# "What's the cheapest, best writing ball point pen"? Here's the answer...



## heb

Hello,
How many times have you seen such question asked here before--432 at last count.
Here is THE FINAL say on subject matter.

The second part of the question first: The best writing ball point pen, at any cost is the PAPER MATE Write Bros stick pen in blue ink. Made of 80% recycleable material, it provides the smoothest writing and most gorgeous deep blue color of any bp I've ever written with. For some reason, black ink never impresses me like a deep, rich blue does. To all of us who are of a certain age, I think this pen actually exceeds the performance of the old LINDY stick pens of a couple of generations ago and also the old BIC pens of that same age. Man, they were smooth and the colors vibrant. Also, my Write Bros stick doesn't blob like my Caran d'Ache bp--the one that everyone here is so ga ga about.

Since the pen is not transparent, I always wonder how much ink is really put in them. Unlike the old Bic "Brio", the Write Bros must be filled to the top because I've been using the same pen for the last 6 or 7 months (but admittedly, I use a pencil more than a pen).

Now for the first part of the: If I remember right, I paid $1.10 for a package of 10 at the BX. Enough said.

Keep that Montblanc (or Caran d'Ache) in pocket during your next power meeting, but actually write with your Paper Mate Write Bros.

heb


----------



## Preston

Here here! Picked this NOS batch up for $10, using 2 of them so far, one for my journal and another in my pocket rotation. Not really the pen you speak of but these have a very nice blue ink refill in them and yes they do not goop up like many of my other pens do. They do write very nicely indeed.








Peace,
Preston


----------



## heb

hello,

I remember these. I can remember when the "Villager" was not called that and were sold from a plastic stand. I bought one using my week's hot lunch money! They wrote nice, as did all Paper Mate Pens.

Thanks for the great post.

heb



Preston said:


> Here here! Picked this NOS batch up for $10, using 2 of them so far, one for my journal and another in my pocket rotation. Not really the pen you speak of but these have a very nice blue ink refill in them and yes they do not goop up like many of my other pens do. They do write very nicely indeed.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Peace,
> Preston


----------



## Monocrom

Sorry, but I need a certain level of consistency and quality with my pens. That 10-pack you mentioned will often contain any ratio of pens that write well for a short amount of time. Leave grey streaks across the paper (assuming black ink for the pack). Will dry out on you when you need them to work. Ink will glob up or even leak. Will write, dry out, write some more, dry out (repeat a few more times) . . . That's what you can expect from a 10-pack of disposeable pens.

The best is a plastic bodied Parker Jotter. $5.99 for one pen might seem overpriced compared to what a typical 10-pack will cost. But I guarantee that that single Parker will be writing smoothly and going strong long after you've tossed that 10th disposeable into the trash can. In terms of real value, the single Jotter is far better.


----------



## heb

Hello,

$5.99! I could buy 50 Write Bros pens for that and still have 49 cents left over for a taco.

heb



Monocrom said:


> Sorry, but I need a certain level of consistency and quality with my pens. That 10-pack you mentioned will often contain any ratio of pens that write well for a short amount of time. Leave grey streaks across the paper (assuming black ink for the pack). Will dry out on you when you need them to work. Ink will glob up or even leak. Will write, dry out, write some more, dry out (repeat a few more times) . . . That's what you can expect from a 10-pack of disposeable pens.
> 
> The best is a plastic bodied Parker Jotter. $5.99 for one pen might seem overpriced compared to what a typical 10-pack will cost. But I guarantee that that single Parker will be writing smoothly and going strong long after you've tossed that 10th disposeable into the trash can. In terms of real value, the single Jotter is far better.


----------



## Monocrom

You're confusing value with price. (Something many folks do.)

