S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff) with Amy Moyer: Office Supplies – WorthPoint

Vintage staplers, pen nibs, paper trays, pencil leads, ink wells, address books, pencil cups, and oh-so-many slide rules—these are a few of my favorite S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff): Office Supplies. Before you throw away all these items clogging up your desk and workspace, read on to learn the (sometimes high) value of many of these Luddite-appealing old-school office tools.

The Laptop-Weary Love Vintage Staplers

Unlike some S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff) categories like china and crystal, office supplies can be very desirable on the secondary marketplace these days. Why? The answer is one golden word that resellers rely on and seek out: nostalgia. In today’s world of everything high-tech, from watches and phones that track your every move to the threat of artificial intelligence taking over all aspects of daily life, who isn’t nostalgic for the satisfying metallic crunch of an old-school stapler or running a few equations through a slide rule? Ok, maybe the people nostalgic for slide rules are a limited market, but I guarantee those math nerds at least have deep pockets.

As for the rest of the S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff) Office Supplies, there is a ripe and ready millennial and Gen Z market yearning for the chance to have a finely crafted wooden stacking paper tray unit or vintage cup full of carefully engineered mechanical pencils on their desk to offset the ever-present glowing screen of their laptop.

Beyond Tiffany and Stickley

The history of office supplies is relatively shallow rather than deep, originating with utilitarian tools like letter openers and eventually morphing into elaborate desk sets displayed as status symbols on fine writing tables. The heyday for the latter was the mid-to-late 19th century, which saw makers such as Tiffany crafting and hawking multi-piece coordinating desk sets with everything from inkwells to blotters to clocks. These sets are certainly still sought-after today but are more the purview of museums and auction houses, with complete sets selling for tens of thousands of dollars. However, please note that these sets are beloved not just for their fabulous deco design but also for that golden word: nostalgia. Even I am nostalgic for the days of having a simple small calendar propped up on my desk instead of an overflowing, color-coded, online calendar scheduled down to each fifteen-minute mark.

Tips from a Reseller

As a reseller myself, I wear many hats, from working with consignment clients to attending live auctions to scouring the internet for treasures to picking at estate sales. My experiences have taught me the fine trade of reselling vintage office supplies. For example, when first entering an estate sale, there is no real need to quickly rush off to the home office as many “pickers” don’t bother going there. However, feel free to slowly saunter over and start eyeballing not just the contents of the home office but the desktop storage tools themselves. Some people may look in those old wooden stacking letter trays for envelopes of cash and such, but I love to empty out those old trays and buy them myself for resale.

Common vintage brands to look for are Automatic File and Index Co. from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Globe Wernicke out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Both companies were American furniture makers, specializing in wooden office gear from paper trays to the glass-fronted bookcases commonly seen in law offices. Another tip: you can find those old wooden trays in estate sale basements as well, often on tool benches.

Finally, Pining for Pen Nibs

What other S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff): Office Supplies have value? Bear with me, but here we go: pen nibs. They are tiny, and they are shiny, and the folks who use Montblanc and Visconti pens don’t mind shelling out a pretty penny for scarce old pen nibs. They are like the 1933 double eagle of the S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff): Office Supplies world (okay, maybe not that valuable, but still). Staplers are also an easy pick to resell, with many vintage Swinglines proudly boasting the streamlined design lusted after by today’s mid-century modern collectors. In fact, most mid-century desktop and office supply items are desirable, thanks to pop culture staples like Mad Men showcasing the high-class ease of a bygone era of formal, tightly designed, and spic and span office spaces.

With today’s millennials and Gen Z kids sitting in their home offices or at their kitchen tables, not having showered in days and depressed by the piles of laundry and dishes in full sight, these kids are nostalgic, nostalgic for the escapism of an actual office and true workplace. This nostalgia is not going away anytime soon, with other shows like The Office being binge-watched today from kiddos as young as preteens. You can’t go wrong with S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff): Office Supplies. Read on for the complete list of:

20 Valuable S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff): Office Supplies

1. Staplers
2. Pen nibs
3. Fountain pens
4. Mechanical pencils
5. Pencil lead refills in original boxes
6. Wooden paper trays
7. Metal paper sorters, the more streamlined or art deco, the better
8. Full desk sets
9. Ink wells
10. Paper punches
11. Slide rules
12. Rulers
13. Blotters
14. Calculators
15. Notecard sets (funky is best)
16. Scissors (bird handles are fun)
17. Old computers (if you have the bandwidth)
18. Typewriters
19. Desk lamps
20. Address books

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Amy Moyer is the proprietor of Antmuffin: Art, Antiques & Collectibles. She holds a B.A. in Visual Art from Brown University and lives in Boston.

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