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Question: Do people who vape spend more or less money than people who smoke? I have some vapers that work for me and they talk about vape like wine people deba

Question: Do people who vape spend more or less money than people who smoke? I have some vapers that work for me and they talk about vape like wine people debating grapes. They seem willing to pay insane amounts of money for their hourly fix. So I wonder whether "big tobacco" sees every smokers as potential vaper. Both are nicotine addicts. Perhaps the demonization of smoking will improve sales in the vape business, the alternative "legal" way to sell the drugs.

throwup238 2y ago
Vapers spend a lot less. As a pack-a-day smoker I was spending $7-10 a day on cigarettes. Before I quit altogether, I was spending $20-30 a month on nicotine salts, $20 a month on cartridges, and $100 once a year or two for mods and batteries. Since I was working from home I was vaping constantly, so I didn’t reduce nicotine consumption despite the cost reduction. I could buy a brand new mod every month and it’d still be cheaper. I’m sure there are whales that spend on vaping like some stoners spend thousands on Mothership glass, but they pale in comparison to the millions of multipack-a-day smokers that are worth thousands a year in profit. I assume that’s why Juul was pushed so hard by cigarette companies, the economics of Juul pods are much closer to cigarettes than the stuff sold in vape shops.
- hipadev23 2y ago
  So nicotine salts are synthetic right? Is there a reason people consume them via oral pouches, does a pill simply not work? Or is the addiction tied to both the method of consumption and not only the effect (why i drink coffee and not take caffeine pills i guess)
  - throwup238 2y ago
    Yes they’re synthetic. Pills take much longer than pouches since they have to go through the digestive system, whereas pouches steadily release nicotine that is absorbed quickly by the gums. Method of consumption is definitely important. I couldn’t fully switch to vapes until I found one that had the same “throat feel” as my American Spirits. Not just the type of nicotine (salts) but the exact brand of vaporizer and coil style. Just like people prefer the taste and ritual of coffee to caffeine pills.
prophesi 2y ago
If they're buying disposable vapes, then it's likely on par with cigarettes in terms of price. That industry has been working hard on getting disposable vapes that last long enough and contain as much nicotine as possible. In my area it's next to impossible to find any disposables that contain less than 50mg (5%) nicotine, which is downright criminal. If they're going custom then the upfront cost will be a lot more, but e-juice is super cheap. Have to replace the coils every now and then as well unless it's a refillable pod system. You can also choose whether you get freebase vs nicotine salts and how much nicotine the juice contains. I personally believe disposable vapes are dangerous and can get a newcomer as addicted to nicotine as a pack-a-day smoker in a matter of weeks. And for smokers, it won't give you a pathway to taper off your nicotine intake.
- cess11 2y ago
  "In my area it's next to impossible to find any disposables that contain less than 50mg (5%) nicotine, which is downright criminal." What do you mean by this? Why would you buy less than 50 mg at a time? I use snus, and I'd guess it's several mgs per pouch, and I buy something like 200-250 pouches at a time because I'm not a heavy 'snusare' so one roll at roughly 30 bucks lasts more than a month. 50 mg would be, what, like two-three packs of cigarettes?
  - prophesi 2y ago
    Even for heavy smokers, vape shops will typically recommend 20mg for making the switch. Nobody needs 50mg+ at that level of concentration. With snus, as you've said, each individual pouch is like 1 - 6mg. I would get a massive head high from hitting a 50mg vape for the first time, and barely feel much from a 6mg Zyn pouch. edit: Basically, no clue how much nicotine you'd technically intake with a puff but it seems absurdly stronger than the slow intake of 6mg in your gums.
t-3 2y ago
They can spend orders of magnitude less, or about the same depending on how they do it. Mixing your own fluid is stupidly cheap - a weeks spending for a pack-a-day smoker will cover at least a year of vaping like that. If they build their own coils, it's also very cheap - nearly a life's supply of wire can be had for one or two packs. On the other hand, if you buy disposable vapes or cartridges, you can easily spend more than a smoker, if you buy disposable coils and premixed fluid it probably comes about the same or slightly cheaper. If you have a huge collection of vapes and buy all kinds of different attachments and coil heads you are going to be spending a lot of money.
- sandworm101 2y ago
  So it sounds like the real money is in the hardware rather than the consumable juice?
  - t-3 2y ago
    The juice is heavily price-gouged and not exactly cheap if you buy it pre-mixed, but yes, hardware is expensive and the replacement coils for refillable-but-not-rebuildable systems aren't cheap either. It can be cheaper than cigarettes, but there's a good chance it won't be significantly so if you aren't buying in bulk and are replacing your coils often. Disposables vapes and cartridge systems are so addictive and easy to use anywhere that they are more expensive than cigarettes in my experience.
Workaccount2 2y ago
Cigarettes are very expensive and there is no way to really get around it, except esoteric approaches like rolling your own cigs, which doesn't even save that much anyway (especially factoring in time). Vapes on the other hand can range from expensive to cheap as dirt. When I vaped I was spending probably $10/mo to replace a pack a day habit. I made my own flavorless juice and used a $50 tank/mod system.

