Neck and Neck

On the way back from dinner at the Baltimore Show, Rick Krantz had just one thing on his mind: the turquoise and bronze Chilton set that was going to be in the evening’s pen auction. "It will be mine," he said with an air of confidence and authority. I believed him.

Cliff Harrington, on the other hand, had other ideas. Part of me wanted to call out to Cliff, "Hey! Let him have it! He’s been talking about that thing all night!" But that wouldn’t be right – first, because I was working in the auction behind the tables putting lots with the correct bidder numbers. But more importantly – the whole idea of an auction is that the person who is willing to pay more than anyone else in the room wins.

And this time, it wasn’t Rick.

When the hammer fell and Cliff was the victor, I thought maybe I’d approach Cliff and see if I could talk him into splitting up the set and selling me the pencil. But blast it if Joe Nemecek didn’t have the same idea, and since he was runway boy, strutting stuff down the aisle for viewing, he was the early bird to the worm hunt this time. Cliff ended up selling Joe the pencil and Rick Krantz the pen, for what amounted to the price he paid for the set.

After all, as Cliff put it, he’s had four or five of these. So everyone ended up happy that night: the seller got a fair price for the set, Cliff got to win the auction but didn’t end up having to pay for it, Joe got the pencil and Rick got the pen.

And as for me, I’m content to have pictures of the pencil:

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.