Let's see if I can put this into context. Let's say you're in the market for a used car. You want to save as much money as possible. (We all do.) Let's say you find a 5 year-old used Chevy Cavalier with 60,000 miles on it. Very low price-tag. But it's a stick shift, has no A/C, no radio, no anti-lock brakes, and the engine MUST be warmed up for 10 minutes if it gets cold, otherwise it'll stall out on you. Now this car would be your 10-pack of pens. Low price being the main selling point. The car is a stripper, but the price is much lower than the Blue book value. Person buys it, and thinks they've gotten an excellent value.

But what have they really gotten? I live in NYC, the Winters are blisteringly cold. The Summers scorching hot. Try driving to work in your "value" car during the middle of Summer without A/C. The low price is indeed there, where's the value? No radio is fine under most conditions. But imagine a Winter storm hitting your area. You need to know which roads are closed, which ones to avoid. You're in your car, driving home. But you have no radio to tune in for storm advisories. If you know how to drive stick, that's great. Few drivers can do so in NYC Stop & Go traffic without their right arms and left legs constantly going numb or cramping up by the time they get to their destinations. What if there's an emergency, and you need to leave right away. You now have a choice, wait 10 minutes for the engine in your particular car to heat up, or take your chances. You know it's going to stall out on you. You can wait, or hope and pray it doesn't stall out on the highway with cars behind you doing over 60mph.

The lack of anti-lock brakes is a personal thing with me. I bought a car that had real value. But it lacked that one feature. An idiot in a red mini-van swerved into my lane during a light rain back on April 10th, 2008 at half past Midnight, while I was driving home from my job. Brakes locked up. I got hit, and went violently sliding sideways into the stone wall of an exit ramp. Seems the genius in the mini-van wanted to take that exit. However, since he was in the wrong lane anyway and was driving just past it, he decided to flick on his turn signal *while *swerving into my lane. (Not only was he too stupid to simply drive literally 2 miles out of his way and take the next exit ramp on the freeway, but he didn't even know how to use a turn signal properly.) By some miracle, I walked away with only a sprained wrist and a headache. No broken bones. Car was obviously totalled. No broken bones, but I felt like I was about to choke to death from the fumes caused by the airbag exploding in my face. The blasting caps they put into steering wheels of modern cars, yeah; those work REAL well.

Here's a real value . . . Slightly used Hyundai Elantra. If you love performance cars, it's not for you. If you need a daily commuter that works reliably, that's a different story. Long list of standard features. Such as automatic, radio, A/C, extra airbags, anti-lock brakes, engine that should be warmed up but isn't a requirement. Oh yeah, much better safety rating for crashes than those little coffins on wheels that GM put out. (To be honest, my car was a late model Ford Escort. It was made when anti-lock brake technology was cheap as dirt.) Also, since its a Hyundai with a perceived reputation for lack of quality, you can often negociate for a very low price. As low as the Chevy mentioned above? No. But still quite low. Low enough that you can live with the car on a daily basis regardless of the seasons. Low enough that your right arm and left leg won't feel as though they're about to fall off when you get to work. Low enough that you can drive off right away if needed without worrying about your stalled car causing an accident. And, low enough that when some oblivious idiot who only gives a damn about himself swerves into your lane, you just might be able to still steer your car. Rather than basically being strapped into an uncontrollable missile that is hurtling sideways.

That's the difference between value and simply paying as little money as you have to for something. Both cars illustrated above can indeed get you from point A to point B. But there's more to owning an inexpensive car than just going from point A to point B.

Yes, I know pens and cars are different. The above was just a way to better illustrate my point that low price and value are not the same thing.


