Editing The Pen Addict 452/transcript (section)

== Food Aid Nib Discussion ==


'''Myke:''' It's got a food aid nib on it, yeah.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. It's great. Like, I love everything about that, especially the price. The price and the originality, like, I don't ask for much.

'''Myke:''' Talking about love, we didn't actually follow up on this. A couple of weeks ago, you spoke about you had ordered and it arrived your first Platinum Ultra Extra Fine. Yeah. And you posted on Instagram how much you love it, right?

'''Brad:''' Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I think I am, this is going to be one of the, gosh, it may be singular, in pens that I keep inked up all the time. Oh, wow. Wow. It's that good of a thing. It fills that Pilot Hi-Tech C 0.3 millimeter need for me.

'''Myke:''' That's so wild, like, to think a pen like this filling the Hi-Tech C, like, yeah.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, yeah, yeah. It might even be finer than 0.3. It might be, like, 0.25. It's just, it's a real pleasure to write with. It's very consistent. It's very sharp. Like, I've done no tweaking to the nib. This was right out the box. It was perfect. And I've gone so far as to just buy ink cartridges just for it. Like, I've bought a set of the Platinum's permanent black ink cartridges. I'm loving, that's another thing. I'm loving the black ink again because of this nib and this pen. And I want to try a different cartridge. So, I'm using Platinum's stock black ink cartridge. And then they have their carbon black, which is their pigmented. I want to see if the UEF can handle that ink. I think it can, at least from people I'm talking to. So, I'm going to give that a shot because it's a very neat ink. And it's permanent. And it's got a really, really good color. And something about those fine, sharp black lines just really gets me going. Like, that's the original Japanese gel pen ink line that I've been looking for for all these years. And I could have, you know, there's plenty of options. I've got plenty of other pens that can write this fine. But this one just is really checking all the boxes. And, like, I want to use it all the time. Like, it's just, it's a really, really great pen. And I should not have waited this long for it.

'''Myke:''' This is, I saw this headline that you put in the notes and I couldn't get my head around it. So, Apple Boom, who are a, are they Dutch? Yes. Dutch-based pen store. We talk about them a lot because they get some pens before anybody else. What is the brand that they tend to have first?

'''Brad:''' A lot. I mean, they're big time in my book. Like, they are a big player.

'''Myke:''' They're one of the larger European companies. Molly says in the chat it means Apple Tree, which makes sense because that's their logo. It's like a little Apple Tree. They have bought a pen store, which makes sense. It's in Boston.

'''Myke:''' What's going on here?

'''Brad:''' I don't know, but I love it. Like, I got this message from a reader yesterday. So, Chris, thank you for sending me this because I hadn't heard of it until then I got on Twitch stream and the news was around and we were talking about it a little bit. But, you know, I've dealt with Yost Apple Boom before, who is the owner of Apple Boom. And just super, super great guy, super easy to work with. He's very supportive of the stationery community as a whole, aside from running like a top tier fountain pen storefront. So, you know, they have their location in the Netherlands.

'''Myke:''' Brad, they also have a store in Australia. What? Oh, this is an office. It's not open for visiting. Yes. But they have an office in Australia.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. So, it turns out they've had an office in the States for a while because I reached out to Yost and I just emailed him like late last night, had a few questions, hoping he'd get it this morning and shoot me an email back. And he did. And he let me know 50% of their customers are in the US, which is shocking.

'''Myke:''' And they were distributing from Europe?

'''Brad:''' Yep. Like shipping from Europe? They already had an office in the US. Right. So, I think there may be like, maybe some of the brands ship from there. I don't know. It's a very complex web, but it just, I think it's like a super positive kind of thing and a super interesting feel about the whole idea that this Dutch pen company who, let's be perfectly frank, is excellent, right? No, I think it's so good. Everything they do is like top tier and they're broadening their reach worldwide and having these kind of like satellite offices, right, to distribute and ship from. But now they've gone as far as purchasing a physical storefront, which is the Bromfield Pen Shop in Boston. And I just find the whole thing interesting. So, let me read Yost's email. He said, 50% of our customers are from the US. So, it was a matter of time before opening a store there. We already had the office, but a physical store is always something different and feels more comfortable. If we were entering the US market, I wanted to have a location on the East Coast as it's closest to Amsterdam. Makes sense, right? And for now, the Boston location will stay as is. They'll start to ship US orders from appleboom.com. And they hope to be able to start, you know, when the travel restrictions ease up, they hope to start working on the shop and doing more with it. So, I just, yeah, I'm still trying to wrap my head around this, that this can actually happen today, right? This doesn't sound like a thing that should happen in our industry. That's why I find it so interesting, right? Like, seeing a shop expand internationally.

