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 goo

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.