So while on my journey to being analog free I've decided to keep a blog of my adventures with e cigs. I have been smoking for about 5 years and dappled in smoking when I was thirteen. "Borrowing" cigs from my mother's purse. For the first time in the past 5 years I actually feel optimistic about quitting. 
I originally started researching e cigs because I had noticed that the local 7-11 was selling the njoy for $20. I thought to myself how can that be? the stands in the mall sell the starter kits for $170! So of course as the well-informed bargain shopper I decided to look into it before committing to buy it. The more I looked into it the more I realize how many other options there were. Atomizers/ cartomizers, 2 hour battery life/ 6 hour battery life, dripping/ topping off, manual batteries/ automatic batteries. My head was practically spinning! As is dropped out of the sky, the answer to my troubled head, ECF popped up on my search. I began to venture through all the posts and advice from people who had much more experience then myself. Perhaps the most helpful of all were the series of videos by MistressNomad for "broke newbies" [which is under the New Member forum]. Perfect for me because unless it's on sale or I can find a coupon I usually won't buy it. The series of videos go in depth about the pros and cons of different models, how they work, how to save money, different parts, what to expect from the model you purchase, juices, DIY juices and so fourth. So there I sat glued to my computer screen watching every last video until I felt confident in the choice I was going to make. Then I began to search through the miscellaneous sites trying to find the best prices with good reviews, all the while posting on ECF any questions I had on the way.
I finally decided to purchase the Joye 510 model from cignot.com, with manual batteries and an atomizer. I bought the Joye 510 No Box starter kit, which included two batteries, two atomizers, 5 carts, and a charger for $35. You have a wide selection of battery and LED colors, automatic or manual batteries, round or whistle tip carts which allows the customer a more individual product. The site got excellent reviews from ECF members as well as reviews on cignot.com for great customer service, fast shipping, and safe credit card transactions. The owner Vicki has been very friendly and helpful in answering any questions you have. I then decided to buy my e liquids from liberty-flights.com. As suggested by other ECF members I bought 3 5ml bottles of different flavors and different nicotine strengths to figure out what I like and what works best for me. This way I'm not stuck with huge bottles of something I hate. I purchased wild berry, menthol, and menthol tobacco (2 18mg, 1 14mg). I had also heard very good reviews from other members about liberty-flights.com saying that they had great customer service, fast shipping, and safe transactions. I was very pleased that they gave the option of using my PayPal account as a payment method (few sites that I looked at did) but I was disappointed in how long they took to send me the tracking ID for the package. I had sent them an e-mail about how long it would take for it to ship to me, they responded quickly and had said that they were very busy and my order was #2 to be picked. Hopefully the next time I do business with them things will move along quicker.
All and all I'm pretty pleased with my experience so far. The snow has been hitting us hard so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't delay my packages too long (I ordered late Mon night). I'm usually a pretty patient person but I've found myself constantly tracking my packages, "stalking the postal carrier", and over-all impatient. I will do my best to blog about my experiences as I go through the process of switching from analogs to vaping. I figure ECF has already helped me so much that maybe if I can help another newbie through the process I'd be paying back the favor. I'll check back in when I get my package and start... VAPING!
-Liz
I originally started researching e cigs because I had noticed that the local 7-11 was selling the njoy for $20. I thought to myself how can that be? the stands in the mall sell the starter kits for $170! So of course as the well-informed bargain shopper I decided to look into it before committing to buy it. The more I looked into it the more I realize how many other options there were. Atomizers/ cartomizers, 2 hour battery life/ 6 hour battery life, dripping/ topping off, manual batteries/ automatic batteries. My head was practically spinning! As is dropped out of the sky, the answer to my troubled head, ECF popped up on my search. I began to venture through all the posts and advice from people who had much more experience then myself. Perhaps the most helpful of all were the series of videos by MistressNomad for "broke newbies" [which is under the New Member forum]. Perfect for me because unless it's on sale or I can find a coupon I usually won't buy it. The series of videos go in depth about the pros and cons of different models, how they work, how to save money, different parts, what to expect from the model you purchase, juices, DIY juices and so fourth. So there I sat glued to my computer screen watching every last video until I felt confident in the choice I was going to make. Then I began to search through the miscellaneous sites trying to find the best prices with good reviews, all the while posting on ECF any questions I had on the way.
I finally decided to purchase the Joye 510 model from cignot.com, with manual batteries and an atomizer. I bought the Joye 510 No Box starter kit, which included two batteries, two atomizers, 5 carts, and a charger for $35. You have a wide selection of battery and LED colors, automatic or manual batteries, round or whistle tip carts which allows the customer a more individual product. The site got excellent reviews from ECF members as well as reviews on cignot.com for great customer service, fast shipping, and safe credit card transactions. The owner Vicki has been very friendly and helpful in answering any questions you have. I then decided to buy my e liquids from liberty-flights.com. As suggested by other ECF members I bought 3 5ml bottles of different flavors and different nicotine strengths to figure out what I like and what works best for me. This way I'm not stuck with huge bottles of something I hate. I purchased wild berry, menthol, and menthol tobacco (2 18mg, 1 14mg). I had also heard very good reviews from other members about liberty-flights.com saying that they had great customer service, fast shipping, and safe transactions. I was very pleased that they gave the option of using my PayPal account as a payment method (few sites that I looked at did) but I was disappointed in how long they took to send me the tracking ID for the package. I had sent them an e-mail about how long it would take for it to ship to me, they responded quickly and had said that they were very busy and my order was #2 to be picked. Hopefully the next time I do business with them things will move along quicker.
All and all I'm pretty pleased with my experience so far. The snow has been hitting us hard so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't delay my packages too long (I ordered late Mon night). I'm usually a pretty patient person but I've found myself constantly tracking my packages, "stalking the postal carrier", and over-all impatient. I will do my best to blog about my experiences as I go through the process of switching from analogs to vaping. I figure ECF has already helped me so much that maybe if I can help another newbie through the process I'd be paying back the favor. I'll check back in when I get my package and start... VAPING!
-Liz
