I’ve got a pencil cup that all the various pencils the kids bring home end up in to be sharpened. When I’m writing at home, I’ll often grab a pencil from the cup and, if I like it, it goes in my desk. If I don’t like it, it goes back in the cup. I was just looking in my desk and noticed that of the dozen pencils in the drawer, half of them are no-name pencils with cartoon characters or something and the other half are “USA GOLD” pencils.

The wood is cheap, the width is a little narrower than I consider standard, and the erasers are pretty mediocre, but these “USA GOLD” pencils have well-centered leads that write nicely. I’ve seen large packs of these pencils for sale at Target, so I assume that they’re widely available (although now that I think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen them anywhere else…maybe they’re a store brand?).

If you were going to buy a box of cheap pencils for your own use, what are the brands that you look for?