Paper Mate Pens

Collectors show off wooden wares at American Pencil Collectors Society meeting

A corner of the DeVos Fieldhouse took on the unmistakable, woody smell of a pencil box Friday as the American Pencil Collectors Society conducted its biannual meeting there.

In case there was any doubt, society President John Horsting was emphatic: It’s the first time — ever — that the American Pencil Collectors has had its meeting in Holland.

It also is a first for the state of Michigan, he said.

Hobbyists flew in from as far away as the South and Puerto Rico for the event. It was in Holland because Horsting — charged with organizing the event — is a Zeeland resident.

A retired builder, Horsting started collecting handfuls of pencils that came as freebies with lumber shipments. “I wanted to get into a hobby that I thought nobody else had,” he said.

After 25 years, he’s found there are hundreds of people around the country who do the same. Some collect souvenir or freebie pencils with advertising on them; others collect antique pencils. A few also dabble in pens or pencil sharpeners.

Several said it was a hobby they picked up as children.

Hans Van Loon of Puerto Rico remembers the writing utensil that started it all — a Paper Mate pen that came in the mail with a packet of paperwork from the Mutual of Omaha insurance company. His mother let him keep it, but he had trouble finding another like it.

A paperboy, he seized upon an opportunity to earn what he thought were identical pens as prizes by selling new subscriptions. But when he cashed in his prizes, he found they were not the same.

Today, though, he has dozens of that exact pen model.

“The thing is, you always want what you can’t get,” he said.

The convention started Friday morning with collectors holding a swap meet and displaying their collections.

To be collectable, a modern pencil must have a full eraser and be unsharpened, Horsting said. Antique pencils bear different hallmarks of their age. For instance, those made in the 1850s have no eraser, and a square lead, a byproduct of making the pencils by hand.

It’s a cheap hobby, with most pencils often going from 5 cents to 25 cents each.

Two pencils manufactured by the family of “Walden” author Henry David Thoreau once went at an auction for $1,800, said collector Tye Arnold.

Arnold once obtained an entire bundle of antique, handmade pencils, still wrapped in the manufacturer’s packaging.

PaperMate Pens at Discount Prices | Stop Press News

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PENSRUS has announced they are aggressively discounting prices on their full line of 18 different models of PaperMate pens during the month of June 2011. PaperMate customers can select from stick and retractable ballpoint ink and gel pens, as well as the PaperMate Visibility pencil.

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