
A 25-Year-Old  Turning a Profit Selling Pencils - ca98am79
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-12/this-25-year-old-is-turning-a-profit-selling-pencils?cmpid=BBD041216_BIZ
======
isuckatcoding
Not saying I am going to go and open a shop that sells hats now but I found
this somewhat refreshing. Everytime I think of a potential business idea, I
quickly think 'naah that'll never work. Amazon, or "ACME-Corp" has probably
done it already or they'll do it better'

Seems like it is a matter of finding that passion and niche. She clearly found
both.

~~~
toyg
To be fair, she had passion, niche, _and a huge conglomerate of people with
loads of disposable income_ (aka NYC) at her disposal. The same shop in a
smaller city would likely not survive.

That's the beauty of cities: they made the _long tail_ possible well before
the Internet.

~~~
EliRivers
On a tangent, the internet has ended up damaging the long tail and in many
fields we now have a situation far more polarised than before. Sad times.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
What would be an example of that?

~~~
EliRivers
The mid-list publishing industry has taken an enormous beating. There used to
be a lot more people who made a living writing; now, the split between best
seller or writing around a day job is much more pronounced.

------
philippoi
“Mechanical pencils, they don't smell like anything. The lead is so small you
can get no line variation out of it," says Weaver.

I heard this countless times in art and architecture classes in college, but I
disagree. My favorite pencil to draw with is the Alvin Draf-Tec Retrac,
[http://www.alvinco.com/Shop/Products.aspx?IID=29525](http://www.alvinco.com/Shop/Products.aspx?IID=29525),
which they offer for 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7-mm graphite sizes. Both the 0.5 and 0.7
are good all-around but the 0.3's are great for fine details. I love the way
the weight and balance of the pencil allows very responsive feel so I can
easily shift from light to dark shading or thick to thin line weight
intuitively. I've never found that it's harder to get a full light-to-dark
shading gradient from that mechanical pencil. I also like to exploit the point
the tip develops to have different edges to use for different strokes. As the
tip develops, it's more predictable, where a wood enclosed pencil requires
constant tip maintenance.

~~~
shahar2k
those are fantastic pencils, I own a few, they are quite fragile though and
the plastic casing tends to crack making the whole thing useless. when I'm
drawing I really enjoy the pentel 1000, especially at 0.9 mm

~~~
philippoi
Great recommendation, I'll look to try one of those out soon. I'm hoping to
wrap up my current project in the next couple of months and after that should
be the perfect time for experimenting with new tools.

------
flashman
The final quote has a lot of relevance for any person building a product or
service: "I didn’t start this because I want to be a business lady. I started
it because I really wanted to sell people pencils.”

~~~
coroutines
"I didn't start this because I wanted to make rent. I started it because I
really wanted to dropkick loud children in movie theaters."

Find your passion.

~~~
noir_lord
There are times where if there was an Uber style app for that I'd probably
consider it.

Just have someone turn up at the theatre and dropkick the kids two rows
forwards, it would be tempting.

Fortunately the cinema near me now does late showings (through to 1am or
later) and I'm naturally a night owl.

It is so much better!

------
nateweiss
It's really a neat little store, and some of the pencils are super cool. It
has the feeling of a record store or maybe comic book store, full of treasures
that may or may not speak to you on a given day. I'd encourage dropping in if
you're in the area, plenty of good nerdy fun to be had.

I got a box of pencils that you sharpen on both ends, one end is red pencil
and the other is the "normal" black/graphite color. Great for drawing little
UI mockups and such.

------
polishninja
Here's her website, for anyone that's curious.
[http://cwpencils.com/](http://cwpencils.com/)

------
tzs
If you care enough about pencils to buy from a specialized pencil shop, then
perhaps you will also be interested in having your pencils hand sharpened by
an artisanal pencil sharpener:
[http://www.artisanalpencilsharpening.com](http://www.artisanalpencilsharpening.com)

Personally, I use a mechanical pencil--the Uni-ball Kuru Toga. This has a
simple, clever ratcheting mechanism in the head that slightly rotates the lead
every time you press it down on the paper and also when you pick it back up,
so it wears evenly on all sides into a conical point instead of developing a
flat spot. Here's a video showing how it works:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80k7Jl1o8Lc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80k7Jl1o8Lc)

~~~
nitrogen
I struggle to think of the occupation for which a $500 pencil sharpening is a
good value, but if you just want to give loads of money to someone
interesting, hey, why not?

~~~
cge
It's worth noting that the person behind it is a humorist and cartoonist, and
while I expect that he'll actually sharpen a pencil if you pay him, it is
almost certainly not meant to be taken as a serious method of pencil
sharpening. I expect the significant increases in price after the service's
inception—over an order of magnitude—reflect this.

The service is connected with a book that a New Yorker review suggests is
classified as humor by its publisher out of a lack of "avant-garde reference"
sections in bookstores.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Here's some videos of the guy:

[http://youtu.be/VkSmaFAuaH4](http://youtu.be/VkSmaFAuaH4)

[http://youtu.be/spMaP-_Cq_8](http://youtu.be/spMaP-_Cq_8)

[http://youtu.be/KabOfnbS4TQ](http://youtu.be/KabOfnbS4TQ)

He puts on a good act.

------
spatten
She was also featured in this Freakonomics podcast about "I Pencil" (worth the
listen):
[http://freakonomics.com/podcast/i-pencil/](http://freakonomics.com/podcast/i-pencil/)

------
bruceb
She has 4 employees even if part time + $1,900 rent, it seems she has to
markup the pencils more than 100%

~~~
sjf
Welcome to retail, 100% is nothing for small items, I'd be surprised if the
markup wasn't 10x.

~~~
5555624
"Weaver typically charges twice her wholesale cost." If that's true, she is a
selling a lot of pencils.

------
ZeroGravitas
I think I'm more intrigued by the restaurant downstairs that specialises in
Champaign and chicken. That's a pretty strange neighbourhood.

~~~
Alexqw85
Champagne? Or did you go to UIUC as well? ;-)

\---Alex

------
bluthru
I'm really glad quirky and specialized places like this exist, even though I
would never spend $80 a year for one pencil a month.

------
randomgyatwork
I write in my journal almost everyday, I've tried pencils in the past, but a
simple pen is much more practical.

------
Zelmor
So good to see people doing what they like and making a living of it. Gives
hope for the rest of us. :)

------
paublyrne
Headline writers just aren't trying anymore.

~~~
davorb
The headline is a reference to a 1958 essay with the same name.

~~~
paublyrne
Really? Thanks, I haven' ever heard of it. You don't have a link do you? I
can't find anything on Google.

