Former E-Cig user, coming back to E-Cigging... and woah, wtf's with the pricing!? oO

[Steven Milligan]

Howdy all,

I used to post here and there on these forums quite awhile ago, anywho...

I formerly was a proud Joye 510 user, lasted me about a year with a bit of tinkering, but worked great. It finally died out, and because I didn't have a huge amount of money to sink into a replacement, I found myself going back to regular smokes for awhile... yeah, I know, evil. Anywho, now I'm attempting to get back into E-Cigging, found a great price on an eGo-T Starter Kit, and MAN, am I thankful I looked up some "E-juice" to go with it.

These are NOT the prices I recall. I remember getting sampler/starter packs with like 15-20 small flavor bottles that lasted a REAL long time for like $15-$20 or less. Now, from what I'm seeing, even a single 5ml sampler bottle is running about $3-$4. What the hell happened? I find this real discouraging, and even though the juice may go a longer ways, I'm sort of comparing in my head how long it lasted back then (about a year ago or so), compared to how long that will last now. I'm really not too eager to go dumping a crapload of money into one or two flavors, especially if they turn out to be ones that taste horrible as I don't completely recall ALL the flavors I found enjoyable... especially since I don't have all that much money right now, and it'll really lower my chances of getting any replacement parts should I need to get any.

Did I miss some new trade regulation on this stuff or something, or some major huge new taxes... when the hell did the prices skyrocket through the roof!? Does anybody know any distributors or places that have lots of flavors in a starter/sampler kit for really cheap!?

 

[Steven Milligan]

I just found this... Vapure e-liquid Sampler Packs 24mg

Be nice to find something with a bit more than 5 flavors in it... would hope for perhaps I dunno, 10 flavors, for maybe around $15 or so at least. Like I said, I miss not all so long ago when I was getting about 20 flavors in a sampler for about $15... think sometimes I found some good deals on eSmokeyShack or something along those lines.

I'm starting to think I might be better off just vaping my printer's ink... probably be about the same price in the long run.

EDIT: I also just found this... http://www.uecigarette.com/e-liquid/5ml-e-liquid.html?limit=24

I'm starting to feel like I'm digging through the clearance bargin bin. :/

 

[Steven Milligan]

Yay, finally found what I'm looking for... 40 (6ml) flavors for $25.98, w00t!

https://www.........../shopping/products/22-E-Liquid-Sample-Packs/

Stinks you have to scrounge so hard to find decent deals anymore. :/

EDIT: Be forewarned, the website is confusing, and somewhat misleading. If you go with 20 "herb" flavors (or lower packages), it's $12.99... kind of stinks that to get "tobacco" flavors, you HAVE to get 40 for $25... as I see no way, oddly, of just saying 20 "tobacco" flavors for the originally posted $12.99. Think I may actually steer away from this one myself.

 

[NanW]

Hi Steven and welcome to ECF! I am also new here and had a little sticker shock myself! Did a lot of reading and one of the best samples for price and taste that I have found is with Bill over at Dark City Vapor
Sample Pack
The link is for his sampler pack. Also have you ordered a new kit yet? If not than you may want to take a look at the KGO kit on the same site. There is a coupon code for 5% off-ECFDVC. This is good for a discount on hardware.
Bill is great and ships fast!

 

[Kay1959]

You could always go the DIY route. I've found it's alot cheaper, and I can try out different flavors without having to wait on an order.

 

[aurea]

If your major concern is pricing I keep a spreadsheet of vendors standard pricing and sample pricing. It breaks everything out by price and average: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApUX4l_CDyRxdFU4OFVRZzlaREdJWUZEUk0yUmpFOHc#gid=0

 

[Steven Milligan]

Nice, thanks for the replies all. I'll definitely check those out... that last link I posted I may not go with. Was a bit bummed to find out that in order to get any sort of "tobacco" flavored I had to go with 40 flavors and be jumped up to $25 (I would like to find a decent/hefty amount of flavors in a sampler pack, and think I want to limit the amount I spend on it to $15, MAYBE $20 tops)... be nice if they offered 20 "tobacco" flavors for the same $12.99. It's sad, that even after a year of vaping in the past, trying to get back into it after a good 6-8 months or so, still leaves you feeling like a n00b, lol.

Will definitely check out your listings, I haven't ordered a starter kit yet, but was looking at this one: Joye eGo-T 1000 mAh (Type A) Starter Kit (EGOTSK1000A)
($50 - comes with everything you need minus the fluids, carrying case, 1000mah batteries, etc)

@Aurea - Also really loving the idea of your spreadsheet, I'll probably definitely bookmark that!

@NanW: I looked at that kit, really nice, also like that it's got 1100mah batteries... I notice it says it has cartomizers... is that the none-tank-puncture system? I kind of liked the idea of the puncture-system myself. Of course, this is following a year of using cartridges that worked as mouth-pieces that had cotton to soak up the e-juice... was always a joye (haha, had to do the pun there) to either get the mouthful of liquid or atomize a wad of cotton for a really filter-burning-in-mouth-taste, ROFL!

 

[Kay1959]

I've heard ALOT of complaints with the tank system on those eGo-T's. The puncture tanks leak. How about this one? It has a higher mAh rating and it's cheaper to boot!

Elite Vaporworks KGO Starter Kit with Boge LR Cartomizers - KGO

Not to mention you get 36 mls of juice with the order.
You could always try the Stardust/clearomizers. They hold more juice than cartomizers, and they are less apt to leak like the plastic T- tanks.

 

[Steven Milligan]

Will definitely check that out Kay, thanks!

