BINGO

A slew of new pickups and stash stuff from always-on-the-lookout DIET HTK from July SF trip. 

BINGO MARKER 

I’m never really on the lookout for Bingo Markers. This is the first one i’m adding to the marker collection.  I see them more often than not at dollar shops, but I guess I never really considered them to be “true” black markers. In fitting with the criteria, this thing does make a black mark, and I guess it says it is a marker right there on the label.

So i guess from now on Bingo markers are getting accepted into the archives…but squeeze shoe polish bottles still are not. 

Bingo markers are good drippy fun. The nib on this thing is pretty much a cotton ball. Watery ink that makes good lines with character until the nib gets messed up. Good on paper, outdoors not so much.

ARTSKILLS PERMANENT

What a wacky marker silhouette. Artskills is predominantly a dollar store brand that makes these jumbo markers for kids. About a 3mm chisel tip on this marker. Most of this marker is hollow barrel for sure. Nice “comic” style PERMANENT label on the side, grey and black triangle motif resembles a backgammon board. Classy. Bit of kick in the smell of this thing. Nothing too fierce, just a bit of something for the kids to sit back and relax to.

BROAD TIP 9MM ( DAISO )

Daiso dissapointment this SF trip. The downtown one didn’t really have the goods. DIET HTK snagged this one from some other location. Medium weight plastic bends in a bit when barrel squeezed. Simple screened white-on-black labeling. 9MM broad tip. Makes good clean marks. Efficient, well designed product.

WINDOW MARKER

This little troublemaker, courtesy of DIET again. Cap flips open to reveal circular sponge tip about the size of a quarter. Ink comes out super fast of this thing, leaving a big drippy mess. These the sort of markers that tend to bust open in your bag and dirtying up all your stuff. Gonna sticker seal the lid shut on this thing and double bag it. Got my eye on you, Window Marker.

GARDENCRAFT TERRA COTTA MARKER JUMBO

Got this at the San Rafael Michael’s. From the folks at Marvy Uchida, this jumbo marker is labeled and branded to appeal to gardeners that like to paint things onto their terracotta pots. The label example shows a killer whale and a pair of cherries. Good product. Nice sturdy tip, good ink flow, solid construction. 

JUMBO MARKER

Dollar store find. I got one that is pretty much identical, except this one has the line 

UNSUITABLE FOR USE BY YOUNG CHILDREN 

omitted from the label.

Chisel tip, flimsyish tip. Works well but I can see the nib wearing out rather quickly with use. Which can be a nice quality. Good dark ink. Faint smell. Nice marker.

EL MARKO RIDES AGAIN !

Another mixed bag of markers, most of which came from an ebay lot I popped on last month. Lot of nice classics in the mix.

EL MARKO WATERCOLOR

Wow. The El Marko was my Holy Grail for the longest time until I got one from the homey DIET HTK earlier in the year. This is the watercolor version - same silhouette as the other el Marko, but a white body. Nice multi-faceted chiseltip. Really nice indigo hued ink, similar to Crayola - makes crisp, sharp lines. Just as excited to have this one in the collection. El Marko rides again !

CARTERS MARKS-A-LOT

This is a classic. Tri-color foil sticker label on black plastic body. Has the old skool CARTERS logo/wordmark on it, before MARKS-A-LOT became the property of AVERY. Chisel tip. Smells like italian salad dressing. Gem.

FABER CASTELL 3000

This is a low-key, no frills marker. All black plastic construction with simple 2-line metallic gold imprinted logo and labeling. Lightweight. Chisel-tip is all mashed in and soft so give off tar-scratch lines. Mellow odor. 

AEROMARKER 900 

A simple, long black sleek marker with stylish gold metallic wordmark and minimal labeling on side. Chisel tip. Makes good clean marks with no bleed. A fancy marker to be used while wearing white gloves and a monacle. Fancy. Nice acidic bite in the odor. 

EDDING No.2

This is a unique tapered silhouette from edding. Plastic construction, Grey body, bold blue wordmark. The “e” is scratched off. Huge deviation from all the previous edding designs. Gone is the familiar red/blue/white colorway, logo and wordmarks. Bullet tip. Makes super precise lines that cut and curve without bleed or loss of control. An understated, utilitarian marker that performs extremely well.

ARTLINE POSTER MARKER

Surprised that I didn’t have this one yet. Water-based tempera marker. Circle tip. Juiced up right now, works like gangbusters. 6mm tip. Pretty solid construction for a plastic body. Eccentric White/Red/Yellow/Blue color scheme on black base. Artline always makes dope products, this beauty included.

MERANGUE PERMANENT

Here’s some random marker from the dollar store. Has the weird metallic grey plastic body color prevalent in dollar store markers. Chisel tip. Makes nice clean deep black lines. Good quality marker. Better than average for a dollar store find, on par quality with some name brand markers.

