I'm not sure that the image here is strong enough---the first ink was pretty light (the ink I used to 'prime' this pen), and it's on a grid background.

I bought three or four of these in different colors and I was quite eager to test them out, and even more eager to like them. Their size is perfect for me, and their weight. But the first pen I tested out was the yellow. Ack, is all I can say about that---scratchy, badly behaved, and I had to add a drop or two of Fahrney's Copper to even make the ink visible. I was hoping that the ink would be more of a gold, like Sheaffer Skrip's gold ink, but it was almost invisible.

I even tried 'stropping' the yellow's nib on brown paper to smooth it out. All that got me was a buncha near-invisible yellow ink squiggles.

The blue pen was far, far better, and this makes me wonder whether there's a particular problem with the yellow ones.

And what do they cost? Three, four bucks? I guess that makes it well worth the expense and the experimentation. For fans of cheap, cute pens like me, the Preppy's a good deal.



PS: Forgot to add that the cap/clip color is the same as the ink color, and so is the nib, which makes the pen all the more cute.

I too had gotten several of the Preppys in different colors, and had the same experience with the yellow. When I returned it to JStationery they were nearly out of yellow and I told them I'd *much* rather get something else anyway, say the blue-black. Which I got. Which works great.

I thought I just had a single bad sample (maybe it is only 2), though I agree about the lightness of the color, perhaps others can post their experiences with the Preppy in yellow, especially good ones? I checked the reviews, only saw something agreeing with the lightness.