Fountain Pens! Love em' or hate em'?

I have never tried the parker jotter FP, but the bp was a nice pen. It just feels cheap

It's possible I'm judging it by the wrong standard. It stands to reason someone would choose a $4 pen for quite different reasons than they would choose a $100 pen, after all. I like the Pilot GT because I can toss it in the glovebox and it'll still work five hot Southern summers later, and when I was in college they were good for taking notes, but I wouldn't use one on a daily basis nowadays; they're just not [insert X factor here] enough.

What I like about my Pilots is I can fill them with any ink I want, from a bottle, without using a dropper...and then leave them capped with the nib pointing up for two months (I don't have to write checks very often), and I don't even have to drag the nib across a piece of junk paper first to get the ink flowing. Also, the nib never feels like it's scratching the paper, not even on cheap paper, and I've never gotten that feel from a steel nib; only the gold ones feel right. Oh, and the "fine" nib is like an "extra fine" by any other company's standard; I can draw the thinnest, lightest lines I've ever seen come out of a pen, without even having to practice first.

Oh, that's easy. It makes the rare occasion when I do need to write something an occasion to look forward to, instead of being totally unremarkable. If I only had to drive once a month, I'd find a way to own a Ferrari for the purpose, and for the same reason -- so I could anticipate it beforehand, enjoy it during, and reminisce about it afterwards.

I believe we were coming at it from different perspectives. In my mind, it's not the best nib out there, but for the price, it's definitely not garbage when you take into consideration all of the other ones that you can get in that price range. That's all. And I agree with you that while the $4.00 pen does its job, if I want to enjoy a writing session, I'd pick up a different one (likely the Prera).

While I like the way fountain pens look, I'm not in love with the very idea of a fountain pen -- I just like the fact that they're completely reusable and will probably last longer than I will before they wear out. If rollerballs were refillable the same way fountain pens are, I would likely be just as happy using a rollerball. So, when I buy a cheap pen, I'm not drawn to the fountain pen design when it gives me no advantage (such as I perceive it) over a comparable rollerball. Not having to worry about loaning a rollerball to someone and getting it back with a ruined bent nib is a definite plus, though.

I wanted to like the Prera, but it has a snap-fastened cap, and my experience with other fountain pens that have snap-fastened caps has been uniformly negative; they all dry out too fast. The reviews I read about the Prera online suggested the same problem exists with it as well. It's very unfortunate, because I wanted a nice-yet-inexpensive demonstrator pen to carry to work with me. I guess I'll have to invest in another Custom 92 or Custom 74 for the purpose. (a Custom 823 would be cool, but I don't fly often, so the ink-cutoff feature wouldn't be worth the extra couple hundred dollars to me.)

^ But they do have refillable rollerballs... it fills the same way as a fountain pen - piston, eyedropper, cartridge, converter...

I use fountain pens daily for school notes, so I personally prefer the snap caps. Again, to each their own.

There are choices for refiilable rollerball pens like this one from Noodler's Nib
http://www.gouletpens.com/Noodlers_Clear_Rollerball_Pen_p/n18060.htm or this one from J.Herbin http://www.gouletpens.com/JHerbin_Refillable_Rollerball_Pen_p/h215-00.htm

Really? Hmm. Do the rollerballs last as long as the fountain pens do? I can always replace a bent nib if I need to.

In terms of ink or overall pen quality?

Ink will always depend on paper, how much ink is laid down, tank/cartridge size, and all that fun stuff.

Otherwise, quality is pretty high up there considering that most of your favorite fountain pen makers will have a rollerball option as well.

Pen quality. Ink is a consumable item.

I'd seen the fancy rollerballs before, but I always figured they used ballpoint-style cartridges, with a replacement tip built-in. I didn't know there were ones available that could refill from a bottle.

^ YEP! I look forward to seeing what you end up getting.

I really wanted the Acme rollerball that looked like a crayon but I was sad to find that it use the ballpoint-styled cartridges. I'm still on the search for the "pefect" rollerball. I've been refilling the Pilot Precise V5's... (with favorite fountain pen ink colors).

I've never heard of refillable ball pens. This is going to require some looking into. Half the reason I like fountain pens is I can mix my own colors of ink, but they're just not too good at some tasks so I have other pens as well.

Hear that? It's the sound of my wallet whimpering. Thanks Moo!

Tis refillable rollerballs, not ballpoints. Just thought I'd make that clear.

Presumably roller balls since the ink would be pretty thin. Either way works for me, as long as I can use it on a multi-part form.