This will upset many new suppliers

[robw]

If the prices are to high shop some where else?

What if the shopper is an analog smoker who works with hundreds of other smokers and that one sale to him would have gotten you as a supplier 100 more and the domino effect from there? Scare off one and you could lose hundreds. Pretty stupid business policy.

If Henry Ford had thought that way he would have been just another tinkerer.

 

[Multisync98]

If the prices are to high shop some where else?

What if the shopper is an analog smoker who works with hundreds of other smokers and that one sale to him would have gotten you as a supplier 100 more and the domino effect from there? Scare off one and you could lose hundreds. Pretty stupid business policy.

If Henry Ford had thought that way he would have been just another tinkerer.

Another well put quote Robw! Keep them coming! You're making more sense to me than high school ever did.

-Jim

 

[QueenInNC]

Wholesale on all your e-cig starter kits is between $12 and $20. Don't worry that's not a big secret. Alibaba.com - The world's largest online B2B marketplace. is not a secret either.
Retail mark up after going through import, distribution and retail overhead on all products coming from china should put such a products price at about $40-$60.

All the salty dogs on this forum know this and if you want to even be considered a vendor of any integrity please price your product accordingly.

The days of uncertainty for who makes what and whats new and great are over. The days of 1 cart equals a pack of analogs is over. The days of i'll pay anything for an e-cig are over.

What we have here is a bunch of entrepreneurs who are seeing places like smoke everywhere or a mall kiosk and jumping on the band wagon. Just because you see prices of $100 -$200 for a starter kit does not mean you should price it that way.

To all the new people looking to buy a e-cig for the first time, here are some things to look for. Is it pre-order? Many new suppliers are taking pre-orders to pay for their wholesale order. Well, there is nothing illegal about that, but because they are new they have not set up the proper channels to clear customs quickly or avoid imperial entanglements (FDA). So a sucker and his money will soon part ways, and the sucker refers to the new supplier as well as you, because if he loses his shipment to the FDA he may not have enough money to pay for a second shipment, and he may decide to go out of business. So caveat emptor, ask if its in stock.

Even people who are litterally experts get FDA harrasment.

The reason for this topic is because I see so many people throwing their money away on over priced pre-order e-cigs only to get frustrated and give up on the entire thing and go back to smoking analogs.

To me this is not just about cool gadgets and making a business, it is litterally life and death for some people, and the new dealers are making it difficult for some new e-smokers to get a warm fuzzy fealing about not just feeling safe from being ripped off, but confidence that once they start, they will have a reliable supplier to goto time and time again.

out.

Funny...I was JUST ranting about this an hour ago when I passed the Smoking Everywhere kiosk at the mall! These people pay out the ... for this device and are sent on their way to work everything out. When it doesn't work, they give up and they are out $150! They are also charging $15 for a box of 5 carts!!! The sales people give VERY little information. I stood and watched for 10 minutes and wanted to tell them all to go home and get on their computers and come here! I actually did tell one guy It was making me crazy! So, just to see how much the girl working there knew, I asked her if the penstyle carts would work on my 901. She had NO FREAKIN idea what I was talking about!!! I told my daughter that I would like to set up my own stand at the other end of the mall and show them how it is done

 

[lee929]

If ya setup shop, I will come apply for a pt job and help you sell them!

BTW, I would like to get paid in parts\juice please..lol

Funny...I was JUST ranting about this an hour ago when I passed the Smoking Everywhere kiosk at the mall! These people pay out the ... for this device and are sent on their way to work everything out. When it doesn't work, they give up and they are out $150! They are also charging $15 for a box of 5 carts!!! The sales people give VERY little information. I stood and watched for 10 minutes and wanted to tell them all to go home and get on their computers and come here! I actually did tell one guy It was making me crazy! So, just to see how much the girl working there knew, I asked her if the penstyle carts would work on my 901. She had NO FREAKIN idea what I was talking about!!! I told my daughter that I would like to set up my own stand at the other end of the mall and show them how it is done

 

[QueenInNC]

If ya setup shop, I will come apply for a pt job and help you sell them!

