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Art of the deal: $3,000 colored pencil set already has a wait list

Starving artists need not apply for this limited-edition megabox, which was created in collaboration with fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
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Gael Cooper

Most of us who need colored pencils can get by with a $7 box from Crayola, maybe purchased at Target. Most of us, it seems fair to say, aren't the audience for the Karlbox, a limited-edition box set of 350 colored pencils, pens and other artist tools, created in collaboration with designer Karl Lagerfeld.

The Karlbox is priced at $2,850 (£2,340, AU$3,740), and is already backordered at the Museum of Modern Art store.

Don't expect a good ol' cardboard box with built-in sharpener. For this much money, your art supplies are presented in a sleek black lacquered beechwood box designed by Lagerfeld himself and built to resemble a Chinese wedding cabinet.

Lagerfeld personally selected the 350 Faber-Castell art supplies, which are meant to "symbolize the synergy between fashion, art and design," the MOMA site reports. They're stored in individual removable drawers and each box has its own serial number and certificate of authenticity.

There's even a trippy video displaying the goods and scrolling through the elegant box, which includes a silhouette of Lagerfeld, complete with iconic white ponytail and sunglasses. MOMA says it'll be back in stock Oct. 31, but there are only 2,500 total, so don't wait to order -- assuming your artwork has paid off in a full bank account. If not, there's always Target.

(Via Quartz)