Customer Reviews

The Platinum Preppy is one of the first few fountain pens I've owned/used, and as cheap as it is... this is a great pen. I give it good marks for having a very buttery writing experience, as well as good flow even after you ignore it for a few days. The Blue-Black is somewhat light but I still like the slight variations in the shade of blue. If I have anything that I would improve in this pen... well I love fine lines so an extra-fine nib would be ideal, because for me the fine nib seems fairly thick almost like a .5-.7mm ballpoint/gel pen line. Also, probably attributed to low cost and being clear, the plastic in the cap and barrel is pretty fragile. The second time I used my pen, I slightly twisted the cap as I removed it. This cracked the barrel about 3 places, easily remedied with some clear tape... even If I got a defective barrel, I think a matte finished black body on these pens would not only help aesthetics but probably allow more durable plastics to be used. If I return to the Platinum brand on my next order, I might give their Plaisir line a go... they seem like a more robust version of these little beauties.

P.S. the coloring on my nib started coming off almost immediately, now I have a half blue, half silver colored nib... this did NOT effect performance.

I have several Preppy pens, and give them out regularly to friends and siblings. They are a really good pen for the price. I have had several for almost a year now and have only ever had one crack. The crack is in the cap and it only happened because I dropped my seven pound laptop on the pen. This isn't a pen that can take a lot of abuse, but at this price that's not really expected. They are well worth the price.

Great pen for a great price. I really like the blue black ink color and it flows very smoothly. The fine point is a nice true fine point

The pens writes fine for the price...But the ink color is terrible. It's so light and weak, I can't stand writing with it. It looks like it's been run under water and watered down. Not my idea of high quality at all. Maybe I'll order another color ink to see if it's any better. Black maybe?

At this price, it's a steal; I have one of these and it works great. I just wish it was a little heavier.

PLEASE--someone tell me how to get this lovely but ineffective pen to work. Cartridge is in properly. Tight fit. Pen is a no-go from the very start. What am I saying? It has not started yet. Pretty presentation but only good if I am going to lead an orchestra and need a baton, or what to poke someone in the chest...which I don't.

All I want is for this darn pen to write. Anyone, anyone??????

I have initially given this pen (or, rather, pens, the worst review) because I have been trying over at least a week to cause this pen to write. I have done everything, checked the cartridge to make certain it was inserted fully and properly, have checked the nib, have run warm water over the nib,...you name it, I have done it. To no avail.

I thoroughly enjoy the colors I selected. And purchased refills while I was at it. But zippo, nada, bupkus. No writing. Before I return these items, has anyone had a similar problem and what did you do to remedy the issue??

I really wanted to like this pen, given the previous reviews and the price. I've had it for a few days now, and tried writing with it many times on several types of paper. Every time, the nib is scratchy and dry. Even after I finally get the ink flowing, it often stops before the end of the sentence. When it does write, it writes well. But given the constant scribbling, I think I'll be tossing this pen soon.

I love this pen for it's flowing writing experience. it took a day to "break in" but then the writing was nice. I was disappointed by the line thickness though, it wrote like an 0.7 or 0.8 gel pen. This was my first fountain pen though, so I guess I just wasn't used to the difference between fountain and gel pens. overall i give preppy thumbs up for it's affordable cost, nice nib, and smooth writing, but don't be expecting an 03 line!

Not the smoothest fountain pen, but it's smooth enough especially for the price. You can always throw it away if you don't like it. Had trouble getting the ink started at first but once it did start it flows very well. The blue-black is a nice color that doesn't bleed through paper.

Smooth writing, though the ink may skip at times. Works better than Lamy Vista F. My only concern is the nib can't be changed. Great pen for the price

High quality pen inexpensive price, I am quite impressed with this pen the ink flow it good even after not being used for several days being properly stored in my pen cup. Comfortable in the hand smooth writing qualities on a wide variety of papers I would recommend this pen to any one from a novice fountain pen user to a fountain pen junkie like myself, way to go jetpens.com

This is a great pen, especially for the price.

While it's not my favorite pen or perfect or anything, I can't complain much about it. The weight is great - due to hyperflexibility, my hand tires easily when writing and even a small amount of metal or enamel can be too heavy for me, but this one is almost as lightweight as an inexpensive ballpoint, which is very nice. It was also easy to load the cartridge and the cap fits well - I bought an extra pen for a brand-new-to-fountain-pens friend, and it looks like a fantastic starter for her.

I do think the ink description is a little bit off. It's a lot more of a grey-blue than blue-black. I expected a dark blue, but it's more of a regular blue, just not a bright cobalt or sapphire or something. It's not a bad color, but I prefer super-dark blues myself. It's made to look even lighter at times because the fine nib doesn't lay a lot of ink out, so writing swiftly makes for thin color.

Of the two pens I've used, one had trouble getting started. I'm not sure if the error was on my end or just slowness of the pen itself, but I had to pry at the nib to try to separate it a bit and also run it under water for about 30 seconds before any ink would flow (just the water didn't work the first time). On the other hand, the second pen (the one that was a gift for my friend!) started writing immediately, as soon as she fit the cartridge in, and after I warned her of the trouble I'd had!

I found this pen a "mas o menos" (more or less) product because its just so AVERAGE. But for this price you can't really complain... I'm just sad I invested in two of the replacement inks even though I hate the color of the ink!

