Editing The Pen Addict 249/transcript (section)

== Van S Store ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' First time I've been to the Van S store. So I drove. Tell me all about it. It was pretty awesome. So my drive, that was my destination. So like all this drive, you know, the whole eight and a half hours, the termination point was the Van S pens parking lot. So it was kind of cool. You like park in the store sitting right there in front of you and you walk in and there's Lisa and there's Myke and there's all their employees and there's their shop, which is really big. Um, it's like half pen store, half like gift shop. And the it's, it's bigger than I expected. They had more stuff than I expected. Um, but it's as cool as I expected. Like it's fun. You know, like I have a big table. You can, um, you know, they have a lot of, uh, uh, customers that'll come in and hang out and talk about pens and ink, you know, kind of like our pen show after parties. They have like a big table there where you can just come sit and hang out and, and talk with your buddies. And, you know, I got the tour of, of all the stuff there at Van S and you know, the next year is their 80th year in business. So you can imagine they have lots of, uh, lots of stuff that they have carried around through the years. So I got to see some of the old, you know, like promotional items, some old, old artwork, some of the old, um, you know, like, um, cabinets, you know, different brand cabinets and things like that, that they've repurposed over the years. And it's, it was just really, really cool to see that. I don't know that I've ever been into a pen shop before I got to thinking about that. You know, I don't know that I've ever like walked into a pen store in my life before. So that was pretty cool. And, um, you know, everything's out on display. They just have cabinets after cabinets, after cabinets of display. Um, they have everything. So it was really, really cool. They have as much ink as you think they have. It's crazy. Um, the amount of inks that they have and they're all there and they're running the online business out of a section of that shop too. So it's, um, you know, I was interested to talk to them about how they manage like the, the physical brick and mortar inventory versus the online inventory, how all that stuff works. And, uh, all the employees were super nice and helpful. They let, just let me jump behind the counter and do whatever I wanted. And it was fun. Um, so Carrie, uh, from Kenro was there and a fountain pen day. Um, and he was there when I got there. So we just had fun, like going through the store, checking out all the stuff and, um, you know, seeing Myke's repair station and some of the old tools he would use for that. And, um, it was just, I could have, if, if I live there, I'd be there all the time. Just, I'd, I'd be, I'd be pulled up to that table, you know, every afternoon or evening after I got off work or on the weekend. Um, it's, you know, it's like, uh, um, you know, like people would go and like hang out at the comic book store or something like that. You just, the place where you get your regular customer of, it feels like you're part of the family there. You know, they have that type of feel to the store. So it makes people want to hang out there and, um, do stuff. And Lisa says, you know, she loves the people hanging out there. I would go bankrupt. You know that? Yeah. Oh, totally. Totally. But she says, you know, if you hang out there too long, I put you to work. So the people like at the table, um, she's like, Hey, I need all these ink samples done. So they'll sit there and pull ink samples for, which is cool. That's pretty sweet. It's fun to be part of that family. It's a total family, uh, atmosphere and feel, which I mean, it's a family business. Um, you know, little rocks, definitely a family oriented town. Everyone kind of knows everybody. And, um, it was just really, really cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So as Rez said in the chat room, are you Brad, are you Brad Venice now?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I could pull that off. That could be my name. I, I, I do feel like part of the family now. And, um, you know, it's just Lisa and Myke make it easy. I mean, they're just easy going down to earth people and you know, there's no pretenses and you know, there's like, I don't ever have to worry about anything around them because I mean, that's how I am too. So I'm, you know, pretty low key and, you know, easy to get along with. So we of course get along like swimmingly. It's really just, I felt right at home from the moment I walked in. And, and I mean, there's really not much more you can ask for than that. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You, uh, mentioned in refill that you had pre-ordered a couple of pens that you were picking up there. And I want to know, I want to know the, the deal on this, my friend.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, being part of the family does have its benefits. Um,

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh my God, Brad Dowdy. So I put the links in. I cannot, I hate, I hate you. I hate you so much right now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I'll probably get, I'll probably get in trouble for what you're yelling at right now, but let's talk about the other one that I won't get in as much trouble for. The first one's the Aurora Nebulosa, which I talked about, um, for the past couple of weeks, I guess, since I first saw the color of it. And it wasn't necessarily going to be there in time for me to pick up at the show, but it happened that they all came in at the, um, right around the same time all the flex nibs came in. So I thought it was going to be like another month or so, but it was there. It got there the day I showed up actually carry hand delivered that one. Um, because he was delivering some stuff to Fades. So mine was in there and I had that on pre-order because I wanted an extra fine nib on that one. And it's just as good looking in person as it is in pictures. It's my first rose gold plated fountain pen. And on this purple, it looks fantastic. It's actually very light, the rose gold, which I appreciate like, it's not real stark and strong, if you will. Um, it's very subtle and the clip and, uh, uh, cat band nib, they all fit in, in there like perfectly. And I was so busy. It has yet to be inked up. It's still sitting on my desk in a box. Like when I got, I didn't have time while I was there. Um, because one, I didn't want to carry it around cause I hadn't finished paying for it. Um, and I just never had time. Plus I couldn't decide what ink I wanted in it. So I just said, you know what, I'm just going to throw this in my suitcase and take it home. And then when I got home, everything just came out of the suitcase onto my desk, which is a catastrophe right now. So I haven't had a chance to even ink it up yet. The next pen is in the same boat. I haven't had a chance to ink it up yet for all the same reasons that I just mentioned. I hate you. And I might get in trouble for this one. Um, I might be kicked out of the family, but I got the bung box fifth anniversary sailor fountain pen. I hate you so much. So this is, we were talking about this pen weeks

