I understand the appreciation for nice things, finer details and quality items but the variety of expensive pens has truly surprised me.
I would think a few hundred would buy you something “nice” with a certain quality to it.
I ave been cursed with poor handwriting and even though I was taught what they called running writing at school we were not encouraged or discouraged to pursue it so I reverted to writing individual letters in print.
My mother has beautiful handwriting and gets complimented for it. She can write well with a BiC disposable pen or a $20Parker ball point pen. She does appreciate the finer things but would probably see an expensive pen as extravagant.
In later years I have found I can get lost in writing but it’s digital or on a keyboard. I’m not a typist by any stretch but can type well enough to get by. I prefer a pen I get a feel for and use it throughout a shift if I don’t sit it down but I usually settle on a disposable or a promotional pen but I have owned Parker and Schaffer that has a nice feel. Like some of the Mont Blanc they use a cartridge that is replaceable and it does the majority of of the work. A high end pen alone won’t help my handwriting and a Blaser won’t make me a better shot. Not that I don’t appreciate them I would be better focussing on on my financial goals to enable myself to enjoy some finer things when the time comes comes.
As Alistair points out a Baikal is capable of. My Baikail .22 was accurate and my Baikal shotgun was capable of hurting both ends. To that point I own a few Tikkas that can group well enough for my purposes but I would buy nice firearms, furniture and other quality items if felt comfortable with justifying the expense of the items that the value to me makes it worthwhile and I still have budget to spare.
You can certainly get a "nice" pen for a couple hundred, probably for less than 100 bucks, honestly.
My collection ranges from pens at $40 or so, to pens in the $10,000+ range. I enjoy all of them, they all write great, I'm confident that any of them would last a life time.
The 'functional' improvements of spending more are honestly pretty much irrelevant once you're into a quality brand, even if you've only spent $50 or so.
Steel nibs write just as good as gold, the plastic on a Lamy Safari is just as durable and comfy as the plastic on a Montblanc, even entry level options from quality brands are very well made. In fact, I'd back a Lamy Safari or a Pilot Metropolitan to write perfectly out of the box more than I would a $1000 Visconti or Pelikan.
But fancy pens get you fancy materials, more intentional and complex designs, sometimes a bit of history, and a great deal of skilled craftsmanship. Sometimes it does get you unusual nibs with interesting writing characteristics I suppose.
I enjoy those intangibles enough to buy the fancy stuff as well as the cheaper options, but I'm not spending 100x more for 100x the writing experience at that point, any more than a Purdey shoots 100x better than a base model Beretta Silver Pigeon.
But I enjoy having a genuine work of art that I can take with me everywhere I go, use every day. I do a white collar job, I spend a lot of time in meetings scribbling down notes. I choose to spend that time in the company of an object that makes me happy. I guess that's the point of this thread, really.
Anyhow, sorry
@Rare Breed , fountain pen diversion finished, back to your regular programming!
here is a fine thing that might be common to many on this web forum, but to me, this is a very fine thing. 
