Who Gets The China?

Do you have a stash of these or other historic desk artifacts?

Most likely you are familiar with Cross pens. They were founded in 1846 by a family of jewelers. They’ve been used by Presidents since Ronald Reagan for signing bills into law and formalizing other important documents.

Growing up, personalized Cross pens were a gift at milestones and from business partners. Back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s they were something of a status symbol. They claim to come with a lifetime manufacturer’s warranty which it may be time to test out. We could be the recipients of a bounty of new, beautiful, working pens.

I still love a beautiful pen. My husband gave me a fancy fountain-style pen for our anniversary some 20 years ago. It travelled around the world with me on business trips and to board meetings. I was crushed when I lost it – maybe it was when my purse was stolen one day from my San Francisco corner office. I’ve had other nice pens but that one was special.

Fancy pens seem to have fallen out of favor as no one seems to write on paper much anymore. But don’t worry, we have plenty of inventory!

Recently as I was searching for something else, maybe a yellow sticky note in my mom’s desk, I came across a stash of them. Maybe 10 old gold-ish, silver-ish and matte black Cross pens and pencils. Many, maybe most, are almost unusable due to dried out nibs, old roller balls or broken graphite. If you are just looking for a free, taken-from-a-bank, working ballpoint pen, good luck finding one. If you want a fancy, 40-year old Cross pen, we’ve got you covered.

Why aren’t we actually using these pens? I don’t know where to get roller refills but I am guessing it wouldn’t take me long to find out. But no one (myself included) seems to prioritize this task enough to take it on, so we use crappy $.25 pens and let these nice ones take up space.

A quick trip down a Reddit rabbit hole tells me we are not alone in hoarding these trinkets, but I can’t tell if they are worth a dime to anyone else.