Platinum Preppy Fountain (and marker, and highlighter) pen

The Platinum Preppy is one of the most affordable fountain pen around.  Usually about $3 USD (at time of writing), it's easily converted to an eyedropper pen which means we don't need to buy cartridges or a converter.  A little o-ring or some silicone grease (or both) is all we need.  

We can swap out the fountain pen nib for a marker or a highlighter tip and use fountain pen ink with these too.  

These are a great introduction to fountain pens and fun to play with as an experienced pen user.  



I just got a handful of these pens that I'm playing with so I'll post my experiences as I go along.  

This is most of what arrived in the mail this week:



Three preppy pens and everything I need to convert them to a marker or a highlighter.  Also to convert them to an eyedropper pen where the body of the pen becomes the source of the ink (instead of having a separate ink cartridge inside the body).  Also in the picture are samples of different highlighter inks.

Starting with the yellow one because I want to try the ink "Year of the Golden Pig" and I like the idea of the yellow pen being the highlighter.



I can buy these pens already converted to marker or highlighter, but I decided to buy the pen version and replacement marker/highlighter tips.

Disassembled the pen



switched out the tip (way easier than I expected!)



(notice the tip is white here and yellow later?)

added the o-ring and a very fine layer of silicone grease - really we only need one or the other but I carry my pens in my pocket which means extra protection against leaks is a good thing!



Sample time! (blurry is from my camera, not the ink)



Very water resistant.

Works great on laser printed text on cheap paper



Less good on fresh handwriting.

So far - after two hours of using this pen I really like it.  Much more than I expected for something so affordable.

I really like the swappable parts.  

Huge in capacity as an eyedropper.  Two ml. of ink filled it almost halfway.  Since I can go through .5ml an hour (which is the normal capacity of a refillable converter), this larger volume of ink makes me very happy.  

I don't think I put enough grease on the threads of the pen as the ink is creeping up the threads.  But that's okay because I have the o-ring.


Things I don't like:
- plastic.  Lots and lots of plastic.  This is not something that will last decades of daily use (or at least I don't think it will).  However, it will last a good deal longer than a 'normal' pen which is tossed away once empty.  
- there's ugly writing on it.  It's okay I suppose.  There are lots of thoughts on the web on how to get rid of this writing.  I'm going to ignore it because, at this price, I can put up with the advertizing.  

Going back to the things I like - the lid has an extra lid inside it!



I don't know how well you can see this.  This is going to slow down the evaporation of the ink and make the ink last longer.  Very nice touch.  

I  have three Platinum Preppys.  Two of which I installed the cartridges they came with when I got them Christmas 2 years ago.  I had misplaced them along with a few other pens for a good 8 months at one point.  These two and a Pilot Petit1 were the only ones that hadn't dried up when I found them again.  One of which is still writing!  (They aren't the first ones I reach for.)  The third is a Crystal version of the Preppy that doesn't have all the writing on it.

This sounds like fun...I've been wanting to get a fountain pen again, it's been years since I used one.

Could you share a link where you were able to get all the bits and pieces for converting them?  I can only find the pens and cartridges when I search and not the o rings, extra tips, etc.

thank you!

I got mine at Goulet Pen Company.  I think you can get these at any fountain pen shop or on Amazon, but I really like Goulet because they have a lot of tutorials and other free content to help people learn to use fountain pens.

Here's a search for their preppy stuff: https://www.gouletpens.com/pages/search-results?limit=24&q=preppy


Since I can't buy the fountain pen nib separately, I bought the fountain pens then replaced them with the highlighter tip.  Now I have a spare fountain pen nib for later.  Also, I think the marker and highlighter had more writing on them.  

r ranson wrote:I got mine at Goulet Pen Company.  I think you can get these at any fountain pen shop or on Amazon, but I really like Goulet because they have a lot of tutorials and other free content to help people learn to use fountain pens.

Here's a search for their preppy stuff: https://www.gouletpens.com/pages/search-results?limit=24&q=preppy


Since I can't buy the fountain pen nib separately, I bought the fountain pens then replaced them with the highlighter tip.  Now I have a spare fountain pen nib for later.  Also, I think the marker and highlighter had more writing on them.  

thank you!

I just sent off an order for three fountains with nibs and a couple with marker tips, and the o rings etc for using a dropper.  I never found where to order extra marker tips? Lot's of temptation browsing their site though

I'm especially looking forward to never buying a 'sharpie' again in my life.  I had tried to stop buying them all together but never found a substitute that my family was satisfied with for certain things...this may be it!

