Most overpriced cheap pen you ever owned!

[Sallent]

What is the most overpriced pen you have bought that has left you dissapointed in built/material quality and feeling that you should have gotten more quality built/materials for the money you paid? It can be anything from a $10 pen to several thousands dollars.

 

 

Here's mine.

 

Waterman Expert II. For $112 I received an uninspiring metal pen with no redeaming features. The nib was almost featurless plain steel nib with no character, plain trimmings and plain cheap plastic at both ends. The feed on a Pilot Varsity looks more expensive and works better than the feed of ths pen. Perhaps that explains the skipping and other ink flow problems.

 

For that same price i could have bought 2 Pelikan M200s with gold plated trimmings and nib and a better designed feed. Heck, for that same money I have bought brand new M400s on special, and they have a 14k gold nib and old plated trimmings.

 

If this pen had not had the Waterman brand and had instead been a No Name Pen it couldn't have sold for more than $30 because no one would dare pay more for it. I have bought more expensive pens before and yes, some of them left me feeling like i paid more because of the brand than i should have, but this one made me feel it even more than any other pen, too much money for mediocre design and materials.

 

I

Edited March 19, 2008 by Dr Ozzie

[Bryant]

I bought a Duke Goddess of the sea white gold FP and RB set for close to $350++ that made me sad...

Its not that they were not nice, its just I bought them when I first started collecting and in retrospect I could have gotten a lot for that price.

I sold it for around $200 and I think I would have paid that... But they just were not for me...

The main thing for me was, the weight. I just didn't like how it felt in my hand + even though the nib was gold it didn't have that super buttery feel.

 

I have had many more than this, but this was the one that suck out the most. I guess its because I felt like I made an amateur purchase...

 

[Vaiar]

Waterman Hémisphere for around €30,- in F and of black colour. This stupid pen has unbelievable and most annoying starting and skipping problems. Completely unusable. Compare that to my €9,- Frontier, which starts every time, does not dry out and feels a lot sturdier.

Edited March 19, 2008 by Vaiar

[Beechwood]

The cheapest and worst pen I ever had was a gift of a MB 149, it was a chinese copy that the giver had paid $2 for.

 

the Pen looked okay in the box but leaked immediately due to a cracked nib holder and the black paint came off the brass barrell within 10 minutes.

 

My most reliable pen is a $10 Muji all aluminum job that I have had for 10 years, sits in my drawer for months waiting for use, and then writes with no skips blobs or anything else, as good as gold

[goodguy]

Waterman Hémisphere.It never wrote well,the nib wasnt that smooth and the ink flow was too dry.And the worst was that I paid 100$ for it

[rogerb]

There seems to be a Waterman theme here, I bought a nice-looking Waterman Emblem with a flexi nib , for IIRC $160.

 

It did look very nice 'in the hand', but I couldn't get used to the flexi nib.....I didn't like to press hard enough to make it 'work'...., so I sent it to Richard B, whose eagle eye spotted a crack and a chip which I (and I think the seller, also) had missed. As a result he was only able to offer me $75.... which I'm spending with him on mods to other pens!

 

I should say I don't think anyone intentionally misled me, and even if it had been perfect, it was not for me.

 

I have since bought a loupe!

 

(My remaining Waterman , an Exception Night & Day, is completely satisfactory, and a lovely writer.)

Edited March 19, 2008 by rogerb

[dcwaites]

Parker Reflex fountain pen. At $20 it was overpriced. I have had toothpicks that wrote better than that. Finally my subconscious dropped it nib end down, the nib was bent and the whole pen was trashed. :bonk:

[SquelchB]

Parker Reflex fountain pen. At $20 it was overpriced. I have had toothpicks that wrote better than that. Finally my subconscious dropped it nib end down, the nib was bent and the whole pen was trashed. :bonk:

20 USD for a Reflex? That's much, I thought they go for under ten bucks..

[shookfoil]

Parker Reflex fountain pen. At $20 it was overpriced. I have had toothpicks that wrote better than that. Finally my subconscious dropped it nib end down, the nib was bent and the whole pen was trashed. :bonk:

20 USD for a Reflex? That's much, I thought they go for under ten bucks..

 

Not in S. Africa - they're about $30.

[SquelchB]

Parker Reflex fountain pen. At $20 it was overpriced. I have had toothpicks that wrote better than that. Finally my subconscious dropped it nib end down, the nib was bent and the whole pen was trashed. :bonk:

20 USD for a Reflex? That's much, I thought they go for under ten bucks..

 

Not in S. Africa - they're about $30.

Come to think of it, they go for about 20 bucks here as well... However that's after the exchange rate fall. A year ago USD was about 26 CZK, now it is 16 CZK.

[hardyb]

An Underwood fountain pen. Green ebonite body, silver hardware, beautiful to look at but will not write, no ink flow, zip. E-mailed Underwood- no response, Zip. A most expensive paperweight!

[ethernautrix]

An Omas Tokyo Pop for about a hundred bucks. It was too toy-like -- and looked and felt cheap -- so I sent it back.

 

A MB 146 (I think it was the 146) -- I didn't like the nib's performance and it leaked a bit. I gave it to a friend who isn't fussy.

[Sallent]

Thanks for sharing your stories too. Maybe we can prevent others from being burned by cheap pens with huge pricetags as compared to the material quality or built quality.

Edited March 19, 2008 by Dr Ozzie

[Deirdre]

Lamy Safari (fountain pen). While I really loved my original Savannah Green BP, the fountain pens just never met expectations.

[Goshzilla]

Lamy Safari (fountain pen). While I really loved my original Savannah Green BP, the fountain pens just never met expectations.

 

I couldn't believe on ebay someone was trying to sell a red rotring core bp for $100, no bids though at least some people out there have some sense.

[dcwaites]

Parker Reflex fountain pen. At $20 it was overpriced. I have had toothpicks that wrote better than that. Finally my subconscious dropped it nib end down, the nib was bent and the whole pen was trashed. :bonk:

20 USD for a Reflex? That's much, I thought they go for under ten bucks..

That was Australian dollars, when the AU$1 was worth about US$0.70. Also there is no discounting of FPs in Australia, so it was full RRP.

 

 

[Skygreen]

A Montblanc Meisterstuck. Mine accidentally fell of the edge of my desk about 3 feet onto the floor and the cheap plastic (aka precious resin) shattered. Montblanc would not replace it without charging a huge amount so I never had it repaired. Any pen that self-destructs to easily combined with a company that does not stand behind it and that charges such high prices makes these cheap overpriced pens in my book.

Edited March 21, 2008 by Skygreen

[fpfanatic5]

Parker Reflex fountain pen. At $20 it was overpriced. I have had toothpicks that wrote better than that. Finally my subconscious dropped it nib end down, the nib was bent and the whole pen was trashed. :bonk:

20 USD for a Reflex? That's much, I thought they go for under ten bucks..

 

Not in S. Africa - they're about $30.

Come to think of it, they go for about 20 bucks here as well... However that's after the exchange rate fall. A year ago USD was about 26 CZK, now it is 16 CZK.

 

I had two, $7 each from the paper store. Mine were pretty good writers when I got them for $7 pens, and now I've ground them to stubs and smoothed them out. They write great now. I gave one to my brother.

Edited March 21, 2008 by fpfanatic5

[Mathew J]

Easy, MB Generations series ball point. Actually my wife got it for me as a gift and I still have and use it, luckily for her she got a massive discount on it...the pen itself is a joke for the price they were asking, the construction horrible and cheap, I just know one day the threads will fall apart and it will be useless.