My new fondness for Ebay

I have just received my first purchase won on Ebay and am ridiculously happy about it. Here's the story:

Before I moved from Baltimore several months ago, I bought 2 pen nibs from an art supply store in the city. After I moved, I used those nibs exclusively for pretty much several months. They worked really well. I must have worn them out though because after lots of constant use, they started to make broken lines when drawing. I resolved to get some more, but didn't know where. There are virtually no good art supply stores out here in suburbia. Aside from one privately owned store downtown, there is nothing. I went to this store to see what I could find anyway, since I was in dire need. All they had was speedball, and when I told the woman who worked there the brand name, she obviously had no idea what I was talking about. I bought a speedball nib anyway just to try it out, and when I got home I found that it did not work at all AND that they had accidentally overcharged me. So I decided to go online and see if I could find this brand of good nibs (Esterbrook). Well, I came to find out that Esterbrook pens was a company started in 1858 and was initially called the United States Steel Pen Manufacturing Company. The company made nib pens and later fountain pens. They were eventually taken over by the Venus Pencil Company in 1967, which was later taken over by Faber-Castell in 1973. Anyway, these particular nibs by Esterbrook are no longer made and are considered vintage, which makes me somewhat sad because they work so well. I ended up winning an entire sealed box of 144 nibs on ebay for $48. That's with shipping included. It's a bargain if you think about it because normally you buy a nib at an art supply for 99 cents. I'm sure the other people I was bidding against wanted the nibs for a collection, but it's nice to know that I will be getting use out of them and they won't just be sitting on a shelf somewhere. There are many many different styles of nibs by Esterbrook, and I got the #1000 SCHOOL (fine and firm) variety. The tip is not too bendy and allows for a good amount of pressure. The box they came in is very cool as well. Here are some pictures I took.