What is your favourite cheap pen?

[sharmon202]

I also really like the Plumix and my Kakuno.

[brunico]

As the pen only cost about $9 I wasnt expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised and found that it wrote very well without any skipping and reasonably smooth for an italic 1.1.

A fountain pen has been described as a "controlled leak." It doesn't cost much money to make one of those, so while a $9 pen isn't going to look a million dollars, there's absolutely no reason for it not to write well just because of the price, despite the impression sometimes given on another forum.

Anyway, it's a Pilot. And it's a Pilot with the same nib/feed as pens many times its price.

My favourite cheap pen would be a Pilot Prera at Japanese prices, or a Parallel or Plumix.

The nib, by the way, will be an M, not a 1.1. Outside the Parallel range, Pilot doesn't measure its italic nibs in millimetres, not that there's any great consistency out there as to what people are actually measuring.

[Wahl]

Very cheap ?

Pilot VPen

[Sailor Kenshin]

Gotta be Hero 616. At about $3-5, it was my first much-coveted hooded nib, I didn't have to DO anything to get it to write, has a good ink capacity, and it 'disappears' in my hand.

[moneypenny]

I also like Jinhao for a cheap pen. Preppy might be an option too.

[tiffanyhenschel]

My daughter ordered herself a Jinhau 159 in the shimmering sands design, and I have to say it's a really nice pen. It's on the heavy side for me, but it has a beautiful finish and a smooth nib.

[Blackhorse]

Ohh ohh! I forgot. I should have mentioned the Pilot 78G - with the stub hub. I find it's an excellent writer.

[Special K]

My favorite cheap pen (s) would have to be the platinum preppy with converter and the pilot varsity. I wish they'd give it a converter.

[Alohamora]

I have to agree with Lt. Tom, I am at work with a purple Pelikano Junior, loaded with a Edelstein Amethyst cart in my pocket. The way it writes for the money is superb, is it a bit childish and silly... yes, but it always starts a conversation! I also bought a Pilot Kakuno for my daughter... with a pink cap... and I would still use that too! It just write well, smooth and crisp, one of the best Japanese fines I have ever used!

Will these pens give you line variation? No...
Will they look classy in front of the director of a company? No...
Are they classics that you can talk about like a car enthusiast would a 1957 Chevrolet Corvette or a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona? No...

But that is not the point of these pens, they do exactly what they say they will do and they do it very well.

They come in Purple now!? I haven't been paying attention to new pens for the last 2 years or so, so I missed seeing the new colors. Purple is very tempting, although I wish the nib on the blue one I have was finer

I find my old Pelicano Junior to be a very comfortable pen, just wish the nib was finer. Purple is very tempting. So are the Kakunos.

May favorite cheap pen depends on where you draw the line on "cheap"

Lamy Safari, Pilot Prera and Cross Solo are among my favorite pens regardless of price, I'm not sure they qualify as cheap anymore, all were less expensive than current prices when I purchased them.

Pilot Varsity works well, but i gave up on trying to refill them. Pilot 78g has a nice nib, but the body feels cheaper to me than its $15 price. Pilot Petit1 is excellent, but short. If Pilot ever made a full-size, refillable Petit1 style, I'd be all over it in an instant.

But since yesterday, I have a new favorite in the really cheap category, the $2 Jinhao 599. Full size, refillable, even comes with a converter. In a way, I feel I should hold off on gushing about this thing until I use them longer, but I just don't see the downside to it (unless you hate the Safari-shaped section).

[welch]

Parker 45...$4.98 in 1960 / '61, and $5 - $15 as late as 2010 or so. They have suddenly become "collectible", but they were the all-time great student pen.

[TSherbs]

REALLY liking my Pilot Petit1 ($3.50). I have even changed inks in it now (it uses a small cartridge and a fibrous wicking system) without any mess or difficulty.

[RayCornett]

Favorite cheap pen is basically any Jinhao I have ever used.

