Is 99 dollars an unusual price for a starter kit?

[John Phoenix]

My Mom went to the Mall last night to see a movie with the grand kids. She knew I was ordering an E-Cig kit so when she noticed a vendor at the mall she talked to him a few minutes. This morning she gave me his card.

Now, I spent a good week on this site and others doing research before I choose the Riva 510 SE and a bottle of juice - total price under 50 bucks. My Riva is a lot cheaper and comes with more stuff. Therefore I was kinda shocked by these prices but I might be wrong. Is this the norm.. is this reasonable?

Sadly, this fellow doesn't even offer any e-juice I could buy from him for convenience but I would not buy this starter kit. This guy doesn't even list cig thread size or battery capacity. I find that very odd.

Smoke Wherever - Products

SPRO BLACK STARTER KIT

Includes:

• 2 - Li-Ion rechargeable batteries
• 2 - Atomizers
• 5 - Cartridges* (Please specify flavor and strength)
• 1 - Battery charger
• 1 - Instruction manual

Price: $99.95

 

[ClayK]

"Mall kits" typically are overpriced. No, it's not reasonable, but caveat emptor.

 

[oplholik]

Boy, would I love to see one of these places in our mall. I could make it interesting, might even be fun, specially if there were people around it.

 

[Iluvthearmy]

I ran out of flavoring for DIY stuff,and while at the mall, noticed the e-cig vendor. He had some loranne flavoring. when I enquired about it, he offered me a 1 dram bottle for $20.... You can buy them for roughly $1.25 on most websites and when I laughed in his face and explained what that was to other potential customers, the gentleman got pretty feisty and made everyone leave his little gypsy ripoff cart.Also he was selling those 711 brand disposables for $75..these people are going to ruin e-cigs

 

[FlyerTom]

Shoot. Back in Jan. of 2009, I purchased 2 Smoking Everywhere kits at the King of Prussia Mall near Philadelphia. They were $175... EACH! If ignorance is bliss, howcum I wasn't happy? However, it did open the road to better and cheaper equipment after I started researching e-cigs. (Better late than never).

 

[mohawkx]

Yeah, I got one of those similar lying around the house somewhere. vaped it for one day and it turned me off to e-cigs completely. Luckily I found this site and bought a riva kit for 30 bucks and haven't smoked since. Still got and use the riva kit all the time.

 

[texastumbleweed]

i feel so sorry for folks who get sucked into those mall ecigs...............buy a GO GO from CigEasy for 60 bucks and you will be happily vaping...........

 

[NCC]

Boy, would I love to see one of these places in our mall. I could make it interesting, might even be fun, specially if there were people around it.

I don't know if our Mall has one or not. I know it used to simply because I know our present brick&mortar owners used to have a place at the Mall. But, other than a quick dash into Sear's side door to buy tools, I haven't set foot in the Mall in years! Vaping supplies aren't the only thing which is overpriced ... in fact, everything is overpriced in the Mall.

 

[dormouse]

The starter kit price is a bit high but that is not the worst part. The main problem isn't the price but rather what model is it, what do they charge for carts and what do they charge for spare parts. Lots of rebranders offer what seem like decent prices for a kit but charge $40-50 for a replacement battery and often lie about how long a cart lasts and charge high prices for carts for force you to buy large numbers of them at once.

People come here every day with mystery brands trying to figure out what it really is because they discovered their vendor charges too much for parts or is out of stock on what they need or in some cases has even disappeared totally. It's just a much much better idea to know what actual Chinese model you are buying, whether it's a good model, what it should cost, and where else you can get parts for it.

I looked at it. It appears to be a 510, possibly a clone 510, and they are charging 100% too much. A 2-battery 2-atty 510 kit should cost $50 or less if unboxed.

$35 here unboxed and real Joye brand
https://www.cignot.com/product_p/kit-510-nbx.htm

 

[FrontierADX]

wow just wow, people will try to take a laymens money its pretty much the bottom line

 

[dormouse]

The one bright spot is they are actually selling a popular and supported model, but the people who buy it rebranded will not know that

 

[NCC]

Another bright spot (maybe) is that these purchases lead some unsatisfied buyers to search for alternatives online, and many of them end up on ECF.
Although I didn't buy my first PV at a Mall, it was the search for better which got me here.

 

[Dulce]

yeah i don't get why so many things are rebranded. Why doesn't Joye just open up shop here instead of having all the rebranded ones running around?

 

[John Phoenix]

Thanks folks! A lot of good insight.

This fellow makes me sad and mad a little bit. I understand he may have overhead like the rent for the mall space and he's in it to make a profit but that price it just too high. He's going to give e-cigs a bad name. I think people like that do it cus they think they can get away with it - no other vendors have the product in the mall.

A lot of people still don't go online to shop. They see this vendor and think they better buy the product because he's the only one selling it. Especially Older people who don't use the Net that much and want to quit. Why, it's almost the perfect racket to suck those old geezers into. ( sorry old geezers, no offense meant - I'll be there myself soon enough)

And whats worse.. he's doing this to New Orleanians!! Now that's just not right. the Cajun in me says Get the Shotgun. Ha Ha!

 

[smut peddler]

Yes, that is overpriced for an electronic cigarette. A good kit will be around $40-50, and most of the time (with an exception illustrated by your situation,) higher-end models will be $50-80.

 

[Stosh]

.......But, other than a quick dash into Sear's side door to buy tools, I haven't set foot in the Mall in years! Vaping supplies aren't the only thing which is overpriced ... in fact, everything is overpriced in the Mall.

You just have the wrong type mall, I have a Sears at one end, and a CVS for VG purchases,
Radio Shack for last minute lead-free solder, a Home Depot accross the street for Nolalox,
and a Target for value packs of paper towels!!

 

[MickeyRat]

Another bright spot (maybe) is that these purchases lead some unsatisfied buyers to search for alternatives online, and many of them end up on ECF.
Although I didn't buy my first PV at a Mall, it was the search for better which got me here.

That's what happened to me but, I wonder how many people try them and decide that all e-cigs suck and don't go looking for something better.

 

[Andyhrn]

...and a CVS for VG purchases,

Isn'i it CVS PG? I think WalMart is VG. BTW, I do the same (CVS & Target). Soldering iron & solder are cheaper in WM (3M brand in automotive section) than in RS.

 

[chiptrick]

You can buy most things online cheaper than in a store. I'd be curious to know how much per unit the break even price would be when you consider the overhead. I bet if they sold 15 of these thing in a day, that would be a very good day. 6-8/day is my guess as an average.

 

[FantWriter]

You're always going to pay more for items at a b&m than from a website because you're buying convenience and the examine-before-buying experience. Double the price for a low volume item isn't really all that unreasonable.

Years ago, I knew someone who had a tiny little shop (it used to be a hot dog stand) selling bits, taps, dies, etc. which he unabashedly purchased at an industrial supply house in the closest large city about 80 miles away. On the surface, it looked like he was giving great deals -- if the retailer's sticker on a box of taps was $3.75, he'd charge $3.85 apiece. Being able to get what you needed fast was totally worth the "extra dime." What only a few of us knew was that the supply house's price tags were for boxes of a dozen, and they gave a 5% discount for cash-and-carry. It often worked out that he was doing 1400% mark-ups. I still bought from him once in a while because I needed something that day, and it was cheaper than driving all that way for a tiny item.