[CLOSED BUSINESS]

[glassgal]

That's such a funny pix.

When Capt' Brian comes out with the exotic mods, there will be blood in the street! LOL!

Capt Brian... hope you post the pix on the site first before going live to build up momentum (and give us all an even chance to fight out the ones we want best).

 

[Capt' Brian]

Ahoy all!

My current situation (and I have always tried to be a straight shooter) is kind of up in the air.

I've been docked in harbor for well over a month trying to get some kind of commitment out of evolv for dna regulators. Twice I was told I was going to get the redesigned DNA20's to test and both times they failed to ever arrive. All I get is talk. I do not like to do business on the phone, I prefer my deals done via E-Mail (in writing) but I don't have a choice there.

I've put out feelers for getting the dna cloned regulators from China, that might be a last ditch but viable option. Unfortunately, while being cheaper than the original I also have to order a minimum amount. I cannot afford 100, or even 50 of them if that is required.

I've checked on the prices of other regulators and they are high. Also, the tilt to adjust voltage feature doesn't seem like it is being very well received. If I do use the SX chip, then I will have to do a complete redesign of the current models.

Desk caddy sales which had been around 20 a month for a long, long time have totally tanked the last couple months. I had a total of 4 orders for all last month and none this month. I can live on 4 desk caddy sales per week indefinitely, 2 sales will extend the life of my working capitol by half.

I have some Cruisers I quickly made over the last month and put up on the website but they are also just sitting there.

I just finished the last of 6 medium sized combination caddies I am going to put up on E-bay tomorrow, along with some Cruisers to generate some income.

To purchase regulators is going to take at least $500 or $600 bucks and I currently have $700 working capitol.

All you RSM old timers know I have always run close to edge but this lengthy delay in starting the next batch may kill RSM. I don't know.

Frankly, I'm getting a tad bit tired of the war which I never seem to win.

As I've mentioned before, there is a reason why most all of my competitors have folded up. It's tough to survive on $800 a month and everything extra goes back into overhead.

Will keep you all informed.


p.s., don't bug me for pre-orders. I will not take them when there is a possible risk of me not fulfilling them. I'm not that kind of supplier.


Arrrrrr

 

[damselle]

Capp, sounds serious....would it help if we would write, respectful but urgent letters to the DNA suppliers? What about variable volt?

 

[glassgal]

You know... I'm actually kind of stunned that your mods aren't flying off the shelves...

These are among the absolute finest made wood bottom feeding mods I've ever seen... and I've seen (and look at daily):
2 REO Woodvils
custom Dibi OliveR
Phidias Woodimus Feedimus
Bogger Box VV
Bogger Box regular
Ecigworkshop tankguard (not a bottom feeder, but a really neat wood mod)

My woods are only 1/2 my current box mods... and when I had a problem with the switch/firing of the wood Bogger Box I got in the classifieds... the mod maker I sent it to was Capt Brian, the only person I asked about wiring repair work... for someone else's mod.

Why? He does THE CLEANEST wiring out of all the mod makers above. I'm amazed that he's got ANY inventory ever. His workmanship is 2nd to no ones. *scratches head*

 

[mackman]

I agree with you 1000% Glassgal. Capt' Brian's woodworking skills, design work, attention to detail and customer service are among the best I have ever encountered. The community would suffer greatly to lose this man and his product.

 

[caponespops]

Bottom feeders are making a big comeback Brian. I have been getting back into it myself and DNA's bottom feeders are going to get huge. Don't give up!!

 

[Rossum]

p.s., don't bug me for pre-orders. I will not take them when there is a possible risk of me not fulfilling them. I'm not that kind of supplier.

The Captain may be stubborn, but he's got integrity.

 

[glassgal]

There are 2 things I think are a possible problem with my Cruiser mod (I have the huge one 26650).
1. The 510 connector positive contact pin sits a bit low... I had to readjust the bottoms of my RBA to get a solid connection. Before I did this, I had trouble with it connecting, and it took me a while to figure the problem out. If you have ANY problem with contact, try a carto, if it fires well, that's your problem... most RBA bottoms are about 1/2 to 1 mm shorter than carto bases.

2. The wood is brown. Most people like more colorful/exotic woods, and actually compete over the patterns. The feeding frenzy over the REO Woodvil's approached silly... and REO sold 300 mods out in a few hours. This because he posted photos while they were being made, put them on the site so people could mark the ones they want, and then announced when they'd go on sale... so like 50+ people were lined up ready to fight over the best exotic wood patterns. The most popular woods lasted... um... 3 seconds upon hitting the site. Literally.

If you would allow people to send you their own purchased woods... sent AT THEIR OWN RISK and with 0% discount over your regular prices... you'd sell a whole lot of mods I think. People love unique wood mods, and getting a custom mod gets people really excited.

There's no question in my mind that you can bump sales to a few thousand dollars a month just catering to people's exotic wood demands...

You know... out of 8 wood mods, your Cruiser is THE ONLY WOOD MOD I bought that I did not refinish again, it started out with a flawless finish (I'm picky about finishes).

 

[supertrunker]

(picky about everything) Use a brown battery and NET juice! Seamless

The cruiser is an entry level bottom feeder, unless...you have a curly maple one like mine - well HRH's really (funny how my gear goes missing).

I have err a few wood mods and i cannot fault the finish on any of my RSM ones, in fact i was told about them by a guy at a vapemeet i went to since i saw him using it and asked about it.

I only use them at home, because if i dropped one at work i'd likely swear and be heard for miles. HRH takes "her" cruiser everywhere.

T

 

[Capt' Brian]

I hear what your saying, and I appreciate all the good things I've been told over the years but unfortunately that still doesn't change some hard facts about RSM.

I started with no backing or backers. I have been and still am just a one man show. A batch of Mahogany cruisers, say 6 of them, represent two weeks work for me. I need to make $9600 per year to pay my share of the household expenses, everything else goes into overhead and I've been living like that since the beginning and the Commodore has been dealing with it like a trooper.

When it's mentioned above that "they" sold 300 mods just like that, realize that in my whole 3 1/2 years I've sold a total of about 500 mods, maybe a bit more.

I can only spend a fraction of my actual time working on mods. The rest is taken up with desk caddies (which have a much better profit margin than mods), sourcing & resourcing parts, paperwork, machine maintenance and repairs, fetching and ordering supplies. Pretty much everything you can imagine dealing with any business I have to take care of myself on a daily basis. Tough to make a profit when you can't delegate anything at all, not even shipping duties.

For the first 3 years I worked seventy to ninety hour weeks. This year it's dropped to 40. I'm not young anymore and I can't keep up those kind of hours.

I've seen so many people come and go on the thread, it's hard to keep it active as I've long ago used up my creative banter, but without an active thread the desk caddy sales bomb and there isn't any place else I can advertise that I know of.

I've pretty much stopped having contests when I came to the realization that the winners were simply selling my hard work and pocketing the money. As mentioned above, I don't need the advertising so why am I giving away next weeks grocery money?

I could probably have avoided many many pitfalls and wrong turns, but when your setting the course and also piloting the ship you have no one to stop you from running aground.

Sorry, what a super-whine fest. I guess I've always used this thread as a sounding board, a place to ..... and complain and ask for advice.



Question. If I retire, are there any more makers who make a regulated wood bottom feeder? I've seldom paid attention to the new mod makers, they come and go, and I don't know if there are any more still alive and kicking besides myself.

 

[supertrunker]

The latest fad is ofc the DNA 30, but since i can get better power from a mechanical mod as batteries improve, i'm not bothered. BTW - it is possible with stacked batteries in a cutlass and a 1Ω coil to rip out 70W!

Yes, your eyes will water.

T

 

[caponespops]

I haven't seen too many wooden regulated bottom feeders. There are a few that have popped up lately. There's some kind of regulated puzzle box bottom feeder. There's a DNA 30 and DNA 12 metal bottom feeder with an option for wooden doors. The DNA 30 version is called the E7 and the E2 is the DNA 12.

 

[supertrunker]

a Lukkos puzzle box is Italian and is "kick compatible" - which is not the same as built with it.

T

 

[caponespops]

I'm pretty sure I've seen a DNA version. I'm almost positive I've seen it actually. There aren't many out there but they have been made.

 

[glassgal]

Here's my thoughts, taken for what they're worth... on regulated mods... most people who buy wood mods don't really need regulated mods. They are buying for the long term asthetics. By far the most popular wood mods are mechanical/wired. Because there's not a lot to fix/break/repair.

Reosmods stopped selling VV and as I recall, the reason was because they didn't want to repair electronic boards that were touchy. But they do a HUGE business selling regular wired mods (just like the Cruiser). Bogger did regulated and had problems too. Big problems (because they SEALED everything in so even they couldn't fix them maybe).

Unless the regulation part is easily accessible and updateable, I think the bigger market is the Cruiser type mods... but done in exotic woods/materials. The expense and value in a wood mod is the wood part... they are unique, and beautiful patterns are works of art. People always pay more for unique and art. Consider that a glass punchbowl at Walmart costs $19.99 and a Chihuly glass punchbowl is $27,000. They're both glass punchbowls. And Walmart has lots of glass punchbowls no one wants, but Chihuly has backordered punchbowls because he can't make the $27,000 version fast enough.

People who buy wood mods in the first place are looking for something special. If not, we'd all be happy with $40 MVP2's from China. Well if the choice is between spending a bit more for something VERY special vs a bit less for something not very special... most people pick the VERY special. Frugal people looking for the cheap vape aren't the audience to buy wood mods to begin with, because no hand made mod maker can match a $40 MPV2 for price or functionality in the regulated arena.

Is a DNA20 upgradable to a DNA30? I don't know if they're the same size... But the DNA30 doesn't seem very hard to get... there's been several coops run in the Coop section for them, with one that just filled up. I have no clue why they won't let suppliers see coops, makes no sense at all to me, but here's his spread sheet for the DNA30 Coop with all the prices... Mike's not having any trouble getting them, so maybe pm him and get him to talk to Evolve for you?:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MrnHVbA0TDNywZI6pd58jfYK4jMQsEqfhdbE7snGRbk/pubhtml

Here's Evolve's data sheet for them: http://www.evolvapor.com/datasheet/dna30.pdf

Here's Evolv's website: Evolv LLC - Home

And I don't know about the authorized reseller status, but if you contact MikePetro here, I can't see why he can't help you out at the same price as he would for members in the Coop ($35.25 per DNA30 + $5.15 for the charger, plus shipping, when a member can buy just 1 at those prices): http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/members/122281/mikepetro.html

And... I'd like an exotic wood bottom feeder plain 18650 cruiser too in either a white curly wood or ebony... and if you'll let me, I'll even pay to send you the wood I want, or one of the above DNA30s.

 

[fright88]

Not many inset tank mods available either for that matter.

 

[glassgal]

(picky about everything) Use a brown battery and NET juice! Seamless

The cruiser is an entry level bottom feeder, unless...you have a curly maple one like mine - well HRH's really (funny how my gear goes missing).

I have err a few wood mods and i cannot fault the finish on any of my RSM ones, in fact i was told about them by a guy at a vapemeet i went to since i saw him using it and asked about it.

I only use them at home, because if i dropped one at work i'd likely swear and be heard for miles. HRH takes "her" cruiser everywhere.

T

I don't think the Cruiser is any more 'entry level' than any other of the most popular wood mods. The biggest difference seems to be Capt Brian's difficulty selling a higher quality better made mod for less money. I think it's because the current batch's wood is less fancy.

Like your curly maple or spalted Cruisers, he could sell 50 each in a few minutes too if he let people know when they'd be posted (and have the people who didn't check out fast enough complaining all over the thread too). I do know that me, MamaTried, Mack and a few others would have one in the first 3 seconds... heheh.

 

[supertrunker]

I'd not doubt it - i have seen some mods of wood reos and metal ones and anything that moves really to house a DNA 30. My point is really that a mod with a 0.6Ω coil and a fresh battery will put out 30W, so it's really not that difficult and i don't need electronics to do it.

And those numbers are easy to run on a plain cruiser since the spring is 8A rated.(it's close!)

The fact is that no wood mods of any note are mass-produced, because the attention to little details is missing. Another thing - i had a misfire on one of mine and sent it back to Cappy to check. He replaced the electronics in it without blinking and if you cannot stand behind and believe in a product you make, then you ought not to be selling it.

T

 

[supertrunker]

I don't think the Cruiser is any more 'entry level' than any other of the most popular wood mods. The biggest difference seems to be Capt Brian's difficulty selling a higher quality better made mod for less money. I think it's because the current batch's wood is less fancy.

Like your curly maple or spalted Cruisers, he could sell 50 each in a few minutes too if he let people know when they'd be posted (and have the people who didn't check out fast enough complaining all over the thread too). I do know that me, MamaTried, Mack and a few others would have one in the first 3 seconds... heheh.

Don't be ridiculous! There is a reason you are here since you are all connoisseurs of fine craftsmanship - but to think you have suddenly acquired a faster computer than mine is delusional!

Love and bubbles

T

 

[glassgal]

Don't be ridiculous! There is a reason you are here since you are all connoisseurs of fine craftsmanship - but to think you have suddenly acquired a faster computer than mine is delusional!

Love and bubbles

T

Well... YOU already have both a blonde and a spalted!!