'''Myke:''' I also just think this is a super fantastic story for the original owner of this store. That they were able to, you know, I guess, potentially to retire or to move on. And it go to another smaller, like small-ish company.

'''Brad:''' Essentially, it's going from family-run store to family-run store.

'''Myke:''' And I love that story. I think that's so cool. I mean, it's so much better than, you know, I don't really know much about the Bromfield pen shop. But I assume the pandemic's probably been pretty tricky for them. And this is, I would hope, is like a nice way for them to relax a bit now, maybe. That would be my hope for the owners of that store. Yeah. Yeah, so super cool. I think this is a great story. I'm happy to see this.

'''Myke:''' These are the kind of things that I think we're going to see more of post-pandemic. You know, a lot of businesses moving around like this. And I hope that things continue to be positive.

'''Brad:''' Yes, maybe we've collectively learned how to, you know, work this whole working from home thing. We've learned how to manage our businesses and, like, make things work where we didn't even consider what options we had in the past. Because, hey, we go to the shop, we stock the shelves, and we ship, and we let people in the building. And now that business model changed a little bit and then maybe opened up some eyes. It's like, oh, well, we can still do that, but we've been working on these other things for the past year that seem to be pretty successful, too. How does that change our future? So, I like it.

'''Myke:''' All right, should we take our first break and then talk about what everyone's here to listen to today? Sorry, you have to listen to me talk about my journals, because there's only one thing we want to talk about. But before we do, let's thank our friends from Pench LA for their support of this episode. Pench LA sell all of the products that you're looking for from all of your favorite brands. They have great discounts and the very best customer service. Every couple of weeks, you go to Pench LA and you can find new products and new discounts as well. Not only can you find rollerballs and ballpoints, mechanical pencils and fountain pens, you can also get ink and refills, converters, pen holders, carrying cases, and so much more from all of your favorite brands. Far too many to even attempt to list all of them. It's one of my favorite things about Pench LA is over the years that we've been working with them, just seeing their expansion and all of the different types of products they carry from all of these different brands. It really does make it like a first place to go to. Like, if you want to buy something, you've got something on your mind, go to Pench LA first. Because not only are you going to get free shipping on orders of over $50 in the US, or great shipping rates worldwide, not only are you going to get a 100% satisfaction guarantee, you're also going to get 10% off anything at Pench LA at any time, just by going to Pench LA.com and clicking the podcast link at the top of the website and entering the password PenAddict. That's where you've got the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Pench LA, and to feast your eyes upon a cornucopia of special offers for listeners of this show. What are they this week, Brad?

'''Brad:''' I'm busy trying to make a purchase. Can you hold on?

'''Myke:''' Oh, you really?

'''Brad:''' Mm-hmm. So we've got to hold this thought. So, no. Like, I'm trying to check out. Like, I don't know. Should I check? Okay, I won't check out. I'll let someone else get it first. But if you don't, I will get it by the time the show's over. But I'm not going to tell you yet, because I'm going to tell you the first thing in the list. Okay. The Diplomat Magnum fountain pen is one of those pens that I haven't used, but people consistently rave about it as, hey, this should be an option for your beginner fountain pen, like for your very first fountain pen. The price right now, like it was already an inexpensive pen, like in the $20 range. What it is, it's half of that now. So if you're looking for like a good quality starter pen, that is the way to go. The pen I tried to purchase before I had to speak was the Star Wars Boba Fett rollerball.

'''Myke:''' Oh my God, that price.

'''Brad:''' What? It will be gone by the end of the show, probably. But they also have the Chewbacca fountain pen and some of the other Star Wars cross pens that they must just be liquidating because the prices are dumb. And if these aren't sold out like before this afternoon, y'all are not paying attention because I'm going to buy one. I want the Boba Fett, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to click the cart. The Han Solo one is available too. Because I'm busy talking. Yeah. So, um,