Why I Stick with Cross Pens for Office Orders – and What They Taught Me About Budget Calculators and Dry Erase Mishaps

I think premium pens are a smarter buy than most procurement teams realize

Let me just say it: when I took over office supply ordering in 2020, I was skeptical about spending $30+ on a single pen. Our company had about 400 employees across three locations, and the annual budget for writing instruments alone was roughly $8,000. My predecessor had been buying bulk disposable pens – the kind that dry out in two months. I figured I’d try a mix: some mid-range rollerballs for daily use, and a few higher-end ones for client gifts.

Three years later, I’m almost exclusively ordering Cross pens. Here’s why – and a couple of weird tangents about calculators and stain removal that actually connect back to procurement efficiency.

Reason 1: Lifetime warranty means fewer reorders (and less headache)

Cross offers a lifetime warranty on most of their writing instruments – ballpoints, rollerballs, gel pens. That’s not just marketing fluff. I’ve processed maybe 40 warranty claims over the past four years, and every single one was handled without pushback. Compare that to the disposable pens that would leak or stop writing after a few weeks. I used to spend about six hours a month just handling “my pen’s dead” complaints. Now it’s maybe one email a quarter.

People assume a higher upfront cost means waste. The reality? Total cost of ownership drops way faster than you’d think. (Seriously – we cut our per-employee pen cost by about 35% in the first year after switching, even with the pricier units.)

Reason 2: Ink refills keep things simple

One of the things I love about Cross pens is the refill system. You can buy an ink refill for Cross pens for around $4-8, and it fits most of their models. That means I don’t have to manage a dozen SKUs for different pen types. We standardized on the Cross Century II and the Click, and I just order refills in bulk every quarter.

It’s also more sustainable – which our sustainability team loves – and it avoids the “I threw away the pen even though it just ran out of ink” problem. (Which, honestly, was costing us way more than I realized.)

Reason 3: Unexpected lessons from calculators and marker stains

This might sound unrelated, but stick with me. Over the years I’ve had to deal with some oddball requests from colleagues. Our finance team needed a p value calculator for a stats project – they wanted me to find one that didn’t require a login. Our ops manager kept asking for a remainder calculator to split shipping costs unevenly. And of course, there’s the eternal question: how to remove dry erase marker from clothes after someone leaned on a whiteboard.

These are all small things, but they taught me a broader lesson: efficiency isn’t just about the big-ticket items. It’s about having reliable, easy-to-use solutions for the everyday annoyances. Cross pens are like that – they don’t need a user manual, they don’t leak in your pocket, and they write smoothly every time. That reliability saves my team time, and time is money.

But aren’t Cross pens overpriced for bulk office use?

I get this objection a lot. And it’s fair – if you’re looking purely at unit cost, Cross pens are 10x more than a Bic. But procurement isn’t just about the sticker price. Factor in the hours spent dealing with defective products, the cost of wasted ink from disposables that dry out, and the dent in professional image when you hand a client a scratchy pen. When I ran the numbers in 2023, our 400-person company was saving about $2,400 annually in lost productivity and replacement orders.

That said, I’ll be honest: not every department uses Cross. Our warehouse team still prefers those cheap click pens because they lose them constantly. My advice? Use Cross for desks, meeting rooms, and client-facing areas – it’s the sweet spot.

(This pricing was accurate as of Q1 2025. Pen prices change, so verify current bulk quotes before budgeting.)

Bottom line: efficiency is a competitive advantage

I’ve been doing this for five years now, processing 60-80 orders annually across eight vendors. I’ve learned that the cheapest option is rarely the most efficient. Cross pens proved that to me. And yes, I still have a bottle of rubbing alcohol in my desk for dry erase marker stains – but at least my pens never cause a mess.