----------



## heb

Hello,
I do understand your point of view and will say that the Parker "T-Ball Jotter" is one of the best ball point pens of all time; I've/do had/have many over MANY years. They have been very consistant in their performance; they're good, but they've never been as smooth writing, nor presented the deep colorization of PaperMate pens--disposable or otherwise. I think the tungsten carbide ball of the "T-Ball" was designed to be a good, consistant writer just not necessarily a very smooth one.

heb



Monocrom said:


> You're confusing value with price. (Something many folks do.)
> 
> Let's see if I can put this into context. Let's say you're in the market for a used car. You want to save as much money as possible. (We all do.) Let's say you find a 5 year-old used Chevy Cavalier with 60,000 miles on it. Very low price-tag. But it's a stick shift, has no A/C, no radio, no anti-lock brakes, and the engine MUST be warmed up for 10 minutes if it gets cold, otherwise it'll stall out on you. Now this car would be your 10-pack of pens. Low price being the main selling point. The car is a stripper, but the price is much lower than the Blue book value. Person buys it, and thinks they've gotten an excellent value.
> 
> But what have they really gotten? I live in NYC, the Winters are blisteringly cold. The Summers scorching hot. Try driving to work in your "value" car during the middle of Summer without A/C. The low price is indeed there, where's the value? No radio is fine under most conditions. But imagine a Winter storm hitting your area. You need to know which roads are closed, which ones to avoid. You're in your car, driving home. But you have no radio to tune in for storm advisories. If you know how to drive stick, that's great. Few drivers can do so in NYC Stop & Go traffic without their right arms and left legs constantly going numb or cramping up by the time they get to their destinations. What if there's an emergency, and you need to leave right away. You now have a choice, wait 10 minutes for the engine in your particular car to heat up, or take your chances. You know it's going to stall out on you. You can wait, or hope and pray it doesn't stall out on the highway with cars behind you doing over 60mph.
> 
> The lack of anti-lock brakes is a personal thing with me. I bought a car that had real value. But it lacked that one feature. An idiot in a red mini-van swerved into my lane during a light rain back on April 10th, 2008 at half past Midnight, while I was driving home from my job. Brakes locked up. I got hit, and went violently sliding sideways into the stone wall of an exit ramp. Seems the genius in the mini-van wanted to take that exit. However, since he was in the wrong lane anyway and was driving just past it, he decided to flick on his turn signal *while *swerving into my lane. (Not only was he too stupid to simply drive literally 2 miles out of his way and take the next exit ramp on the freeway, but he didn't even know how to use a turn signal properly.) By some miracle, I walked away with only a sprained wrist and a headache. No broken bones. Car was obviously totalled. No broken bones, but I felt like I was about to choke to death from the fumes caused by the airbag exploding in my face. The blasting caps they put into steering wheels of modern cars, yeah; those work REAL well.
> 
> Here's a real value . . . Slightly used Hyundai Elantra. If you love performance cars, it's not for you. If you need a daily commuter that works reliably, that's a different story. Long list of standard features. Such as automatic, radio, A/C, extra airbags, anti-lock brakes, engine that should be warmed up but isn't a requirement. Oh yeah, much better safety rating for crashes than those little coffins on wheels that GM put out. (To be honest, my car was a late model Ford Escort. It was made when anti-lock brake technology was cheap as dirt.) Also, since its a Hyundai with a perceived reputation for lack of quality, you can often negociate for a very low price. As low as the Chevy mentioned above? No. But still quite low. Low enough that you can live with the car on a daily basis regardless of the seasons. Low enough that your right arm and left leg won't feel as though they're about to fall off when you get to work. Low enough that you can drive off right away if needed without worrying about your stalled car causing an accident. And, low enough that when some oblivious idiot who only gives a damn about himself swerves into your lane, you just might be able to still steer your car. Rather than basically being strapped into an uncontrollable missile that is hurtling sideways.
> 
> That's the difference between value and simply paying as little money as you have to for something. Both cars illustrated above can indeed get you from point A to point B. But there's more to owning an inexpensive car than just going from point A to point B.
> 
> Yes, I know pens and cars are different. The above was just a way to better illustrate my point that low price and value are not the same thing.


----------



## Monocrom

I've used Papermate pens and other disposeables in the past. Parker sadly decided to fiddle with their refill which was an excellent combination of smoothness and reliability. Using a Hauser version of the Parker style refill is currently the best bet for smoothness and reliability.


