Editing The Pen Addict 314/transcript (section)

== Field Notes Release ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Alright, so the game that we're gonna play is... there was a new Field Notes release.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Everybody's favourite game!

'''Myke Hurley:''' Everybody's favourite game, back again for a new edition, and this is the game in which we try to guess for each other if we like the edition. Uh... I should record this, but I have no idea who went first last time, but I'm just gonna go first. Okay. So we have the Three Missions Edition, which includes three notebooks that have pictures on the front, so they're like the picture-based notebooks, and they are of three different space program things. So you've got the Mercury, the Gemini, and Apollo programs, so it's like images from each of those. It also comes with tiny little cut-out capsules that you can build out of paper, so little scale models that you can build of the capsules of each... of each space program mission, I guess? A shuttle mission? Mission, yes. Yeah, the paper is... it's grid. It is with extremely light, firmament grey ink is the grid, but it's on Finch opaque white graph paper. And so yeah, that's kind of the details, I guess, that you need to know. If you're a subscriber, you get a sticker. I'm gonna say straight out, like, there is no question about this that you love this one, but you are reserving judgment on the printing of the grid.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So do I reply, or do I pick you now? Should I say what I want, what I think?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, say if I was right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You were mostly right in that I don't have to reserve judgment for anything.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Is the only place where you were wrong. This is what Field Notes does best. This is a 10 out of 10 Field Notes edition, not necessarily for me personally, right? But for Field Notes as a brand, as a company, as a manufacturer, as a storyteller, this is a 10 out of 10 Field Notes ranking, right? This is what they do best. They're an American company. They focus on American storytelling in a lot of their manufacturing, in most of their manufacturing. And they've always been fans of space and exploration. This has been an issue that has been requested for as long as Field Notes has been in existence. And they absolutely nailed it. Like, using the full bleed photos on the front for this type of issue is wonderful. Like, it's not everybody's style. Like, it goes away. This is not your traditional cover. But they've done this enough times now to where it's become kind of a Field Notes thing. It looks the part, right? It fits everything that you, your expectations. And then they went above and beyond with the extras. Like, this is not normal. You know, in any way, shape, or form, this is not normal. And that's a positive, right? It's hugely positive. I, you know, on me on a personal level, I mean, I love them too. You know, whether I'm going to use them, buy extra ones, who knows. But just as the Field Notes brand and the Field Notes story, this is a 10 out of 10 for me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You want to give your guess for me?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, I think this is on lock, no brainer. Right up there. Probably still behind.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' What was the one? Pitch Black? Not Pitch. Is it Pitch Black the one that you like? Night Sky. Night Sky. But it might be number two for you overall. Am I close?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I want to get it in my hands. I would say that I think this one, I don't think this one's going to beat Coastal for me. Like, I adore Coastal because it's basically like Pitch Black 2, Electric Boogaloo, right? It's everything that, sorry, Night Sky, I should say. It's everything I loved about Night Sky. Like, again, reticle grid, foil stamping, like the whole bag. I absolutely love three missions. But again, there is an element of this is a very America-focused pack. And I obviously, I love that, but I have a slightly different feel about it. And also, you know, all of these space things were happening kind of before my time as well. Right. And also, you know, even though these were happening in the 60s and 70s, like my kind of young life wasn't really full of space so much. You know, like a lot of it started to go away by then. But I will say I absolutely love the look of this edition. I cannot wait to get my hands on it. I'm really interested to see what the paper looks like because they've colored it a little bit, right? And I like that. I'm really, really intrigued to see the extras. I think that they have gone, as you said, like above and beyond what they needed to do from that. Like, you could have just made those extras available to subscribers, but they've made those available to everyone. And there's a sticker for subscribers, which is a let's go back to the moon sticker, which I really enjoy. Because I think we should, as humans, go back to the moon. I don't believe in that. I think that's a cool thing. And I can't believe that even with all these extras that they're doing, so it's three little scale models that you can pop out. Still $12.95. Yep. But, Brad, I don't know if you know this, but this is the largest edition size of all time.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, I was going to look at the number.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What is it? Do you want to take a guess at how many? And I'll say that the previous was something like 40,000, which was... 40,000 three packs? That Shenandoah was 40,000 three packs. It was the largest before three missions.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay, so I was... Before you told me that, I was going to say 125,000 books, which is a little over 40,000 three packs. So I'll say it must be larger than that even. So we're going to go 50,000 three packs.

'''Myke Hurley:''' 50,000 three packs.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Wow. Which is an obscene number. Like... And I'm expecting you've got a couple of things going on here. One, they know they can sell them, right? Or at least they're confident they can sell them. Because this, like, nice guy, like Raven's Wing, like, byline, these are general interest. Like, a lot of my friends have bought these. Like, Jason Snell bought a pack of these. And Jason never uses pens, right? Because he's a space guy. Right. But the other thing is I'm assuming all of the extras that they've done have kind of restricted them from a cost perspective. Right. So they've had to increase the pack size to get their costs down. So they're able to sell them at the same... Or close enough, I guess, on the profit margins. So that'd be my expectation. It's those two things. It's one, they need to do a larger run so they can make it up in volume. But then the other is they are probably very confident that they will sell these. And I expect them to be sold out within the next two weeks, for sure.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, no way. You don't think so? Zero percent chance they'll sell out in two weeks.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. Well, we'll see. We'll come back to that, shall we?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'll put some jelly beans on that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. They will sell out, though. If you would have said two months, they will absolutely sell out. But I think it's two months, not two weeks.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think I may have gotten a bit excited with two weeks. But they're going to sell out quickly. They'll sell out quickly. How about that?