'''Myke Hurley:''' ago. It's the one with like the sparkly gold, uh, body with the black cap. And we were both trying to work out how to navigate the bung box website and just gave up. So why were you going to get in

'''Brad Dowdy:''' trouble for this? Well, because she only pre-ordered a couple and they were already sold. So like, they're not available. Right. Yeah. So, I mean, I emailed bung box. Um, and basically I said, we'd just handle it through Van S and it was just the easiest way for everyone. Cause I said,

'''Myke Hurley:''' I wanted it. So yeah. So there's that. You're not the only one that wanted this pen, you know, doubting the person you got to worry about is me here. Right. This is one of those,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' this is one of those things that you don't know is going to happen until it actually shows up. Yeah. Right. So it's like hard to even say, well, can I have two of those? Like,

'''Myke Hurley:''' no, I get it. I get it. No, I don't, don't, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you should have bought me one. I'm just annoyed that you have one. That's my problem here. I don't know if I didn't

'''Brad Dowdy:''' notice this in the beginning, but it has a metal section, which is pretty awesome. Oh really? Yeah. It's got the metal section, like the Imperial black in the 1911, but I didn't

'''Myke Hurley:''' realize that. Just bring it to Atlanta so I can touch it for a while. Oh, no doubt. And then spend the rest of my life trying to track one down. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, um,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' it's also still uninked just because I just haven't had time. Like it's, it's crazy, but I did buy an ink to go in this pen, which is in one of our, uh, ask TPA questions below. So we'll, we'll it's a bung box Imperial purple. So I think that's going to be a good ink for that pen. So I, I, yeah, ink, that's a thing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The chat room are giving me a bunch of tips right now about how I can procure one of these bung box fifth anniversary pens. We are going to be sharing a room. So the tips tend to range between knock him over the head, uh, and or trick him. So yeah, you don't,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' you don't have any ties to North Korea, do you? Why would I? Um, I don't know. See that that's what a person who had North ties to North Korea would say. So I'll, I'll have to get someone else to, uh, drink my drinks, um, or try my food before if you're around.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You got to get an official food taster. You could get that Atlanta though. You're like the king of that town. Jeez Louise. You get an official food taster and the Atlanta pen show. I'm not the king of

'''Brad Dowdy:''' anything. All right. So how was it being the hype man? It was great. It was, uh, this was such a different show in like every way possible, except it felt completely familiar. Yeah. Um, which was cool. Uh, it was a comfortable show for me to like walk around and do things. So like when I got there on Friday, so we did a couple of set up things on Thursday night, but the show started Friday morning and I got access to the Arkansas pen show Instagram account. And I was just going to track the show for them on their Instagram account for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, take pictures of the show of the vendors, of the products of the classes. And that was really fun. So like, you know, I would just think about, you know, I wanted to try to get as many pictures as I could of different things, you know, different vendors, different pens, um, you know, different people than you would necessarily normally know at a pen show. People I didn't know who I'd never met before, you know, strike up conversations with them, learn about them, learn about their business, how they got into pens, what they're doing here, that kind of thing. So it was fun. And, um, you know, it was, I knew a lot of people, but there was a lot of people I didn't know. So I was able to get to meet some new people and had some good conversations, you know, telling them what I was doing, uh, for the show. And it was cool to go see some of the classes that were happening. I actually got to sat, sit in a class, um, which was a fountain pen hacks class for, um, you know, using like household items to help, you know, clean and maintain your fountain pens. Oh, nice. This is really cool. Like I took a bunch of notes during this class. It was, it was really cool. A gentleman named Danny Harris did that class. And the, the key takeaway that I had was the Arkansas pen club that put on the show really did an amazing job putting it together. Like they had everything down, like to go off without a hitch, like the, the room layout, the room set up, the scheduling of the event, the scheduling of the classes, like there were no questions. Right. So that's a, not an easy thing to do. Um, and it's especially not, uh, something you see at all shows, you know, like, but like all the good shows have this Atlanta has this San Francisco has this, you know, DC, not so much because the promoter does things differently. Doesn't mean it's not a great show, but it's run differently and you can't get the things you always need or they're not as open. Um, but it's also at a different scale. You know, this show was 50 tables, you know, DC is probably 250 tables. So it's a different scale. So they were able to do things on that more personal level. I had that personal touch. It was really a great experience. Like I have, I had the best time. Um, I hope I can go back next year. I hope I can go back every year just because of the people, um, who run the event, the people who attend the show and the vendors that attend the show. I mean, you can't ask for a better group of people than were at the Arkansas Pen show this year.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I was getting some serious Atlanta vibes looking at the pictures. Like it was strong. Like usually with the other Pen shows, like they look like, they look nice. They look fun, but like this just looked like Atlanta.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's, it definitely has that, has that feel. So yeah, I can see that, you know? So this was, this room was about as big as the big room in Atlanta, maybe a little bigger, something like that. Okay. So, um, the scary room, the big room in the back. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. With all the vintage stuff.