I'm also glad I didn't get that other starter kit yet... I just found Electronic Cigarettes: E Cigs, Liquid Refills, Starter Kit and even though the eGo-T starter kit is a tad more pricey... even on the fence a bit with it... it has 50% off a great $19.99 sampler pack with quite a LOT of e-juice (making it $10), as well as a free 3mL travel-bottle for e-juice storage. Looks like the 50% off, I think, is with all kits, so maybe I can see if he has a KGO on there or something.

EDIT: Erm, just reread the sampler e-juice kit... if anybody looks at it... Shawn seems awesome, and love how every section of his site practically has a video to explain all sorts of stuff to you, BUT, on the starter kit, make SURE you read everything... I just noticed each "flavor" listed says "mg" (at first quickly thought it said "mL")... turns out, each bottle is ONLY 2.5ml... giving you a total of only 20mL. :/

 

[NGIB]

I'd be VERY cautious with the link you posted. This looks like one of those "our cartos are equal to a pack of smokes" type vendors. I have no experience with this one but it set off alarm bells...

 

[Kay1959]

I ditto NGIB on your link. Your device is NOT something you want to be too cheap about. Juice is one thing, but you'd better serve yourself to get a realible device (battery), otherwise you're apt to end up spending more money, because your device broke or it lasts for a few months and then you have to pitch it!

 

[Flinx]

I ditto NGIB on your link. Your device is NOT something you want to be too cheap about. Juice is one thing, but you'd better serve yourself to get a realible device (battery), otherwise you're apt to end up spending more money, because your device broke or it lasts for a few months and then you have to pitch it!

Ditto on not cheaping out on your device. I'm learning that leason right now. Just under 2 months on my "starter kit" and I've got one ego style battery starting to die on me. Ah well I was sorta thinking of upgrading anyways LOL

 

[NancyR]

I agree with Kay on the Ego-T, I have one and hate the tank system it has. It leaked and the flavor seemed muted to me.

You might want to check out some of the specials going on being as price is a major factor for you. Such as Apollo's V-tube having a 30% off with the code vtube30, making the kit about $53, unless you get the ss or the chrome models.

While not a sample pack Vape Dudes gives out 15 bottles of juice every day using the code fbfree, if they are out today try again tomorrow. Took me 2 tries but it was more than worth it, they then have a one time per customer 40% off on a juice order no matter the size.

There are lots of other deals out there if you have the time to look.

 

[Motoman101]

Welcome back. Everything goes up in price. Welcome back.

 

[meldee]

I agree with Kay on the Ego-T, I have one and hate the tank system it has. It leaked and the flavor seemed muted to me.

You might want to check out some of the specials going on being as price is a major factor for you. Such as Apollo's V-tube having a 30% off with the code vtube30, making the kit about $53, unless you get the ss or the chrome models.

While not a sample pack Vape Dudes gives out 15 bottles of juice every day using the code fbfree, if they are out today try again tomorrow. Took me 2 tries but it was more than worth it, they then have a one time per customer 40% off on a juice order no matter the size.

There are lots of other deals out there if you have the time to look.

40% off code is "vapedudes"

 

[meldee]

ECBlends has 5ml bottles for $2.50 each, and if you use code 10020, you'll get an additional 20% off. Their stuff seems to be pretty well rated, and I'm placing an order with them this week.

 

[roxics]

If you really want to save money, you have to DIY. I haven't done the math in about a year, but I think I was under $2 per 10ml bottle with DIY, without labels and at under 24mg nic.

You have to understand that American liquid makers have to make money. It costs them for nicotine, flavors, PG, VG, bottles, labels, lab and equipment, credit card processing, web hosting costs and most of all time to order these supplies, make the e-liquid, ship it, maintain their websites, advertise, promote and pay anyone else they may have working with them. On top of all that they want to make a small profit so that they can continue on and build their business.

That's why 10ml bottles are typically over $6 from American vendors. The market is very competitive. As a result they're all pretty much at the bottom line already. Any cheaper and they'd be out of business. So the cheap cheap juice is typically from China.

I know this because I looked into selling my own e-liquid about a year ago. Even went so far as ordering boxes of hundreds of dripper bottles from China, tested various inkjet label materials and professional label printing services and various shopping cart software and credit card processing companies. But I only have a handful of flavors that are just great. Plus I found it difficult to find a credit card processing company that woud work with me. Most of the majors won't touch you since e-liquid is considered high risk do to the nicotine in it and the nature of the product. The shopping cart vendors that would I found ridged and inflexible.

So in other words, it all takes time and money.

 

[Jermania]

My rule of thumb is that I never pay more than 50 cents per ml. Ave hits this price point on the juices I like with free shipping, so thats pretty much all I vape. Shipping costs keep me from buying from several vendors unfortunately. I use an ego twist with vision clearomizers which in total is $30 in equipment. Overall, I know it isnt costing even half what I was paying for cigarettes, and it's not killing me (BONUS)

 

[Jermania]

At first I always shopped around for the cheapest juice, and I learned my lesson fast. Vaping terrible juices totally ruins the experience and shame on people that sell nasty juice. I understand most dont do it intentionally, but I have given negative feedback to one vendor, and they ended up sending me some different flavors which were also terrible, but I just didnt have the heart to tell them. Another vendor really impressed me at first, but then their juices just kept getting weaker and weaker, and I felt as if I was wasting my money. Quality vendors with juices you like are hard to come by, and good juice is essential in successfully quitting smoking.

 

[jiker86]

Hey, imm from SG and anyone here can assist me in getting a supply of e-juice with a succes rate to clear SG customs? (since it is a prohibited to vape in SG)