Editing The Pen Addict 368/transcript (section)

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'''Myke Hurley:''' Talk about sellout. Well, that sounded bad when I said it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Accurate. Accurate.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It was meant to be good because they've done so well as always.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah. So this is a very on-brand episode and you knew we were going to talk about Field Notes. You also know we're going to talk about the Mark I Apollo edition, right? I mean, it's pretty clear that our friends Dan and Tom from Studio Need, who you also have a podcast called Thoroughly Considered on the Relay FM network, which we will talk about momentarily. Tell you to talk about making stuff. But they did the Mark I pin, which we talked about a million times on this show and how much I love it, you love it. And, you know, we've been talking with them, God, it seems like years now on that, on the pin. And it finally came to fruition earlier this year. And they always keep something like in their back pocket that they kind of drop on us later in the game. Like we were early in the game on the standard Mark I. And then like a couple of weeks ago, I get a message from Dan. He's like, hey, check this out. I'm like, you dirty dog.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So they created the Mark I Apollo edition to go along with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to space, which is ongoing right now. And they did a lot of interesting things with this. Can you can your voice handle recapping this? Because you've talked about them specifically on Thoroughly Considered episode 52, which we'll have a link to the show notes. And can you give the big picture?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So basically what they wanted to do was create something that could commemorate the Apollo 11, right? And the moon landing. So this is something that Dan has wanted to do since before the Mark I was even available. Like this was an idea that he had. He wanted to make a space pen, right? Like a pen about space. And this one actually ships with the Fisher space pen refill, which is nice. Like that's the way they should do it. It will still fit the Schmidt refill. But this just makes sense to put a space pen refill inside because the Mark I can take that anyway.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Your best question in the podcast was in the beginning. You said, is this a space space pen or a space space pen? Yeah. And it's the perfect question for nerds like us.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. And it is a space space pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Clearly. And this one. So the Mark I is a Cerakote on aluminum, right? That's how it's usually made. But they wanted to try something different. So the Apollo edition is made of stainless steel with PVD coating. PVD coating is what went on the old Apple Watch. Remember like the black Apple Watch? That was PVD coated. So this is a completely different from a weight perspective. It's a much heavier pen. Significantly different in that regard. And that was something they heard from people. Some people like a heavier pen. And this is it, right? So it's like very different in production for them. It looks as a beautiful etching on it. But it looks the same. It's the same pen. Same mechanism. Made of a different material. And the fun thing is, and I think this is genius, this pen is only available on Kickstarter for eight days. They are timing it exactly from the launch of the shuttle to when it comes back to Earth. So July 16th to July 24th. They've met their goal. They had a 20 grand goal. Smashed it day one. They're at 48 grand now. I'm not surprised because the Mark I is a fantastic pen. And this is just like a beautiful limited edition version of it. I'm using mine today as well. It's just an excellent pen. I kind of had to, right? It's like one of my favorites. They just absolutely crushed it. And now I'm really pleased to see that they're doing weird and different things with it. And I'm really intrigued for a stainless steel version of this. Because I think it's Dan or Tom, one of them described it. It's basically indestructible. Which is also kind of a nice little thought. But yeah, I'm really excited for it. I think it's awesome.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so stainless steel.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I have a question for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have a question for you. Sure. Because they were saying this to me. So they're selling this for $110. What do you think of the price?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it's completely fair. And it's not just because of the stainless steel. For some reason, and the one thing I don't know the pricing of is the coating. And so all the finishing work that has to go into the stainless steel to give the mirror finish is extra work, right? And the stainless steel material is harder to machine because it's thicker, heavier, stronger. So all of those increase your costs. So stainless steels are always a premium. They're usually premiums over titanium pins. It's usually like aluminum, titanium, stainless, and then brass and copper are kind of the more premium materials. So stainless steel is more expensive. It's denser. It's harder to machine. And then the PVD coating, for some reason, is very expensive because it makes your pen kind of ding-proof, right? It's not like bulletproof. Like if you throw it against the concrete, it's probably going to scratch up. But it's not going to like ding or dent. And, you know, there's only a few pen makers that I know that do the PVD coating. I think Ian Schoen does with Schoen Design. And his pens run upwards of $200, I think, with that coating. I could be wrong. I didn't look it up beforehand. But for some reason, whatever the chemicals are and the process is to apply that coating is very expensive. So PVD-coated pens are easy to find. And when you do, you pay a premium for them. So that in combination with the stainless steel, I didn't really blink at the price. It's accurately priced. Like I don't – like I listen to the show and like when you're designing products, no matter how much it costs you to make the product, there's still a number that the product will sell at and won't sell at, right? Like I don't think it's a $175 pen. Like you end up saying, no, let's not make that product, right? Right. Because you don't think it is –

'''Myke Hurley:''' Even if the margins were the same as what their margins are, it doesn't matter because it's what the market will support.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, right. So you look – like we talk about that with our pen cases a lot. And it's like if I look at like our Brasstown pen case, which is like our most expensive case to make, it's like I don't – it's not a $75 pen case, right? No matter how much it costs us, it's just like it's not that thing. Even if it costs you $74.99 to make it, it doesn't matter. Right, right. It doesn't matter, right? So that's the way I look at things. So I think it's great. I love it. The price is fair. Like it's not an inexpensive pen. You know, you're paying a premium for the materials, the machining of the materials, and the coating. And I think –

'''Myke Hurley:''' And limited edition nature. They're only selling it now, right? And like you can't deny that, right? Like that's the thing. You pay extra for limited products.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, but I don't weigh that into is it the correct price or not, right? Like I don't weigh that as part of it. Although I'll probably go against that later in this show when I justify my insane purchase that I made. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, I don't know if they've done this, but I know like I would. Yeah. You can build that into your price if you want to. Totally.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Totally agree. Totally agree. So yeah, I think it's great.