…and we have a winner! id00092 wrote the winning comment:
are you sure that Gessner is not a Ninja weapon??
id00092
Congratulations! Please contact me by email within a week (by 23 July 2019). My email address can be found on the ‘About’ page. You’ll need to let me know whether you want to win the Gessner or the other mechanical pencils (i.e. all of them except the Gessner).
To help you with that decision: Here’s a video about the Caran d’Ache 888 Infinite:
and one about the Faber-Castell TK-Fine 2315:
If you want to go back the the origins and prefer the Gessner then you’ll find some more information about the Gessner and the company behind it here:
It’s time to celebrate Mechanical Pencil Day again. CultPens let me pick £50 worth of stationery and to get you into the mechanical pencil day mood I will give them away again, like last year.
This year I went with the theme of underdog mechanical pencils. That also means that most of the pencils were cheap and it’s not really worth me sending them out individually because international postage might cost me more than the value of the pencil.
Prizes for Mechanical Pencil Day 2019
That means that this year I split the prize into two halves: The Gessner (the wooden one, third from the left with its ‘case’ next to it) is one half. You can find out more about the company behind the Gessner, plus a bit about the Gessner itself in the following video I made in the past. I think it’s one of many videos that was supposed to be used in a blog post, but the blog post just hasn’t happened yet.
It’s on 5/7 or 7/5, depending on your countries way of writing dates because the two most popular lead diameters are 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm.
What do I need to do to take part in the giveaway?
I won’t force you to follow my YouTube, Facebook or Twitter account to take part in the draw for this giveaway. We’re all adults here and you should decide yourself who you want to follow. Instead of following my social media channels, all you have to do for a chance to win is to leave a comment at the bottom of this blog post.
When is the deadline for the giveaway, i.e. the deadline to leave a comment?
Deadline is 15 July 2019 at 12:00 (noon) Zulu time (UTC)
How will the winner be decided?
I will use a random number generator to get a random number n. I will then check who wrote the nth comment.
I will then check whether the nth comment is the first comment by a blog reader on this giveaway post. If it is the first comment by a blog reader on this post this reader will get the pencil of their choice. If the comment was written by myself or if it was not the first comment or if the reader wrote he/she doesn’t want the prize then I will go back to step one. This ensures that I won’t win a prize myself. It also means that you can comment as often as you want, but only one of your comments (the first one) will count for the prize draw.
Deadline see above.
I will announce the winner on this blog. The winner then has one week to contact me. If I don’t hear back from the winner within a week the prize might be given to someone else or used in another giveaway or contest or I might keep it myself.
The remaining half/prize will be a prize for Stationery.wiki. You can, of course, take part in both, the Bleistift giveaway and the Stationery.wiki. In fact, I encourage you to.
For last year’s prizes I tried to focus on unusual mechanical pencils. For this year’s mechanical pencil day, I want to take a closer look at affordable mechanical pencils that don’t get the attention they deserve.
It’s time to celebrate! The first ever Mechanical Pencil Day is here.
Why Today?
With the two most popular lead diameters being 0.5mm and 0.7mm the day was set to 05/07 (in the format used in UK, France, Italy, Spain, ..) that’s 07/05 (in the format used in USA, China, maybe Canada) or 5.7. (in the format used in Germany and other Central and Northern European countries). [1]I guess my personal mechanical pencil day should be 02/03 then 😛
To celebrate this special day there are, of course, prizes to be won.
Everyone’s Celebrating
CultPens was kind enough to supply more than £50 worth of prizes. They also agreed that I can split these between Bleistift.blog and Stationery.wiki. As part of their Mechanical Pencil Day celebrations they published a blog post from me on their blog yesterday (The picture are not form me, though). Other blogs give out prizes, too. I can’t list all the blogs that offer prizes, as I am not sure who exactly is taking part (this blog post was written before 5 July) but I know that Dave from Dave’s Mechanical Pencils has some fine pencils he’ll hand out. He’s the one who made me aware of Mechanical Pencil Day in the first place. Have a look at his blog for even more chances of winning fine writing gear than if you only take part in my giveaway.
How to Win
OK, here’s what’s on offer and how to win Bleistift’s giveaway prizes. By the way, I won’t force you to follow my YouTube, Facebook or Twitter account to take part in the draw for this giveaway. We’re all adults here and you should decide yourself who you want to follow. Instead of following my social media channels, all you have to do for a chance to win is to leave a comment at the bottom of this blog post.
Mechanical Pencil Day Prizes
..and here are the prizes. From left to right we have:
I will use a random number generator to get a random number n. I will then check who wrote the nth comment.
I will then check whether the nth comment is the first comment by a blog reader on this giveaway post. If it is the first comment by a blog reader on this post this reader will get the pencil of their choice. If the comment was written by myself or it was not the first comment I will go back to step one.
This ensures that I won’t win a prize myself. It also means that you can comment as often as you want, but only one of your comments (the first one) will count for the prize draw.
I will then repeat the first two steps until we have a winner for the second pencil. The second winner can choose from the remaining three pencils.
Deadline is 11 July 2018 at 12:00 (noon) Zulu time (UTC), that’s 5:00 PDT [2]Tango, 8:00 EDT [3]Quebec, 13:00 BST [4]Alfa, 14:00 CEST [5]Bravo, 20:00 CST [6]Hotel, 21:00 KST/JST [7]India. [8]All these time zones remind me of the 1980s and early 1990s when MTV Europe was still free to watch. In Europe, you’re not really used to different time zones, but with MTV Europe being a … Continue reading
I will contact you if you’ve won, but if I don’t hear back from you within a week the pencils might be given to someone else or used in another giveaway or contest.
The two remaining pencils will be the prizes for the Stationery.wiki contest. You can, of course, take part in both, the Bleistift giveaway and the Stationery.wiki contest. In fact, I encourage you to.
Who can take part?
CultPens sent the pencils to me. I will send them to the winners using Royal Mail. They will usually send items to more or less all countries, but if you live on the ISS or in a research station in Antarctica and are not sure whether they deliver to you you can check on their Country Guide page.
I will send the pen using the cheapest method (this is a free blog after all, with no income from advertising). I think within the UK this is covered up to £20. Internationally the cover might be even higher. If you need the pen sent in a specific way let me know and I will see whether I can accomodate.
All these time zones remind me of the 1980s and early 1990s when MTV Europe was still free to watch. In Europe, you’re not really used to different time zones, but with MTV Europe being a pan-European TV station programmes were announced in different time zones.
Caroline Weaver’s pencil book has been the big topic in the stationery fandom. As there’s nothing much I can say about this book that hasn’t already been said publicly or privately here’s a look at another pencil book.
This was in the IKEA store in Warrington [1]..which was the first IKEA in the UK. They also have a pencil themed area for children to try out their products.