[inklord]

Pilot Metropolitan (US$ 15.-) and a "Rex" school pen (€ 4.50) sold at German Aldi stores (or so I believe). The Metro can hold its own with the best steel-nibbed factory pens and comes with a squeeze converter; it's also built like a tank... The "Rex" (Imported into Germany and Austria by Sellner school+office GmbH, A-4614 Marchtrenk) is made of a colored transparent plastic body and a clear section through which you can see the feed which is color-coordinated to the barrel (I have an orange and a green one) The nib is smooth, medium and stiff. The cap is brushed stainless in the style of older German (Pelikan, Geha) school pens. The pen takes standard international carts and converters. I like to load my orange one with Noodler's 'Apache Sunset'...
The one cheap pen with line variation I know of is the Reform 1745 - if you can still find one. (Other than Noodler's piston filling flex pen, which I've never tried)
One step up in price and otherwise unbeatable for cheap flex: Noodler's Ahab ($20.-)

[MyPenNeedsInk]

I love my Pilot Varsity but recently I needed a little bit more on my JetPens order to reach free shipping so I threw in a Jinhao X750. I was not expecting much and I was very pleasantly surprised. Nice writer

[amk]

Various cheap pens I love.

Pelikano Junior - the previous generation, with aluminium cap, textured grip and translucent colours.

Waterman Kultur (cheap version of Phileas) - art deco looks, monster nib for the price of ten euros.

Pilot V pen. Has no looks, costs ridiculously little (especially in a bulk deal), always reliable.

[KBeezie]

IF I still had one, simply put. Pilot Petit1, inexpensive ($2-3), small but posts well, durable, reliable, each one smooth and in no need of tuning, easy to pocket, and stays ready to write even after a few weeks of sitting in a backpack unused, simply never had one dry out on me. Ended up giving away each one to family members as well as to my art history professor (gotta spread the bug...). I'd say I prefer them over even the Kaweco Sport of similar size and similar restriction (cartridge only, or eye dropper fill), as the nib and feed on the petit1 seems to outperform the kaweco sport classic, outside of the fact you can only get the petit1 in a single nib size.

Aside from that one, especially if I just plan to stick to one ink for a while, much like the requirement of the petit1 (as it would take fo-e-va to flush the felt on the feed of the petit1), I'd go vintage with a Parker 45 as can be had as low as $5 in the wild, pretty easy to clean up, swap nibs, etc, takes cartridge or converters and the semi-hooded nib stays ready to write every time, even with more stubborn inks. They're also pretty good workhorses. Can sometimes luck out and get one with a 14k nib for under 20, sometimes under 10.

Between the two, if I was talking about an actual daily user, the Parker 45, but if I just want something handy to have in my bag or to hand to someone to use, the Petit1.

I currently don't have anything that I would call a 'cheap' pen at the moment, but I do however have two Platinum Preppy on the way today (one in extra-fine, one in medium), so will have a chance to evaluate those for the first time, especially as they're cartridge, converter, or ED (going to use the purple colored medium one to hold Noodler's Kung Te-cheng, something I haven't dared to put in any of my existing pens).

[TerraNoir]

I think my favorite cheap pen would have to go along with many people here. I truly enjoy my Baoer 388. Its a bit lighter and looks pretty nice to boot. After that it would be my Jinhao x750. Great great pen. Though I am consider "cheap" to be under $10. Hands down would be the Pilot Metro. It goes with me everywhere.

[carlc]

I don't think you can get them anymore but the Pilot 'tank' eye dropper.

Mentioned above but worthy of repetition: Parker Frontier, Pelikan Pelikano (previous generation mentioned by amk).

Still available (but no longer made) Parker 17. Almost always come from ebay sellers in working condition (though may need a good flush).

[mhosea]

Not sure what my favorite cheap pen is. Maybe Parker 45, maybe Sheaffer No-Nonsense. I'd like my Haolilai 601F better if the grip section weren't so small. The cheapest pens I actually like are Pilot Celemo's. They're nice-looking, have nice, slightly soft, gold nibs, seal reasonably well, feel good in my hand despite being more slender than most of my pens, and are very lightweight. I guess they were inspired by the proportions of the Montblanc 144, though the resemblence is in proportion and functional design rather than cosmetics. At $39 with a 14K nib they are a bargain but not cheap, and you have to import them from Japan, so add higher-than-average shipping cost. Unfortunately, mine both came with a bit of "baby's bottom", so they were quite smooth but gave that little start-up skip that drives me batty until I can get around to fixing it.

[Lady Onogaro]

I like using the Pilot Kakuno and the Sailor Clear Candy. I also use the Pilot Petit 1 a lot since it is attached to my Midori Passport. Love that Pilot Blue ink for it!