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By late 2013, Panda's leadmaking machinery had been sold for scrap, and in November, the owners sold the building. Inside were several decades' worth of unsold inventory and leftovers. Since the building had to be cleaned out when the keys were turned over, the daughter of Panda's president began searching for someone to buy what was left.
With just a week left before all the company's stock would wind up in the dumpster, her internet search for people who might be interested in vintage mechanical pencil lead brought her straight to Jonathan Veley, who has written several books on the subject of mechanical pencils, was publishing a daily blog on antique pencils called The Leadhead's Pencil Blog, and who by coincidence lived in Newark, Ohio, only about two hours away. It didn't take any convincing for him to make the trip that Saturday, and it didn't take long when he arrived to see how important Panda's stock was to anyone interested in vintage mechanical pencils.
That afternoon, Veley purchased everything Panda had left -- standard sized .046" and .036" leads, boxed in 1,000 gross cases in numerous hardnesses and colors as well as box after box of leads made in unusual sizes and compositions. The earliest leads appear to date to the late 1920s; the latest, from 1989,
None of these leads are made in the United States anymore. Cheap Asian imports, combined with domestic environmental restrictions, have wiped out the American mechanical pencil lead industry in its entirety. You might be able to find some of the sizes Panda made -- but you won't find any made in the USA.
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