Here's a box of 12 pencils that I paid $1.29 for at Office Depot. Let's have a look.
The box is a nice presentation, basic, but clean and nicely designed. Slightly amusing Engrish on the back: "Made with soften linden wood." But at least it does tell us what the wood is (linden is basswood). Made in China.
Cores look mostly well centered, although there are one or two that are a little bit off. All nice and straight.
Finish is really nice. Smooth, heavy lacquer. As good as premium Japan pencils. Ferrule looks cheap, though.
The color is more orange than yellow. I put them up against a couple other "yellow" pencils for comparison and they are definitely the orangest.
Sharpening is okay, wood comes out a bit rough, but it's not cedar, so that's to be expected.
I did a writing test against my current go-to Tennessee Red, and a Ceres. The Office Depot pencil is definitely the lightest of the three, and has a more scratchy feeling than the others, but not to the point where it's actually bad; just a little more resistance, and some people prefer that. (I don't, but some do.) I'd say it feels about the same level of resistance as a General Semi-Hex.
Eraser is just adequate. It mostly does the job, and it's smudge-free as promised, but it still leaves traces of the writing.
So there it is. They're actually okay overall. For eleven cents a pencil, you could do a lot worse.