Over the holidays, I decided to look for vintage art supplies online with hopes to procure quality materials at a very reasonable price point and I totally hit the jackpot. The haul was exciting to unbox and I discovered that I had purchased really good vintage materials. If I had to guess I’d say that the materials date from the 1990s or earlier. The drawing pencil sets, compressed charcoal, vine charcoal, charcoal pencils, charcoal pitt refills, mechanical pencils, drafting pencil leads, grey scale pastel set, case quantities of charcoal pencils, etc. were essentially NOS or new old stock. Now I have enough drawing materials to last me a really long time and I don’t have to worry about buying a whole bunch of stuff for quite a while. So is this new old stock better quality than what is being currently produced today? One thing I have noticed is that the charcoal pencils seem to be easier to sharpen as the tips don’t break off when being sharpened with a pencil sharpener. Also, the quality of the charcoal within the wood of the pencils seems to be richer and glides beautifully across drawing paper. Another observation is that the vine charcoal is straight and smooth without curves or little nubby bumps. The vine charcoal also glides making beautiful marks upon the paper. I have yet to test out the mechanical pencils but from my research I read many reviews lauding the old-school product. As for the compressed charcoals, they feel great in the hand and really have some density to them. From my observations, I am of the opinion that the vintage materials in my haul seem to be better made and have qualities that surpass currently manufactured materials. Lucky me!