By Way of Introduction

My first conversation with Arthur Cox began the same way a lot of my conversations start with people I don’t know. He’d seen my blog, he had some pencils and he thought I might be interested in them.

Often, when I get these calls people are fishing to see what the things they have are worth – in the most egregious example, after I’d negotiated a price with a caller, he said he’d think about it and the next thing I know, he’d listed the pencils in an online auction with an opening bid of exactly twice what I’d offered!

So I’ve gotten a little skeptical about callers offering to sell me things, but Arthur was different. First, as we talked I could tell he knew a lot about pencils. Second, he was looking to sell duplicates from his collection – a pretty clear indication that he’d been actively seeking them out, rather than having fell into them by accident.

And third, he was calling me one week before the Philly show to see if he could bring some early Eagles with him and meet me at the show.

Sure, I told him – bring everything you want to show me! Since I would have my camera with me, even if we couldn’t come to terms on a price, from what he was describing it sounded like he had some really interesting things I’d want to document.

So on Saturday morning, as I was browsing through Andy Beliveau’s victorian pencils, my cell phone jingled. It was Arthur, calling as promised from the lobby outside the show room, with pencils in tow. I excused myself and went out into the lobby, where I found Arthur with a couple small boxes under his arm. We found a table and a couple of chairs to sit down and talk for awhile.

Arthur, who is quite the salesman, led with his strong suit to hook me in. "Have you ever seen one of these?" he asked:

To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 2, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and everywhere else you buy books, or you can order a copy signed by yours truly through the Legendary Lead Company HERE.