----------



## waterat

I am not an expert on pens,but at work I had to take inventory for banquets in the refrig. walkin's & even freezers as well.A baker friend turned me on to fisher spacepens.Other pens would quit writing at diff. angles & the cold.Spacepens are the best in my experience esp. for adverse conditions.I like spacepen refill in a parker jotter body.Cheap pens don't hold up,clips break etc.,not worth it.For the money the Parker body is tuff,& holds up wt. out breaking.


----------



## pkoko

For me it is papermate profile 1.4 and if you want to spend a little more $$; a fisher space pen.


----------



## argonian

heb said:


> Hello,
> How many times have you seen such question asked here before--432 at last count.
> Here is THE FINAL say on subject matter.
> 
> The second part of the question first: The best writing ball point pen, at any cost is the PAPER MATE Write Bros stick pen in blue ink. Made of 80% recycleable material, it provides the smoothest writing and most gorgeous deep blue color of any bp I've ever written with. For some reason, black ink never impresses me like a deep, rich blue does. To all of us who are of a certain age, I think this pen actually exceeds the performance of the old LINDY stick pens of a couple of generations ago and also the old BIC pens of that same age. Man, they were smooth and the colors vibrant. Also, my Write Bros stick doesn't blob like my Caran d'Ache bp--the one that everyone here is so ga ga about.
> 
> Since the pen is not transparent, I always wonder how much ink is really put in them. Unlike the old Bic "Brio", the Write Bros must be filled to the top because I've been using the same pen for the last 6 or 7 months (but admittedly, I use a pencil more than a pen).
> 
> Now for the first part of the: If I remember right, I paid $1.10 for a package of 10 at the BX. Enough said.
> 
> Keep that Montblanc (or Caran d'Ache) in pocket during your next power meeting, but actually write with your Paper Mate Write Bros.
> 
> heb


I'm looking for a new ballpoint pen, but I'm in the UK where hardly anywhere sells the mentioned Penmate Write Bros. I've had a look around and I can import some BLACK penmate mediums, but the Blues seem to be really quite expensive (£25 for a set of 12) Other options I've seen are the Parker Jotter (£5) Parker Urban (£15) or the Parker IM... Penmate Flexgrip (£2 each/ £8 for 12) and the Bic Crystal Grips.

Any help?


----------



## Metlin

argonian said:


> I'm looking for a new ballpoint pen, but I'm in the UK where hardly anywhere sells the mentioned Penmate Write Bros. I've had a look around and I can import some BLACK penmate mediums, but the Blues seem to be really quite expensive (£25 for a set of 12) Other options I've seen are the Parker Jotter (£5) Parker Urban (£15) or the Parker IM... Penmate Flexgrip (£2 each/ £8 for 12) and the Bic Crystal Grips.
> 
> Any help?


The Parker Jotter is an inexpensive but reliable pen.


----------



## yialanliu

For me, it's a Pentel RSVP


----------



## argonian

Metlin said:


> The Parker Jotter is an inexpensive but reliable pen.


So would getting a Blue ink Jotter and some cheap penmate black pens be the best combo?


----------



## Jeff_C

Industries for the blind "US government" pens. Now available to the public!

Bang for the buck is awesome. Or paker jotter.

Also shown is a cross century...

Of course im a Fisher Space Pen guy. 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2


----------



## mr_macgee

Pilot Precise V5 & V7 (5mm & 7mm)


----------



## keybers

argonian said:


> I'm looking for a new ballpoint pen, but I'm in the UK where hardly anywhere sells the mentioned Penmate Write Bros. I've had a look around and I can import some BLACK penmate mediums, but the Blues seem to be really quite expensive (£25 for a set of 12) Other options I've seen are the Parker Jotter (£5) Parker Urban (£15) or the Parker IM... Penmate Flexgrip (£2 each/ £8 for 12) and the Bic Crystal Grips.
> 
> Any help?


I've recently gone on a little shopping spree on cultpens (which is a UK online shop that ships free for orders over £10, I think). I've bought some entry-level and mid-range fountain pens, but also some ballpoints. So I have some fresh impressions to share.