BTW, I would like to get paid in parts\juice please..lol

LOL! That works for me!! Smoking Everywhere is in Carolina Place mall now too.

 

[LuckySevens4U]

Here's the way I look at it.....some of these suppliers are very, very nice and are trying to make a few bucks doing this and I have no problem giving them my business. I do go with the ones that are offering the better prices and I spread my business around a little. I have no problem paying for things here and there and juices and knowing they are in this country already and I don't have to worry about customs. HOWEVER, when I need to order bulk attys or something like that, I am going to order from China, because I'm not going to pay over double the price here.

 

[robw]

Sure, the new guys all deserve a little business to get going and I order from everyone atleast one time. Then I see a greedy supplier come in and I just ignore them. Well im done ignoring them because they are hurting the industry. So now I call them out. They go on about how they pay so much for duties and such and I just sit here shaking my head and look at guys like vapornine and V4L and say, if they can get a good price then your just a greedy vendor.

We used to hammer vendors who marketed these as NRT or if they talked about 1 cart being a pack of analogs. Collectively the members here made the industry what it is by calling out the BS artists and making them stop hurting the industry. Now that the news is covering e-cigs on a regular basis, the number one thing besides FDA approval is the greedy vendors scaring off the newbies with high ticket prices. The news broadcast thing pisses me off to no end. I actually had my friend tell me they were more expensive than regular analogs because he heard on the news they were $150 a pack. People just give up when they think its a product only for the rich, and the average smoker cant afford to be healthy.

If the bulk of the members here would just jump on the new guys who are messing up, things may get good for them in the long run.

 

[Fedor]

Then I see a greedy supplier come in and I just ignore them. Well im done ignoring them because they are hurting the industry. So now I call them out.

I've been doing that for a while now. Stopped for a while too cos i was receiving too many threats...LOL. No but seriously, there was even a supplier obviously from Singapore who threaten to sue me after i proved that they are liars. I still can't get over how dumb that guy was.

My beef is with these people lying through their teeth. Their tactics are more than overcharging these days. Takes much more investigative work to uncover them but they always begin with some tell tale signs. Sadly, this is just gonna get more rampant as the numbers of vapers grow. A few vigilantes here and there does not help much but will hopefully get these people to think twice.

 

[Liberate_Yourself]

But there is a list of people who already sell them at decent prices

Also...Pre-orders = Epic Fail.

I don't like gambling with my customers money -.-

Amen to that. (No pun intended Kate )

 

[Fedor]

Double post...sorry.

 

[NY JETS]

Not to mention you can damn near become an amateur supplier on your own. Just order a bunch of 901s from China at $30 shipped and when they arrive charge the batteries, stencil a cute logo on them, and profit!

Wholesale E-Cigarette - China Ruyan Wholesale - Discount Electronic Cigarette Wholesale From China

haha omg i wish it were that easy.

actually it probably is noticing a lot of the new cookie cutter sites that have gone up recently, but after putting in the countless long hours of work that whole outlook is just not true if you do it the right way.

i will not post my link yet as im still applying to be an official supplier of ecf but if you want to take a look around the new store, shoot me a PM



and agreed, it is very hard to stomach the $100+ prices of some of these suppliers. its hard for the public to take us that seriously when we have so many infomercial-type scammers out there making these outrageous claims that they donate all profits to charity...its only a matter of time before we start seeing these cash for your gold companies start selling starter kits

 

[Nuck]

Calling out the bad suppliers is important but so is full disclosure of the people doing the calling.

Robw..aren't you a close friend of parked at Dietsmokes? Please let me know if I've confused you with someone else.

And Fedor..I see you always promoting the same Chinese manufacturer. I believe its the Smoore brand.

I'm not saying you guys don't have the right to call out others, but at least preface it with your own biases (or interests)

 

[wv2win]

Here in the Atlanta area two malls have the QuantiumCig kiosks that sell 901 and 801 kits for $150 - $180. One guy at the booth pointedly told me not to look on the internet because I would just get ripped off. So funny since he was doing the ripping off. I actually passed out my little hand-out with reputable suppliers and the forum address to people looking at his products. He was also selling a 10ml bottle of juice for $25!!!

