I don't have a single favorite pen. If I think about which pens I'd put in my "best" group, though, most of them did cost over $100, Pilot Custom Heritage 92, Montblanc Noblesse (but that was a used pen so someone might get one for less) Pilot Vanishing Point, Lamy 2000. None cost me less that $90. That's best based on the experience of writing with them. Appearance is not trivial, but it's not the most important factor.
The pens I most regret now are some of the cheaper ones that I got while trying to figure out what I liked. I won't bother with a list, but it includes many of the usual ones which are mentioned when people are giving advice on a good beginner pen. These are pens which are not bad, but they just don't appeal to me since I've tried something better.
On the other hand, I've never hit $200 for a single pen, and plan not to do so. If I can afford, for example, four pens averaging $125, then of course I could have bought a single $500 pen instead. I've already achieved a pretty high level of pen performance with what I've got, however, and spending extra money for any other reason doesn't appeal to me.
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