If you are shopping for a very affordable — as in sub-$30, sub-$20, or even sub-$5 — fountain pen and you want high-end features like screw-on cap, included converter, or piston-filling mechanism then you will almost certainly want a Chinese fountain pen.
These pens have made incredible advances in the last decade and now offer a set of features and a price range that makes them distinct and interesting type of fountain pen unto themselves.
This is a popular Chinese fountain pen that commonly sells for about $10. It combines classic looks and a reasonable price tag and has become a stable of the sub-$10 category, though it’s not generally considered in realm of the best Chinese fountain pens.
The Jinhao 992 is a super affordable Chinese fountain pen with a clear plastic body. It’s a cartridge/converter pen that includes a screw-style converter with the pen. The pen is sold in clear plastic or in a variety of translucent and opaque colors. It sizes a common torpedo shape that is typical of Sailor and Pilot pens, and almost the same pen as the Monteverde Monza.
Unlike many popular pens from Jinhao and Wing Sung, the 992 is not a clear copy of another pen. Rather, it’s a rather standard looking, torpedo-shaped fountain pen with few distinctive features. If anything it resembles the Pilot Prera or a smaller Sailor 1911 but only in general appearance.