Discontinued Zion vaporizer

[AJS]

Great fucking day of watching the man in charge build Zions. Went from disassembled bodies face down, to face up, to assembled with stems to ensure fitting, to fully assembled, to oiling (waxing?"). Fun as fuck to watch. They all have guts too. He's getting close!!! 30 of them here.

 

[delloy]

Yep, They are looking great and glad to see the excellent progress Ryan is now making. I spoke to him over the weekend hes hoping to have mine out by early this week! Cant wait!

 

[AJS]

So it seems he got those 30 Zions out ... wonder how far up the line that is. Just through October? I remember there was a break in sales after that first batch towards the end of 2015, and I'm anxious to know how many more until he hits the early 2016 orders .. hmmmmm.

Don't mind me .. just biting my nails til they bleed.

 

[muunch]

He keeps talking about the current batch he's working on (was sanding the bodies after shaping them, last I checked) as being the 'last batch'

Apologies for me thinking this could be vague but it sounds like he'll be done after this batch...


No idea on an ETA, but if you can type with your busted up fingers, I wouldn't mind if you asked either

 

[AJS]

He keeps talking about the current batch he's working on (was sanding the bodies after shaping them, last I checked) as being the 'last batch'

Apologies for me thinking this could be vague but it sounds like he'll be done after this batch...


No idea on an ETA, but if you can type with your busted up fingers, I wouldn't mind if you asked either

Thanks for that info!
I probably won't ask .. I'm scared haha.

I'll be tracking his Instagram religiously. In fact ... I can go back and see how long it took him to build the recent batch .. starting with sanding .. and see if he's following a similar timeline with this current batch. Using inductive(?) reasoning up in this bih, I may be able to have an eta for us within a week or two assuming he follows his recent procedures in the same timely fashion.

No ... I'm not creepy ...

 

[tblast]

So it seems he got those 30 Zions out ... wonder how far up the line that is. Just through October? I remember there was a break in sales after that first batch towards the end of 2015, and I'm anxious to know how many more until he hits the early 2016 orders .. hmmmmm.

Don't mind me .. just biting my nails til they bleed.

I'm a late August 2015 pre-order and have yet to hear from RBT.

 

[muunch]

I know he's gotten help, which is why he's smashing through these, but I don't know if he had it when he started the last batch or it arrived midway. He's really been cruising - I've been keeping up pretty often.

I don't mean to jynx anything, and I may have even posted this before, but I have a feeling I'll be getting mine before my birthday in early September, and I just ordered in April.

 

[AJS]

I know he's gotten help, which is why he's smashing through these, but I don't know if he had it when he started the last batch or it arrived midway. He's really been cruising - I've been keeping up pretty often.

I don't mean to jynx anything, and I may have even posted this before, but I have a feeling I'll be getting mine before my birthday in early September, and I just ordered in April.

It looks like it took about 25 days to build that last batch of 30, but seems to be moving faster this time around after a brief timeline look. Hmmmmm. 1 more month? I'll hope for 2!

 

[KeroZen]

That's 1.2 Zions per day, and what's the retail price already? Subtract all kinds of taxes, materials bills, CNC/routing fees, tooling, take into account that he's chaining past orders and he was probably not getting one order per day every day, divide revenue by two to account for what the greedy retailers were asking... and you might well end up below the minimal wage (assuming there is such a thing in the US?)

Yet people were still saying it was too pricey... For sure, when you compare to Chinese labor with close to zero social and environmental regulations, nobody can compete (and in fact so many businesses are closing down) We think we're getting bargains, but it's only by gambling with the health of Chinese people while jeopardizing our local companies...

 

[muunch]

Probably much more accurate and less emotion based than my guess!

 

[Cheesequake]

That's 1.2 Zions per day, and what's the retail price already? Subtract all kinds of taxes, materials bills, CNC/routing fees, tooling, take into account that he's chaining past orders and he was probably not getting one order per day every day, divide revenue by two to account for what the greedy retailers were asking... and you might well end up below the minimal wage (assuming there is such a thing in the US?)

Yet people were still saying it was too pricey... For sure, when you compare to Chinese labor with close to zero social and environmental regulations, nobody can compete (and in fact so many businesses are closing down) We think we're getting bargains, but it's only by gambling with the health of Chinese people while jeopardizing our local companies...

Why does he have to go through distributors? Dynavap as far as I know sells all of their own products only on their own site at very reasonable prices and they seem to be doing just fine. I don't buy that it should cost ~$400 for a Zion. Obviously just my opinion as many people have no problem with the price.

 

[KeroZen]

Well do you have children? A mortgage? A car to maintain and refuel? What is the minimum you need to earn per day to sustain your living?

I'm of course not expecting any answer, just pointing out that FC sales alone were not enough to be sustainable. He didn't go the distributors way for the Zion in the end. But if you are not sold on any shop, you basically don't exist. We tend to over-estimate FC user-base size and impact.

The main problem with the Zion is that it can not be mass-produced in its current form, contrary to say VapCaps which are mostly machined by automated processes and ultimately easily assembled out of finished elements.

PS: and Ed's or PP's custom wooden stems are by no means cheap either, even if they are way easier to produce

 

[AJS]

We think we're getting bargains, but it's only by gambling with the health of Chinese people while jeopardizing our local companies...

