Something I don't get... why do vendors sell their juices for the same price whether there is 0nic or 24mg nic in them?
The nic is one of the more expensive parts of the juice, so shouldn't a 0 nic juice cost a lot less than a 24mg juice?
OK, assuming my 100mg nic, 500ml bottle is $56.99, or roughly 11 cents per ml, and my 500ml 0mg nic is $9.49, or roughly 2 cents per ml: 30ml of 0mg nic costs only ~ $0.60 to make, and 30ml of 16mg nic only costs ~ $1.03.
This was made using only PG liquid and no flavoring, and based off of current price from Wizard Labs.
hmmm. You know, when you look at it this way, it looks like the major cost must simply be overhead. Even labor is probably not much. Let's say someone makes 10 bucks an hour... they probably produce 1 bottle every 10 minutes or so (getting the ingredients, mixing, labelling and packaging for shipping, etc.). So for 1 bottle there's probably $1.50 of labor cost.
Even with labor it probably only costs them a couple bucks to make a 30ml juice (especially if you factor in the prices they get for buying in bulk). So the rest must be what's needed for operations.
1 bottle every ten mins? dawfuq are you smoking. Its still a crazy market up to the point where vendors are not gonna change you for the higher nic counts, most T-shits company's do not charge you more just because you bought and xl compared to a small.
They charge so much simply because people will pay it and its a business not a charity.
It costs me 2.35 to make 30mls of 30/70 6mg nic juice with 5 flavorings/additives (EM, Smooth, Etc) including bottle and label. That's .079 cents per ml. If I bought in bulk and made batches at 100ml+ the price would drop even more. Factoring in new syringes, cleaninh liquids, maintaining a sterile environment, etc, it is almost $6 per 30ml bottle. Selling at $20 accounts for wastage/loss, overhead, and profit, in nearly equal parts. Restaurants use a similar pricing method. Triple the materials cost and that's your price point.
mtbakervapor sells 30 mls at 7.50 so guessing that they're costing it more like a product than a meal at a restaurant, you don't have anywhere near as much wastage. usually in retail it's cost of everything plus as close to 25% markup as you can get ( this obviously changes once you get into massive scale like walmart et al ) and a bigger markup on cheaper items.
i'm guessing it might be a bit lower since businesses in this area are just getting started and want to make a name, as well as internet businesses being a lot more price sensitive.
The short answer is that you're overestimating the value difference of the various nicotine levels. Yes, the nicotine happens to be the most expensive single component of the liquid, but the bottle itself, especially glass bottles with dropper caps, actually equal the price of the juice in smaller quantities (sub 15ml), for example. The largest individual cost of a bottle of juice is probably the wage of the employee who is doing the mixing. So while the nicotine does factor into the price, the cost difference is such a small fraction it is simpler to just keep all juices at the same price, instead of varying the price per bottle in sub $1 increments.
Profit, however negligible it may be.
Easier to have price constant all around, instead of having various differing prices.
Considering a huge chunk of the more commonly mid to high range juices all come from a particular side of the continental U.S. and tend to be vendors working on multiple lines...I'd like to lean more towards price fixing than anything.
Why other vendors elsewhere follow suit? Because it's working for the other tightly knit guys. Which is why I think there's a huge disparity in pricing the more you start to head west. But, it most certainly is profit and nothing but. Otherwise, why bother? As surely as people constantly claim "I started this because I liked vaping and I wanted to share it with blah blah blah" these people are more interested in selling razor blades than being enthusiasts. That's all it boils down to.
sake of ease and the power of averages I'm guessing. There is a shop in town that sells "custom mixes" meaning he mixes everything right at the time you buy. He prices everything based on every component - you should see his pricing grid - CONFUSING!!! And irritating really... his prices jump with each level of nic and if you want more or less flavoring added or whatever.... what a pain in the ass. Another shop in town sells just as much 0/6mg juice as they do 18/24 (probably more really) - and at one price its quicker, easier and less annoying to deal with and they make more on the low nic than they "lose" on the high nic, so it really does all work out in the end. Plus /u/Cloudhelm is totally right about the cost of overhead and packaging. If you are producing at any large quantity, than the cost of your nic is certainly significant but not your highest cost. And the markup on eliquid is so ridiculous anyway that juice makers are making money no. matter. what.
agreed. In many ways I guess it's a lot like soda. I mean, all that's in soda is water and sugar... maybe 2 cents worth of materials to the producer. Yet they sell for 50 cents to 2 bucks a can/bottle.