeem a Harry's trial set at harrys.com slash pen addict. You'll get a five blade razor featuring these new sharper blades, a weighted handle, foaming shave gel with aloe and a travel cover to protect your blade when you're on the go. Go to harrys.com slash pen addict and redeem your trial today. Today, our thanks to Harry's for their support of this show and Relay FM.

Myke Hurley: Continuing our theme of businessing, Myke, let's talk about pen shows. What do you say? What are they? Exactly. The definition of a pen show has changed. Like we haven't had any. Yep. Physically in a long time. There hasn't been many opportunities virtually to have them. You know, some there's been some pop ups and some individual things. But the Detroit pen show coming up on November 13th, 14th and 15th is going to be completely virtual. So they are planning on holding the Detroit pen show as scheduled, but with all virtual vendors all online. So you'll have to go to we'll have the link in the show notes to the Detroit pen show because I want you to go see and I'm involved and we're going to talk about this in a minute. But I am anxious to see. If this can be pulled off. Because it's different, right? It's like I'm I'm very curious about how the show organizers are going to make money, right? Like that's a thing that I can't not think about, right? Because you're losing the gate, if you will, right? You have two sources of income as a show runner is your vendor tables and your attendees. So this is all free for attendees. Vendors, you know, obviously have a table fee, but it's all going to be managed online. There's going to be vendor kind of meet and greets. And then there's going to be the availability to book a time with these vendors that are part of the pen show to have basically a one on one session to see their products, learn about their products and decide if you wanted to make a purchase of their products. So I'm interested to see how this all plays out. And I definitely am going to participate in some of that. But aside from that, I'm doing a virtual meet the makers panel, which I did in Baltimore and in person. And this one's going to be online. So I'll be have four makers with me will be I'll be, you know, hosting and moderating the panel discussion and I'll be asking questions and things like that. So we're doing that on Saturday. And I'm just anxious in a good way, not anxious, nervous, but anxious to see is this going to be a viable option for future pen shows to take on now?

Brad Dowdy: What is the pen show aspect of this?

Pen Show Adaptations

Myke Hurley: It's going to be the scheduling of time for vendors who are participating. Like you'll say, hey, I want to I'm looking for or I want to find out more about Edison pens. I'm going to book I'm going to pick the schedule for Brian and Andrea Gray from 10 to 1015 or 10 to 1030. I don't know what the time slots are and do virtual shopping with Brian as my guide. Oh, OK, so and then so the vendors will have all of these time slots Friday, Saturday and Sunday, essentially is my understanding.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Where you are as a vendor having the opportunity to talk to someone. This is an interesting.

Brad Dowdy: All right. I want to preface all of what I'm about to say here by saying you've got to try something, right? Don't know what's going to work. Don't know what's not going to work.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I have one big issue we're going to get to. So we'll see if you say it.

Brad Dowdy: OK, I think that this is something to try, but it doesn't sound like the right thing to me. Because one, it sounds absolutely exhausting to the vendors because you are needing to be available to have conversations for that entire amount of time, which is not the way that pen shows go. Right. Right. So where you have downtime and someone's booked out the entire time and also like there's no walk by traffic. It's also as a purchaser, quite intimidating because I like to just look at the tables. I don't want to talk to people unless I want to talk to them. Right. I want to just browse most of the time, although arguably you don't need to browse because you can just look at the websites already. So in theory, you have if you want to be a browser, just look at the person's website. If you want to ask questions, book one of the time slots. Right.

Brad Dowdy: I'm just not convinced that this is.

Myke Hurley: The thing. So you've kind of hit on what I see is the problem and I boil it down to volume. Yeah. Right.

Brad Dowdy: It's impossible for you to get even close to the amount of people that could come and look at your product on a daily basis.

Myke Hurley: Because your time commitment is enormous. Yeah. Which at a pen show, your time commitment is enormous, but you're there. You're physically, you know, you physically chose to be available for anyone who walks by to sell to. Mm-hmm. And this is a little bit more direct. It's going to be a challenge. There's no doubt. I am so glad that they're doing this and I want to support it.

