I want to know if anyone would be interested in this kinda of website. I have the summer off and want a project to delve into.
I would want the focus to be on community. teaching and sharing techniques & information to demystify any barriers one might have to experimenting and learning to craft their own flavors.
I want the marketplace to be the stepping stone to developing your own line and distributing it on a larger scale independently.
Any thoughts and ideas are welcome.
Like vaping etsy?
exactly. I also want to provide a community forum to teach others how to create their own lines and all that that entails.
Well being that vaping gear is becoming taboo everywhere online, it's probably not a bad idea
I'd be interested. Would you act as the retailer and buy wholesale from juicemakers? Or act as a consignment site? Or take the order and pass it on to the makers?
I thought about this a while ago but have never been in a position yet to build up a decent line to use with a site launch.. any chance u would want to also setup an Australian site doing the same thing? There is a pretty decent vaping community emerging down here, and I know some people who have a couple of recipies they'd like to try selling..
I could set up an Australian one. I can address that once the US one goes live. I'll start saving to be able to float another 2 ec2 instances.
Hmmm .... interesting idea. My thoughts are that you just cannot have a marketplace and a community at the same time. As soon as there's money on the line (and competition) for mixers, then there is absolutely no sharing of information and no learning. A recipe becomes a trade secret as soon as sales start. Then everyone steals recipes that have already been posted and passes them off as their own to make a quick buck.
You could "require" that each and every transaction that takes place via your service would be accompanied by a recipe and complete list of ingredients. In that way, I'd compare it to an Apache style license for juice. This would really move things forward in this community. I'd be a seller and a customer. It would give everyone an opportunity to branch out and learn from each other.
You mentioned insurance...I'm very glad you are thinking this way. Kudos to you for that. I wouldn't sell without it regardless of it having nic or not. Period. I'm not a lawyer nor am I an insurance agent, so take this for what it is, but here's what would really motivate me to contribute: You obtain a liability policy for the sales that you fulfill. This insurance would cover all transactions that you complete. This offers a service to the sellers and you change a premium for providing that service. You up-charge above your premium cost so you get a return on your cost and the revenue pays for the site and and gets you summer cash for beer and pizza or whatever else you might need.
Do NOT sell ANYTHING for human consumption with out insurance. What if someone have a bad PG allergy and gets sick or dies from zero nic juice. You will still get sued and it will be devastating. Even if you win (you won't) the cost of defending yourself is much more that you can imagine.
I've been thinking about just that, a more transparent push to indicate what exactly you are vaping. Thank you for helping me see the pragmatic vantage point legal wise.
I wonder how far I could let the consumer know what they are smoking. Would it be bad to incentivize/require total ingredient list and sources (sans exact mixing amounts)? Because that is a route I am thinking about.
I have a potential solution to the trend to become proprietary vs open/sharing and copies/duplicates
Don't forget a Europa section! ;) I'm already selling some of my liquids in a B&M around my corner.
Just for the material costs and tips, and to low-threshold introduce complex flavors to beginners. Here in Germany most vapers still vaping single flavour juices, they just don't know anything else, that there's a world full of complex satisfying flavours out there.
But hey, I'd love to put them on your website too. :)
Not a DIYer, just fannying around in here, but I think this is a great idea and I think ecr would buy into it - there's a lot of support for redditors turned vendors like Centerfold and The artist formerly known as bleux. You should xpost this over dude.
It's been mentioned before but I'll add my two cents as well. Your biggest liability would be someone buying liquid from your site and getting sick/something bad happening when they vape the liquid. You mentioned that you'd be the one paying your vendors once an order was placed, so that puts you right in the middle of the transaction. My biggest advice would be either try to stay out of the financial side as much as possible (maybe look into a third party for financial transactions), or make it abundantly clear to both parties that you do not endorce or know what's in the liquid. But I'm sure your lawyer will be much more knowledgeable than me, just my thoughts as someone who owns their own business. But good luck, I think it would be an interesting idea!
your 2 cents are worth pounds. That is the most fundamental issue I am researching and want to find a solution to. eliminating me from the transaction sounds like a good idea and i need to explore those options. If i do end up needing to be a middle man, then yes TOS not endorsing liquid in combination with a very transparent source/ingredient/lab setup might how I mitigate my risk. Trying to come up with other ways to ensure my safety and most importantly, the safety of the websites customers is paramount to this site being able to exist.
This thread has been linked to from another place on reddit.
- [/r/electronic_cigarette] Would you guys like a storefront to sell your crafted flavors? I wanna build a marketplace for people who want to sell their creations.
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Isn't that kind of what a Company's website is for? It's a neat concept..but how will you know that the people selling are legit and not someone that's been vaping for a week and decided to "sell juice". There have been so many posts lately about people wanting to start a juice company...only to find out that they've been doing DIY for less than 3 months and vaping for just as long. You might be setting yourself up for a Liability nightmare there.
I would say the site would be more of a stepping stone to becoming fully independent.
I plan on making the products sold on the site include ingredient lists and where/who makes the flavorings and base. let the consumer know exactly whats in their product.
I can also regulate who can sell by setting up application process that can help me thin out the malicious/ not legitimate.
I am researching liability, but I am seeing that as a simple cost of doing business. Ultimately if I did not allow nicotine, I would be selling pg/vg and food flavorings... not the worst liability nightmare at least.
An application process sounds like a good thing. Make sure they have a business license, tax ID number and all that good stuff. :)