E-Juice pricing: Who's the cheapest, who's the priciest?

[savagemyth]

After starting to mix my own ejuice and comparing prices, it became readily apparent that figuring out who's got the best deals and who's making the most profit was going to be extremely confusing. The juice is being sold at strengths from 0-100mg and in quantities from 6ml all the way to 500ml or better. I set out to get to the bottom of the numbers, and made a simple calculator in excel to crunch it all down. This calculates the bottom line price per ml of 10% (100mg) strength nicotine contained in the juice. For the average home juice mixer, this is the maximum strength available for mixing, so I have stuck to that strength as the comparison strength to yardstick all others. For comparison I have selected the highest strength and the highest quantity unflavored where possible, some suppliers only sell mixed but I inserted these for comparison for .....s and giggles.

The results were quite surprising. I assumed that the full-strength (100mg) liquid in the 500ml bottle from myfreedomsmokes would be the cheapest, but the data revealed their 60mg product in the same size to be the overall cheapest per ml of all 26 of the products i've polled so far. The priciest liquid (keep in mind, this is a flavored premix) honors go to ecigaretteschoice, with their 30ml bottles of 16mg liquid selling at $29.99. Our china connection, heaven gifts, fell about in the middle with their flavored Dekang juice. Notable to mention for the small quantity buyer is Indy Vapor Stop's 60ml bottle of 100 mg juice at $54.95, which is actually a better buy than say the 500ml bottle of 24mg strength unflavored from myfreedomsmokes.com which retails for $124.95! So keep in mind that buying in quantity might not always be your best value when factoring the "money" in your mix.

I'll post a link to the calculator that i've shared on google docs if anyone wants to look at it. Email me and i'd be happy to send you a copy that you could input your own finds for comparison.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Al564cPrVSSldEdJM0prcGswSmRWQzJxdkttWjM1UFE&hl=en

 

[GoodDog]

Have you seen this site? USA and EU made e-liquids | e-Savuke.com I don't know how it compares to your research and I believe it's all flavored juice.

 

[Skyler]

Have you seen this site? USA and EU made e-liquids | e-Savuke.com I don't know how it compares to your research and I believe it's all flavored juice.

Now, that's a great site. Will bookmark it.

Thanks

 

[savagemyth]

Thanks for that, GoodDog! This is the kind of info I was looking for, I see a few other suppliers I may look into. Their data is pretty similar (it's not rocket science!). Myself I was looking for something leaning toward the home user that wants to mix less than 1 kg but find a good deal. I want to know if spending $150 on supplier A is a better deal than spending $300 on supplier B with a different strength, or would supplier C with a stronger mix in a $50 quantity the best deal, and using a mix calculator, which would cut most economically. I hope this helps anyone doing their own mixing or comparing similar flavored blends. This doesn't factor shipping obviously as this varies widely depending on quantity purchased, etc.

Thanks for dropping in! There's so many threads on this site sometimes I wonder if i'm just talking to myself, lol.

 

[GoodDog]

LOL I know what you mean. The only way I can keep track is to subscribe to the threads I'm interested in and get email notifications sent. hehe

Maybe you should post this in the DIY forum???

 

[savagemyth]

LOL I know what you mean. The only way I can keep track is to subscribe to the threads I'm interested in and get email notifications sent. hehe

Maybe you should post this in the DIY forum???

Good idea!

Wasn't sure which subheading to stick this under... I'm sure a few DIYers would like to see this.

 

[GoodDog]

Good job btw! At least there it will have a more captive audience and won't get as easily buried. It's eye opening to see how much some charge for their juice!

 

[Ast_Isis]

DIY Forum...my home away from home..hehe

DIY e-liquid - E-Cigarette Forum

 

[GoodDog]

DIY Forum...my home away from home..hehe

DIY e-liquid - E-Cigarette Forum

I've been playing around with DIY but it can get to be an expensive hobby! It's so much fun when something comes out good, though. Mostly I've been adding flavors to pre-mixed juices until I get my DYI supplies stockpiled.

I believe Tasty Vapor sells 30 mls of 48mg for $15 if you don't have that one in your equations. They charge a flat shipping rate of $5 and offer 10% discount over $100 and 20% over $200.

They also sell sucralose in 5ml bottles for $2 and 4oz PG and 4oz VG for $15.

 

[redrhino]

DIY Forum...my home away from home..hehe

DIY e-liquid - E-Cigarette Forum

 

[redrhino]

I've been playing around with DIY but it can get to be an expensive hobby! It's so much fun when something comes out good, though. Mostly I've been adding flavors to pre-mixed juices until I get my DYI supplies stockpiled.

I believe Tasty Vapor sells 30 mls of 48mg for $15 if you don't have that one in your equations. They charge a flat shipping rate of $5 and offer 10% discount over $100 and 20% over $200.

They also sell sucralose in 5ml bottles for $2 and 4oz PG and 4oz VG for $15.

 

[savagemyth]

Thanks for the heads up on that, GoodDog. The tasty vapor turns out to be a little bit better deal than my other favorite, onestopdiy with their 35ml bottle of 36mg for $15. For small quantities I might jump on that, as the 100mg from indyvapor is harder to work with even if it is more economical.