Brad Dowdy: This is what we have been talking about the whole time. Someone's got to try something. It has to be done. Because no one was doing anything. And from this, I mean, understandably, because what are you going to do? I mean, I have my, I think we've spoken about it. I know what I would do. We can get to that in a minute. But even if this overall doesn't work, I guarantee people are going to take away something that they've learned. Something did work or like now I've done this. I could see doing it another way. Because I kind of can understand the idea of like allowing for these people to be available to answer questions is an important part of the process. I'm just not sure that this is the way to do it. But I also don't have off the top of my head a better way to do that.

Myke Hurley: Right. And like the people running the show, this is a lot of work to manage this. This is probably as much work as doing a physical show. Because once you get everyone's table set up, you know, at a physical show, you're pretty set for the rest of the weekend. You know, you have to, you know, put out fires that come up and take the gate attendance, you know. But this, managing a digital thing, I don't know how many vendors are participating. This is a lot of work. I'm very interested to see how this goes. And I hope everyone who listens participates. Let me ask you.

Brad Dowdy: You are a pen show vendor. Would you do this? As a vendor.

Myke Hurley: I would not commit Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in my house to sit in front of a computer to have 15 to 30 minute sales block windows. It's not worth my time.

Brad Dowdy: Because it's a hard sale, isn't it? Right. On your perspective.

Myke Hurley: But I would be available for four hours on Saturday afternoon. And I don't know if that's what they're asking. Like, I don't know that level of detail. Right. But if my availability has to be Friday, Saturday, Sunday, open to close. It wouldn't be worth it. But if I could say, okay, Nock is available from 12 to 4 for questions, you know, maybe that and maybe that's how they're doing it. I don't know totally. So then I would say, hey, that's a great time block for me.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So if I was doing a pen show right now, I would steal a little bit of what Detroit is doing and what you just mentioned. I think that that is an interesting idea of like products are available. But if you have questions on a product, these people will be available from this time to this time. But bear in mind that the product may have sold out by then, you know, like whatever. Right. My way of doing it is basically just a glorified online store, but it enables these people to sell the product that they otherwise would have made just for the pen show. So basically, I would work with a lot of vendors. So, you know, it's what I would want to do. And you have to achieve one of two things. Prices you cannot get elsewhere or limited edition product. They are the two things at the virtual pen show. And so as a consumer, that's what you know you're going to get. Because a lot of the time, that is what you get at a pen show. So, you know, it would be one destination and we would have brands of different kinds, including a lot of small makers. And it's a case of like you know that you're either going to get limited edition products from makers like woodshed, makers like Carolina pen, right? Like this is what you expect to get at a pen show. So, or larger companies that have larger stock options or like even like a Frank and Kristoff as well, right? So you get limited. Or companies that come, you know, like say like a Drumgools or Vaness or Andersons and say like you have to offer a discount, which you don't have to say up front. But there is a meaning that if you come and buy the stuff, then people are going to get a price discount. And that's why they're doing it. So that's kind of like the bones of what I think an event like this should be. But you've got to get a lot of buy-in and that's really tricky. And there would be an element of wanting people to be around. But I think that you could combat, I don't know exactly how you would combat it, but there is something to be said for these makers to be able to be able to answer questions for people. And maybe, like for all I know, maybe this idea of slot booking is the way to do it because you only have to be around at the times you've gotten booked. But that could get a bit out of control. I don't know. I'm happy to see someone trying something because up to this point, nobody's done anything compelling, understandably. And then hopefully as we move into the end of this year and into next year, there'll be some more options. Because basically, I don't think that we're going to be having any pen shows for...

