On Buying Pencils (Online)

What I recommend:

Given what you know about pencils —and you should develop that knowledge – look for a variety of pencils, search using specific terms, or use general terms, and item numbers. You never know how someone has chosen to identify their pencils for sale.

Search by brands, and by color, and buy in lots, make offers, and explore pencils in your general area of interest. Develop a general area of interest. I generally only do American pencils. I don’t go looking for German Staedtlers or Japanese Hi-Unis or German Faber-Castells, although I own them and respect their quality. I don’t go looking for artist pencils, although I’m an artist – I know all true artist pencils are going to be good. But I’m good there. Trust me, I don’t need anymore. No matter how broad your specialty, specialize.

Know what you’re bidding on – There’s no getting around it. Unless you grew up around a variety of pencils and you just know your pencils (lucky you), you will have to pay to become familiar with the products out there. You will get burned. That’s okay. Learning costs money.

You have to know the history of pencils. Pick up a book, or two or three. Pick up Petroski’s Pencil book and refer to it when you have a question about what you’re looking at online. Understand that markings on a pencil change over time. The brand by itself is not enough. Brands change hands, manufacturing companies change hands,  factories and countries of manufacture change, quality changes (sometimes it gets better, sometimes worse). Again, be ready to eat some bad purchases. Look at the pictures, read the descriptions. And don’t buy from sellers with a history of poor reviews.

Here’s a formula that I wish I would always use when buying pencils. It can probably be improved upon.

I’ll define some terms:

General use – I’m a user of pencils so I consider how much use I can make of a pencil, even knowing that I will never use more than a fraction of what I have. My general use art pencils range between 2Bs and a 2H. For writing, I can use anything between a 2 and a 3. A number 1 is too soft for writing for me.

Special use – these are your specialty pencils. These are special use because they may not be pencils that you use on a regular basis. For me, these are 3Bs. I’ll use them when I want to get a very raw line and anything between between a 3H and a 5H.

Very limited use – How many yellow pencils can you use. How much are you willing to spend on pencils that you won’t use very much? Maybe you can change these to special use by switching the paper. I didn’t have much use for my Berol made Eagle yellow ochre Verithins until I needed to draw, a lot, on rolls of black paper; I didn’t have much use for my Venus yellows until I started using them alongside other colors. I’ll play around with a 6H.

No use – Don’t count these when making a purchase. I really don’t need a white pencil ( I think). I don’t need pencils with plastic leads for writing on film– these are the filmograph pencils. I can count with two hands how often I’ve used 9Hs, 8Bs, etc.

Use Total Cost: Seller price + taxes + shipping

Use a per pencil cost calculation: Total Cost/count of pencils

In general, I heed the per pencil cost, to keep me grounded. I don’t want to regret my purchases. I’ll pay more for sealed, boxed, or cased (boxes inside of boxes) — cellophane is so awesome — or what is otherwise in new-in-box quality. It’s amazing to me that quality pencils have survived 60, 70 years in exceptional condition. Condition matters. I don’t mind dusty pencils – a good wiping restores them. But a pencil can be damaged. The wood can be split. Poor storage or just normal oxidation can wreck a pencil’s ferule. I hate pencils with used erasers. I don’t mind a few sharpened pencils. I was going to sharpen them anyway. I don’t like them all sharpened, unless they’re sharpened by the manufacturer. I know that Dixon ferules are susceptible to splitting from age and oxidation – the metal is so thin. I don’t hold that against them.

If a pencil has general use appeal – for example, if it’s a pencil that can be used in everyday writing or drawing – then it’s a straight bulk price sliding scale.

The sliding scale:

Sometimes you just want to have a particular pencil, so you’re willing to pay a higher per dollar amount. For me, that’s a dollar a pencil for special situations – like, I really want this Vermilion Green old timey Colorbrite – fine, I’ll pay 15 bucks total for a dozen. You should pay less on a per pencil basis if buying in bulk, though. So, if you’re willing to pay a dollar a pencil per dozen, maybe you should be willing to pay no more than 50 cents per pencil at volumes of 3 dozen; 25 cents at 6 dozen; 15 cents at 10 dozen, 10 cents at 15 dozen. Now, I’ve purchased in bulk single color, single make pencils, because I just had to have them — this is the case with the Venus Postal Reds for which I paid 70 cents per pencil for six dozen. But in general, if what you’re getting is a whole bunch of the same or very similar (all reds) then you should price the pencils down if more doesn’t mean better for you . Consider the quantity and lower what you’re willing to spend for the same type of pencil in bulk. Am I willing to pay 30 cents for all reds at quantities of 200? This is actually something that I’m contemplating and so far I’m saying no. Twenty cents? Sure. Put me down for that.

