Totally functional firestarter. I bought one of these about 9 months ago and it works great.
Is it the best for it's price? No. The Light My Fire Army is cheaper and better, even the Exotac polystrikerXL is better for a cheaper price (https://www.bladehq.com/item--Exotac-polySTRIKER-XL-Ultra-Light--11929)
Why get it? Because it's a fun and cool looking and made in the good 'ol USA and by buying one from Massdrop (a USA company) you are contributing to the be-American-buy-American.
Why is that important? Because although you may find much cheaper clones made in china, what the hell would be the point? This isn't even a 'great' fire rod, it's just cool. You, the consumer, could easily buy a pack of 1/2" ferrocerium rods for a couple of bucks on amazon and they'll do the exact same job, maybe better. So why buy a clone? So you can fake being a cool guy with a ripoff brand? EXOTAC is a small company and they work hard to make this stuff.
looking at you flyin2flyout