Saturday, August 03, 2013

The Most Dangerous Time of the Year, 2013 Edition

Staples Haul
This, my friends, is why I should not be allowed to roam Staples unsupervised, especially at back to school time. In my defense, at least some of it was on sale, or even clearance. The pink Signo pens were 50 cents apiece, for example. And I resisted the half-gross container of Ticonderogas.

Staedtler Norica Pencils
These were kinda sorta what I went in for. Pencil Revolution just gave them a pretty positive review, and I find them very attractive to boot. (Go look at the photos on Pencil Revolution, not mine!) They were on sale for five dollars for 36 pencils, plus the two bonus erasers, so...how could I resist?

Staedtler Woodless Pencils
These were purely a curiosity buy. I've seen all-graphite pencils in art stores, but never in an office supply store with the regular pencils. And besides, the packaging is all shiny and stuff... I may do a bit of a review on these at some point, since I've not seen much about them on the web previously. Really curious if they do last longer.

2013 Composition Books
And I pretty much always stock up on composition books this time of year, the more when I can find them with good stiff covers and decent paper--harder and harder these days. I went through all of them looking for Made in Brazil notebooks, and took a gamble on a few of the Made in Egypt ones. You'd think Egypt would know paper, right? We'll see.

Off to play with the new toys!

8 comments:

mpclemens said...

I've been shipping all my typers from the Clear Out from Staples since I have *two* in the area, one on the way to work, one near-ish to my office. Let me tell you a story about the dangers of two different clearance sections. I've been trying to justify buying a case of old perforated computer paper as a poor-man's BAROP because... well, I don't know why. November? Madness? Your choice.

Egypt, huh? Any chance that's not all wood-pulp paper? I love me my sugar cane paper composition books, and I think they sourced from somewhere in the Middle East.

Cappuccinoandartjournal.blogspot.com said...

I started laughing as soon as I read the title of the post--and then more about how you shouldn't be allowed into Staples unsupervised. So funny. I am exactly the same way. Just spent Sunday morning reading all the ads for the back-to-school supplies and plotting my trips to the stores.....mail artists just wanna have fun...

PS Hey Michael--can you eat those sugar cane books?

Anonymous said...

Does anyone still make composition books that have the thicker, stiffer covers? I only have a couple left from the old days.

Now for the big question: do I start at Staples or Office Depot? Do it in alphabetic order, closest, consult the stars? I may have to flip a coin.

Jeff The Bear

Elizabeth H. said...

And then all of today's Mass readings were about avoiding greed and materialism and such. Nicely played...

@Pamela and Mike: I really like that sugarcane paper--still have some notebooks made out of it. (And I confess--though I probably shouldn't do so in public--I did once taste a tiny piece of it just to see if there was any residual sweetness. There wasn't....)

@Jeff: the comp books I selected out of the stacks do have pretty stiff covers! It's one reason I bought a bunch, even though I have quite a few spares at the moment. Most of those you see at Wal-mart and such these days have slippy-sloppy soft covers, and they don't work so well with my Renaissance Art cover. I live in fear that some day I won't be able to get anything but the mushy ones.

As for Staples vs Office Depot vs Office Max vs whatever...for some reason, Staples generally manages to hook me in ways the others don't. Part of it may be nostalgia: a Staples was the first large office supply store I ever visited (I thought I'd possibly died and gone to heaven). But I think part of it too is that they have slightly more paper geekery than the others: Arc notebooks, for example, and these Staedtler pencils that aren't carried elsewhere. Office Max has more cool organizing stuff, though.

In other words, you should vist 'em all!!

Anonymous said...

Got to the local Staples today and found several comp. books with suitably stiff covers for a buck. I feel better with a bigger stockpile.

Some of the sugar cane based comp. books also had good covers and were only fifty cents apiece. You are right: they do well with fountain pens. Had the best results with a Safari extra fine nib and Noodlers ink. Going back tomorrow to pick up some more before the sale ends.

Unfortunately, no one in the area stocks the Norica pencils. Bummer! Not that I need more pencils.

Jeff The Bear

Elizabeth H. said...

Oh, I really like those sugarcane paper notebooks, and 50 cents is a tremendous deal! Now you have me wondering if I should go back and check...

The regular composition books at our Staples were a dollar, too. Wal-mart often has them for a quarter or even less this time of year...but alas, floppy covers.

BTW, re: the Staedtler pencils, since Staedtler is best known for drafting supplies, sometimes their products end up in that part of the store rather than with the regular school pencils.

Adair said...

What did you think of the graphite pencils? They are nice but I found their mark far too light.

Elizabeth H. said...

The jury is still out. I'm not sure I'd say they are far too light, though they are lighter than a lot of HBs--but also smear resistant, which means they are handy for penciled notes at work. What gets me, though, is the smell. I'm sensitive to such things, and I really don't like their odor. Hoping it wears off over time, but we'll see.