Im ok with clones & authentics but i find it strange when people are trying to treat original mod makers as charity cases lol. I understand it's their job but majority of them are just capitilizing on the rising vaping boom for extra side cash as a hobby. We got our own family to feed & buy what we like albeit clones or authenthic shouldnt matter. It's great we have variety but we dont owe modders anything. Buy what you want
. As a reo owner i buy many tube clones as well lol.
It isn't treating mod makers like charity cases, it is rather about letting people know the world does not revolve around their own desires and and unrealistic expectations.
Many people do not understand the complexity of economy, manufacturing, and how that all relates to their quality of living and that of others. This is troubling to some of us who have at the very least a modicum of respect and grasp of these concepts and their intricate relationships.
My own personal opinion of people is not truly effected by what products they purchase, it is more so influenced by the decision making process a person uses to make their choices. If you own an authentic high end device or use a cig-a-like to support your recreational use of e-liquids is of no consequence to me, one does not command any more respect or interest than the other. If your device happens to be a clone, that too has no bearing on who you are in my eyes.
It was mentioned earlier in this thread that mods were at one time less costly than they are today, I believe the claim was something to the effect of several orders above inflation. There are a number of reasons why this occurred, many of which have been mentioned in this and other conversations. First and foremost each factor is cumulative and has an effect on subsequent factors.
The cost of raw material is effected by inflation and demand at the time of purchase, as you move up the line from unidentified mystery metal to the highest end certified alloy with documentation tracing it back to the dirt from which it was mined, the cost differential widens drastically. Is there a huge difference in performance that demands the highest quality alloys, perhaps not, however such decisions on what goes into the device are not just made on performance alone, perception of the market also factors into what one might decide to use. For example "lead free" by federal standards is not actually free of any measure of lead (the Safe Drinking Water Act requires less than 0.25% lead), Naval Brass is "lead free" it has 0.20% lead
http://www.nationalbronze.com/pdfs/C46400.pdf however I've found that alloys as low as 0.05% are available. The market may well see "lead free" and be okay with it, and a mod maker may decide to error on the side of caution and use 0.05% stock or even go so far as to use true 0% lead stock at a price point well above commonly available brass alloys. The difference in price is of course passed on to the consumer which may or may not see the difference in value between "lead free" and 0% lead brass. An additional factor of brass that effects the products final cost is that the lead in brass is there to make machining easier, take away the lead and you increase production time and/or losses due to this 0% lead alloy which was more expensive in the first place.
By contrast, a part that is made with low cost in mind will be of any alloy that meets the required price point and in the case of clones appears similar enough to pass a cursory inspection by the average consumer in the target market.
This thread was initially a rant on the price point set my modders, a rant that is born out of frustration over the price gap between authentic mods and clones. While I can see how one might presume the difference in price lacks good reason and is not justifiable based only on the form and functionality of the two devices, a leaded brass device and a brass with 0% lead device may well look identical, parts may interchange, and they may have similar performance in terms of electrical conductivity, however one may well be the much better option if lead content is something you want to avoid.
It could be argued that a modder could use the leaded brass and pass it off as 0% lead brass; that is a very valid point and I have no argument against the possibility that that can happen. There are bad people in every industry, and those people are very much the ones we all hope are identified at some point. I like to think that there are at least a slight majority of people that tend to do the right thing especially those who are more artisan than corporate types.
NerdVap0r, we all have families, either our own or we are part of one that would like to see us do well. I believe it is nearly always best to buy based on quality rather than price, the long term savings being far more advantageous than the short term savings. This is a hard sell to some, I do understand that. Granted the concept is heavily reliant on being able to identify what is of higher quality, and I have made my fair share of mistake purchases across the board, haven't we all. That is part of the process of learning. Much like these threads are part of the process of learning. While in essence we do not owe modders anything, we should recognize that we wouldn't have the vast variety of products available to us without them; we should recognize that without the capitalization of modders the industry itself would be little more than a hobby activity replete with home made devices and little to no community involvement in advancing the safety features we have become blissfully unaware of today (such as vented mods and locking buttons).
The advent of cloning has in at least two ways effected the market price of authentic devices; first is the concept of market saturation, second is an adjustment in the perception of value.
Market saturation effects price usually in a downward direction, however when the market saturation is accomplished with artificially low priced products the effect is quite the opposite. Modders cease to cater to the low price market and direct their products toward the higher priced market which is far smaller than the mass market. This is where limited runs at premium price points come into play. There is little point in making 12,000 mods for a market that consists of 12,000 customers when you are one of 20 modders attempting to take hold of your share of the smaller market.
When the products you make are cloned and marketed at a substantially lower price point the question of true value becomes a factor in the purchasing, especially when value adding features are not readily visible to the consumer (brass alloy for example). The potential for confusion decreases the likelihood your product will retain it's perceived value in all markets. Very much like market saturation this often drives down price, however the higher end of the market is not as effected by price point and is more stable in terms of buying power. The result is a choice for the modder, cater to the high end or the low end of the market. More have chosen to go with the higher end than the lower cost market.
Regardless of these two factors the designs remain desirable nearly uniformly across the market. If clones did not exist the authentic mods would most likely capitalize on the market void. As the market reaches saturation across the board pricing would fall to a level that is not sustainable by some modders, as they leave the industry the void opens market percentage to the remaining modders. The higher percentage of a market one controls the lower the cost per product due to volume purchasing power. This is often passed on to the consumer in an effort to retain control of the market share.
Not every modder out there is interested in gaining a huge percentage of the market, some simply aren't that type of person, others may not be the greatest in terms of business savvy.
I think that's beyond long enough for now.
Maurice
I felt it was good to repost it in here, as this topic seems to come up quite a bit, and I honestly don't believe that the OP had a clone vs auth battle in mind when he posted, but everyone seemed to turn it into that, like always. 
