I mean you can certainly get a Chinese-made Parker clone for under $1 on AliExpress and it might even work fine (I have and it does). But this is Pilot, 100+ yo

I mean you can certainly get a Chinese-made Parker clone for under $1 on AliExpress and it might even work fine (I have and it does). But this is Pilot, 100+ yo Japanese company making collector's pens with some high-end models going for $1000+. For them to have even under-$100 model is pretty unusual. I do not have Lama Safari, I'm sure it's a nice pen but Pilot Metropolitan certainly feels much more expensive and a "grown-up" pen rather than just a writing implement. ps I did not know students in the UK still are required to use fountain pens, my sincere condolences. I think teaching handwriting is important but fountain pens seem like a step too far.