(Also, I recommend spending a bit more and at least getting a stainless steel M.B. When it comes to M.B., there's a flood of fakes out there. Other than December, Fountain Pen Hospital is even closed on weekends. In fact, the shop keeps the same hours as those who work on the stock exchange. The only one that discounts is Fountain Pen Hospital, here in NYC. If you want a M.B., and you want to make sure it is the genuine article buy from a recognized, high-end shop. Needless to say, the store's employees hated us! We'd send the angry customers direct to them. You immediately notice a huge difference in thickness. Solitaire, then compare it with a similar style pen from any other company. With a leaked refill, the first question we'd ask the customer was, "Did you buy the refill from a large, chain store? Answer from the customer was always "Yes."īroken or shattered pens? Unscrew a M.B. pens literally shattering if they hit the ground. The two main issues we had with customer complaints were refills that leaked. The Cross refill, for example, that you buy at Office Max is the same quality that you get at a high-end pen shop). Not because the chain stores buy more refills and can afford to discount them while still making a profit through volume sales. (That's the real reason for the huge price difference. The high-end, dedicated, pen shops have the good ones. They're genuine refills, but they happen to be factory seconds which are legendary for leaking. refills from any of the large chain stores. Having worked as a high-end pen salesman, I can tell you this. But you can get knock-offs from quite a few street-corner "vendors" for $10 instead of $200. Oh the Solitaire line is still a huge status symbol. Other than their Limited Editions, the pens are not worth the money.