Best Fountain Pens Under $1 Us

[bob_hayden]

Interesting! It appears to me that the Jinhao swan goes for about $1.69 and has the same nib as the 991/992 etc. while these have a hooded nib so I am guessing these are a copy of the Jinhao (or the Jinhao is a copy of these;-) I would pass myself as I don't like hooded nibs, and I suspect that plastic clip will not last very long. OTOH, as there is no perforation of the cap in order to attach a metal clip, these do have the potential to avoid drying out on the shelf. Thanks for adding to the list!

 

Meanwhile, another 99 cent no-name Safari clone (only the green is 99 cents).

 

Luxury Men's Fountain Pen Business Student Gift Nib 0.38mm Calligraphy Durable

 

BTW, the Jinhaos I found seemed to be another bait and switch listing, giving a price of 99 cents -- but that is not the price of the pen in the main photo.

Edited October 5, 2018 by bob_hayden

[th3]

Only the blue pen is available for 99 cents. Other colors cost $1.05 each.

Ebay listing

Transparent Fountain Pens Fine Nib Writing Tool 0.5mm Ink Pen Business Supplies

[bob_hayden]

Thanks!

[DasKaltblut]

For 99 cents each is the cute Swan pen with the cap made to resemble a swan. No brand name given but Jinhao makes a similiar pen.

 

 

 

Available in solid and transparent colors and with nib size of 0.5mm and 0.38mm

 

Two separate ebay listings

 

Colorful Plastic Barrel Fountain Pen 0.5mm Nib Business Office Gift

 

Colorful Plastic Barrel Fountain Pen 0.38mm Nib Business Office Gift

These are Jinhaos. Other listings show the brand. It's a shark in a swan suit Edited October 6, 2018 by DasKaltblut

[th3]

These are Jinhaos. Other listings show the brand. It's a shark in a swan suit

 

Thanks. I liked the Shark pen I bought but Sharks only appeared to come in solid colors. We must be living in a new golden age of fountain pens.

Edited October 7, 2018 by th3

[bob_hayden]

The swan pens listed as Jinhaos have an open nib when F and a hooded nib when EF, like several other Jinhao models. The no-name swans all have hooded nibs (according to the eBay listings). I don't know if this sheds doubt on who made the no-name ones or on the accuracy of the listings;-)

[th3]

I sent an email to the seller asking two questions.

 

1. Does the 0.5mm pen have a hooded nib?

2. Does the pen have a brand name on it?

 

The response I received was "i can not understand your meaning

pls explain"

 

I cannot think of a way to reword my questions to make it more understandable. More likely my question was understood but the individual did not wish to answer.

 

I have one of these pens on order and will find out in a few weeks.

Edited October 9, 2018 by th3

[bob_hayden]

I searched for the seller on eBay, found a pen, and then went to the seller's store. It does not look like a shop that specializes in fountain pens;-) In addition, I suspect from some dealings I've had that some eBay sellers in China are just middlepersons. They only handle the eBay end and pass the order on to a warehouse. They never actually see the merchandise, which limits their ability to answer questions about it. The ad description and the photos may come from the warehouse catalog and just get copied over by someone who may not even speak any English. One of several things that makes me suspect this is receiving packages that are not from the country eBay says is where the seller lives. Finally, the English people know in non-English speaking countries is often textboook English -- often British English. I am guessing "nib" and "hooded" are not in the English 101 book, and that the seller used their dictionary to translate "brand name" as two words, not realizing the phrase has a special meaning. So "brand" might come out as "mark (as of cattle)": In any case, it appears to me if the pen you get does not look like the pens in the listing you can take a photo of it and eBay will give you a refund.

