Sanford Sharpie Water-based Paint Marker Sets Some Important Information

Last night I went to Michaels (not one of my favorite places but a last resort) to find some replacement packs of the pens you see in the photo above. My local Dick Blick had stopped carrying them and I couldn't find them elsewhere. I was a bit horrified to find them on clearance in the glass case (where our Southern California stores stock the pens) in two stores. Turns out the pens in packs are not selling well at all so the stores are clearing them out. I was told by one store if I kept the packaging that they would be able to reorder more if I needed them (so fyi on that!) I did notice two things: that at one store ALL of the water-based markers in a pack were on clearance and marked that. In another store, the pens were not marked but they rang up at the same price. I am not sure what to make of this at the moment as the pens are on the Sanford website as still being available. Some of you may remember this happening a few years ago. I was then told (after many phone calls) that Michaels would be a test run and that depending upon how well the markers sold at Michaels that they would be "brought back." That was two or three years ago. Then last year, the pens you see above started popping up at not only Michaels but Dick Blick and other stores. I'll keep you posted if I hear any more information. I love these pens and I really hope that they're not going away any time soon. Hopefully they will start selling the pastel, glitter and metallic extra fine pens open stock. Fingers crossed.