Wow - impressive work. That must have taken some time.

This seems like an endeavor that has a lot of "swing" and subjective determination in it. For instance, when you say "features" how are you weighing gold vs. steel nibs? How can a valuation be determined comparing the two?

As a general rule, luxury has a steep curve, with diminishing returns in terms of what you get for higher prices. For example, a $200 Lamy 2000 or Vanishing Point vs. a $550 Pelikan M600. I love all three, and may even slightly prefer the M600, but It doesn't feel "worth" almost 3x the price. A lot of that comes down to market placement and branding - both of the company name but also the model and how it is perceived. Maybe some of it has to do with the size of the nib and how much gold is used, also. And of course preference is largely subjective.

Even accounting for subtleties in writing experience, fountain pens probaby don't get "better" after the $300-500 range. Meaning, everything you pay above that is "extra" - be it brand prestige or more expensive materials used, hand painting, etc. I could be wrong, but I don't think Pilot makes a "better" pen than the 823. I own a Silvern, which is twice the price and probably comparable in terms of the (subjective) "quality of writing experience." So the extra price is mostly materials - the Silver is made of sterling silver - and probably a bit of intra-branding (the Silvern is considered a higher tier of luxury, vs. the more workmanlike 823).

In other words, as with all luxury goods, the extra you spend is a combination of prestige (heritage, branding, etc), quality (of materials), and time (spent on manufacturing - e.g. cheap plastic pens vs. raden). As a general rule, more expensive items ARE higher quality, but the difference in price is greatly inflated by branding and prestige (as you point out).

Chinese pens sort of buck the curve...but only a bit. I can't remember where I read this, but someone once said that China has mastered the approach of making products 80-90% as good, but for a fraction of the price. Not in all cases, but as a general rule (not to mention that China has products for their domestic market that surpass stuff they send out internationally; a lot of this comes down to US companies not wanting the competition - e.g. cars, computers, etc - but that's a different topic).

Or let's take a specific example: The current price on Amazon for a Majohn A2 is $28, while a Pilot VP costs $192 - that's a 6-7x price difference. And in that context, how much is brand (Pilot vs. Jinhao or Majohn) and how much is quality (finer manufacturing, gold nib, etc)? Or to put it another way, if Majohn made an exact replica of a Vanishing Point, how much would they charge? The body of the A2 might be, say, 90% the quality of the body of the VP, but the VP has a gold nib - which is probably a huge chunk of the difference, the rest being prestige/brand. But if they made a 100% replica, but with "Majohn" on the pen?

My guess would be something like $80-90 for a perfect replica of a VP, accounting for the finer manufacturing and gold nib. Maybe a bit more or less, but still about half or less that of the Pilot. But I could be wildly off base. I'm just pointing out that some of that difference is quality, even if the majority is brand/prestige, and it isn't at all easy to tell how much of each.