dowdyism

Because you are stuck with crappy refills in those very, very expensive pens. Spending $150-$300 on an expensive rollerball in a store doesn't guarantee you good writing performance. That is the most important thing for me, not how often I can show off some gold plated Mont Blanc barrel.

With these Kickstarter pens, people are creating good quality barrels for good quality refills. Look up and down this thread and you will see how many people use < 0.5mm pens. You can barely get those type of refills on the store shelf, much less in a high-end pen.

The US pen market is far from saturated. It is bone dry from my perspective.

TL;DR - Just because you buy an expensive pen doesn't mean it writes worth a crap.

What Peter has actually discovered is that the pen market in the US is severely lacking compared to markets like Asia. No major US pen manufacturer is willing to step up and expand their offerings in office supply stores to match what they offer in Japan, despite the fact they are all subsidiaries of Japanese companies. Pilot, Uni-ball, Pentel, Zebra are all based in Japan and offer much superior products across the Pacific.

This is why 95% of my pen and paper shopping is done online with vendors that import products from around the world. Going to Staples or Office Depot is like watching Groundhog Day. There is zero innovation, just the same old office supply cabinet stuffers that we have been stuck with for years.

Step outside the big box retailer and hunt down some Japanese pens. Start with the Uni-ball Signo DX 0.38 and the Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.4. You won't go back to your G2.

The paper in Moleskines is really bad unless you stick with ballpoints or pencils. Rhodia pads and journals handle inks much better than a Moleskine and are pretty easy to come by.