Sharpie Gel Pens

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Sharpie has decided to enter into the crowded market of retractable gel pens. Target is giving them a fair amount of shelf space and I picked up a 5-pack for about $5. $1/pen is almost half the price that brand name gel pens usually go for and is about the same price as most refills. The Sharpie refills are the same geometry (or close enough) to be swappable with Energel, Bic Gelosity, Uniball Signo, Zebra Sarasa, or Paper Made Inkjoy gel refills, so if you want to use the refill in a pen you like better (or if you want to use a refill you like better in the Sharpie pen), you can. My wife goes through gel refills pretty fast, so any time I can pick up pens or refills for less than $1 each, I usually do so that I have a stash of refills to feed the metal Energel pen she likes to use. These pens aren't quite at that price point, but if they ever go on clearance, they will be.

 

The pens are extremely lightweight and pretty comfortable to use. I normally don't like rubber grips, but this rubber isn't very tacky, so it seems unlikely that it was get covered in dust like rubber grips are prone to do. The black, blue, and red refills write pretty nice, but it's a pretty typical gel pen experience, really. The ink colors are pretty nice. The black is black. The blue is a little darker than the Energel blue. The red looks identical to the Energel red. My only complaint is that the red refill has a slightly narrower tip and so there's a little tip wiggle. The black and blue do not have this problem. I put the red refill into a Paper Mate Inkjoy body and the tip wiggle went away. The inkjoy refill did not have any tip wiggle in the Sharpie body, so all is well.

 

So, in conclusion, it's a decent gel pen that's currently priced below the other brand name gel pens and is refill compatible with most brand name gel pens. Besides the price, I don't think they're anything special, but then, there's almost nothing special in the world of gel pens except for different body styles.

[Newton Pens]

I like em a lot too. So do my wife and kids. Mine are all gone. X)

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The Sharpie bodies are more comfortable than the plastic Energels and seem far more robust, so if they stay at their current price point, I expect the Sharpie gels to do quite well.

 

I wonder if they'll release more colors. I really like the green and purple colors from the Sharpie porous tipped pens and would love a gel equivalent.