Why is e-liquid selling at such high prices ?

[bluecat]

Sorry, bet lost.
Largest ever = 50ml - a Very nice RY4 Blend
Actually most of my DIY is done in 3, 5 and 10ml sizes. You never know when an awesome mix is going to steep out wrong or just get boring.

I will agree 10ml is a good New vapor size until they find the ones that stick. After that 30-50ml is plenty with any variations. For the Die Hard single flavor Vapor, DIY 100-250ml may make sense, dependent on daily use.

Anything that will last more than 6 months should be made later in smaller quantities.

As another DIYer, my largest is 15ml. Only reason is because I reuse the bottles from my days of purchasing premixed. I prefer 5 ml. IT is easy to do and doesn't take much time.

 

[Ryedan]

I see a lot of defense for higher than normal prices. I'd be curious to know who has a vested interest here and who is just compliant.

You can get commercially made juice for anywhere from $0.10 a ml to $1.00 a ml. What do you consider 'normal prices'?

I believe members of ECF who work in the vape industry need to be registered with ECF as such and it shows above their avatar. Someone please correct me if I got that wrong.

I don't consider myself compliant when it comes to juice, or any other aspect of vaping. Instead of paying around $0.30 a ml for the commercial juice I used when I first started vaping, I learned to make my own for about $0.05 a ml. I believe that's about twice what US vapers who DIY pay for it but I'm in Canada and that's the price I have to pay up here. I use mech mods, rebuildable attys, Kanthal, SS mesh and Rayon. I figure I vape for about $7.00 a week including batteries and all other hardware.

So how much do you spend on vaping per week and what's your plan to reduce the costs?

 

[klynnn]

I make my ADV in 250ml batches every 2 months. For all my other experiments or special recipes I use 30ml bottles.

 

[DaveP]

Rather than keep 100mg/ml nicotine in a bottle around the house I just order my Dekang Tobacco and add some various Lorann's flavorings to the base. Frequently, I add about 10% VG to the mix. Of course, you have to account for the displacement of those and the reduction of the nic level caused by additives, but trial and error produces a decent juice. If I dilute my nic by 10%, it isn't noticeable once you get down into the 10mg and lower nic range anyway.

I have young grand kids over quite a bit. It's bad enough to think they might get hold of an 11mg juice and spill it on their skin. 100mg ... not going to happen. I'll just buy juice pre-mixed and doctor it up.

 

[Traver]

Well there you go; you DIY; you don't buy 10ml bottles of eliquid;

I bet among your DIY mixes you have at least 1 100ml bottle of mixed eliquid.

I never mix more than 30ml. All of my mixing supplies sit in a drawer in front of my couch. It only takes a couple of minutes to mix a flavor so there is no reason to mix large quantities. I do mix several hundred ml of 50/50 pg/vg at 12mg to make a base.. Then it's just a matter of adding flavors to an empty bottle and filling with my base liquid. The whole operation takes about two minutes.

 

[The Ministry]

Moved to General E-Liquid Discussion

 

[ChurchMouse]

Price includes: Clean space (hopefully), storage space, labor, equipment, inventory, record keeping, taxes fees and permits as applicable, utilities, office and cleaning supplies, packaging, insurances, promotion (advertising, social media, samples, etc.)..and there's more. There's always more! Lol

So when you buy from a vendor you aren't just buying juice, but paying for everything that goes into the convenience of having someone develop the flavors, mix it for you and deliver it to you, all while maintaining a clean environment and doing what's necessary to keep filling ypur orders tomorrow and the next day.

And hopefully after paying everything and everyone they also get a profit, cuz why else go into business at all?

Then there are different business models. A vendor like Mt Baker sells at low margin but high volume. Smaller "boutique" vendors sell much smaller volume so they need a higher margin to pay the bills. Sometimes it's due to marketing or branding factors, such as vendors who use very expensive, attention catching packaging as a selling point but it inflates the price. And then there are those who use price itself as a marketing tool, choosing to target a certain segment of the extremely low end (dangerous if you're not EXTREMELY savvy, see Lucky 7) or extremely high end market.

So yeah...it gets complicated. Choose a price point and stick with it or DIY if you can't find something you like in your budget. Not sure what else to tell you.

 

[HeadInClouds]

Well there you go; you DIY; you don't buy 10ml bottles of eliquid;

I bet among your DIY mixes you have at least 1 100ml bottle of mixed eliquid.

LOL - I don't even have a bottle that size! Well, my nic base and VG, but I'd never make liquid in them.