If we are talking about having a good-value pen, I'd say there should be at least a minimum sense of quality, and also of, umm, I don't know whether it's right to put it this way and I don't want to denigrate anyone, but, say, sense of dignity-as opposed to the case when your pen looks like you've stolen it from your daughter's kindergarten while picking her up (as is the case with PaperMate Bros.).

I do right now have a half-pack of those in my writing instruments drawer, and it's true that some of those write well, while some of them just dried out on me while practically new (I don't know whether it's a real drying out or I could call it a really looooooong skiiiiiip that I didn't have the patience to wait out).

So, with my recent purchase, I decided to return to a period in my life (late high school, early university) when I accidentally purchased several pens with which I have then written with real pleasure: reliable, good line, good color. I don't see that particular model available any more, but the manufacturer is Stabilo. So, after 15-odd years I again purchased me a Stabilo-a model called SmartBall. This model purports to also be a capacitive-screen stylus, but I've found that you really have to press with it on the screen in order for your tap or swipe to register (as opposed to the smooth action of some dedicated styli that I own). So I was disappointed in my hope to have something that would be both a pen and a stylus, but this is the pen that I find myself using most in the last couple of weeks. It blobs a little, but it writes very smoothly-and "every time", as BIC purports to, without being as generic as BIC.

Then, one must remember that it's the refill that writes, not the pen itself. I've also bought a really moderately priced Faber-Castell Conic Ballpoint Pen (in black). I don't like its looks: while the pen barrel is shiny black (with a rubber grip section which is matte black), the tip of the pen itself is metallic, which looks as if you have forgotten to retract the refill; probably the silver-colored barrel version doesn't have that problem. But I'm seriously impressed-really impressed-with the quality of how the refill writes. Now, we are talking about standard "Parker-style" (or G2) ballpoint refills, and I find those refills as made by Faber-Castell ridiculously overpriced: they cost more apiece than the Conic Ballpoint itself, but I'm not sure that the refill that comes with the pen itself is identical to the refill that sells separately. Anyway, another Faber Castell which I also bought and which is already a £40-ish deal, and which uses a different refill (D1 multipen small refill) also writes superbly, so I'm inclined to think that their refills being overpriced is for a reason.

Another superb-quality Parker-style refill is made by Schneider-either the 735 or the newer 755 (haven't yet tried the 755 out, but the 735 writes well and long).

So, for me, a way to go good-value in the ballpoint world is to buy a cheap but still decent looking pen-something in the $4-10 range-that I have chosen for its looks and that takes Parker-style refills, which I buy from reputable manufacturers (like Schneider, Faber-Castell, or Stabilo) and which will normally last for a looong time so that you'll get tired of that pen eventually. It can be a Parker if you must, but I find Parkers a bit boring-they are the BICs of the higher-priced pen world.

If I were to go just a bit more higher-priced, I'd get an OHTO Tasche Ballpoint, which is £14, but also takes Parker-style refills, so you can stock yourself up on those Schneiders or Stabilos and get yourself a perpetual compact high-quality, not-run-of-the-mill writing companion.

If you must go with disposable pens and don't have access to PaperMates (since they are a U.S. brand) and don't want BICs, I highly recommend Staedtler Stick, which sells for £3.02 for pack of 10. These are more of the "corridors of power" rather than kindergarten variety-I've encountered them in some European government and intra-government institutions. I prefer Staedtler Sticks in Medium (the barrel is transparent, as opposed to solid yellow for Fine, and you can see when the refill is getting empty).


----------



## DWebber18

For me it's the Retro 1951 Tornado. My wife had two of these and they are the best writing ballpoints I've ever used. While not the cheapest at $27 I think they are a great value for such a high quality pen. https://www.coloradopen.com/product/Retro-1951-Lacquer-Tornado-Rollerball-Black/retro-1951-tornado


----------

