I've heard from a very reliable source that, at some point in the near future, Sanford is going to pre-sharpen their pencils and, at the first of the year there will be a price increase.
For me this is NOT good news. Of course we must all deal with price increases, but I'm opposed to higher prices for the disadvantage of pre-sharpening, here's why. I don't know about the rest of you but I glue my pencils end to end. That way, other than what I lose in the sharpener or what breaks off, I don't have a lot of waste. As far as I know Prismacolors are the only pencils that are open ended and not pre-sharpened. Because they are manufactured here, readily available open stock, open ended and not pre-sharpened, that makes them the most economical colored pencil on the market. If Sanford pre-sharpens there will be no gluing them together, so more or less, one quarter of each pencil will be unusable. I feel, cost wise, this will be a win win for them but it will mean a great deal more expense for us.
Let me ask you this:
1. How much do you pay for your pencils? I know a lot of you buy them from Blick so be sure to figure in shipping. Here they are $1.49. If I buy a dozen or more from my local art store I get a 30% discount. So, including tax, I'm paying around $1.13 each.
2. How much USE do you actually get from each pencil?
3. How much, excluding what you lose in the sharpener, would you lose if you could not glue them together?
Even if they pre-sharpen I will have to re-sharpen. Most pre-sharpened pencils have a blunt point. So pre-sharpening will absolutely be of no advantage to me what so ever....yet I will have to pay more!
If you would like to know what made them decide to do this...I was told they listened to consumers...apparently teachers who complained their students had to sharpen their pencils. I am not discounting this as being a valid point but...
Please give it some thought, but consider this, whether pre-sharpening makes a difference to you or not it is going to effect you.
3 comments:
Hi Linda :)
I think you have a more valid point than the teachers do, coz simply you as an Artist use it more than students would ever do :) I think if students find it hard to sharpen, then they sure would find it harder to draw (as this require more patience) specially when using colored pencils :) Beside this has nothing to do with customer satisfaction, as it doesn’t enhance the product in any way and therefore the price increase is not justifiable :) I personally buy in packs so I prefer not to have the unused colors pre-sharpened as the tip might break and it will be a waste !! Is there any way that we can help !!
Since I noticed that Dick Blick is now carrying a student grade of colored pencils, and I think that surely teachers will be using those, Sanford's reason for presharpening (because teachers requested it) is not really valid. I think that in the long run, this willl be bad for business and if colored pencils become too expensive, people will turn to other media.
Hi Linda,
I too, found out over the weekend about the pre-sharpened Prismas, from a mini-workshop given by a prisma rep. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO was my reply! I don't want my artist grade pencils presharpend at all!
If students need pre sharpened pencils.. then shapen the student grade product. I say leave ours alone!
Of course none of this matters unless we all send our own thoughts to Prismacolor... which we all need to do ASAP!
Oh, also input on the labelling is asked for too... I don't know about you but my eyes don't like the shiney fonts very well. Ah the joys of age.
Thanks for the great info Linda!
Tj
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