Pros:
> EXTREMELY cheap, refillable fountain pen -- This happens to be my first because of this
> Stands out in America -- No one uses fountain pens at my school, I feel special using it. C:
> The nib is BLUE -- It's so pretty and fun to use

Cons:
> The line is thicker than I expected
> The ink is not at all like the picture, its like a watery blue black -- It makes me feel depressed because its so gray

I use this pen on papers that I turn in to the classes I really don't care about just for the fact that its fun to write with but is ugly. I write with my nicer pens during my higher level classes.

I was surprised at how well this pen performs. At this price, I assumed it would be just meh. I like the color of the ink. It's not as bright as some of the other blue pens, so it stands out nicely on my page. The ink bleeds far more on a crappy steno pad than other inks I've used, but I don't regularly write with a fountain pen on a cheap steno pad! I just tested the pen on all of the papers that were on my desk. Oddly enough, it writes the worst on a post-it note. I never tried a fountain pen on a post it. The other good quality papers were mixed, but the pen also writes nicely on regular recycled copy paper. This really surprised me. It also makes me happy because I can mark up copies with this pen, and the nice blue color will contrast with the black print without being a disruption. I am extremely impressed by how well it writes on my "Hot Chocolate" notebooks from Staples. I picked these up on clearance for $1 each. This was my first time using one of them, and wowzers, there was zero bleed. I can write on both sides of the page with this pen! I then discovered I can write on both sides with a LOT of different pens.

I love this pen, and it has a very inky flow that I appreciate after using my sailor candy pen (ugh). The only reason my new platinum preppy fine nib pen didn't get the highest review is because it's not a fine point pen. It has a thicker line than the medium point pens that my office keeps in stock! I prefer fine points, but this pen is so comfortable to write with that I'm happily keeping it. I will be purchasing another pen and some refills on my next jetpens order!

For the money these pens can not be beat. They write just as well as some of my more expensive pens. They also have a decent size and weight to them. AND, contrary to the reviews of the converter, these pens can easily be cleaned WITHOUT the converter. Since the nib and feed can be easily removed from the pen you can then just run water through the nib section and wash it out very quickly. As for the eyedropper mod I'm a little skeptical. I tried it with both my pens. One did just fine. The other one however did not. The O-ring broke and there was a bit of leakage. I deconverted back to the cartridge for both.

This was my first fountain pen, and I love it. The ink comes out as soon as you put the tip to the paper. I have little experience with fountain pens, so I don't know how it compares to others, but it's good enough for me.

Can't complain for $3, but move up to one of many of the $15 fountain pens available on Jet Pens & you don't have to deal with the leaking and uneven flow. Good if you want to buy a huge number of pens for the minimum price in order to keep your entire ink collection at hand.

Good flow, good ink, comfortable to write with. You can't do better in this price range!

I've always loved writing and drawing with these, but have had way too many of them start leaking on their second cartridge to make them reusable. For a while, my black Preppy was my go-to drawing pen, beating out my Lamy Safari with Noodler's Super Black.

This was one of the first Fountain pens I ever used. I wanted to try something inexpensive in case I didn't like using a Fountain pen, so I got this and 2 others. Overall this pen was great, nice ink flow, fun design, inexpensive.......until I had used it for just one week. The threads on the barrel to replace the cartridge sorta striped out(or the thread was incorrect or the cap 'held' too securely...something was wrong) and EVERY time I would take the cap off the pen to use the pen, the bottom of the pen (nib and surrounding plastic) would come with it.
Its not like I was hard on the pen or spent the entire week taking the cap on, putting it on, taking the cap off....etc... I rotated between the other 2 pens. After a week I had pretty much gave up on the pen because of how annoying it was to have to put it back together everytime I used it.....

Pro: nice ink color and no flow problems

Con: barrel cracked and blue plastic covering on the nib started flaking off (and I'm pretty sure it wasn't some kind of protective removable plastic sheet that was meant to come off).

FYI I didn't drop the pen, in fact it was sitting pretty on my desk its whole lifespan, so not sure why the barrel cracked.

Conclusion: If you find you like fountain pens, save up for a safari!

This is a fantastic writer, forget disposability! Note that the Japanese F nib is finer than European fountain F nib (compare, say, Lamy). It does go dry after long periods of disuse, but this is easily remedied by either rinsing quickly under a tap, or giving the cartridge a gentle squeeze (I did not get a huge glob shooting out or anything).

This is an okay pen. It works for what I wanted it for which is a cheap fountain pen in a business appropriate color. Occasionally the pen starts slowly or skips which is annoying. I do like that it takes cartridges and is easily converted to an eyedropper. Good for the price is my final verdict.

Unfortunately, my recently purchased Platinum Preppy (fine nib) is an extremely dry writer, to the extent that if I can't adjust the pen to permit a little more ink flow, I'll probably just throw/give it away. I've read some reviews suggesting that some Platinum Preppys are very wet writers (wet enough to be a problem), some are very dry writers (like mine), and many are just fine. Hey, I guess for $3 a certain percentage of bad ones slip past quality control. Buy 5, and probably 3 - maybe even 4 - will be keepers. I just got unlucky, is all.

If I can manage to fix this pen, I'll likely convert it to an eyedropper; I've already got the o-rings, and even some silicone grease, so why not?