I needed some pencils for some carpentry work I was doing. The pencils I had at home kept breaking. The ones I purchased at Staples had a better quality "lead" and worked much better. They were offered at a very affordable price too.
I bought Ticonderoga pencils which wouldn't sharpen correctly. They were off center in the middle so I returned them and bought the TRU RED pencils which were pre-sharpened and were so much better than the Ticonderoga. I'm so glad I bought the TRU RED pencils. I will never go back to Ticonderoga.