BLACK POWER MARK

Still more markers from SF. DIET - HTK coming up on all kinds of marker finds.

QUARTET DRY ERASE

Quartet is a dollar store brand that produces good quality product. Solid plastic construction. Chisel Tip. Makes nice dark ink lines. Really good ink quality for a dry erase, which usually contains lighter black or brownish tint inks. Made in China. Has bilingual french-english body text so I surmise that it was made for the Canadian market.

SANFORD EXPO 2 DRY ERASE

I have several versions of this marker, all with different body markings and designs. This one has dark grey color blocking, interspersed with the familiar EXPO wordmarks and labeling. Bullet tip. This thing is close to drying out. Makes fading inconsistent lines right now. Still has a medium-strength ink odor. 

EGAN MARKERS

This takes the familiar silhouette of the Sanford Dry Erase Expo, and slaps it’s own branding, copy and wordmarks on it. This Egan company is located north of here in Woodbridge. What was this marker doing all the way in San Francisco ? Nice thick chisel tip. Nib is a bit soft. Has that classic dry erase marker smell. Makes smooth black ink lines. 

SANFORD POWER MARK

I had the Wedge Tip version, now I have the Bullet Tip. Came from Pearl Paints, so I guess DIET had it in his own stash for a while. Solid plastic construction. Bullet tip. Makes REALLY dark black ink lines, runs smooth. No bleed. An excellent quality marker. Made in USA. Surprisingly, no odor on this one.

MESSAGESTOR MARKER

This is a mystery of a marker. I peeped the website info attached www.cri2000.com and it goes to a page called Combined Resources International. Seems like an import/export place that sells a bunch of brands, including MessageStor. Which I guess is a marker and writing instrument brand. Anyways, this marker is made out of solid plastic. Medium grey labeling on white background. Not the greatest branding/wordmark for MessageStor. Not a really good name for a company either. Bullet tip. Makes smooth, dark black ink lines. Faint alcohol odor. Pretty good, although awkwardly branded, product.

IF IT DON’T MAKE DOLLARS…

Another trio of markers from SF travels, courtesy of DIET - HTK

SANFORD MR.SKETCH

This is the fourth or fifth version of Mr.Sketch marker in my collection. This has the fruit-faced border like the other one in my collection, but the AP seal is of a different design. And the fine print label detail is a different PT size and font type. Still SERIES NO 20000. Not sure if this specimen was produced before or after the other one in my collection. Chisel tip. Smells like black licorice. Supposed to, I guess, but not really. Makes nice thick black-indigo tinted lines. Another good Mr.Sketch piece for my collection.

REKORD MARCADOR PERMANENTE

I think this is the only bootleg Super Sharpie in the entire haul of markers I got in SF. This one has that classic Super Sharpie silhouette, and contains rather sparse labeling. REKORD wordmark, along with MARCADOR PERMANENTE text appears x4 on the side of the barrel. Bullet tip. Makes heavy flow dark black ink lines. Smells a bit heavy. Made in Mexico.

INC PERMANENT MARKER

This is another brand of marker I have increasingly seen in the Dollar Stores. What I like about these brands, is that they frequently change their marker silhouettes and designs, so there are always new marker variations to collect. This is quite a well designed marker. Metallic silver halftone pattern appears screened on the black plastic background. Simple INC wordmark and other label details appear in WHITE. Heavy duty plastic construction throughout. Chisel tip. Compact nib makes nice dark, heavy black lines. This is one of the Dollar Store brands that offer great performance for a value cost.

BAZIC INSTINCT

A bunch more marker pickups from the weekend Chinatown stroll. 

BAZIC PERMANENT MARKER

This is a long marker, similar to the long version Marks-A-Lot. Bazic seems to be the brand found in most of the Chinatown Dollar stores I visited. Heavyweight black plastic construction, with screened on white label details. Bleed on the label screen creates some nice shadow effects. Chisel tip. Heavy black ink. Bazic may be prevalent in many dollar stores, but they do make good quality product at a budget price, and are quick to appropriate different marker silhouettes and styles based on other popular marker brands. 

B10 TEXTA

Got this from one large. messy, Chinatown dollar store. The place had all sorts of plastic pails collecting roof leak drips. Stock was overflowing everywhere. So I was a bit disappointed that I only got 2 markers from the place. Bullet point. Plastic wrap label. Not going to pop it open. Have a strong feeling that even though it is wrapped in plastic, and was sealed in a plastic clamshell with cardboard backing, that this thing will not have any ink in it. 

LEARNING DAYS

This is the other marker I got from the messy Chinatown dollar store. Came in a box set of assorted colors. The label has a smiling dancing cartoon marker on a green background with a bunch of stars on it. It makes good, thin, heavy black ink marks. Good times.