 

[ZambucaLu]

Robw..aren't you a close friend of parked at Dietsmokes? Please let me know if I've confused you with someone else.

Was that Robw....or some other Rob with a car in his avatar? Now you got me confused! Maybe a looksee on the DS forum will tell.

Lu

 

[Nuck]

Was that Robw....or some other Rob with a car in his avatar? Now you got me confused! Maybe a looksee on the DS forum will tell.

Lu

Yeah..I wasn't a 100% sure either (which is why I put in the disclaimer). There are about 20 robs on the forums.

I suppose I could read his posting history

Edit: I think the guy I was thinking of was Rob26. Thanks Lu and sorry for the confusion robw.

 

[Vapor Fiend]

I've been saying the same thing about ebay and craigslist vendors. There are 901/801 kits listed there for $150. Rip off.

 

[D_Struct]

Here in the Atlanta area two malls have the QuantiumCig kiosks that sell 901 and 801 kits for $150 - $180. One guy at the booth pointedly told me not to look on the internet because I would just get ripped off. So funny since he was doing the ripping off. I actually passed out my little hand-out with reputable suppliers and the forum address to people looking at his products. He was also selling a 10ml bottle of juice for $25!!!

Not to say that his practices were reputable, at all, but when you're paying rent for a mall kiosk, $150-180 per unit and $25 for 10ml MIGHT not be all that big of a markup.

Granted, it's not the smartest way to have to do business, and it stinks that everything has to be marked up so much, but don't automatically assume that his intent is malicious. His comments about internet businesses might've sprung from a bad experience he had with an online retailer. Who knows? Maybe he just wanted to make a sale. lol

To run any brick and mortar business, there are a lot of extra fees and overheard expenses to factor in as opposed to owning a website. Mall rents have skyrocketed over the years, even in small towns.

Personally, I wouldn't buy a 901 from a mall kiosk, knowing the outrageous markup, but, for someone that's not big on internet shopping, it might be right up their alley.

 

[wv2win]

Not to say that his practices were reputable, at all, but when you're paying rent for a mall kiosk, $150-180 per unit and $25 for 10ml MIGHT not be all that big of a markup.

Granted, it's not the smartest way to have to do business, and it stinks that everything has to be marked up so much, but don't automatically assume that his intent is malicious. His comments about internet businesses might've sprung from a bad experience he had with an online retailer. Who knows? Maybe he just wanted to make a sale. lol

To run any brick and mortar business, there are a lot of extra fees and overheard expenses to factor in as opposed to owning a website. Mall rents have skyrocketed over the years, even in small towns.

Personally, I wouldn't buy a 901 from a mall kiosk, knowing the outrageous markup, but, for someone that's not big on internet shopping, it might be right up their alley.

I agree that the cost in a mall kiosk has to be higher due to paying employees and space rental, plus there is a convienence factor. But a 300% mark up is just out of line. If he had the kits at $99 - $110 I would understand. Plus the owner takes no time to train and educate his employees. He will turn people off on PV 's before they can learn how to use one.

 

[OutWest]

not to defend those with $100+ prices (imho that's too high for the product in question), but there are several expenses in a business that many dont realize. There's x amount of product that is defective, x amount lost due to theft, x amount lost due to customs, insurance (product liability, mandatory unemployment insurance if you have employees, etc), rent (a typical amount for rent for a mall kiosk is $10,000 per month), employee wages, percentage off the top paid to credit card companies for processing sales, utilities, and lots more.

 

[robw]

Mall kiosks are not even a consideration for me in my efforts. However the kiosks in my mall are $1500 per month, not $10000. I looked into it a few months ago and decided not to do it. I did do a business plan for a kiosk and the retail price was going to be $75 per starter kit.
When I went to my mall 2 weeks ago there was a e-cig vendor selling and they started at $80 and went to $150. There line up was all DSE models so im happy to see selection from super mini to pipe available.