

Should I get Triconderoga pencils or Uniball pens? How are Triconderoga pencils really?
Hey guys! I happened to find this sub today and even though I have been really deliberate or kind of a maniac about stationery, this sub, in a single day has made me obsessed with pencils like never before. Now, I'm still a student so I can't really afford to buy pencils from other countries since they are quite expensive. But I happen to have a 20-dollar Amazon US gift card. These are region specific so I can only buy things from Amazon US which happen to ship to India.
About 75% of the budget is really being eaten by the customs and shipping lol, so I have very limited options on what I can buy. After much back and forth, I found a 30 pack of pencils by Ticonderoga, and a 12-pack of pens by Uniball. But I'm really confused as to which of them to get. Earlier I had decided on the former because those are 30 as opposed to 12, but I read some things on this sub and also in the reviews, that the quality of ticons has gone down. I don't want to be disappointed when I receive them, so I really want to ask some advice.
More context: Ticon pencils are available on Amazon India and those are cheaper to buy from Amazon India. But even if they are cheaper, since this is a gift card it's basically free money to me, and I don't think I would buy them out of my/my parent's pocket soon. Moreover, the Uniball onyx pens are only really available through a reseller, which is much more expensive.