Here's to Dolly, to clone or not to clone

[Christos]

I have probably a somewhat different view of what ROI entails. Your view of ROI appears to be "goedkoop is duurkoop, if you buy cheap it will pack up in two months, if you buy expensive it will last for years. After five years, you will have spent less on the one authentic than the seven clones you bought". That is fine but my view of ROI is:

1) What is the ROI in terms of my life rather than just my hobby? If I have R10k to spare, what gives me better ROI - a HE mod which will be organic dust at the bottom of a landfill in twenty years time, or R10k invested into my bond or unit trusts? In my experience, there is little lasting value in shiny consumer toys.

2) Smoking was not a fashion statement to me, vaping isn't either. I was never the type to have a sterling silver cigarette case and a gold-plated designer lighter. I used the cardboard box the smokes were sold in and a flick-o-the-Bic. Disposable items - buy 'em, use 'em up, throw 'em away. Go as cheap as possible. I never saw the point of spending extravagantly on something that was killing me. Vaping might not be killing me but it's still a functional item, like a kettle. All I ask of a kettle is that it boils water efficiently and lasts a reasonably long time for what I pay. Which brings me to...

3) ROI on product longevity. Your experience is that clones/cheap items don't last, my experience is that they do. I have four mods, none of which cost me more than R500. I haven't had any problems from any of them. I have ten atties, none of which cost me more than R520. I haven't had problems from any of them. No broken glass, no bent or broken posts, no stripped grub nuts, no cracked insulators, no perished/snapped o-rings, no bent or broken 510s. Have I been lucky? Probably. But I have seen enough threads/posts on this forum about broken gear to know that it's not restricted to cheap gear. I have seen people complaining about Yihi and DNA boards packing up, just as often as I've seen posts about cheapie Eleaf boards packing up. My view is that if you have a reasonable chance of any mod packing up, I'd rather drop R500 on a mod than R5k. I can throw away a broken R500 mod and laugh about it. Not so with a broken R5k mod. Similarly, if someone wants to spend R5k on a beginner setup, I'll always advise them to buy two cheap setups rather than one premium setup. With two cheap setups, one can bomb and you still have the other to vape until you can get repairs/vape mail. With one more expensive set-up, if it breaks, you're either paying through the nose just to get a vape or you're back to cigs.

4) ROI on vape quality. The two atties I vape most are my Velocity and Recoil clones. Together they cost me R500, the same as my Avo 24. I don't detect any better vape quality from my Avo. I have the same with juice. Some will tell you that they only vape Cuttwood juice at R380 for 30ml. Is it better than my DIY juice? I don't know, I've never tasted it. But I'm more than willing to concede that it is better and tastier than my DIY juice. Is it "13x the price" better? Absolutely not. I am happy with my vape quality so I see no need to spend more on it. I have other priorities for my money.

Of course, others will differ and have different priorities. And the free market should cater to all. I'm just giving my view of what ROI means.

Best ROI on vape gear which was clear in my post on what I meant for you is to stop vaping.

On that note, I'm sure most people don't need a vw or whatever - a bicycle will do.
Rather pump the money into investments that will make money etc.

Whatever works for you is great.

I reiterate whatever you want to buy and whatever works for you is great.
The authentic bashing that most people are doing is not necessary.
We all have a choice to buy whatever we want and at whatever price point that suits us.