Never finished a pen

I can't ever remember a time that I've actually finished an ink cartridge. My pens always stop writing or dry up or go bad relatively soon. I recently made the switch from ball points to rollerballs and while the rollerball style pen is smoother, they still develop sticky spots, or quit writing after some time.

I just got a three pack of Pilot Precise V7 rollerballs, and they seem to fly back and forth from dry to okay. It's irritating to not have any consistency, are more expensive pens more reliable? It seems like everything I've had has quit writing after a while.

Welcome to the NIB. I am still quite new to fountain pens, but all of the ones I have never had any issues with drying up. I haven't use a roller ball or ball-point pens in quite some time, but you can easily find a good, inexpensive fountain pen that won't exhibit this characteristic, in general.
The Pilot Metropolitan and the Pilot 78g are inexpensive and fine writer as an introductory FP. Try one or two out to see how you like them and if this resolves your issue!
Good luck.

For work travel I use Pilot G2 Pro pens. You can buy replacement ink carts and I have went through several carts with no issues. The G2 Pros are getting harder to find ( ordering from Amazon or Jet Pens is an option). Regular pilot G2 are still plentiful in stores and use same ink.

I have used a Pilot Dr. Grip pen for many years and have used up full cartridges in it. That is the only ballpoint pen I have been able to do that with. The other brands that I have tried typically dry out.

I'm just getting started with fountain pens and am loving it. The two pens listed by Celestino are good pens and don't have skipping or drying issues. Also, if you can find a Reform 1745 fountain pen, that's another great option. They are no longer made new, but they show up on different places for a decent price.

Welcome to the nib!

The above mentioned fountain pens aren't sold in stores, but the pilot varsity disposable fountain pen is, does anyone have experience with these? Are they any good?

I have a set of all 7 of them. I enjoy them for doing some basic stuff, but they are very wet and thick when writing. They are not good for cheap paper as they will bleed and feather a lot. My kids love them and use them for writing as well. If you want a good, basic pen that will be an introduction to fountain pens and will be a great low-maintenance pen, then I would highly recommend them to you. They are disposables (you can refill through a few methods, but they aren't designed for it) so when they run out, you can just pitch them. They don't leak and they can sit for weeks without being using and they will often fire right back up without doing anything.

I bought a 3-pack of Pilot Varsity fountain pens. They're not bad for a cheap pen. They write pretty well and I keep one in the portfolio I take with me most places. Don't have to worry about losing a disposable pen which is nice. I haven't had any trouble with them leaking and they start right up after sitting for weeks.

In terms of bleeding and feathering, how bad is it compared to rollerball pens? Most of my writing is serial and asset numbers on forms all day, I'm not sure that having a really wet pen would be good as it might be hard to read the numbers if the get smudged. Sometimes the spaces I have to fill in are rather small.

The best way to find out is to test them on the paper you are using.

Here are three examples of paper and the only one that was really bad was the cheap Mead notepad that came with a binder.
The other two were OK.

Do you leave your pens uncapped for extended periods of time? I know with fountain pens and some rollerballs after a while they will dry out. Just a thought.

Esterbrook J pens have a huge variety of nibs, though some are not that easy to find, but several are rigid fine points or EF designed for clerical or book keeping purposes. Of course an Estie will be more expensive than the above mentioned pens, but basically you probably want a rigid, slightly dry, fine point or extra fine for writing numbers.

I managed to find a three pack of the Pilot Varsity. I wrote with it a little bit and found that they all were difficult, I figured that I must be doing something wrong, and went and read that there is a sweet spot with fountain pens, so I guess I will have to practice writing with them.

light touch - no need to press down like you have to do with a ballpoint. Should write with not much more than the weight of the pen.

Is there a specific angle or orientation to hold it? I'm finding that the weight alone doesn't draw consistently. It feels like there's a sweet spot that I have to hit, and sometimes I'm not hitting it, the margin of error feels smaller than I would have expected.

Colonel Kernel said:

Is there a specific angle or orientation to hold it? I'm finding that the weight alone doesn't draw consistently. It feels like there's a sweet spot that I have to hit, and sometimes I'm not hitting it, the margin of error feels smaller than I would have expected.

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Yes, it take a bit of getting used to, especially if you are used to just grabbing a ball point and going at it at any angle. When I loan a pen to someone for a quick signature, they often have trouble with it at first, particularly if they've never used one. Also, stub nibs are even more particular to the angle at which they are used.