Okay, I finally retired my 50 year old Cross pen. In june, I had sent it back to Cross for a repair, and they fixed it without replacing it, so I still have the dented up brassy old Cross that has been a companion since I was a young sprout going off to join the army. IN fact, it was my dad who gave me the pen, and told me to write home every week. Now the pen is my desk pen for doing the checkbook, and whatever.

For the past two months now I’ve been trying to find a new edc pen, but have found mostly disappointment. The new pens that ha ve always been the big names to me have now turned to junk. Or at least noticeably cheaper construction. The new Parker Jotters ain’t what they used to be. The ones I looked seemed lighter and cheaper feeling than the ones years ago. The new Cross stuff has guts being made in China. The Zebra 701 seems okay.

My biggest surprise is the cheapo pens. Now that I haven’t been carrying a edc pen the past fw months, I’ve been the one who’s saying “Hey, ya got a pen on ya?”

Most times I get handed a cheap disposable pen, and I’e been surprised at how well they write. Plastic Papermate, clear plastic Pilot Easy touch and G2’s, Bic’s in both stick and retractable clicky, and others with advertising logo’s from flooring and lumber sales. A lot of them write great. I’ve been impressed by the Pilot and Bic’s tot he point that I’m now askingmyself a question.

When I was a kid, you needed to buy a good pen because the cheap stuff was awful. Now the cheap stuff is good to very good. I wonder if the trickle down theory holds water here, that the cheaper pens now write as good as the very good stuff of 30 to 40 years ago? That a plastic Pilot G2 or 7 dollar Zebra 701 writes as good as a Cross did in the 1960’s?

I’m wondering if I’m going to buy a really nice pen agains, since the stuff at Walmart seems to be as good as the prime stuff of my youth. Zebra, Pilot, even the Bic’s, all seem to deliver a great pen for the price. I’m thinking that I may as well hang a couple dollar Pilot in my shirt pocket and the heck with it. I’ll have a great writing pen that if something happens to it, no sweat, I’d just stop a the next Walmart and get another one.

KInd of like, why should I spend a of of money on a custom gun, when a Glock is the pinnacle of a reliable and rugged handgun?

So, has the expensive pen gone the way of the high end custom gun? Or can a great writing pen be fund in the office supplies isle at the big box store for the masses?