Why not buy one decent pen “shell” and then just buy the plastic tube with the tip and the ink afterwards?
I know many companies use pens for marketing but still, they could apply this too and also stand up for the environment while still do marketing.
Good points!
Many FP lovers refill from bottles, but it isn’t necessary. Cartridges are easy to use, well-suited for travel when you may run dry in the middle of a trip, and TSA doesn’t give you grief about them.
Again, my point to OP was that there’s very little practical advantage to ball points over fountain pens; if you’re using cartridges, they’re not much better for the environment, but you can do things like use a converter most of the time and carry cartridges as back-up. Fountain pens are fantastic writing implements.