 

[savagemyth]

Just wanted to let everyone know there are some spectacular deals out there and prices have dropped big time this month! I will be updating my spreadsheet with some great new prices i've found that are under 33 cents/ml!! I found a 1 liter of 100mg for only 330 and recently purchased 500ml of 60mg for under $100!!!

 

[Elendil]

Moving to e-liquid discussion--not really a review.

 

[candre23]

e-Savuke's list is good for specific information, but their prices are not totally accurate. I don't know if they're using an average price, but many of the shops actual cost/ml is different from what they list. How do I know? I made my own list. Cost/ml (small and large bottles) + shipping info for pretty much every US-based liquid supplier, sortable and searchable: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...uid-suppliers-cost-per-ml-shipping-chart.html

 

[savagemyth]

Moving to e-liquid discussion--not really a review.

I'm not sure what to make of this: I post this and it's moved, I've made some comments that get deleted by mods, through all this I don't really know the reasoning. Are the mods disliking the information i'm providing? I created this spreadsheet to define how much each MG of nicotine is to reach the lowest price for myself and have shared it to provide info for anyone else. It has macros in it where you can put in any size, price and it will do the calculations for you. I am not a vendor, I don't know any vendors and don't favor or have any bias toward any vendors but it seems the mods DO. I'd actually like to know which ones and how much.

Candre, your chart is similar but I think it only defines the cost per ml while ignoring the strength? Am I correct on that? Myself I wanted to know the cheapest mg of nicotine to put in my own mixes, as it gets quite confusing with different suppliers selling different strengths and different sized bottles. My spreadsheet ignores those differences and gives the bottom line price of one mg of nicotine in the mix that you're paying for.

 

[candre23]

Pennies per mg of nic is not particularly useful for most people. People like the nic level they like, and since none of the suppliers I've seen charge different rates for different nic levels, what's the point?

 

[savagemyth]

Pennies per mg of nic is not particularly useful for most people. People like the nic level they like, and since none of the suppliers I've seen charge different rates for different nic levels, what's the point?

If you can get the same result mixing down 100mg nic but pay price "A" but get the same result by getting a cheaper price on a different strength, why pay for the VG or PG? That's the point. Why pay premium dollars for the dilute ingredient? I can make my 30mg/ml from 100mg/ml or 60mg/ml or even 48mg/ml. I don't want to pay for the glycerine. My breakdown expresses things that were obvious and not-so-obvious in the supplier pricing - Higher strengths are cheaper to mix with, but there were a few exceptions: The 60mg/ml was actually cheaper than the more concentrated 100mg/ml!

This way you're comparing Apples vs. Apples.

For someone who only buys preflavored juice, it's still good to know what the adjusted price is on the mix - but my prices are not intended for that user. For them, 'cutting' will change the flavor and be of no help. This breakdown is intended mainly for home juice mixers and small suppliers. For someone who intends to buy concentrated, cut to desired strength and add their own flavor, it's good to know who's got a good deal out there. With a mix calc, you can take anything stronger and mix it to your specs.

What it boils down to is that the buyer pays for the nicotine, the VG or PG is practically free in comparison. Using a strength vs. price breakdown will show you if that price is in line or not. Why pay more for nothing? Knowing the price per ml tells you nothing if the strength is ignored. You can only compare similar strengths that way and cross-comparing different strengths is even more confusing. When buying a jar of pickles I want to know how many pickles i'm getting, not the price per ounce (which only shows how much i'm paying for the pickle juice!)

Example:

1.) 2 gallon jar of Vlasic pickles, price: $10.00, contains 20 pickles (10 pickles per gallon)
Price per gallon: $5 Cost per pickle: 50 cents

2.) 4 gallon jar of Milwaukee pickles, price: $16, contains 28 pickles (7 pickles per gallon)
Price per gallon: $4 Cost per pickle: 57 cents

In example 2, the price per volume appears cheaper. And you're getting more pickles. But the bottom line is that you're paying more for each pickle!! You only eat the pickles, the juice goes down the drain. If I want to buy 100 pickles to put in my own 1 gallon jars, sorry, i'm buying the Vlasics, not the Milwaukee Dills!

Make sense yet?

My chart compares pickle prices, yours compares gallons of pickle juice.

 

[candre23]

Actually, your list is more like comparing the price on a jar of pickles to the prices of vinegar, dill leaves, cucumbers and jars. If you want to go through that kind of trouble to save a few cents, that's fine. There's even a whole forum dedicated to it. But most people just want to buy ready-made juice, just like most people only want a jar of pickles.

 

[savagemyth]

If you're purchasing 10 ml, yes, it's only a few pennies. But if you've got your ideal mix dialed in and you're ready to ramp up to a 500ml or 1 liter version of it to share with your friends, the savings can be in the hundreds of dollars! Even in small amounts, say, if you're vaping 2ml a day of 24mg but vaping 16ml increases your use to 3ml a day, it's good to know which strength would cost you the most. If you like 2 suppliers flavors but they have different strengths and sizes, it's helpful to know which one is costing you the most, gram for gram of the 'venom'. This chart saves you from having to sit down and do the math.