Bargains don't exist without sacrifice!!

 

[GreenHopper]

Why does he have to go through distributors? Dynavap as far as I know sells all of their own products only on their own site at very reasonable prices and they seem to be doing just fine. I don't buy that it should cost ~$400 for a Zion. Obviously just my opinion as many people have no problem with the price.

Sorry to contradict you bud but DynaVap do use distributors. They are on many different distributors sites including puffitup, vapefiend and THC.

They also happen to sell on their own site where they can run different sales throughout the year.

Like @KeroZen was saying, DV can mass produce efficiently using machining and automation.

 

[grokit]

Sorry to contradict you bud but DynaVap do use distributors. They are on many different distributors sites including puffitup, vapefiend and THC.

Just a clarification, these webstores are retailers not distributors. Distributors don't sell retail.
Unless one of them is acting as both a retailer (to the end user), and as a distributor (to other retailers).

 

[GreenHopper]

Just a clarification, these webstores are retailers not distributors. Distributors don't sell retail.
Unless one of them is acting as both a retailer (to the end user), and as a distributor (to other retailers).

Hmmm, think they are just retailers to be honest so fair point.

 

[delloy]

Look what I got today!







Bit disappointed though as I ordered a set of batteries with it and they weren't in the box and I dont have any here with me on a mile long island with only a post office as a shop and they dont sell 18650s. So now will have wait a another week for them to arrive

In the box was just the Zion and a few spare screens. I may be mistaken its been such a long time ago now and I'm ecstatic to get it but were early orders supposed to get a few extra goodies

 

[sickmanfraud]

Look what I got today!





Bit disappointed though as I ordered a set of batteries with it and they weren't in the box and I dont have any here with me on a mile long island with only a post office as a shop and they dont sell 18650s. So now will have wait a another week for them to arrive

In the box was just the Zion and a few spare screens. I may be mistaken its been such a long time ago now and I'm ecstatic to get it but were'nt early orders supposed to get a few extra goodies

Congratulations on receipt of your Zion.

Pardon me for sticking my nose into others' business, I am not trying to rain on your parade, but I would have thought that for the almost $400 price tag that the Zion would be made from one piece of wood and the doors etc would match?

Forgot to mention, but IMRbatteries has some express shipping options.

 

[virtualpurple]

Look what I got today!





Bit disappointed though as I ordered a set of batteries with it and they weren't in the box and I dont have any here with me on a mile long island with only a post office as a shop and they dont sell 18650s. So now will have wait a another week for them to arrive

In the box was just the Zion and a few spare screens. I may be mistaken its been such a long time ago now and I'm ecstatic to get it but were'nt early orders supposed to get a few extra goodies

I may be wrong, but I think the only guaranteed perk is the discounted price vs what it would cost retail. The first 25 orders received an extra stem I believe.

That battery thing sucks man, I was short a charger, but luckily I had one on hand and @RastaBuddhaTao made it all right.

Snip a rubber band and snake it down the little hole that the stir stick rests in. This will help the stir stick stay in place without rattling around. You can even turn the Zion upside down and shake it and you're still secure!

 

[delloy]

Congratulations on receipt of your Zion.


Forgot to mention, but IMRbatteries has some express shipping options.

Not to a mile long island 25 miles of the the Southern tip of the UK they dont.

 

[nosmoking]

Congratulations on receipt of your Zion.

Pardon me for sticking my nose into others' business, I am not trying to rain on your parade, but I would have thought that for the almost $400 price tag that the Zion would be made from one piece of wood and the doors etc would match?

Forgot to mention, but IMRbatteries has some express shipping options.

A lot of the original parts had to be scrapped but everyone paying attention knew ahead of time that Zion was not going to be made from one piece of wood and that grains would not match. I think were all good with it.

 

[Other Side]

A lot of the original parts had to be scrapped but everyone paying attention knew ahead of time that Zion was not going to be made from one piece of wood and that grains would not match. I think were all good with it.

And while the last listed price for the Zion was close to $400, the folks getting these units here didn't pay anything close to that.

At the the end of the day Ryan has done a lot to improve the craftsmanship, fit and finish of his products but it really shines in the performance department.

 

[delloy]

The fit and finish on mine is lovely! Feels very tactile in the hand. It has improved immensely since the first few pics I saw in the wild many moons ago. Yeah for the money I paid back in Aug 2015 it seems a bit of a bargain to be honest. Great work Ryan.

 

[nosmoking]

And while the last listed price for the Zion was close to $400, the folks getting these units here didn't pay anything close to that.

At the the end of the day Ryan has done a lot to improve the craftsmanship fit and finish of his products but it really shines in the performance department.

Very true...more than half of us got it for under $200 and most got it for under $300 I believe. Ryan screwed himself by giving us a lower pricepoint and hoping he could get it back on the back end considering there will be no back end on this ride.

 

[Shit Snacks]

Pardon me for sticking my nose into others' business, I am not trying to rain on your parade, but I would have thought that for the almost $400 price tag that the Zion would be made from one piece of wood and the doors etc would match?

It was announced long ago that the grain wouldn't be possible to match bc it would mean scrapping a whole body if there were errors, so better to have them match perfectly fit and finish wise over grain appearance