Personally, My collection is worth maybe $1500 USD max, and over half of that is occupied by only four pencils… 3x IJ Instruments and 1x Wingback.
Here’s a couple of pics of my collection 
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I don’t know. Neither what I spent nor what selling would bring. I didn’t note my expenses and I did know why not 
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you have some really nice pencils there!
I imagine that’s probably a touchy subject with people.
Personally, I have not added mine up. I’m kind of afraid to lol.
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Thank you!
And good point, to the both of you. I suppose a little insensitive, and a little daunting too.
In the end, I suppose it doesn’t matter how much you’ve spent (or not spent), as long as you collections bring you joy in one way or another.
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There’s the classic joke….
“If I die, I hope my wife doesn’t sell my boat for what I told her I paid for it.”
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And the worth… depends upon who is the target buyer audience. The vintage mechanical pencil collector community looks to be very small, relatively speaking (e.g. compared to fountain pens). I have to wonder how many deceased architects or engineers who were partial to unusual or rare mechanical pencils ended up with a collection bought at an estate sale for a lot less then if they were sold individually on YAJ, eBay, etc.
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That is a great point, It always kinda hurts to imagine all of the beautiful pencils sitting in drawers around the world, unbeknownst to the owner.
I try to measure my value by considering the cost of original ownership, so I rarely vet second-hand sites to find prices. However, If you’re into more vintage stuff (as it appears), I’d imagine that’s not so easy!
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If I were to try and sell everything, it would probably take at least 2 years, and the total cash haul would be between $40,000 and $50,000 
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That’s awesome. How long have you been collecting?
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Wow, my collection pales in comparison to these values.
pearsonified how long have you been collecting? What are your gems? Do you have any pictures of the collection? I’m impressed.
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I’m just gonna play Mr. Dad for a sec.
The true value of our collections is not in its market price, but in the richness it adds to our understanding and the bridges it builds among collectors.
Ok. I’m done being lame.
Damn, Pearson!
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I too would love some collection photos from personified there… 40-50K is immense, I don’t even think I could imagine a collection of that type of value.
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I’d say check out his post history on Reddit….
wait 
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Imagine about 1800 really nice pencils and about 350 more cheap plastic ones. Done!
Here’s a very informal breakdown of the ~1100 pieces worthy of display in The Toolbox™:
- Pilot: 300
- Pentel: 200
- Mitsubishi: 200
- Tombow: 100
- Platinum: 70
- Newman: 70
- Colleen Jib: 70
- Sakura: 60
- Ohto: 50
And still many more that don’t fit in the primary display case:
- Zebra: 50
- rOtring: 45
- Sailor: 40
- Staedtler: 35
- Kokuyo: 17
- LION: 9
- Faber-Castell: 8
- Uchida: 7
My auxiliary displays are full of specimens from other OEMs like Berol, Alvin, Kinto, Greatman, Schwan, Locus, Lyra, Kaweco, Spoke, Rhodia, Pacific Arc, Midori, Sheaffer, Parker, Muji, Shachihata, Fuji Corona, and more!
If I had to guess, I’d estimate 90% of my collection was obtained for less than half of what the collection is actually worth.
But the remaining 10%—the nicest, most elevated specimens like the Pentel Mechanica, Pilot ProTex, Pilot Gentleman Young double-knock, Pilot H-3003, etc—cost well over half.
Because I’ve been so diligent about sourcing great deals, I’ve paid less than 75% of what I think my collection is actually worth today.
But unloading a collection is not a linear process, especially when most of the eligible buyers are on another continent.
So who knows how much this collection is worth? It’s worth a lot to me to be able to explore the entire history of mechanical pencils in a single toolbox. These things all seem like precious instruments to me 
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Wow… that is insane.
I wanna be like you one day 
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I want to visit his house one day, it will be like disney or a kid in a candy factory!
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Unfortunately, none of my old reddit posts are visible right now, so anyone who wants to look at pictures from my collection will have to be patient.
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You have a very nice collection! My top picks would be the three IJ instruments and the TWSBI. I always thought that the TWSBI looked awesome but I never got my hands in one.
Maybe I’m diverting from the original question, but I think that the value of a collection as an item is in monetary value, the value of a collection as a collection is in time (how much time would it take someone to build a similar collection themselves) and coherence (whether one can understand the interests and likes/dislikes of the person just from looking at the collection).
I’d say that my collection is maybe around 2-3k in value, but I never bothered summing everything up. In time… I think maybe in a year one could rebuild what I have. In coherence… I like classical designs so I have searched for many of the “standard” vintage pieces, mostly from Pilot. But there’s also some Pentel and Uni. From non-vintage pieces, I’d say my most interesting ones are the Kuru Toga Dives (5 of them!! just missing one) and my collection of Craft Design Technology & Muji.
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