It sucks, indeed.. Here in Italy you don't even get (privately owned) couriers to deliver over the weekends. And no, they're not cheaper than elsewhere. One Europe, my ***..Oh that sucks! We have pickups and delivery Saturday. Nothing on Sunday. (And next week, nothing on Monday either as it's a public holiday. Hence my really hoping the wire does come tomorrow, else it'll be Tuesday.)
Yeah it'll come.. probably the day after Crazy Wire put up their range of wire at half the cost
Both the Zivipf package and my latest FT order came today. RM rocks! Being European, I rather keep my money on this side of the pond. I won't even go into turn over time and dealing with customs when ordering from the US
I'm from the time where I would spend like 7€ for 5 kanger heads. A 10m spool that's enough for 75 coils at an average of 1 coil per month is enough for 5 years of building. Is price for something really that important?I am finally Titanium'd up
No time to try any coils yet. First impressions were "wow these spools are really small!" The ones I'm used to are about double the diameter. I think these have the same sized hole though, so they'll still fit on my rod o' spools (a bamboo stick I got from local HW store for £0.50)
I did like the way the spools are designed to click into each other, like lego. That would be handy if I wasn't keeping them on a stick.
I shall try some coils a little later today! And some tests of Nickel Purity. Fingers crossed!
Oh and in related news, Crazy Wire already announced the upcoming Titanium wire in their Friday newsletter. They don't hang about!
In terms of pricing, yes Zivipf is pretty good, and for a one-man company I have no complaints at all. But it should be significantly lower from Crazy Wire. As an example, 10m of Kanthal 28G is £1.90 / €2.67, 20m is £3.10 / €4.36. And then you get five-for-the-price-of-four within any wire category - so buy five spools of kanthal and the cheapest is free, buy five Ti and the cheapest is free, etc.
So buying a complete range of Ti - let's say 24, 26, 28, 30, 32 gauge in 10m spools - could cost as little as £7.60 / €10 inc vat, ex shipping, which doesn't even get you two 10m spools from Zivipf.
I can't say for sure what the exact price will be because different wire types do cost different amounts, and so do different thicknesses. But in his email to me, the Crazy Wire guy said Titanium was "an easy wire for us to provide because it is used in the mesh industry for medicinal purposes." Mesh is Crazy Wire's main business (the parent company is imaginatively named The Mesh Company) so I am hopeful that they will be able to give good pricing, as good as their Kanthal.
If Titanium takes off and becomes popular I hope that in the future they might also offer pre-twisted wire. They already do that for Kanthal. And the prices there are even better. For example, getting 2 x 28G twisted Kanthal costs £2.25 / €3.16 per 10m. Compared to £3.10 / €4.36 for 20m of plain 28G. So it's actually cheaper to buy the twisted wire from them than it is to buy the base wire and twist it yourself - and of course, far easier! That applies even more when you get into 3x and 4x twisted wire where they still only charge £2.25 or so.
There's no guarantee they will supply twisted Ti - they don't have twisted Ni200 yet - but it is something we can ask for in future.
And no I'm not a paid spokesman of Crazy Wire, I just like talking up places with great prices and great service
Being European, I rather keep my money on this side of the pond. I won't even go into turn over time and dealing with customs when ordering from the US
I'm from the time where I would spend like 7€ for 5 kanger heads. A 10m spool that's enough for 75 coils at an average of 1 coil per month is enough for 5 years of building. Is price for something really that important?
I think the price for wire when compared to mods and atties is really marginal.
(Actually next time I will buy Rayon, but the point still stands!)
It's not that important, but why pay more when you can pay less?
So if Vendor A cost more but had some other advantage - they were quicker or closer or whatever - then definitely price would be the least important factor to consider. But when the variables are equal I don't see why anyone would specifically choose the more expensive vendor.
An equivalent example would be Muji cotton, where my bag of 140 pads cost me £6 in total (£2 product, £4 shipping) and I have used less than half in 3 months. So its cost is completely inconsequential. But if I see a vendor that can supply it for £3, I would next time order it for £3 not £6. Because why pay £6 if I can pay £3?
Also, if you're just using one gauge of Titanium then sure for you there is never going to be much cost involved. But for someone starting out who, like me, wants to try many gauges, the difference between €30 for 5 spools from Zivipf and (hopefully) €10 for five from Crazy is significant. For that €20 saving one could buy a couple of cloned attys
I'm just glad we now have two suppliers available and hopefully a larger and more interesting range as well: processed wire, twisted wire eventually perhaps, etc.
I haven't managed to mount it on the wall yet, but that is the next step.
What you need is a big stick
I was thinking of putting in some dividers as well between different wire types, maybe some of those rubber vape rings that I see everywhere (that go round attys)
My downfall was all the different kinds of pre-twisted wire. 2x28G, 3x28G, 2x26G, 2x30G, 3x30G, 4x30G, 3x30G+0.5 ribbon, etc etc. I have used quite a few of them, but only in small quantities each. The variety does help dealing with different attys - some fit the thicker twisted wires, some need thinner, etc. Though I could have just twisted it myself of course.. I am trying not to buy any more. Oh but wait, then there's that new wire that Dicodes are brining, Resitherm or something. And maybe pre-twisted Titanium, and.. oh dear.Actually my ni 200 came all from Stealthvape, kanthal came from pink mule and Ti came from zivipf. I'm loyal to the cheapest supplier or to the one supplying a product you can't find anywhere else. If you want buy Ti now, I only know zivipf. Tomorrow that might change though.Yeah Crazy do fall down on shipping costs outside the UK, they should offer a cheaper option.
Their Ni200 is an exception, it's about the same same price as most places. But I think the difference is that they do more to the wire - they offer either annealed+tempered (both processes on the same wire, to make it super soft) or hard drawn.
For Kanthal they're cheaper than everywhere I've seen per spool and I'm expecting the Ti price to be similarly competitive.
For four spools of Kanthal with European (non-UK) delivery there's a €1.50 difference vs Zipvf, and at five spools it jumps to €6.80 because of the 5-for-4. I would expect the margin to be similar, or even grow with Ti - unless perhaps they do extra processing like with Ni200, in which case it might not be cheaper but will be better.
(Interestingly, the price differences almost - but not quite - disappear at the 25m spool level specifically. Zipvf offer really good prices for 25m, still not quite as cheap but taking into account shipping it might be. The difference extend out again at 50+)
Oh and every weekend they have 10-15% sales on everything, so the margin grows further then. And for UK customers the differences are always much greater.
Anyway, you stick with Zivipf if they make you happier
