I have only once received a negative response and they weren’t Asian (at least they weren’t in an Asian country) the others are one of three categories.
They have alot and are either thinning out or selling for a deceased relative. These people seem to be very happy to oblige.
They don’t sell pencils, don’t really care about pencils, and got this one singular pencil in a lot of things they do care about. (Also generally polite)
They don’t respond.
It’s worth noting that I don’t single out any specific pencils in the initial contact. It’s more a generic …
“Greetings, im so excited to receive this pencil, thank you. I would love to know if you have others not shown. Thank you for your time and thank you for offering this for sale”
Unfortunately I missed out on some great company closings where inventory was dispensed in large lots and then those buyers turned around and dumped unwanted stuff in local auctions or salvation stores. I once met someone who’d caught wind of the Parker plant closure in Janesville Wisconsin and he managed to not only get some old inventory for next to nothing or free from employees who were shutting the plant down… he had rummaged through dumpsters and turned up loads of valuable stuff… to include Empire caps that had just very minor imperfections (plus a few perfect ones accidentally thrown in). He made a small fortune.
But… it’s quite possible that there were employees in NJ for various pencil making companies who might have old boxes of inventory sitting in basements gathering dust, just waiting for an estate sale or a funeral. The trick is… scanning for such events without expending an extraordinary amount of time!
