Vaping is already much cheaper than smoking, but it’s even better if you can manage to save a few extra dollars when you stock up on vapes. Even if you already have a favorite vape shop that you buy from consistently, there’s a good chance that you search for cheap vapes online from time to time just in case there might happen to be a better deal available somewhere.
New local and online vape shops pop up every day, and that’s good news for you because it means that the downward price pressure never ends. The more competition there is, the cheaper vapes will become because having the best prices is one of the easiest ways to get noticed in a competitive industry.
Have you found a vape shop with prices that seem absolutely perfect? A word of warning before you pull the trigger: There are a lot of potential ways to get burned when you shop for cheap vapes. Here are some important things to do before you buy.
Do Your Research First
If your goal is to buy vapes at the cheapest prices possible, you need to make sure that you’ve really done your research. Are you sure that the price you’ve found for your favorite vape is definitely the lowest? Some prices may look cheap on the surface, but you could get to the checkout page and find that you’ll have to pay an exorbitant shipping charge unless you order several hundred dollars of merchandise.
Also, you should always be on the lookout for vape shops with creative price structures. Vape Shop Wholesale, for example, has a system that allows you to save up to 35 percent if you buy vapes in bundles of 10. The price per vape when you buy a bundle is much lower than any other discount vape shop.
Look Out for Fake Vapes
When you shop for cheap vapes, the biggest potential concern is that you’ll end up with counterfeit products. You might not be aware of this, but fake vapes are actually surprisingly common. A sting operation in 2022 resulted in the seizure of more than two million fake vapes – and if that many fake devices were discovered, you can just imagine how many more slipped through the cracks and ended up on store shelves.
Why should you be concerned about fake vapes? There are actually quite a few reasons, and here are some of the biggest ones.
- It may not taste the same as an authentic vape. Vapers are very particular about their favorite flavors, and the manufacturers consider their formulas closely guarded secrets. A maker of counterfeit vapes may attempt to clone the official brand’s flavors, but the clones will never be perfect.
- You might not get what you’re paying for. If a vape producer is willing to lie about who made the device, who’s to say that they won’t also lie about the nicotine strength or how much e-liquid it contains? If you ever buy a vape that seems to run out of vape juice extremely early, you should be very suspicious.
- It could be unsafe to use. You shouldn’t put anything past a company that produces counterfeit products. Batteries, for example, could be reclaimed from discarded vapes. They might exhibit unstable power delivery or could be prone to overheating during charging.
- It might have germs or other contaminants. Official vapes are produced with automated equipment under clean-room conditions. With fake vapes, though, it’s a different story entirely. Videos have surfaced that show the extremely unsanitary conditions at some factories producing counterfeit devices. Workers have actually been pictured puffing on the devices to confirm they worked before placing them in their retail boxes. You definitely don’t want to buy a vape that has already been used by someone else.
If you see a price that seems suspiciously low, it’s worth the effort to do a little poking around because you want to confirm that the shop is selling authentic products. Make sure that the shop gets its vapes from the original manufacturers or from distributors that are officially partnered with the manufacturers.
Check for Clear Contact Information
There are probably hundreds of online vape shops in the world today, and some are more reliable than others. Before you give a vape shop your contact and payment information, you should do a basic investigation to make sure you’re dealing with a legitimate business.
Start by checking the site for clear contact information. If you can easily find a phone number and email address, you know the vape shop isn’t trying to avoid customer service calls and that you won’t have trouble getting a hold of someone if there’s an issue with your order.
Looking for feedback from previous customers who have already ordered from the site? Check Trustpilot, which hosts hundreds of millions of real customer reviews for businesses around the world. It might also be worthwhile to check Reddit for the business’s name plus the word “legit.” Almost every vape shop has a “Is (Shop Name) Legit?” thread somewhere on Reddit – and if you can’t find one, you can get some feedback by asking the community yourself.
Be Wary of Non-Vape Businesses
It’s possible that your search for cheap vapes will eventually lead you away from the Internet and into your local stores. Almost every town has at least one local vape shop, and you probably have local gas stations and convenience stores that sell vapes as well. If you do find a deal that looks too good to be true, we advise you to be cautious because non-vape businesses often obtain their vapes through unofficial channels.
Suppose, for instance, that a convenience store gets its vapes from an electronics supplier that’s also their source for random items like batteries and charging cables. It’s possible that the distributor sources its vapes from official distributors, but you have no way of knowing that for sure. You’re much more likely to get fake vapes if you buy from a non-vape business.
