A Colfax man’s collection of nearly 70,000 pencils has been confirmed as a Guinness World Record after being counted in July.
Aaron Bartholmey says most of his collection is made up of advertising pencils. “Anything with a date on it really catches my eyes, so whether that’s an old town celebration or company anniversary or I’ve got ones with old sports schedules on it from the 40s and 50s,” he says. Bartholmey says he started collecting pencils more than 30 years ago when he would go with his grandpa to flea markets and antique stores because they were something small that he could afford.
“A lot of flea markets vendors would have, you know, a cigar box of pencils there on the table, and usually something cheap and small that I can pick up while grandpa was looking at everything else,”Bartholmey says. “And so, it was something for me to do and kind of make that connection with him.”
All 69,255 of his pencils have never been used.
(By Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio)