As I get more into vaping I see a real tendency in the market towards profiteering that goes hand-in-hand with re-branding. To take an extreme case, naming no names, but around the corner from me in London is a high-street store selling eGo batteries and CE4/5s in boxes with their own branding and no mention of 'third-party' parts for 60 quid. Similarly they're selling on e-liquid at a tenner for 10ml bottles. Now, I know that to maintain a high street store you need a decent mark-up on wholesale costs, but that's normally of the order of 100% not 1000% mark-up.
At the other end of the spectrum you have a lot of people who've set up web shops and are trading using PayPal. These seem for the most part to be operating at really tight margins, but are far more honest about where their stuff comes from and what's it's compatible with.
In between you have the more professional Web-based operations like TW (here I'm ignoring completely the cig-a-like companies who seem to be doing the community far more harm than good). On the positive side their healthier product margins mean they're more involved - TW, for instance, seem to put a lot of time into campaigning and achieving success with direct political engagement. On the other hand they seem heavily complicit in the obfuscation by re-branding of equipment and juice.
One thing unites all these models in the market - they all stand to disappear if the market is more regulated. Certainly the high street stores will need a whole new model if/when very few products can afford regulatory approval. The PayPal traders will be dead in the water when their accounts are closed. When that collapse happens there stand to be a lot of people who no longer know what to do with their equipment.
So what of the future?
On batteries, it's clear that people should be buying rugged mods where the batteries can be replaced (as li-ion batteries are going to stay available without doubt). Regarding the rest, my considered approach had been to stockpile clearomizers with replaceable coils and their parts and to start mixing my own juice. My immediate worry is the quality of clearos. My original (one piece) CE4s ended up leaking a lot of juice. My coil-replaceable CE5s are better, but not perfect. My iClear 16s are better still. I am worried that eventually they're going to fare no better though.
Now, as for an alternative, I really like the 'open source' cooperative model of the Genesis atomizer: a combination of a really great idea (steel mesh rather than glass fibre/cotton wicks) and an active advocacy of our getting by in cooperatives rather than traditional commerce. On the other hand, even putting aside the commercial trade in 'Genesis-like atomizers', these are surely (please, disagree with me - I'm a newbie) highly niche. As tempted as I am to start (re)building such atomizers there will be many who are not.
Worse, there's no middle ground. Unlike the replaceable wick/coil clearomizers Genesis atomizers are pretty much 'do it yourself' in a true sense: you can't easily get someone to build you a new 'head' without giving up your whole atomizer. I have seen one thing that makes me think there's a possible alternative here: the Vivi Nova atomizers apparently have not just replaceable heads, but the heads themselves are rebuildable and I've seen videos of people even doing so with steel mesh. Am I naive to think of a cooperative environment where those with more electronics training are building new heads on a non-commercial basis? (If this already happens and I'm unaware, please let me know)
Now the obvious personal answer is to follow what seems to be the standard progression for people around here these days (correct me if I'm wrong): cig-a-likes -> eGo battery and clearomizer -> variable voltage/wattage battery, replaceable coils & wicks, bigger tanks -> mechanical mod and fully rebuildable atomizers. This isn't a model everyone would be interested to follow to the end though, it's pretty technical/skilled.
Similarly with juice: I only ever bought one 10ml bottle before I realised, courtesy of TW, that mixing your own was much cheaper and bought a kit. A week later I was kicking myself when I realised that everything except the nicotine and the flavourings are available dirt cheap on the high street and that their nic is expensive and their (Gold Standard) flavourings piss weak. Further to that, people without a scientific background (I've a PhD - I'm not easy to faze) either are completely turned off by this (a lot of people here seem to buy pre-mixed juice well even long into their vaping 'careers') or get into a tiz about trivial things (e.g. sourcing low-TDS sterile water). It's clear that in a more cooperative market there's a demand for 'amateurs' (which is to say people not pursuing commercial aims) with more scientific training.
Now the absolute crux: nicotine. There's something rather odd going on here: an absolute disparity between the US costs and even the cheapest PayPal/web shop price. I can't explain that (is there an explanation?) And, worse, this is the most fragile link in the chain. This (already-regulated) trade (apparently there's at least an import restriction on concentrations >50mg/ml, but I've not seen statute) might disappear altogether in 2016. I'm certainly not enough of a chemist (either in skill or access to a lab) to do that extraction from (anyway completely over-taxed) tobacco, and I've seen no discussion of such beyond dirty extractions, aiming for flavour first and nicotine second, which seem to achieve little beyond killing atomizers.
The only model here seems to be smuggling nicotine from the States (or further afield). I'm not saying I'd bring a litre of 100mg/ml back... but I'm not saying I wouldn't. Unless there's an alternative when the market gets regulated.
Anyway, this has turned into a bit of a wall of text, so I'm going to post and see if anyone is interested before I'm tempting to continue brain-dumping.
At the other end of the spectrum you have a lot of people who've set up web shops and are trading using PayPal. These seem for the most part to be operating at really tight margins, but are far more honest about where their stuff comes from and what's it's compatible with.
In between you have the more professional Web-based operations like TW (here I'm ignoring completely the cig-a-like companies who seem to be doing the community far more harm than good). On the positive side their healthier product margins mean they're more involved - TW, for instance, seem to put a lot of time into campaigning and achieving success with direct political engagement. On the other hand they seem heavily complicit in the obfuscation by re-branding of equipment and juice.
One thing unites all these models in the market - they all stand to disappear if the market is more regulated. Certainly the high street stores will need a whole new model if/when very few products can afford regulatory approval. The PayPal traders will be dead in the water when their accounts are closed. When that collapse happens there stand to be a lot of people who no longer know what to do with their equipment.
So what of the future?
On batteries, it's clear that people should be buying rugged mods where the batteries can be replaced (as li-ion batteries are going to stay available without doubt). Regarding the rest, my considered approach had been to stockpile clearomizers with replaceable coils and their parts and to start mixing my own juice. My immediate worry is the quality of clearos. My original (one piece) CE4s ended up leaking a lot of juice. My coil-replaceable CE5s are better, but not perfect. My iClear 16s are better still. I am worried that eventually they're going to fare no better though.
Now, as for an alternative, I really like the 'open source' cooperative model of the Genesis atomizer: a combination of a really great idea (steel mesh rather than glass fibre/cotton wicks) and an active advocacy of our getting by in cooperatives rather than traditional commerce. On the other hand, even putting aside the commercial trade in 'Genesis-like atomizers', these are surely (please, disagree with me - I'm a newbie) highly niche. As tempted as I am to start (re)building such atomizers there will be many who are not.
Worse, there's no middle ground. Unlike the replaceable wick/coil clearomizers Genesis atomizers are pretty much 'do it yourself' in a true sense: you can't easily get someone to build you a new 'head' without giving up your whole atomizer. I have seen one thing that makes me think there's a possible alternative here: the Vivi Nova atomizers apparently have not just replaceable heads, but the heads themselves are rebuildable and I've seen videos of people even doing so with steel mesh. Am I naive to think of a cooperative environment where those with more electronics training are building new heads on a non-commercial basis? (If this already happens and I'm unaware, please let me know)
Now the obvious personal answer is to follow what seems to be the standard progression for people around here these days (correct me if I'm wrong): cig-a-likes -> eGo battery and clearomizer -> variable voltage/wattage battery, replaceable coils & wicks, bigger tanks -> mechanical mod and fully rebuildable atomizers. This isn't a model everyone would be interested to follow to the end though, it's pretty technical/skilled.
Similarly with juice: I only ever bought one 10ml bottle before I realised, courtesy of TW, that mixing your own was much cheaper and bought a kit. A week later I was kicking myself when I realised that everything except the nicotine and the flavourings are available dirt cheap on the high street and that their nic is expensive and their (Gold Standard) flavourings piss weak. Further to that, people without a scientific background (I've a PhD - I'm not easy to faze) either are completely turned off by this (a lot of people here seem to buy pre-mixed juice well even long into their vaping 'careers') or get into a tiz about trivial things (e.g. sourcing low-TDS sterile water). It's clear that in a more cooperative market there's a demand for 'amateurs' (which is to say people not pursuing commercial aims) with more scientific training.
Now the absolute crux: nicotine. There's something rather odd going on here: an absolute disparity between the US costs and even the cheapest PayPal/web shop price. I can't explain that (is there an explanation?) And, worse, this is the most fragile link in the chain. This (already-regulated) trade (apparently there's at least an import restriction on concentrations >50mg/ml, but I've not seen statute) might disappear altogether in 2016. I'm certainly not enough of a chemist (either in skill or access to a lab) to do that extraction from (anyway completely over-taxed) tobacco, and I've seen no discussion of such beyond dirty extractions, aiming for flavour first and nicotine second, which seem to achieve little beyond killing atomizers.
The only model here seems to be smuggling nicotine from the States (or further afield). I'm not saying I'd bring a litre of 100mg/ml back... but I'm not saying I wouldn't. Unless there's an alternative when the market gets regulated.
Anyway, this has turned into a bit of a wall of text, so I'm going to post and see if anyone is interested before I'm tempting to continue brain-dumping.
I'll probably get twice as much methol as anything else so i can mix it with the cherry, blackurrant, etc. Hopefully they will do a Licorice soon too - I adore Blackurrant & Licorice, brilliant flavour for vaping!
a bit! what do we think will be banned? i didn't think the devices themselves would be banned but rather the sale of nicotine itself and maybe the eradication of some companies. but with all the help it has had on people to stop smoking, surely the 'man' would take that into consideration? I, for one, look at the mods and get a headache. lol! i really wouldn't know what do if atomizers were to stop being sold. i could probably do a battery mod though because i'm a bit of a technical geek in ways! plus I wouldn't mind having a 0mg juice, i think i could probably learn to mix myself but i'd rather get premixed 
