You DO get what you pay for (sorry, it’s true)!
There are literally hundreds of thousands of different promotional products… and they are not all created equal. There are many horrible examples of shoddily manufactured promo items, and just by looking at a print- or online-catalog you won't be able to tell.
We have decades of experience navigating this market, and our research and diligence pays off… we have discovered and produced excellent quality promotional products for our customers over and over again. Many times, the budget is the defining quality of a custom promo item, which is fine in and of itself. However, pens costing 50cents will simply not look, feel, write, or last like a pen costing $2.00. There's no way around that.
I heard of one company who purchased a huge supply of inexpensive [cheap] promotional product flashlights for prospective sales people. They allegedly looked great. However, apparently the batteries simply didn't work in 35% of the flashlights purchased! So, before giving them out, the employees had to open every single box and try each one first. This was not the best use of the marketing staff's time - or the budget. It probably ended up costing them way more to solve the problem that was created by being too focused on low cost.