It seems to me that there are clearly two separate facets to this story of the $500 ShockWave... The first that it was sold at all and the second that it was sold with such an exorbitant profit margin...
When I first started coming on this ShockWave thread, I had just missed the last of the pre-orders, which was heartbreaking in many ways as I'd had one in my basket etc... but I delayed and eventually missed the opportunity... Coming on this thread lead to a couple of points worthy of note, firstly that one of the original gang contacted me to say that he'd be happy for me to take his place on the pre-order list if something could be worked out with David... After some contact with David, this was deemed impractical and consequently it did not go ahead... all the same, I thought it a very nice gesture from this individual, especially after seeing how desperately I was wanting a ShockWave... Then came another rather nice event, which was that siouxsie contacted me via PM when there was the first additional release of a very small number of extra ShockWaves - but at that time my forum notifications were still on default and I didn't get an e-mail to notify me of the PM and subsequently found the message too late and those few units had long gone... All the same, I felt it was a nice thing of siouxsie to do and I am still grateful about that...
I contacted David once I discovered that there were still a small number of reserve units and offered him over and above the original asking price if he would release one to me, an offer which he declined in the spirit of fairness to the other people also wanting one of the remaining units... He eventually let them go and fairly announced that he would, gave us the time & date etc... I was fortunate enough to get one and can tell you that I am utterly delighted about that, just as I was with the first PM offering me an exchange spot on the list plus sioxsie's PM to let me know about that first small batch release...
All these things can be interpreted as being acts of good faith and very community minded... I also happen to think that David's refusal to compromise on the build quality, components, finish etc when he knew that costings had far exceeded original estimates and that he would inevitably end up losing money on the ShockWaves also shows admirable community spirit and professional integrity...
I agree with the inevitability of some people selling their ShockWaves on, plus I agree that this is not in itself open to debate in that we are all free to do as we wish etc... From that point of view, I have zero bad feelings about somebody passing on their unit if they don't find it suits them or circumstances have changed etc...
However, what I do personally find a little sad is that instead of sticking with that sense of community and good will that we all like to believe lies at the heart of the
vaping community, we see an over 100% profit margin... I don't mean to offend or upset anybody by posting this and apologise in advance if that is what results from the posting... But it's inevitable that some folks will find the $500 ShockWave distasteful and will want to comment on it here on the ShockWave thread...