Myke Hurley: First half of next year? Maybe longer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm thrilled that this is happening. I want to be part of it. I want to participate in it. I want to support it because they're putting their necks out to do this. And we'll see how it goes. We obviously have a lot of questions. I have a lot of questions. I have a lot of things to think about. But we have to start somewhere. And I'm glad that Dale Pencala has said, hey, we're going to give this a shot and to do this. So I think it's great. And we'll be anxious to see how it goes. And I'll see if I can get some feedback on the show. I'm sure I can. And we'll see what their pros and cons and their takeaways were from doing this. And once they get feedback from all the vendors that are participating too, they'll be able to find out like, hey, what worked for you, what didn't, things like that. So good stuff for sure. All right. You want to wrap this up on a couple of products? Yeah. That have passed through my hands that I have lots of questions about. But these are kind of like the first look. And you're going to be hearing some commentary on these products. Yep. First up is the AutoHut Design 03. This is one of the pens, the newest pens that I've gotten for myself to review. Our friend Dries at the Pencil Case blog did this review of this AutoHut pen. And I was like, man, that is a perfect pen for me. It looks amazing. It's really cool design. It's kind of basic but kind of complex at the same time. Huh. It's not crazy expensive. AutoHut has been around for, I don't know, a century. But they're kind of modernizing their lineup now recently. You know, they've been very classic German-styled pens. And now this one is kind of like this modern take. To me, they're like a mashup of Lamy and Faber-Castell, right? It's like this kind of perfect mashup between those two companies. So it's totally German, right? Like it is the perfect German company. And I ordered this pen because I wanted to see. Like I've never reviewed an AutoHut pen before. And I'm going to have a lot of thoughts on this pen. I really like it. And I really am really confused by it at the same time. So I just wanted to put this on your radar. Because I'm not sure how familiar with the brand you are. But they're making some changes to their styles. to their product offerings that I think might push them up a notch from where they've been in the past. And I want to take a look at what they're doing.

Brad Dowdy: The one that you're looking at is the Design 3?

Myke Hurley: Oh, 3. Yes, it's an all-black, kind of long, slimline, cylindrical pen. Black nib. Actually, black everything. Black accessories. Black clip. Black nib. All of it.

Brad Dowdy: But they don't just do a black one, though, right? They also do rose white, dark gray, light gray. The rose white is nice. It's rose golden white. Yeah. This is an interesting looking design. It kind of looks like the Apple Pencil a little bit.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's got that band on it, hasn't it?

Myke Hurley: So they've always kind of done these metal shapes before. But they've always just been, like, if, you know, stock photo fountain pen styles. You know what? I don't mean that in a bad way. But it was just never my style, right? I don't need, you know, your basic cross or your basic shaper. And that's what I felt like the auto hut was. And now... Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Well... They have other designs that are more on their page. Like Design 1 and Design 2, they're kind of a little bit pedestrian.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Which that doesn't mean they're good quality or bad quality. I mean, you know, sure, they're perfectly fine. Yeah. But now I'm interested. Okay. Now we're talking modern styles, you know, PVV-coated nibs, you know, all black looks. You know, it's very interesting. So I'm looking forward to review this.

Brad Dowdy: Do they make their own nibs?

Myke Hurley: I don't know. That's a good question. I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Because they're branded with their own branding.

Myke Hurley: Yes. They're like fully... It's not just like a stamping. It's like a fully designed nib. It's designed. Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: At least from my experience, fully designed tends to mean it's your own. Mm-hmm. I mean, it depends on the scale that you're buying at. But I can't recall a brand that had such heavy, unique branding on a nib that they didn't make themselves. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Well, I don't know if I can... It might be on their product pages, you know, if I dig a little bit more into their history. I can find it. You know, this is... Like I said, this is a company that's been around since the early 1900s. So who knows? They very well could. Very possible then, right? So... Yep. The second product that I just got in... I got in last week, but I didn't open it until yesterday, is the Sumkin Weekly Planner. So you know from a couple years ago how much I loved my Sumkin Planner.

Brad Dowdy: I just found it, Brad, on their website.

Brad Dowdy: Products by Otto Hart have a stylized logo engraved into the nib, which is inspired by the Bauhaus... Oh, it just says it's engraved. I didn't find what I hoped I was finding. They just talk about the fact that they engraved the nibs. Yeah. Sorry.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. No problem. No problem. It's interesting. Maybe we can find out. So we'll do a little research on that. But this is... It's a really good nib. Like, it's a very German fine nib on this. And, you know, it's just... It writes well. It flows well. So this Sumkin sent me a couple of paper goods. Sent me a notebook, a standard notebook, a Slim Traveler's notebook, and then a 2021 weekly planner. This planner is awesome.

Brad Dowdy: Very pretty.

Myke Hurley: It's also awesomely expensive. It's 70 euro. Woo! So... Wow. I have a lot to say about that. And this is a product we're going to talk about more.

