Super Cheap Generic Fountain Pen's. Bad Idea For A Beginner?

andrew98 said:

Pilot 78G (great pen)
Platinum Preppy

You can sometimes find Papermate brand school fountain pens for cheap (a few Euros) in Europe. They're actually quite good and take standard international ink cartridges.

I actually really like the Parker Vector. It also takes standard international cartridges, which will let you easily try out a fountain pen without committing to a bottle of ink.

I really don't recommend Jinhao, Bulow, or any other cheap Chinese fountain pens. I've just never had good luck with any of them, so I tell beginners to avoid them.

-Andy

Click to expand...

Exactly my reasoning. It's probably not fair to some chinese manufacturers who make products of reasonable quality that their countries exports have a bad reputation for low quality goods but it's a shame that if you are looking for a quality item that China is somewhere near the bottom of the list.

That Parker Vector looks interesting because of the standardized ink cartridges, it's now sitting in my wish list.

If I decide that i like fountain pens enough to stop using cheap 30 cent ballpoints the thing that would top my list for what i want from my pen is minimal maintenance.
I might end up being a standard user instead of an aficionado like a lot of you fine gentlemen and I'd like a pen that would have no problem with a life of "Fill me with ink and use me everyday, I'm fine without cleaning apart from a wipe when I'm being filled up."