What should a set of colored pencils actually cost?
Across 231 colored pencil sets listed by US retailers on 31 August 2026, the price per pencil FALLS as the count rises — $0.75 a pencil in a 12-set against $0.60 in a 24-set — and then stops falling. Above 36 pencils you are paying for pigment quality, not for quantity.
The practical version: buy 24 if you are buying for a child or for occasional use, and buy by brand rather than by count above that. A 72-pencil student set and a 24-pencil artist set cost about the same and are not the same purchase.
What each set size actually costs
| Set size | Listings priced | Cheapest | Median | Dearest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 pencils | 55 | $1.49 | $8.97 | $49.99 |
| 24 pencils | 39 | $2.29 | $14.35 | $44.19 |
| 36 pencils | 17 | $4.72 | $21.53 | $66.39 |
| 48 pencils | 9 | $7.99 | $29.99 | $57.99 |
| 50, 60 or 72 pencils | 15 | $8.24 | $59.60 | $135.30 |
| Every set in the pull | 231 | $1.27 | $15.96 | $479.99 |
The 12s and 24s are where the cheap classroom stock lives, which drags their medians down and makes the per-pencil curve look steeper than it is. Read the CHEAPEST column instead: the floor barely moves between 12 and 24 pencils, because the cost of a budget set is the box and the shipping, not the pencils in it.
The brands, and where each one sits
| Brand | Listings priced | Cheapest | Median | Dearest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crayola | 60 | $1.49 | $8.99 | $49.99 |
| Prismacolor | 46 | $7.93 | $24.24 | $139.99 |
| Derwent | 21 | $1.27 | $35.99 | $135.30 |
| Caran d'Ache | 8 | $14.69 | $38.77 | $315.98 |
| Staedtler | 5 | $4.41 | $16.15 | $97.49 |
Crayola and Prismacolor are the same shelf to most shoppers and they are not remotely the same product: the medians here differ by roughly a factor of three. Crayola is a wax pencil made to survive a nine-year-old. Prismacolor is a soft wax-core pencil that lays down opaque colour and blends — and snaps if you drop it. Neither is better; they answer different questions.
Twelve sets worth looking at, cheapest first
What we would actually buy
- For a child: a 24-count Crayola set. It is around $6.99, the pencils are pre-sharpened, and losing one costs nothing.
- For an adult starting out: a 24-count Prismacolor rather than a 72-count anything. The extra 48 colours in a cheap set are mostly unusable near-duplicates, and you will mix better shades from 24 good pencils than you will find in 72 poor ones.
- For lightfastness, which is what matters if the drawing goes on a wall: read the pencil barrel, not the box. The good manufacturers print a lightfastness rating on each pencil and the cheap ones print a colour name.
- Skip: any set where the retailer's own listing does not say how many pencils are in it. Several rows in this pull are titled only "Colored Pencils" and are priced like 12s.
Last verified 31 August 2026 against 231 live colored pencil set listings from conventional US retailers in the CJ product feed, 221 of them in stock. Peer-to-peer marketplace asks of $500 or more are excluded as seller placeholders, as are repdigit asks such as $999 and $9,999 wherever they appear; retailer prices are used as published.
The listing links here are affiliate links. LinkToLooks has earned $0 from them to date — no network has approved us yet — so nothing on this page is chosen to hit a payout.
Frequently asked
How much should a set of colored pencils cost?
A 12-set has a median of $8.97 and a 24-set $14.35 across US retailers on 31 August 2026. Above 36 pencils, price tracks brand rather than count.
Are Prismacolor pencils worth the money?
They cost roughly three times a Crayola set at the median ($24.24 against $8.99 here) and lay down opaque, blendable colour. For drawing, yes; for a child's homework, no.
Is a bigger set better value?
Only up to about 36 pencils. Past that the extra colours are near-duplicates in cheap sets, and the price is driven by pigment quality instead.
Sources
- CJ Affiliate product feeds, US advertisers, queried 31 August 2026 — every price and stock state on this page is read from that pull
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