[bob_hayden]

994

 

So I got four more 994s in black, blue, purple, and a color I will call blue-black but the vendor describes as "A". The pens have a mattte finish on the cap and barrel. The section is a matching color and glossy. Some might find this backward -- the section may be slippery for those who have issues with this. QC continues spotty. In this batch, three wrote very well and one was a bit toothy. i mentioned earlier that the clips have beveled edges unlike the 991. On one of these pens that beveled edge was a rough knife edge. I would not recommend giving these to children! Unlike all my many 991s and the previous 994s, two of these pens would not post. The cap slides on but slides right back off again -- no resistance in either direction. These cost abut 84 cents each so I may just reorder the ones that have annoying defects and if the replacements have the issue too I will make some Frankenpens. Even now I could put the nice nib from a non-poster with a razor clip in the pale green 994 that does not write so nicely.

[bob_hayden]

This morning I heard on the news that US President Trump is ending the ve4ry low postal rates for small packages from China. Below is a link to a story. Neither it not my radio gave an effective date. I wonder if this will be the end of 99 cent fountain pens with free shipping.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/us/politics/trump-china-shipping.html

[Martolod]

This morning I heard on the news that US President Trump is ending the ve4ry low postal rates for small packages from China. Below is a link to a story. Neither it not my radio gave an effective date. I wonder if this will be the end of 99 cent fountain pens with free shipping.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/us/politics/trump-china-shipping.html

 

On one hand, it's fair to say that this is costing the government a lot of money. On the other hand, you just know the actual point with this admin is to lower US-China trade which could harm many companies. For example, cheap fountain pens, the US doesn't have some real niche stuff produced here - not one single American fountain pen is fully produced in the US, and we're by far not the only hobby/interest benefitting from global trade. I hope this law change results in a very slightly adjusted system that doesn't cause big losses in our economy for US manufacturers/merchants that depend on China. It may even turn out to be good, and the age of two-month delivery could end for a very slight fee. Or China might see it as a trade-war move and make things worse. We'll have to wait and see. My advice now is to panic-buy all the cheap-o pens you've been wondering about.

[bass1193]

Only the blue pen is available for 99 cents. Other colors cost $1.05 each.

Ordered one of those blue ones right when I saw your post! Thanks for the heads up. I love sub-dollar pens 😄

[th3]

My Swan pen arrived today. A couple of weeks ago there was a discussion of whether these were Jinhao's or another brand and the nib used in the 0.5mm pen. These indeed are sharks in swan clothing. Open nib and use the same nib as the Shark (and 991/992's). Jinhao branding on the pen and nib. The plastic body seems a downgrade from the shark. Lighter and the plastic creaks and squeaks as I unscrew the barrel. It may be easy to crossthread the pen when screwing the barrel on if a person isnt careful. Writes the same as my Jinhao Shark. The main reason I was interested in it was I considered turning it into an eyedropper. Havent done that yet.

 

Edited October 22, 2018 by th3

[bob_hayden]

 

Only the blue pen is available for 99 cents. Other colors cost $1.05 each.

Ebay listing

Transparent Fountain Pens Fine Nib Writing Tool 0.5mm Ink Pen Business Supplies

 

 

I just received the blue one and I'm pretty happy with it. It writes well, though the nib is stiffer than I would like. It looks nearly identical to the Yiren clone of the 78G. It does not have the gold colored trim rings near the open end of the cap as the Yiren and the real 78G do, but those wore off my real 78G and looked pretty tacky when half gone. If they wear off the real thing, maybe it's just as well to not have them at all on a 99 cent clone from China. The clip is slightly shorter than the Yiren and MUCH stiffer. The feel of writing with this pen was nicer than the Yiren EF I had inked, and better than the real 78Gs I once had.

 

The same seller had a similar deal on a yellow-green pen that is a clone of the Lamy Safari or Al-Star. I am hedging because it has a metallic finish that looks like the Al-Star but is in fact plastic like the Safari. As these clones go it has a smooth black finial, a chrome clip that goes right into the single groove on the cap, two flats but no markings on the barrel, black feed, very dark smoke section, and a nib styled like the original. It writes OK but not nearly as nicely as the blue pen. It has a balky feel to it, as though the ink really does not want to flow, and the nib does not want to move across the page. But I do believe it is the first Al-Star clone under $1. I would suggest a very free flowing and well lubricated ink.

