So today while roaming around in my hometown, I paid a visit to one of the OG local stores. I found two scribble ball-pens which were just sitting there collecting all sorts of dirt on the clips and on the body. So naturally I rescued them! The shop guy gave me a healthy discount. Then my head turned to the new upper class(for India) mechanical pencil from Pentel called the energize, which sits comfortably at a pricetag of 150inr and comes with an alloy body and retractable lead sleeve. The sleeve on mine is not retracting fully however the packaging label comes with one year quality warranty which is shocking.
Congrats on the all-black scrib!
Thanks man! Going to be visiting a few more shops before I leave the city.
How is that energel pen? Looks interesting.
Pretty cool for the price. Its a .7mm mechanical pencil. Quite tall very light.
Final haul in my hometown before leaving.
Managed to finally find a Lamy scribble .7mm mp and a low priced Scriss hex barrel mp.
Some cool looking pens from an Indian brand called Pentonic and a Staedtler bp.
Very nice pickup there. The black accents LAMY Scribble was produced in fewer numbers than the silver accent version. Itās harder to find them on the resale market, so prices are a good bit higher.
These are great pens. I see youāve also got the 0.7 mm MP version. Thereās also a Scribble in the 3.15 mm lead size.
I finally managed to pick up a black accent Scribble BPā¦ for a fair price relative to the going market rate. $76 USD. Nowhere near the deal you got!
I like the Scribble with black accentsā¦ although photos of used examples show the anodizing commonly wears off on the edges. Same for the clip. So, definitely handle it carefully.
Iāve often wondered: what if I resprayed a standard scribbleās metal parts in flat black paintā¦ ?
Anodizing would be stronger. DIY spray paint would come off rather easily, unless you had access to a heated spray booth. But, it does make me wonder if some sellers may have attempted to do just thatācarefully paint the silver bits and pass off as an original black Scribble on auction markets.
So satisfying to see that blue colour bath towards the end
And the rocket pack go-kart.
Thatās super cool ā thanks, Patrick. Iād no idea that anodizing could be a DIY project with basic equipment. Intriguing.
Of course, this does pose a challenge with parts that canāt be easily separated. The connected part not to be anodized would have to be very resistant to high heat to survive the process intact.
Never realized how valuable this model in black was since apparently itās quite common here (?) over the past 3 years Iāve seen multiple listings across various online marketplaces for the black scribble, most recent one was sold for ~60 USD, cheapest Iāve ever seen was sold for as low as 37 USD. If anyone wants, I can try and āproxyā a black scribble next time one shows up.
Interesting how LAMY model availability can vary quite a bit by market region. So the Scribble is not hard to find in Brazil local used markets? Is the black version selling fairly close to the silver accent version?
The black version is pretty much non-existent on eBay USA, except for sellers from Japan looking to make a huge profit. The silver one doesnāt seem to have much rarity recognition as Iāve seen several pop up and sell around $40~$60, at least for the 0.7 mm pencil. The ballpoint is pretty rare. And the 3.15 mm version is uncommon.
On Mercari, thereās more inventory and generally cheaper pricesā¦ plus the black version tends to pop up a lot, except theyāre usually going for high prices. There are trawlers constantly looking, as Iāve seen them sell very quickly when the price is below market average.
Hereās a very rare sightā¦ a black LAMY Scribble 0.7 mm pencil. Popped up on German eBay. Snagged in about 2.5 hours. Very hard to compete with such tenacious bidders. Only 49ā¬.
I got one at a lower-than-average price only under two conditions: it became available on a āsecondaryā platform for the EU (Spanish) market, namely Wallapop, and it sported a light advertisement engraving (fortunately, in the same colour as the barrel, so it is barely noticeable). Other specimens have proved so far to be pointless to chase: they are just too expensive.
On a tangential note: with the Lamy Scribble 3.15 I finally got why some people love the triangular body form factor ā it is indeed a rare case where my hands got pleasantly acquainted with the shape, and appreciated the feeling and above all the proportions ā and I finally found peace with that specific geometry. I still canāt stand some variations on that theme, but the Lamy Scribble in 3.15 is a different sort of beast, and Iām afraid I would not think the same about a 0.7mm tip. On the other hand, a pen, perhapsā¦
I have on occasion gotten a pen or pencil with an engraving thatās light, but painted a contrasting colorā¦ and then Iāve either been able to remove the paint to make it look muted, or if the paint is stubborn just paint over it with some enamel (matte, satin, or gloss). For a user pen, itās definitely passable. The vexing thing about personalization is that sometimes what looks to be painted on is engraved, because the photos were not detailed enough or deceptive. I had one with a kind of gloss black enamel that, under the right lighting, looked like an engraving based on the reflectivity. It was a very pleasant surprise to find it was just raised paintā¦ that was easily stripped off.
You pointed out something that I too appreciate about the Scribble 3.15 mm. That unique faceted body. I appreciate how itās like a 50% treatment (as opposed to a triangular body). It was such a shame that Lamy didnāt repeat those facets on the 0.7 mm.
I learned a lot about the Scribbleās design from the Bleistift blog. As I understand it, the 3.15mm came out first in 1999 and is closest to the original design drawings. Hannes Wettstein has a quotation regarding the 3 facets being an ergonomic feature and also to act as a roll-stop. In handling the 3.15, I grasp it differently than for a normal MP ā more like an artist would, like holding a piece of charcoal, or oil pastel ā and thus I believe why it was named āScribbleā. Typically, the canvas is much larger than an A4 or letter sized sheet of paper, and you would make larger arm movements for sketches, instead of exerting more precise control around the wrists.
The BP came out a bit later in 2000, and like the 0.7 MP, the way one holds a pen or MP is different from a broad tip sketch pencil. I think this is why the BP and MP body design was optimized without the facets.
The stationery availability of all major companies seem weird here but thatās a matter for itās own postā¦ I actually canāt even speak about the silver accent version since I havenāt seen it up for sale in used markets, only the black version appears. The silver version was definitely sold here though (at least in some way) since Iāve seen stationery shops with some listings for it (all out of stock, of course).