I had just started using fountain pens around 1999/2000, right around the time Sheaffer came out with the Whale Shark Intrigue. I really wanted one but the price on the FP was more than I was willing to spend. I stay below $100 (under $50 most of the time) so I long wrote it off as something I'd never have. When I got back into pens recently I looked at what was available on the Bay and found a new old stock rollerball and couldn't pass it up. I'm less strict about everything having to be a FP now than I was then and I'm really glad because I dig this one a lot.