Myke Hurley: Going through this yesterday, it is all of the things planner, right? It is the full service planner. It's got every calendar layout, every style. It's got habit tracking. It's got, you know, the world map. It's got blank pages in the back. Like, a lot of blank pages. Like, 40 or 50 blank pages. So, like, this is a thorough planner, right? It doesn't just do one thing as a planner. It does all the things as a planner, which is good for the price point. And if I was walking down the street in Paris in front of the Sumkin shop and walked in and saw this planner and saw it was 70 euro, I probably wouldn't blink, right? But in relation to, like, what we're used to as planners as the expensive ones being half this price, right? You know, you question, like, well, what am I getting for this? And, you know, that's what we're going to explore, right? Sumkin's making all of these products in-house. They're basically a printer who's making these products. And, you know, I say it's 70 euro as thinking it's expensive, but I'm also saying that as someone who is about to crack open a $130 Misubi journal. That's just a journal, blank page journal, right? So, you know, buying products, stationary products that are expensive takes a lot of thought. And I'm going to be checking this one out. I'm probably going to be giving this away, but I really want to put some thought into what are we getting here for the price? Does it feel right? And if you're going to make a commitment to a single product and you like this style and format, I wouldn't have a problem paying 70 euros. But I say that knowing that you can buy a Hobonichi Techo for half of that. You can buy a Jibun Techo for half of that. And then you can buy, you know, Leuchterms and Midori's for a third of that. So, you know, it's just what you're liking, what you're looking to get out of a planner, what type of style and aesthetic, quality features and things like that you're getting. But I wanted to point that out because I kind of can't stop thinking about it yet. Like I could never use this planner, right? It's too much for me. I need a more simple planner, but like I get it. It's kind of good and kind of expensive.

Brad Dowdy: It's beautiful though.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, it feels great. The fit and finish of this is killer. Like they've done a good job with it, but it's expensive.

Brad Dowdy: Can I just mention that the theme system is on sale at the moment? You may. When I mean on sale, I mean on sale. It's $15, which is a 25% discount. We have some stock of version one that we would like to sell off before version two later on this year.

Brad Dowdy: Any day now I will have final prototype, which is nerve wracking. But the current journal is on sale for $15. It's worth remembering. The layout and the system itself is unchanged from version one to version two. Like when it comes to how you write your themes, how you track everything. I've just made some tweaks to the design and I've added a few features for the next edition. And version two will be more expensive than version one was. So because we're putting more into it, the product will be a higher quality product than the original one, provided everything goes the way that I'm hoping. So we'll be increasing the price because it's actually becoming more expensive for us to make it. So if you want a theme system journal, if you love the theme system journal, you can pick one up for $15 over at cortexmerch.com right now.

Myke Hurley: So this reminds me, Myke, and I won't extend this too long because I was going to put an entirely new segment in this episode on the Zettelkasten. I listened to the Notes Cortex podcast finally yesterday, not realizing that the Zettelkasten was mentioned in there. And I have gone through this and have a lot of thoughts on that. And I wasn't going to torture you. I would really like to know more about that, but not today. Not today. And it's a whole 10-minute, 15-minute topic to discuss that. But being an index card user, obviously, it's very interesting to me. So you should put a link in the show notes for anyone that wants to go find out about this note-taking system called Zettelkasten. And as you say, I have no clue if I'm pronouncing it right, but I'm sure we're here from the audience.

Brad Dowdy: From the Germans.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. As we do. All right. That's it for today, Myke.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. All right. If you would like to find links and information about this episode, you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 433. If you want to find Brad online, you go to penaddict.com. He is also at penaddict on Instagram and at dowdyism on Twitter, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. I am at iMike, I-M-Y-K-E. Both Brad and myself are Twitch streamers as well as podcasters these days. Brad has an official schedule. It's Tuesday, Thursday, 10 a.m. And Eastern, twitch.tv slash penaddict. I'm a little bit more higgledy-piggledy right now as my streaming setup is in beta, but I stream maybe once or twice a week at mike.live, and it's mostly keyboard-related content. And that's probably the plan. But I'm working on stuff. I just got affiliate, Brad. Nice. Got affiliate last week. And I'm working on visual design and emotes and all that kind of stuff now. That's my next big project. Cool. You can go and check those out if you like, too. Thank you so much to Harry's and Pen Chalet for their support of this episode, and we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.