BAZIC PERMANENT MARKER

Could this be a bootleg of a Bazic dollar store marker ? Most Bazic markers I have in my collection are actually well constructed. This marker is made from a lighter plastic, that bends in a bit when I squeeze the barrel. The label is plastic wrap around, on that silver toned background, that I often see on cheap dollar store markers. Bullet point marker. Makes thin lines. Nice medium black ink quality. Bazic makes SO many different versions of marker, that maybe they bootlegged a bootleg marker, down to these cheap design details and construction.

OSB WHITEBOARD MARKER

A familiar dollar-store marker silhouette. Some nice design details on this. Features screened-on gloss plastic label, color blocking, and geometric pattern on the barrel. Chisel tip. REALLY faint ink quality to this marker. Appears light grey. Lines run smooth.  Whenever markers have different tints or shades of ink, I try to stock up on them to create good tone variance in my black marker illustration work. I will try to remember where I got this one from and pick up a bunch.

GRAND THEFT NYC !

Picked these up along Grand Street dollar store stroll in Brooklyn last week. 

SNOWMAN BOOTLEG

Pretty sure this is a bootleg of the Snowman series of marker from Seiko Seisakusho…because it came from a dollar store on Grand Street. The label is printed on plastic wrap around, and doesn’t have the trademark snowflake icon on the label. English, French and German text translations appear on the body. NIce bold wordmark in a red cylinder shape. Chisel tip. Makes nice deep black markings, no bleed, good fades. Heavy alcohol smell on this one. 

COLORIFIC WASHABLE MARKER

This came in a marker set. Screened on label, minimal detailing. Wordmark is made up of a multicolored letters, none of which really look good when placed together. Color sequence goes magenta, magenta again, brown, brown again, yellow, lime, lime again, blue, blue again. Heavyweight plastic construction. Conical nib, similar to Crayola brand. Ink is a light tone, closer to a dark grey. Makes nice smooth marks. No odor. 

DRY ERASE MARKER

Pretty no frills marker right here. Plastic construction, white body, black caps. Just says “DRY ERASE MARKER” screened in a slanted non-serif font, twice on the body. Bullet tip. Really faint ink color. Closer to a medium grey tone. Makes smooth lines. Slight alcohol odor. 

HENG BAO WHITE BOARD MARKER

This is a pretty common silhouette for dollar store markers. Plastic body, sticker wrap around label, ribbed black top cap and rounded black end cap. Bullet tip. Nice medium weight black ink, makes smooth lines. Medium alcohol odor. Pretty basic all around marker.

XINYIDA WHITEBOARD MARKER

Have a couple other of these whiteboard markers that have built in felt erasers in the caps. This one has a bonus magnetic strip on the cap so it sticks to a whiteboard, I guess. Solid plastic construction, white/silver/greem colorway. Minimal label details. Bullet tip This thing came DOA, dried out, even though it was in a plastic package.

STAPRO WHITEBOARD 

Stubby whiteboard marker with a felt eraser built in the cap. Bullet tip, makes smooth lines. Really dark ink, which is surprising for a dry erase marker. Minimal label details, black screened on text, white plastic body. Heavy alcohol smell. This thing is pretty under the radar, but is a better than average dollar store marker. Shoulda picked up a couple more of these ones.

MAGIC FRAGRANCE

Friend rounded these up from Chinatown Buenos Aires for me. 

EDDING 100

Sleek little number, all black with white accents, bilingual Spanish-English text. Edding makes great quality markers. This is a 3mm bullet tip that makes nice consistent dark lines with no bleed. I’d have a box of these lying around for general studio use.

KEYI KY-200

Dollar store Chinatown marker. Similar silhouette as a whole slew of generic dollar store markers originating from China. Flimsy plastic construction, grey wrap around labeling. This is a chisel tip, which is something you don’t see too often in Chinatown Dollar store. Most markers like this are a bullet tip. Better than average performance. Usually dollar store markers have thinner ink and bleed heavily. This has a nice dark ink and minimal bleed. I tend to buy markers like this in bulk, pop the end caps off, cut the inner felt open, and use it to create light ink cloud effects, similar to smudging.

HUAYING 

Dollar store Chinatown marker. Similar silhouette as above, with different end cap. Sturdier plastic construction with wrap around labeling. Nice logo of a hawk on a backdrop of a globe. Chisel tip. Nice dark ink quality, no bleed. Really good quality marker for a Dollar store find.

TRATTO CHISEL TIP

Quite happy to have this in the collection. Rounded-square shape, similar to Copics, but in a scale and size that is unique in the marketplace. Sleek black finish with sticker label. Would have been nice to see the label details screened on. Top cap has edging that makes the lid come off easier. Makes super smooth lines with no bleed and really nice dark ink characteristics. Italian or Spanish company. Marcatore/Marker label translation. Color code is Nero Black.  Always good to have international markers to add to the archives.

