Is there a more perfect product than the Bic Crystal? Clean, simple design, obvious marking of the ink colour with the little plastic pip and cap, write smoothly and cleanly with even continuous lines, don't leak, don't scratch on the page, don't need shaking and frantic scribbling to get them to start. For a non-ergonomic pen they are surprisingly comfortable, a reasonable thickness and a soft-ish plastic with gently rounded corners that allow a good grip rather than the brittle hardness and sharpness or slippy smoothness of competitors. Utilitarian, yet never out of place - bringing a Crystal out of a smart suit pocket to sign something gives a no-nonsense practical impression, rather than being a thing of embarrassment. Seeing someone has a set of blue, black, green and red ones is a thing to envy. Somehow the Bic Orange just isn't even 50% of the pen a crystal is, scratchy and uneven, without the comfort in the hand.
The low price copies beloved of office stationery purchasers are simply rubbish - for example in our box of "nice day" ones at work you'll go through three or four before finding one that will deign to work for a few tantalising moments, but apparently corporate policy won't allow our team admin people to buy Bics that simply work - much to their frustration too. So we end up buying a box ourselves and expensing them.
