Originally Posted by monolith
The old style Rotring 600 series are, in my mind, the best mechanical pencils ever. They're not made anymore, but you can get them for $30-40 on eBay. There are many designs from other companies that patently rip off the 600 series design, like the Ohto Promate, and one of the Koh-I-Noor offerings.
I wish I had a way to buy one of these off ebay but I can't, yet.
I also can't decide which fountain pen to get just yet, I am leaning towards the Pelikan M400/M600 though.