You Get What You Pay For

[Scooby921]

I dislike "you get what you pay for" as it seems to be quite commonly used by people who think that you shouldn't be able to depend on a basic level of competent execution in cheaper goods. It's even a bit snobby - "if you can't afford a MB then you should put up with scratchy nibs that skip and hard-start".

Contrast the very great care that Lamy and Pilot take to deliver a great writing experience even in entry-level and school pens.

When you use an entry level Pilot Plumix or Pilot Metropolitan and then use a Pilot Vanishing Point you understand why the entry level pens are priced under $20. When you use a Lamy Safari and then use a Lamy 2000 you understand why the Safari is so affordable. Yeah it's snobby to say that anything short of a Montblanc is garbage. Those are the folks who blindly pay $800 for a $300 pen. I don't think it's snobby to have or use the more expensive pen and then feel the entry-level pen provides a writing experience befitting of its price tag. To use more wonderful phrases...

You don't know what you don't know.

Hindsight is 20/20.

[Jon Szanto]

One funny addendum to the "MB/snob" responses: I own three bottles of MB ink and precisely zero MB writing instruments. The funny part I allude to is that, by coincidence, just yesterday I set foot for the first time in my life inside a MB boutique store. I have been writing with fountain pens since 1966.

[lsmith42]

I own three bottles of MB ink and precisely zero MB writing instruments.

I can fix that...

[Jon Szanto]

I own three bottles of MB ink and precisely zero MB writing instruments.

I can fix that...

Fixing is for feral cats.

[Marsilius]

The one I learned form my pre-school kids (mostly growed up now) was, "You get what you get and you don't get upset." Yeah, right.
I always associate "you get what you pay for" with something said after you did NOT get what you wanted.

[landrover]

So, the more you pay for ink the better the ink is?

[SIR]

So, the more you pay for ink the better the ink is?

to a degree, mostly...