IBM Electrographic Pencil Leads

I bought this box of leads on eBay and then spent many weeks locating and then considering lead holders. The size of the leads is 1.1 mm, which is a, now, no longer well supported lead. If you go to an office supply store, you’ll find the more common .5, .7, and .9 mm leads. 1.1 mm leads dropped from the mainstream at some point.

The reason I bought the leads was that I wanted to try out the IBM Electrographic lead, but could never find a decent, well-priced, well-cared for pencil collection on eBay.  The Electrographic is one of the fondly remembered and admired pencil from yesterday.

A few more words on lead holders. A couple of companies sell 1.1 mm lead holders, like Rite in the Rain , but these are stubby pencils meant to be carried in a pocket. The leads these guys come with are 3 inches long. The Electrographic leads are 4 inches. I didn’t want to risk having to snap off an inch to make the leads I got fit an $11 pencil. I eventually found a modern box of 12 Skilcraft mechanical pencils for 24 dollars, online. I filled up all 12 mechanical pencils with the Electrographic leads and stashed away the original leads (doubt I’ll ever use them).

The leads are very soft and very dark and very smooth. In terms of darkness, it’s as dark as a 7B Mars Lumograph, a German art pencil, but it’s much, much smoother than that. The Lumograph is unbearably squeaky at 7B.  Unfortunately, I can’t readily see my set of Hi-uni pencils to compare the smoothness of a dark one of those with the Electrographic. It’s also a very smudgy pencil (smudgier than the Lumograph, which is formulated not to smudge as much). Can it be used for art? Sure and I should try that on a finished piece. I’ve done some quick drawings but that’s about it in terms of art. I’ve primarily used these for writing notes on notecards. I’ve developed a practice of taking notes for work and these leads stand out very well. Would I use them for writing long form, like for my story writing on notebooks? No. Too smudgy.

Advice, if you need a super dark and smooth pencil line, get these leads on eBay when they turn up. In general, you’ll get a better deal on eBay for old leads, like the 2mm leads that artists use, than what you’ll find anywhere else. Grab what other people overlook!

Guide to buying pencils on eBay

eBay’s the place for picking up vintage pencils.  Here’s some pencil specific things to consider before bidding:

• Condition matters; pencils are easily scuffed and nicked outside their packaging; look for NOS (New Old Stock); if accurate, these pencils haven’t been out much from their packaging; If you get a plastic sealed package, all the better — the erasers may even be soft enough to use. Be wary if you see pencils out of their box, spread out, in people’s hands, rolled up in someone’s fist. We all know what pencils look like.
• Do some research on the pencils — make sure you know what you’re getting. Do you really want dozens of hard-grade pencils?
• Pencils may have a long run — consider the approximate time period during which your pencil was made; why should the ‘same’  pencil from the 90s be valued as highly as one from the 40s? I’m looking at you, Blackwings. In a long span of time, the same brand may be used on entirely different products, made in different countries, even.
• Look for mislabeled auctions; fellow collectors may be missing out on your find
• Buy in bulk, bring cash; small-time buyers may be willing to compete with you on the cheaper auctions, but get into the hundreds and they’ll fold; you just have to figure out what to do with all those pencils
• Specialize. Some more obscure pencil brands may go unnoticed but may have something interesting to offer.
• Pencil pricing varies depending on who’s buying; a few avid collectors can outspend penny pinchers
  • So, learn what’s desirable (for whatever reason), figure out if you’re interested, and pick it up next time around
  • Don’t get carried away with what others are willing to pay. Others may have more money to spend, may be more committed than you, or have other plans for those pencils. Have a budget.