I think your business puts you in a tricky situation.
You've had issues with the company that the vertex's came from before? I imagine in dealing with China, returns are very difficult. Unfortunately for you the quality changed from order to order. You received your first order, verified quality and then rolled with them on the second order? If the issue had been discovered before the modification you could have gone through a claim with the company I assume?
But the nature of your business almost put you and us on the hook for a manufacturer defect right? The whole purpose of visiting this thread is to get a product that has been altered beyond returnable.
So after all of that does it make it cost efficient to deal with authentic. For most people that answer will probably be no. But then there are the people that are able to spend the money on authentic atomizers, plus the cost of your work Tom. There are people out there that can justify the cost of extremely expensive mods and I assume those people can justify $150 for an atomizer. But that price point puts you much more on the hook does it not?
You shipped the derringer for $91 correct? Those were $75 new. I assume you got a bulk order deal to make this more cost efficient for us. After seeing the list of people ordering a second derringer I really wish I woulda been able to get in on that one. On deals where you can get bulk deals and make your little bit to cover your time and supplies without adding $50 to the cost of the atty I feel you'd succeed. But when you've got to take on the initial investment of $100 per Id be afraid of sitting on a bucket of these atomizers.
All that said I don't envy the situation you are considering. Everyone seems to love what you're doing here. The vertex is my first piece and it's missed its mark currently by a couple thousand miles. I can't attest or confirm anything about the situation.
The future is bleak...
Edit: geez that was long. Too long to delete
