What is your holy grail?

Love that green Retro :slight_smile:

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There are so many of these wide mouth double-knock retractable pens/pencils around. Is there any consensus on what’s the favored brand/model? Or a few? And which ones are near the bottom (meaning, avoid 'em)?

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yes, there is a huge variety of “wide mouth double-knock retractables” … I have a personal favorite due to sentimental reasons (staedtler retro), but I don’t know if an ancestor model is known for this pencil type?

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Mitsubishi made what is almost an identical double-knock to the Staedtler Retro (at the ¥200 or ¥300 price point), and that’s always made me think these low-end pencils may have just been white-labeled (similar to the Ohhira/PSP double-knock).

And then, of course, you have the sister lineage of the Ohto double-knock with separate retraction mechanism.

To me, these are the two “wide mouth” double-knock styles that were favored by various OEMs; it’s a shame we don’t have more ironclad information about the history of some of these pencils.

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Ones I can realistically acquire: STAEDTLER Marsmicro 770; Retro de luxe, Pilot H-1093, Lamy Spirit, STAEDTLER Hi-Matic; 925 95
Ones I will never touch: Pilot H-1005; 2005; 3005 - Pentel Mechanica 0.3; Accugraph 0.3 - Uni 5050

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Staedtler Retro Deluxe! :fire:

And you can certainly acquire a Pilot H-1005 cheaply enough to leave it in the realm of possibility. Plenty pop up on eBay every year between $60 and $100.

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I’ve even seen some rough examples of the PILOT H-1005 go for around $40. If you don’t mind worn off center ring label (some batches were notorious for the lettering coming off). But if you’re someone who remembers vividly buying one at $15 brand new (the discount period around the time it was being discontinued), it can be hard to consider buying used for nearly 3 times as much!

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Revisiting my original Holy Grail post from October 2022; I’ve since acquired the following pieces:

  • Pilot Gentleman Young double-knock
  • Pilot ProTex
  • Pilot Grandee Priere in silver
  • Mitsubishi stainless steel double-knock in copper
  • Pentel W-knock (13 of these damn things :joy:)

Of course, that means the Holy Grail list needs updating with some new pieces!

  • Pilot stainless steel double-knock silver barrel variant with black silkscreen
  • Staedtler Retro Deluxe
  • Fuji-Corona double-knock
  • Pilot Sprinter ¥1000 variant with black, red, and blue grips (I already have green)
  • Pilot Heart Sutra
  • Pilot etched leaf pattern with paint infill comes in red, lime green, blue, and ??
  • Sailor Egyptian
  • Pilot Switch etched grid pattern
  • Pilot Grandee Priere in gold
  • Tombow Variable in 0.4 and 0.3
  • Tombow W-knock black and blue variants with “W-knock” silkscreen
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Got a photo of this?

Also, at this rate you’re gonna be revisiting your grail list every week :stuck_out_tongue:

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Here it is, tough to find!

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Ahh yes, I’ve seen that one before. Yea it’s hard to come by.

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Here’s a H-1005 listing going for $67 USD if interested.

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I’m currently not gonna be able to buy anything till May at the very least so I will pass. Thanks nonetheless

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I have 2 grail lists: one containing unobtaniums, the other contains items which are rare, but not necessarily expensive when they surface (of course there is an intersection between the lists).

Why I write is that today evening (Tokyo time) an auction ended w/o success (maybe not for the 1st time?) for a pencil, which I would position as #1 in my unobtanium list: Sakura Archi Y2 Gold (YS10) https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/l1056122356?conversionType=service_page_search

There must have been a previous auction on it, but I missed the result マニア垂涎 アーキ バージョンY2 ゴールド シャープペンシル 超レア コレクターズアイテム(シャープペンシル)|売買されたオークション情報、yahooの商品情報をアーカイブ公開 - オークファン(aucfan.com) and don’t have other, older results.

There is a 5000JPY (silver), an 8000 (black) and the 10000 (gold) version, I have a (bad) scan of an archi poster (but not accessible for the next days).

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Not too shure, is this the Grandee Priere in gold you lookin for?

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I believe the black one was 5000 JPY too.

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No, that’s a twist pencil only. No knocking. The “Grandee Priere” name has been used for a variety of styles. The twist-knock style I’ve found only in striped polished steel and gloss black/titanium. I’ve not seen this one in gold plate.

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Nope, there are 3 versions of the Grandee Priere twist-knock pencil—silver, gold, and black mirror.

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That is correct. The Archi Y2 had 3 models:
YS5000: Black, Chrome
YS8000: Silver Plated
YS10: Gold Plated

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Of course both of you were right with the prices.
It’s impossible to read things at the bad scan/photo, but still it shows the Archi variants:


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