TRATTO GROSSO

This is a jumbo 12mm angled chisel tip. Sturdy plastic construction. I’ve seen this silhouette before in another marker brand. Made in Korea. Firm felt nib, heavy ink quality, applies smooth with no bleed. A great quality marker. 

5 STAR GENERALS

5 STAR GENERALS  Shabaam Sahdeeq featuring Eminem, Skam, A-L (All Lyrics) & Kwest. Produced by DJ Spinna 1998 Rawkus Records.

More markers from Broadway stretch of Dollar stores.

Background image is Animal Husbandry by artist Sue Williams.

FIVE STAR SUPPLIES 

No frills dollar store marker. Plastic construction, white barrel, minimal labeling. Medium weight ink, a bit on the dark grey side. Makes nice smooth lines with no bleed. A rather nice marker.

STA PRO WASHABLE MARKERS

This came in a box of assorted color markers. Pretty much a bootleg Crayola. Same barrel and cap shape, same conical tip. Whereas Crayola markers give off a nice indigo black ink, this one gives a dark greyish/black ink.  Makes smooth lines, no bleed. 

DYNAMIC STAMP MARK

This came in a box of assorted color markers, called stampers. Same silhouette as a Crayola, with a nice musical note motif running up the side. The tip of this marker features a musical note. You’re just supposed to stamp down the image, not draw or write. The musical note doesn’t even look good when stamped. Not really a practical marker. It does make lines and is capable of writing, but the results are really wonky and unpredictable. 

E-CLIPS BOARDMARKER

What an ugly marker. Thin sticker paper label on blank plastic marker. Design and layout is all over the place on this one. Appearance aside, the ink is nice and dark, and the bullet tip makes clean lines with no bleed. 

FACILERUB DRY ERASE MARKER

This is another cheap looking dollar store marker. The words on the labeling bleed into each other, a poor quality screen job. Somewhat thin plastic construction that bends in a bit when you press on the barrel. Smells something fierce. Light ink quality common amongst dry erase markers. Not a beauty, but it works.

BAZIC SCENTED MARKERS

This is a bootleg version of the Sanford Mr.Sketch line of scented markers. Same marker silhouette, but different labeling and marking. Semi-gloss silver gray barrel, with Crayola-like wavy lines near the tip and ends. For some strange reason they chose the color black to smell like…SWEETCORN ? It does smell pretty good though. Somewhat weirdly appealing, like Jelly Belly popcorn flavor. Makes smooth black lines of average consistency and quality. 

HEY HEY HEY !

Walking the Broadway stretch continuing south east from Marcy station is always good marker hunting territory. Lot of Dollar shops / Discount Stores the whole route, with cheap food and drink spots along the way. I walked the stretch the Friday before “Hurricane” Irene, and it was a hectic time with a strange mood about the way. Every dollar shop was kinda busy with peeps buying water and batteries and flashlights and candles. I kept thinking - ” Should I be buying something other than black markers right now ? “…

iTHINK PERMANENT

Has the same silhouette as a StaRed/Mon Ami. Shape flares out from the tip, distinguishable shaped cap.  No frills marker. All black plastic with screened-on minimal white labelling. Bullet tip. Smells pretty strong. Good coverage, no bleed, applies smooth. 

TOTAL ECLIPSE

Bunch of markers from Broadway wander.

E-CLIPS WHITEBOARD 

This marker came packaged with a felt/wood eraser. Paper sticker label over a sturdy plastic hull. Bullet tip. Nice lighter brown/black shade of ink, common with whiteboard markers. A bit worn out, makes a nice faded lines already. A good average marker.

FINE POINT PERMANENT MARKER

Super Sharpie bootleg. Really minimal labeling. Mushy tip, dark ink, no bleed. An OK marker for a bootleg. Good for fills and whatnot.

FLOMO WHITEBOARD

Another marker that takes influence from Super Sharpie. Slightly wider barrel, notched end, different clip design on the marker cap. Works well. Nice thick lines, rather soft bullet tip.

FLOMO PERMANENT

Super Sharpie Bootleg. Minimal labeling. Slightly mushy tip, dark ink, no bleed. Again, another average quality marker for a bootleg. I’ve tested worse. 

PRO-MARX CHISEL TIP

Seeing similar strange silhouettes in marker design. Is this supposed to represent a 90’s or 2000’s design aesthetic ? Cap with ridged sides that make it easier to remove. Rubber diamond pattern grip towards the neck that makes it easier to grip and hold. Translucent barrel with “extreme” PROMARX wordmark. Shiny endcap. I guess it is supposed to be an ergonomic. I think it’s a over-designed. Too boardroom instead of studio. Thick chisel tip. Thick ink. Slightly heavy upon application. Nice coverage.