throwup238 2y ago

Vapers spend a lot less. As a pack-a-day smoker I was spending $7-10 a day on cigarettes. Before I quit altogether, I was spending $20-30 a month on nicotine salts, $20 a month on cartridges, and $100 once a year or two for mods and batteries. Since I was working from home I was vaping constantly, so I didn’t reduce nicotine consumption despite the cost reduction. I could buy a brand new mod every month and it’d still be cheaper. I’m sure there are whales that spend on vaping like some stoners spend thousands on Mothership glass, but they pale in comparison to the millions of multipack-a-day smokers that are worth thousands a year in profit. I assume that’s why Juul was pushed so hard by cigarette companies, the economics of Juul pods are much closer to cigarettes than the stuff sold in vape shops.

hipadev23 2y ago
So nicotine salts are synthetic right? Is there a reason people consume them via oral pouches, does a pill simply not work? Or is the addiction tied to both the method of consumption and not only the effect (why i drink coffee and not take caffeine pills i guess)
- throwup238 2y ago
  Yes they’re synthetic. Pills take much longer than pouches since they have to go through the digestive system, whereas pouches steadily release nicotine that is absorbed quickly by the gums. Method of consumption is definitely important. I couldn’t fully switch to vapes until I found one that had the same “throat feel” as my American Spirits. Not just the type of nicotine (salts) but the exact brand of vaporizer and coil style. Just like people prefer the taste and ritual of coffee to caffeine pills.

prophesi 2y ago

If they're buying disposable vapes, then it's likely on par with cigarettes in terms of price. That industry has been working hard on getting disposable vapes that last long enough and contain as much nicotine as possible. In my area it's next to impossible to find any disposables that contain less than 50mg (5%) nicotine, which is downright criminal. If they're going custom then the upfront cost will be a lot more, but e-juice is super cheap. Have to replace the coils every now and then as well unless it's a refillable pod system. You can also choose whether you get freebase vs nicotine salts and how much nicotine the juice contains. I personally believe disposable vapes are dangerous and can get a newcomer as addicted to nicotine as a pack-a-day smoker in a matter of weeks. And for smokers, it won't give you a pathway to taper off your nicotine intake.

cess11 2y ago
"In my area it's next to impossible to find any disposables that contain less than 50mg (5%) nicotine, which is downright criminal." What do you mean by this? Why would you buy less than 50 mg at a time? I use snus, and I'd guess it's several mgs per pouch, and I buy something like 200-250 pouches at a time because I'm not a heavy 'snusare' so one roll at roughly 30 bucks lasts more than a month. 50 mg would be, what, like two-three packs of cigarettes?
- prophesi 2y ago
  Even for heavy smokers, vape shops will typically recommend 20mg for making the switch. Nobody needs 50mg+ at that level of concentration. With snus, as you've said, each individual pouch is like 1 - 6mg. I would get a massive head high from hitting a 50mg vape for the first time, and barely feel much from a 6mg Zyn pouch. edit: Basically, no clue how much nicotine you'd technically intake with a puff but it seems absurdly stronger than the slow intake of 6mg in your gums.

t-3 2y ago

They can spend orders of magnitude less, or about the same depending on how they do it. Mixing your own fluid is stupidly cheap - a weeks spending for a pack-a-day smoker will cover at least a year of vaping like that. If they build their own coils, it's also very cheap - nearly a life's supply of wire can be had for one or two packs. On the other hand, if you buy disposable vapes or cartridges, you can easily spend more than a smoker, if you buy disposable coils and premixed fluid it probably comes about the same or slightly cheaper. If you have a huge collection of vapes and buy all kinds of different attachments and coil heads you are going to be spending a lot of money.

sandworm101 2y ago
So it sounds like the real money is in the hardware rather than the consumable juice?
- t-3 2y ago
  The juice is heavily price-gouged and not exactly cheap if you buy it pre-mixed, but yes, hardware is expensive and the replacement coils for refillable-but-not-rebuildable systems aren't cheap either. It can be cheaper than cigarettes, but there's a good chance it won't be significantly so if you aren't buying in bulk and are replacing your coils often. Disposables vapes and cartridge systems are so addictive and easy to use anywhere that they are more expensive than cigarettes in my experience.

Workaccount2 2y ago

Cigarettes are very expensive and there is no way to really get around it, except esoteric approaches like rolling your own cigs, which doesn't even save that much anyway (especially factoring in time). Vapes on the other hand can range from expensive to cheap as dirt. When I vaped I was spending probably $10/mo to replace a pack a day habit. I made my own flavorless juice and used a $50 tank/mod system.