I've took some time to think about this before posting...I was watching this thread and saw that most totally missed the point. A lot of folks have moved on from the forum in general, and being a fan of another vendor that closed, have witnessed droves of members dissapear before and after the closure...it happens.
REOs mods heyday was when there really weren't great options available, there were carto's, vivi novas, clearo's like the T3, and a few dripping atomizers...the
vaping world exploded...Rob knew that and even said in the closing thread that people don't need a REO to quit smoking anymore. I posted in a thread that I thought that 2016 was going to be the year of the squonker...squonking did in fact catch on, and there are now a few regulated squonkers using quality chip sets that fit the bill. Mechanical mods in general have kind of fallen by the wayside. Folks like the first hit same as the last that a regulated mod offers, and regulated does use more of the batteries discharge curve so one gets longer run time on a battery.
There will always be a subset of vapers that appreciate and want the pure vape that a mechanical squonkers like the REO offers, I am one of them, don't get me wrong, I love my REOs mods...got about 15 or more of them, and each one is special to me, but frankly, quite a few of them were bought in the classies form folks moving on. Today there are a few 2015 woodies sitting there at a hundred less than retail, and there they sit, waiting for a buyer. Years past they would have been snatched up in minutes or hours...it is what it is. I don't have any answers, just personal observations here, but maybe the key to success lies in going where the market is...and the market is dominated by regulated mods...