Top 10 of the year
I’m excited and optimistic for 2022! But before rushing off into the new year I’d like to take a few minutes to reflect on BNP’s many memorable pencil highlights from the previous. Here are my top ten.
#10
My best-selling pencil for the year was the Mongol Copying 710, which is a bit of an outlier since most of them were sold to a small number of customers in India. Copying pencils are often donated to Monks for writing manuscripts! They’re big with BNP, too. I currently have 585 copying pencils in my online museum, a few of which are for sale.
#9
After keeping an eye looking out for almost 40 years, I added the Winthrop 96 No.2 to my collection. Finally!
#8
My long-planned pencil hunting trip to Japan was cancelled due to COVID, which was a real bummer. So instead, Japan came to me. I was able to add a bunch of really hard to find vintage Japanese pencils to BNP in 2021, like this Boxy HB.
#7
I caused a commotion with my Instagram promotion. Last year I introduced BNP on Instagram, and gave away some sweet vintage pencil gear to kickstart what now has over 1,300 followers.
#6
BNP T-shirts and other vintage pencil swag invaded Etsy. My top-sellers include the Futura Soft No.2, the classic Eagle Pencil Co. Tri-Blend, and surprise … the Wallace Invader.
#5
Vintage pencil stickers were a hit. Last year I started making custom-designed stickers to match more than two dozen rare and vintage pencils in my store. While I will be slowing down for 2022, I have a couple more up my sleeve, including one for the Varsity 1398 No.2 which was released today.
#4
This year I introduced several new Blackwing Volumes value packs, which have been selling very well. The most popular of all has been the FIRM set, which just so happens to include my top-selling Blackwing of the year: the Volumes 205.
#3
The Blackwing X Lucid appeared out of nowhere to instantly become one of the most sought-after Blackwings … ever. They’re super classy and super exclusive from what I know.
#2
More than 8,000 rare and vintage pencils were shipped to all corners the globe, including Australia, Korea, China, New Zealand, Poland, Hungary, England, France, Spain, Canada … I could go on! It gives me great satisfaction to play a part in spreading the joy of pencils to collectors, writers, illustrators, and pencil fans of all kinds around the world.
#1
BNP moved to the beach! My family and I relocated to Florida from Idaho, and of course I brought Brand Name Pencils with me. It feels so right to be enjoying the warm breeze on the beach in January. No shoes, no shirt, plenty of pencils to offer my friends in 2022. Life is good!
Thanks to everyone who has helped make 2021 a big one for BNP. Happy new year!