Reference Desk

How old is my Crayola 64 box with the sharpener?

Dating chart for a Crayola 64 box: Raw Umber in the box means before 1990, Dandelion with no Bluetiful means 1990 to 2017, and Bluetiful means 2017 or later. The subtitle notes that every 64 box since 1957 has the sharpener. — The sharpener has been in every 64 box since 1957, so date the box from its colour list: Raw Umber is pre-1990, Dandelion without Bluetiful is 1990 to 2017, Bluetiful is 2017 or later.Illustration: LinkToLooks

It is a Crayola No. 64 assortment, and the sharpener moulded into the back of the box has been part of that product since 1957. The sharpener is therefore not a dating tell — every 64 box for nearly seventy years has had one.

What does date the box is the colour list inside it. Eight colours were retired out of the 64 in 1990, four more in 2003, and Dandelion in 2017. A 64 box containing Raw Umber is pre-1990; one containing Dandelion but not Bluetiful is 1990 to 2017; one containing Bluetiful is 2017 or later.

For scale, Hobby Lobby listed the current 64 box new at $5.99, sharpener still in the back panel.

Date the box from the crayons, not the cardboard

Crayola has redrawn the No. 64 package many times and reissued old artwork as anniversary stock, so the graphics can be imitated. The colour list cannot: a crayon that was not in production cannot be in the box.

If the box contains	The box is
Raw Umber, Maize, Lemon Yellow, Blue-Gray, Orange-Red, Orange-Yellow, Violet-Blue or Green-Blue	Before 1990 — these eight were retired that year to the Crayola Hall of Fame
Magic Mint, Blizzard Blue, Mulberry or Teal Blue	Before 2003, when those four were retired
Dandelion, but no Bluetiful	Between 1990 and 2017
Bluetiful	2017 or later
A crayon labelled Indian Red	Before 1999, when that colour was renamed Chestnut
A crayon labelled Flesh	Before 1963, when Crayola renamed it Peach

The 1990 retirement is the single most useful line in that table, because it is the one most likely to be sitting in a parent's cupboard. Raw Umber is the easiest of the eight to spot: a flat brown that no modern box carries.

The box sizes, in order

1949 — the No. 48 assortment, the largest Crayola made for the following decade.
1957 — the No. 64, with the sharpener built into the back of the box. This is the box most adults picture.
1992 — the No. 96 Big Box.
1998 — the first 120-count assortment.

What a 64 box costs, new and second-hand

Where it is sold	Listings priced	Cheapest	Median	Dearest
Conventional US retailers	25	$4.10	$9.96	$123.37
Peer-to-peer resale	15	$12	$20	$50
All 64-count listings	40	$4.10	$12.36	$123.37

On 31 August the resale median sat above the retail median, which for a currently produced $6 product only makes sense if buyers are paying for the contents rather than the crayons. They are. The listings above the retail price are the ones naming a year or a retired colour in the title.

No listing in this pull photographs the inside of a sealed 64 box, so no individual box here is dated by its colour list. The table above is for the box in your hands, not for a listing you are reading.

Who made it

Crayola crayons have been made by Binney & Smith since the first drawing crayons went on sale in 1903. The 1990 retirement sent its eight colours to what the company called the Crayon Hall of Fame, which is the reason those eight have names collectors still recognise thirty-six years later.

Last verified 28 September 2026: 6 listed offers re-checked against the CJ product feed (US advertisers) — 5 unchanged, 1 repriced. The retail and resale tables are as of 31 August 2026. Across 362 live US listings pulled on 2 September 2026, the cheapest was $1.46 and the median $13.20. 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 what a shopper pays, the sale price where one is set.

Frequently asked

When did the Crayola 64 box get its sharpener?

1957, when the No. 64 assortment was introduced. The sharpener has been in the back panel from the start, so it does not date a box.

How do I tell how old a Crayola 64 box is?

By the colours inside. Raw Umber, Maize, Lemon Yellow, Blue-Gray, Orange-Red, Orange-Yellow, Violet-Blue and Green-Blue were retired in 1990; Magic Mint, Blizzard Blue, Mulberry and Teal Blue in 2003; Dandelion in 2017.

What is a used Crayola 64 box worth?

A median of $20 across 15 peer-to-peer listings priced on 31 August 2026.

Sources

Wikipedia, History of Crayola crayons — 1903 first drawing crayons, the 1949 No. 48, the 1957 No. 64 with the built-in sharpener, the 1992 No. 96 Big Box, the 1998 120-count, the 1963 Flesh-to-Peach rename, the 1990 Hall of Fame retirement of eight colours, the 1999 Indian Red rename and the 2017 Dandelion retirement
CJ Affiliate product feeds, US advertisers, queried 31 August 2026 — every price statistic on this page is computed from that pull