Marker tips https://www.gouletpens.com/products/platinum-preppy-marker-replacement-tips?variant=11884755091499

highlighter tips https://www.gouletpens.com/products/platinum-preppy-highlighter-replacement-tips?variant=11884755157035

I'm excited about never needing a sharpie again too.  I haven't tried the pen as a marker yet.  I know these pens are famous for not drying out, but I feel weird having a pen inked up if I don't have an immediate use for it.  

My research says that these tips can sometimes get clogged up but are cleaned by soaking in water overnight.  Eventually, they wear out but we just replace them when they do.  

A lot less waste than the disposable stuff we use at work.  More plastic than I like, but I think this is a step in the right direction.  

Using the highlighter at work.

It's a lot wetter than the disposable highlighter.  Usually, I have to make three or four passes with the old one, but if I do this with the Preppy highlighter, then I get yellow on both sides of the paper.  Just one pass is enough.  

Even though the tip is smaller than the disposable highlighter, the colour is stronger with the preppy.  

I'm very happy with this but it looks like for the amount of use I have with this pen, I won't be needing much ink for it.  I think the sample vials I got will last a year or two at this rate.  

I love them!
I've been waiting to post with photos but haven't got that together yet so just a quick report now...

I ordered three fine fountains, two felt tips and o rings and silicone.

I'm trying to run one of the fountains dry so I can start using some of the Dick Blick ink I bought quite awhile back for using with a brush and for dyeing fabric...sometimes straight dipped  scoured cottons and linens and sometimes pretreated with soy milk and then writing on the fabric.

I had read about a woman who dyed with different inks to get different 'blacks'...some with very subtle blue or red or purple overtones.  The fabrics were beautiful.

So, I have most of a quart of 'super black India Ink' that is supposed to be 'highly opaque, permanent, waterproof, free-flowing, non-clogging, fast drying, 100% carbon black pigment, no dyes, optimal lightfastness, contains shellac, no peanut oil'........what's with the 'no peanut oil' do you suppose?   I remember it costing right at twenty dollars more than five years ago.

The markers are exciting...nice line and appear to adhere well to my plastic blind plant labels.  I'll have to test out in the sun and rain to know for sure.  I know they'll be great for labeling packages and for drawing on fabric.

and yes, the downside is all that plastic, so we'll hope they have a long life

I'm looking at them as an inexpensive gateway to nicer fountain pens.

You may want to look into putting India Inks into fountain pens before you go ahead.  My understanding is it will gunk up the fountain pen, possibly to the point of making it useldss.  I believe that the pigment particles in the India Ink are bigger, making it hard to get through the feed of the fountain pen.

I'm trying to run one of the fountains dry so I can start using some of the Dick Blick ink I bought quite awhile back for using with a brush and for dyeing fabric...sometimes straight dipped  scoured cottons and linens and sometimes pretreated with soy milk and then writing on the fabric.  It is  'super black India Ink' that is supposed to be 'highly opaque, permanent, waterproof, free-flowing, non-clogging, fast drying, 100% carbon black pigment, no dyes, optimal lightfastness, contains shellac, no peanut oil'

Well, just today I ran my pen dry and I filled it with my Dick Blick india ink.  So far, it writes at least as well as what came with the pen but there hasn't been enough time for the ink to dry in the nib.  That is what  might happen....but maybe not?

I use the marker often and am very happy with it.  If all goes well, I'll try the india ink in it also.

This is a nice inexpensive way to get back into fountain pens.  I'm so glad you shared this R. Ranson

A lot of pens can go dry when they aren't used, but platinum has a special lid to keep the nib moist.  On some of their higher-end pens, they say they will stay moist and ready to write for over a year between uses.  Most older style pens needed to be used daily.  

Ghislaine de Lessines wrote:You may want to look into putting India Inks into fountain pens before you go ahead.  My understanding is it will gunk up the fountain pen, possibly to the point of making it useldss.  I believe that the pigment particles in the India Ink are bigger, making it hard to get through the feed of the fountain pen.

Yes! I tried it and it does!
...definitely 'gunked' it up slowly but surely.  So then I tried to clean it with rubbing alcohol and that pretty much ruined the plastic in addition

I'll go back to painting on fabric with my big bottle of india ink now.

I ordered some proper fountain pen ink from Noodlers and am waiting to use up the cartridge in the second pen (I bought three).  I love the marker also.  I have the kit for making them all into eyedropper fill pens when I've finished the cartridges that came with them.

I love the pens as a stepping stone to some nicer ones made of metal.

...so happy you began this thread telling about them R. Ranson.