Thoughts on High End vs High Quality

[JP61]

Whatever..... this thread/conversation was silly and pretty much useless from the start, in any context. However, you should sleep well tonight knowing that all other opinions posted here, are wrong. Ever hear of the saying "he's a legend in his own mind"?

Keep your personal comments to yourself. I did not insult you or attempt to insult you.

You do the same.

 

[maxwell_smart007]

There is no reason to resort to personal attacks - please keep conversations civil.

Andrew
assistant moderator

 

[Cmiles1985]

Which would you rather have? Or would you rather have both?

When you sell a high end pen to a business executive you are probably taking a customer from one of the "big name" expensive pen makers. Why should he buy from you instead of Mont Blanc? Because when someone sees your pen and asks where he got it, he can casually say "Oh this, I had it custom made by a Master Pen Maker, and it writes as good as it looks. Here try it." That, btw will carry more prestige than saying "It's a Mont Blanc"

Move that down the line to a Low End pen you gave to a relative. The chances are that if someone sees that pen and asks the same question...they might say "Oh this, my 2nd cousin twice removed from Poland, NY makes them and gave me one - and it writes even better than it looks - here try it."

While each above case is from a different end of the "kit" spectrum, they can each represent high quality and if you are selling pens across the spectrum that is exactly what you want them to do.

That's the reason I maintain that quality is conformance to specification, "luxury" has to do with the specification. If you specify a pen made of gold, all other things being equal it will cost a lot more than one made of aluminum. It will cost more even if the workmanship and outward appearance is not as good. Simply because the price of gold is a ton higher than the price of aluminum


In short, two component sets can be of equal quality but have vastly different prices based on luxury. Both can have equally good (or bad) workmanship, plating application, fit and finish, yet one may sell for a much higher price because of the design, size, plating material(s) etc.

So the question (asked often) What is the "best" quality pen kit can never be answered as long as we use the term "quality" to mean either quality or luxury depending on how we feel and each of us has our own opinion as to what 'quality' is.

Throwing aside the fact that this thread has resorted to folks not playing nice in the sandbox, I have some thoughts on the original question posed: both (in a pen kit).

In trying to save some cash (as most of us enjoy doing), I bought a certain kit from a certain vendor at a FAR better price than what I should have paid. These kits may not meet the same specs as the "preferred" vendor that sells them. Since they're of a lower price (and likely a wider tolerance on spec), I have to purposely disassemble pieces that come pre-assembled and glue them. If I don't, the pens tend to come apart after so long. That does not meet my standard spec. So, quality in my definition is conformation to a specification. The specification limit is what may be vague. Example: many lathes are the same, right? There's a Rikon that is VERY similar to an HF lathe. The difference is likely tolerance to specifications. Maybe spindle runout spec on the HF model is 0.002", and the Rikon is 0.0005" Does that make the Rikon 4x better than the HF? Subjective answer, of course! So, the same thing may go for spec'd tolerances in pen kits.

I could go on with my thought, but I have a custom order for a LeRoi