hey all. as an avid subscriber to several other forums i just wanted to say hi and introduce myself. my name is Ryan. Im 18 years old from baltimore maryland and I'm new to vaping. As a kid i swore i would never touch a cigarette and after two of my grandparents were taken from me due to the consequences of smoking i was sure that i never wanted to touch a cig in my life. well here i sit in my dorm room and unfortunately the stress and pressures of college have turned me into a smoker. i have now been smoking about a pack a day for 6 months. to be honest i love it. i love smoking socially with my friends, its a great time killer and an excuse to go outside and enjoy campus. but I'm at the point now where i want to quit. i can already feel negative health effects from smoking. I've tried about 5 times to quit cold turkey and tried to cut back a few times but every morning i give into the temptation to go grab a pack of marlboro reds and start my day off with a nice nicotine buzz. a few of my friends have been successful in quitting smoking through the use of vaping so i want to give it a shot. not to mention vaping is extremely fun and can taste amazing. so i just wanted some of the veterans on here to help me out with getting started. i have 50 bucks that i have set aside to start my new vaping hobby. so my first question is broad. i understand that 50 bucks won't get me the mercedes benz of e-cigs but i think its a good place to start and upgrades/mods can be worried about later. I've been looking at different websites and honestly i don't see much difference between brands. so i was wondering if you guys had any suggestions on what a good starter brand is. i want something reliable that won't break or need repairing after a week. any good websistes to get such brands from would be a great help. and i also want to know what you guys think is the best type of e cig. i honestly know almost nothing about them right now but I've been hearing things like drip tips and atomizers idk what any of this means so a little clarification would be great. and lastly i was wondering what brand liquid you guys buy and where you get it from. i have been looking into various starter kits that websites offer but again i don't know which brands are reliable. thanks in advance to anyone who helps me out. i look forward to learning a lot from this forum and hopefully this will help me be a healthier individual. thanks again.