evidence: With every ten-pack of Nataraj Bold pencils (and, apparently, most Indian pencils) comes two bonus products: a simple, plastic hand sharpener, and a small, white, "Dust Clear" block eraser. I think these are fun little touches, kind of like the bubble gum in a pack of baseball cards (am I dating myself?), and I like the idea that each box is a self-contained "kit" with everything a person needs to start writing. [...] The box specifies a MSRP of 50 rupees per 10-pencil box; or 5 rupees per pencil. That translates to 7.3 cents in US dollars. That’s stupid cheap. For those of us who don’t travel to India often, I paid about $5 with Prime free shipping for these; so that’s about 50 cents per pencil. Of course, that doesn’t take into account the free sharpener or eraser; you’d have a hard time finding comparable products retail in the US for under a buck. If ordering pencils by mail is feasible for you (or if you’re going to be in India any time soon), the Nataraj Bold is a great pencil that’ll work for peanuts.