Stupid implulse purchase..paid way to much?

[damthisisfun]

IMO the E-bay resellers are the WORST, literally just taking FT/Chinabuye/HC product and marking it up 100%+, and reselling it, all while breaking the TOS of E-bay (not that its not a ridiculous policy).

B&M margins can be nuts but at least they have some expenses/overhead.

Doesnt take much work to order a mech and rba from FT, screw it together, then put it on E-bay for double the price.

Hell half of um are literally using old FT pics, from before they started the plexi-logo thing.

Sickening.

I totally agree - all i buy from ebay is Kanthal............... bunny balls from CVS - lighter for heating the wire (or use the gas stove) and all hardware from FT - or use the gas stove......juice from US only............did get some Liqua from FT - not sure if it was genuine or I just didnt care for it.....

 

[ScottP]

Damn man yeah.
FastTech.com
For $58.85 you can get the new stainless steel VAMO V3, with a non generic charger (nitecore i2), 2x 18650 Panasonic batteries. It ships from China. Its well worth the 6-8 day wait. I got mine from there 3 weeks ago and I love it. Its awesome!

Hell for $9 more you can get the same "kit" and upgrade it to a genuine Innokin iTaste SVD!

 

[Rocketpunk]

I may be too late, BUT DO NOT USE THE CHARGER THAT COMES IN THAT KIT!!! Throw it out the window. Better yet, smash it. Those things are 110% guaranteed to fry those little 18350's... or any battery, for that matter.

 

[Whiplash205]

That bites penny. Its one thing to pay a premium for local service/instant gratification when you know how much extra your going to be paying. Its a different beast entirely to find out you got .......*d. I payed extra when I got me and the wife set up but I knew going in how much extra I was gonna pay, but I was desperate to quit analogs, and my schedule as a trucker meant I could order from china and still have it beat me to the house by a week or two. That being said any additional hardware will be ordered online now that we are set up.

And as bad as b@m shops can be they don't hold a candle to the markup some individuals are reselling "rare, oop, pre-flight number" discs for on some of The disc golf forums/eBay. Don't even get me started on that rant.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

[damthisisfun]

I may be too late, BUT DO NOT USE THE CHARGER THAT COMES IN THAT KIT!!! Throw it out the window. Better yet, smash it. Those things are 110% guaranteed to fry those little 18350's... or any battery, for that matter.

Are u talking abt nitecore i2??? I have had it for abt 3 months - no issues with it at all............it is supposed to be one of the reliable and safer ones.......where did u read it is garbage?

 

[volume control]

Speaking of impulse purchases, i just bought a nitro rc truck and a mini rc and tons of mods for them and spent about 500 bucks in 1 week. I love and hate myself all the time. At least i stopped buying new ecig stuff for the time being...At worst it was not comparable to any of my other toys

 

[twiggums]

meh i woulda just kept the vamo and considered it a lesson learned. unless it's defective it's on me that i paid $x.xx for whatever. But to each their own.

 

[Rocketpunk]

If his kit came in a black box that said "eGo" on it, with two gray 18350's, two CE3's, a European wall adapter, and a dinky black plastic battery charger that has flip-down prongs that plug directly into the wall... Then I'm talking about that charger. Not the Nitecore one. And trust me, the charger they include in the Vamo kit that comes in the black box is NOT Nitecore.

Are u talking abt nitecore i2??? I have had it for abt 3 months - no issues with it at all............it is supposed to be one of the reliable and safer ones.......where did u read it is garbage?

 

[damthisisfun]

Sorry My bad..........my vamo v2 from FT came with the Nitecore - so was confused.....I am safe.....

 

[twiggums]

If his kit came in a black box that said "eGo" on it, with two gray 18350's, two CE3's, a European wall adapter, and a dinky black plastic battery charger that has flip-down prongs that plug directly into the wall... Then I'm talking about that charger. Not the Nitecore one. And trust me, the charger they include in the Vamo kit that comes in the black box is NOT Nitecore.

Pretty sure that's the charger i have, minus European plugs. Can't say I've had an issue with it.

 

[Rocketpunk]

Well, just a heads up. If you look over and your batteries are melted and fused to the charger... don't be surprised. I've seen three or four people come back with melted pieces of plastic, and almost a half dozen come back with completely dead batteries, and I mean, dead, dead, there ain't no comin' back, dead. Just a head's up.

EDIT: I most DEFINITELY would not use that charger at night while you're sleeping.

 

[Barbara21]

That's one way to look at it. I should be held accountable for not knowing my stuff when the info is available. But at the same time it's sad that I have to research at all, just to make sure I'm not getting ripped off, because people will rip me off if that's the kind of person they are.

Again, people keep throwing around the terms 'ripped off' and 'gouged' without knowing the costs incurred by the business just to be there and available to you.

Do you have any idea what rent alone is for many of these stores? I investigated how much it would cost to rent a little storefront (roughly small vape store size, no sitting area) in a strip mall along a fairly busy road 5-6 years ago - it was $2,200/month!! And if you assume any employees working there should make a living wage (let's say $24,000/year because that's easily divisible by 12), that's another $2,000/month. Of course, if you're open more than 8 hrs/day, 5 days/wk, you need at least two employees so that's $4,000/month. So we're already up to $6,200/month just for space/employees! There's a whole raft of other costs we haven't even mentioned yet!!