There's one recipe I make 20ml at a time, because two of people use it. 3-5ml batches are typical for me, and it very rarely sits more than a few days. Like crxess, I prefer fresh mixed and lots of variety. I'd have real difficulty remaining a former-smoker if I didn't have this much variety.

 

[Thundernoggin]

Running even a small business is ridiculously expensive. You wind up mailing most of your money to the Fed, the State, insurance companies, attorneys, accountants, credit card processors, utility companies, the dumpster guy, the Unemployment agency, shipping supply companies, Quickbooks upgrades, POS upgrades, office supply companies, website hosting, website designers, advertising companies, printing companies, equipment suppliers, and I probably forgot ten more people. Then you figure out that some of your customers are involved in charities so then there goes some more money. It never ends.

 

[Cool_Breeze]

Perhaps ejuice prices are suffering from AEMSA Effect.

 

[ambientech]

Running even a small business is ridiculously expensive. You wind up mailing most of your money to the Fed, the State, insurance companies, attorneys, accountants, credit card processors, utility companies, the dumpster guy, the Unemployment agency, shipping supply companies, Quickbooks upgrades, POS upgrades, office supply companies, website hosting, website designers, advertising companies, printing companies, equipment suppliers, and I probably forgot ten more people. Then you figure out that some of your customers are involved in charities so then there goes some more money. It never ends.

I always get a kick out of threads started just to complain about ejuice costs. It's always "I can DYI for X amount so these vendors are ripping everyone off." Well the vendors can DYI for the same price as you can, it's when you turn it into a small business that costs soar. Anyone who has owned their own small business will understand, it's those who do not have a clue what it takes to run a successful small business that complain.

 

[young gotti]

You can get commercially made juice for anywhere from $0.10 a ml to $1.00 a ml. What do you consider 'normal prices'?

I believe members of ECF who work in the vape industry need to be registered with ECF as such and it shows above their avatar. Someone please correct me if I got that wrong.

I don't consider myself compliant when it comes to juice, or any other aspect of vaping. Instead of paying around $0.30 a ml for the commercial juice I used when I first started vaping, I learned to make my own for about $0.05 a ml. I believe that's about twice what US vapers who DIY pay for it but I'm in Canada and that's the price I have to pay up here. I use mech mods, rebuildable attys, Kanthal, SS mesh and Rayon. I figure I vape for about $7.00 a week including batteries and all other hardware.

So how much do you spend on vaping per week and what's your plan to reduce the costs?

Agreed, reps should have banners with the companies they represent at the bottom

this prevents potential customers from getting biased or recomendations from ppl with an agenda

 

[Gato del Jugo]

Depending on sale prices & volumes, I was paying anywhere between 40-60 cents per ml for flavored juice..

I've been doing some DIY as my commercial juice inventory winds down -- and I'm doing it for 8-10 cents per ml..

And that's working with tiny volumes & such.. I figure I can easily get it down to 4-5 cents per ml as time goes on..

This is for juice that tastes exactly the same as what I was buying before...


With commercial pre-made, you're paying for salaries & rents, basically.. And owners' profit, of course..

Obviously there are other expenses.. But those are some biggies...


I think at some point, most vapers should give DIY a whirl.. There's some work & research involved, but it's also not as complicated as one might think to whip up some pretty good juice, either...

 

[Dcoin]

The last pack of smokes I bought cost me 12$ so I'm immune to high prices for my habit.

 

[amolson]

Yup, and I can cook a steak dinner for under $15 that would cost me $100 at Ruth's Chris. And your point is?

Of course it's going to cost more to 'go out to eat' than it is to cook it yourself.

 

[gotalotgoingon]

This argument would warrant selling gazoline at 30$/gallon.

The process of making gas is a stage of oil refining in which multiple products are made, one being gasoline. Making eliquid nets you one product.

 

[Tangaroav]

killer-juice 4th of July sale ! 99 cents for 15 ml. Normaly it is 5 times this cost. This is quality E-liquid at 7 cents/ml. Very close to most DYI cost.

 

[Skeebo]

Hey Tangaroav, sweet bike!! How much does a Bimmer motorcycle run these days?

 

[young gotti]

killer-juice 4th of July sale ! 99 cents for 15 ml. Normaly it is 5 times this cost. This is quality E-liquid at 7 cents/ml. Very close to most DYI cost.

grabbed 60mls, hope the flavors are good because none of them caught my attention, if not i'll just mix with ohter liquids

 

[Tangaroav]

I loved this Bimmer, but at 60HP I wanted/needed more power, and did not have the garage space for two bikes so I now ride a Triumph Speed triple. Twice the HP.... but it sure does not look as sweet at the RC1200.