I guess I'd call myself moderately interested in pens. *shrug* I have a few thoughts.
For fountain pens, if you're going to invest in one pen, I'd go with a Lamy 2000 or Pilot Vanishing Point.
They are both exceptional pens with gold nibs.
For a starter pen, the Pilot Metropolitan is an incredible value. They now come with stock italic nibs, which I adore - it's the easiest way to instantly make your writing look better.
The venerable Lamy Safari is another great affordable pick. There are tons of designs to pick from.
My latest acquisition is a Namisu Nova. I swapped out the steel medium nib I ordered for a black fine nib and I think the reult writes 1000x better and looks really nice!
And if you are looking for inks, Robert Oster makes very afforable inks that are ridiculously good. That's what all the cool fountain pen people are using these days.
OP, the pen you posted...
after years of searching, I think I finally found my ideal ball point pen.
I recently discovered the Pilot Hi-Tec-C (0.3 mm) pen. I own and have used fountain pens in the past but I tend to lose pens very easily so wanted a cheaper alternative.
...is actually a rollerball. Ballpoint pens have oil-based inks, whereas rollerball pens have water-based (gel inks are water-based) inks. This is important to me as I work in a field where regulatory guidelines specify only ballpoint pens for official paperwork. As such, I've acquired quite the collection of ballpoint pens. The pens all use a few different brands of refills - this is the actual bit controlling the writing properties. You then pick a body that looks and feels like what you want. Most of my pens have Parker-style refills from Parker, Schneider, or Schmidt. I love Pilot pens, which have a few custom size refills.
My favorite ballpoint pens are the Baron Fig Squire (accepts rollerball of ballpoint refills)
The Pilot S20
And the iconic Parker Jotter (make sure to get the 2016 refresh.)
I'm always happy to talk more about pens! Stop by the fountain pen thread (which has become our catch-all pen thread for the time being) if you want to chat, or send me a PM!