A quick, and controversial for some, procedure to make a mechanical pencil prettier.
Before:
After:
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lol
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photoshopped!
The first thing I did was to remove the sticker hahahaha
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I got used to see it with the red spot, it was sort of lifting it in the middle. Give me 5 minutes to absorb the new reality 
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It is a bold decision, no doubt. I salute you for your courage.
I believe most collectors collect because theyāve seen an image of the āthingā and that image is the thing they want.
@griffisu I used to be part of that gang ā mostly because the few pencils I managed to get with stickers were in such a poor state, that removing the sticker was an act of mercy, rather than a damage.
With time, money and luck came specimens in much better shape, with better-positioned and more tightly attached stickers, so that peeling off the price tags slowly became a somewhat ācruellerā act. One day, I had enough of this torture.
Now I consider myself a kind of agnostic collector: if I feel the sticker is better left in its original position, I leave it there. If something feels unnatural, or the sticker is already half-peeled off, I mercifully save the pencil from the itch of dragging around that torn badge.
From a collector standpoint, however, I am aware I probably degraded the value of some of my pencils severely, a few years ago (not to mention the issue with getting rid of the sticky stuff left on the plastic after the removal: the metal is easy to clean without much hassle, but some plastic never get back to the original shine after one tries to separate the film).
In my defense, I was young, and stupid. Iām still stupid, but not that young, unfortunatelyā¦
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Very wise remarks from @Leonov.
I tend to do the same. I donāt mess or clean a pencil unless it is an act of mercy (thank you @Leonov for that idea) and if it is plasticā¦ well then I donāt mess with it at all, because every small gesture/input will leave a mark. Using cleaners will most likely create an area of discolouration, so I donāt even think about it any more.
Plastic gets a lot of wear just by being in a drawer, even if the pencil isnāt used. Good thing to keep in mind when evaluating pencils we want to buy.
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> Doesn't like stickers
> Profile photo:
Jokes aside I also fall on the agnostic gang. If I get a pencil with sticker and box Iāve probably paid a premium for it so Iāll treat them with care. If I donāt want a sticker, Iāll probably look for a specimen without sticker, which will be cheaper anyway.
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Well, if youāre gonna put it to use? Why not.
Some stickers look niceā¦ and I like keeping them on. Some suffer fading and can be rubbed off leaving like a silver discā¦ which can look interesting too.
And nowā¦ for something completely different:
Some consider it horribly ugly. Itās quirky, for sure. But I kind of like it. This is the BALIUM colorway. And thereās no sticker! 
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Same is true in architecture. āRepairingā something cosmetic usually screams ārepairedā but also looks worse than before the repair. The best example is a personal pet peeve: cosmetic repair of cracked concrete or ceramic finish. Unless a structural engineer absolutely requires some remediation, leave those cracks alone!
ā¦now descending from the soap box to lower my blood pressureā¦
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That was perfectly good sticker that was also placed very well.
Iām all about removing stickers but not if those two conditions are metā¦..
It isnāt mine though, and Iām glad you feel more of a sense of making it your own!
Kind of odd for someone whose icon is the sticker of a PG1804.
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Since I live in Brazil, itās very difficult to sell or trade my mechanical pencils, because if I were to sell them and consider the price I paid, it would be very high in the local currency. So I end up not considering the value of having the sticker on the pencil in case I sell it.
Another reason for removing the sticker from all the pencils is that Iām afraid that in the long run it might stain the pencil with sun damage or harm the paint (the color where the sticker was becomes different).
For some pencils I question this decision, hahahaha. While I would like to keep all my Accugraphs with the sticker to preserve the history of each one, Iām afraid of the damage that leaving the sticker on would cause.
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I can confirm this damage to the Accu Graph. When I put an old PG2003 (without hardness indicator) into operation a while ago and removed the sticker, I noticed that under certain lighting conditions, slight discolouration was visible where the sticker had been.
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I started not taking stickers off because of this forum, but Iām no collector, Iām a hard user and have broken buckets of things that would make many people here cry. However, as things go out of production and quality drops as brands change hands, I have started taking better care of my shiz.
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