 

China

 

There was a separate thread on the China/postage issue that got shut down for becoming too political. I suggest we drop that subject here and stick to <$1 pens ;-)

Edited October 22, 2018 by bob_hayden

[JollyCynic]

Well I'm happy that I can finally contribute something to this thread that I've taken so much pleasure from reading.

 

I didn't see anything in the spirit of the thread that admonished against sale prices, but I may be cheating a bit here. Over on AliExpress, there's a seller called "Jinhao Flagship Store" ... which is not the same as the "Jinhao Official Store" which Frank Underwater links to in his Ultimate Guidebook. Anyway, I have no affiliation with them, but they have a fairly standard feedback score over the last three years.

 

They've got a sale on the Jinhao 51a, currently, which I haven't seen make it to this thread, yet. There are lots of other pens that fit other criteria, but keeping to the spirit of listing "... only pens I have owned or at least would consider owning", the 51a is the only pen that hasn't been mentioned previously and that I have owned. (The 994's available for $0.60, though, so we might have to start a best pen under USD 0.50 soon.) It's half off their normal price for the next week, which puts the price at $0.85. Even nicer, both the 0.5mm nib and hooded 0.38mm nibs are available. (I'm loving the hooded nib in the 51a a lot more than I thought I would, but the 0.5mm nib has let me put on a no.5 stub, too.)

 

If you currently search AliExpress for Jinhao 51a and sort by price, it should come up.

[bob_hayden]

51a

 

I may not have found the right seller for this pen. I did find some listings that quoted prices under a dollar for the pen but charged three times as much for shipping as for the pen, bringing the total above $2. On eBay in the US of A I found one seller offering 51as for $1.59 postpaid, with a 10% discount if you order more than one. The first post in this thread has a link to an "under $2 US" thread, but there's lots of competition in that category.

 

1515

 

Back in post #53 I mentioned Hero 1515s for 99 cents postpaid. I have since received two more of those, and again both are just fine. Despite the conspicuous Hero branding these appear identical to the metal clad Jinhao 599. In particular, they take standard international cartridges rather than the wide mouth cartridges used in Hero's plastic Safari clone, the 359. This is a boon outside China where 359 cartridges are hard to find.

 

3008

 

Back in #51 th3 mentioned clear Wing Sung 3008 piston fill pens for 99 cents. I ordered one of those and it appears to be the real thing and performs the same as the 3008 I have had for some time. The 99 cent one has a very definite detent when you get the plunger all the way up when sucking ink in. That is a step forward, but my older non-click 3008 tends to dry out and stop writing and I found I needed to keep advancing the plunger to get ink to flow again, after which posting could cause inadvertent expulsion of blobs of ink. I do not have any of these problems with an M200 or a 1950s Sheaffer with similar fill mechanisms. However, if the 3008 works for you, this is a bargain price.

[MuddyWaters]

For me it's the Hero 329. Amazing pen for 1$ (or any price).

[Martolod]

For me it's the Hero 329. Amazing pen for 1$ (or any price).

The Hero 329 looks so nice, is there any seller you would recommend? The most popular one on the eBay has 3 for 2.91~

[MuddyWaters]

The Hero 329 looks so nice, is there any seller you would recommend? The most popular one on the eBay has 3 for 2.91~

 

I actually don't know which seller I got it from. I had bought two different ones, and one was a little scratchy and the other perfect. So it might be good to try a few.

[th3]

I bought a Hero 329 from the vendor accecity2009. I was well satisified with the one I received.

 

Here are some ebay search terms for his listings

 

Quality goods Hero 329 Stainless Cap Fountain Pens Pen New

Edited October 28, 2018 by th3