Well, my absolute best score wasn’t even a mechanical pencil. I scored a YAJ auction for a mere ¥11, for a set of some very nice miniature spoons (LINK). Turns out they’re made in 18-12 steel (18% chromium, 12% nickel) which is a premium stainless steel alloy.
As for pens/pencils, my best score was a TOMBOW La Nave Oceanic pen, for a mere $5.50 ($14.39 with shipping). The oxidation on the outside actually cleaned off and the coating was not a sticky mess, as what usually befalls these venerable pens.
This PILOT H-3003 was well used and the bright light photos made some wear look a bit worse than it was… and it cleaned up very nicely with some micromesh and polishing compound. This is a price usually considered reasonable for a nice condition used H-2003.
Mitsubishi M3-100 that was described has being used with many scratches, was an overstatement of the condition. A little polishing got rid of most superficial scratches and with a replacement eraser, it looks great. Probably my 2nd favorite executive style double-knock (right behind the Mitsubishi Jaguar black stripe).
I like the Tombow Oceanic. I have the mechanical pencil version. Purchased a long time ago but unfortunately it fell, also along time ago, and the tip snapped.
Watch it: they tend to roll off the desk easily, since the don’t have a clip. Still, the design was nice and it was comfortable. I still hope to fix mine someday.
That’s really great you got it with the original box and instructions. So often these are listed in NOS with sticker, sometimes even sealed in plastic, but rarely the blue box. The red box is so ubiquitous, you could put any PILOT pencil in it.
No heavy hitters here, but considering that they were almost all NOS, that there were a few duplicates, and that the whole lot cost me 15 bucks - I was pretty happy with this score!
I have a Black mechanical pencil and two grey ballpoints. One of them came with a desk stand - so avoids the falling of the desk issue. I must admit I had never seen one of these advertised before.
nice