Look, I'm not saying that the store was not charging too much. But we can't just automatically assume that because he's selling something for triple FastTech prices, he 'ripping people off'.

(And why is it ok for juice makers to charge 10x the cost of ingredients and no one complains? I can make up 30mL of juice for less than two dollars (and that's paying retail prices for ingredients). But I don't go around complaining that juice makers are 'gouging' me. They offer something at a price - I'm free to accept or decline.)

 

[Butters78]

How can some stores charge the same price online as they do in the store then?

I was looking at pants on old navy and they charge the same.

 

[Rocketpunk]

I like to say "Old Navy" like the cousin in South Park, the kid they mail or something. He talks like Sol Rosenberg.

"Old Naay-vee"

 

[damthisisfun]

Barbara I totally understand. As more ppl like me that have a family to support and cannot afford to throw money away find out abt online places like FT - B&Ms wont make enough money anyways......seems like a the local vendor that works from his house/garage has a big advantage over B&Ms............he still has a 200-300% markup.....that makes no sense to me.......

 

[BigBen2k]

Hey, it's Butters!

Some stores will get an exclusivity deal from the manufacturer, so no one else has exactly the same product.

Otherwise, some stores will just give you a different venue (online) to purchase their products. It's easy, and cheap, and it accommodates those loyal customers that moved away from their favorite store, or those that just don't care (or can't) go to the mall.

The online store is cheaper to operate, so the store can pass on the savings, in a number of different ways. Some stores choose to lower their online prices, others just cut the price globally.

 

[Glen Snyder]

Again, people keep throwing around the terms 'ripped off' and 'gouged' without knowing the costs incurred by the business just to be there and available to you.

Do you have any idea what rent alone is for many of these stores? I investigated how much it would cost to rent a little storefront (roughly small vape store size, no sitting area) in a strip mall along a fairly busy road 5-6 years ago - it was $2,200/month!! And if you assume any employees working there should make a living wage (let's say $24,000/year because that's easily divisible by 12), that's another $2,000/month. Of course, if you're open more than 8 hrs/day, 5 days/wk, you need at least two employees so that's $4,000/month. So we're already up to $6,200/month just for space/employees! There's a whole raft of other costs we haven't even mentioned yet!!

Look, I'm not saying that the store was not charging too much. But we can't just automatically assume that because he's selling something for triple FastTech prices, he 'ripping people off'.

(And why is it ok for juice makers to charge 10x the cost of ingredients and no one complains? I can make up 30mL of juice for less than two dollars (and that's paying retail prices for ingredients). But I don't go around complaining that juice makers are 'gouging' me. They offer something at a price - I'm free to accept or decline.)

Pretty sure a 99 cent cheeseburger from Mickey D's is the same price in NYC as in rural Georgia and that overhead in Georgia is much lower so don't see any weight to your argument. If a store owner can't compete with a fair market price on an item they probably shouldn't be carrying it. And before it comes up, yes the analogy is fair. A Vamo 2 is a Vamo 2 anywhere just like a McD's cheeseburger is.

In my experience with retail, which is extensive and storied, many small retail businesses have no idea what they are doing or how to increase their chances of success. That's why there's such a high failure rate. Just an educated guess based on everything I've read from the OP so far that in the case of the B & M in question, it falls into the inexperienced in retail category. Not knowing your products is a dead giveaway. I always worked hard and was extremely successful in my own retail business and those I managed for others. Got no time or sympathy for slackers & amateurs, sorry.

 

[JustMe2]

Again, people keep throwing around the terms 'ripped off' and 'gouged' without knowing the costs incurred by the business just to be there and available to you.

Do you have any idea what rent alone is for many of these stores? I investigated how much it would cost to rent a little storefront (roughly small vape store size, no sitting area) in a strip mall along a fairly busy road 5-6 years ago - it was $2,200/month!! And if you assume any employees working there should make a living wage (let's say $24,000/year because that's easily divisible by 12), that's another $2,000/month. Of course, if you're open more than 8 hrs/day, 5 days/wk, you need at least two employees so that's $4,000/month. So we're already up to $6,200/month just for space/employees! There's a whole raft of other costs we haven't even mentioned yet!!

Look, I'm not saying that the store was not charging too much. But we can't just automatically assume that because he's selling something for triple FastTech prices, he 'ripping people off'.

(And why is it ok for juice makers to charge 10x the cost of ingredients and no one complains? I can make up 30mL of juice for less than two dollars (and that's paying retail prices for ingredients). But I don't go around complaining that juice makers are 'gouging' me. They offer something at a price - I'm free to accept or decline.)

Running a business is a risk but I'm not sure it justifies selling a $150.00 Vamo kit to a newbie that wants to quit smoking..

 

[gr1llmeacheese]

It doesn't matter what a B&M's overhead is. There is obviously going to be some markup compared to online. A store needs to make a profit to stay in business, I get that. In some cases it works out to about what you would have paid for shipping and in some cases a little more.

But seriously, to anyone defending this store even as Devil's Advocate.

$150.00 for a Vamo kit? That is an absolutely insane profit margin.

 

[spartanstew]

Pretty sure a 99 cent cheeseburger from Mickey D's is the same price in NYC as in rural Georgia

I agree with your premise, but this part is somewhat inaccurate. In many cases the $1 menu will be the same, but they're loss leaders for all the stores (just not as much of a loss in some areas as in others). The prices of their other menu items will vary depending on location.