Head shop pricing

[walt cunningham]

first off, there have only been a handful of head shops that i have been inside, and didnt feel like a sucker.
i dont live in a med state, and there is no glass scene here, so we dont get much good stuff. they will carry some good brands of bongs, but all the pipes and bubblers seem to be cheap and not ever as thick as i think it should be. somany times i will ask to see a piece, and be amazed how light weight it is. some seem like they would crack if i set it on the counter too hard.
i was bored so i went to one today, not really looking to buy anything.
Some guys were looking at vapes, i recommended the extreme Q, i payed $160 new for mine on ebay, so for that price, its great. they had it, and it was $400!!! the guy said it was the top of the line, so i laughed and asked if they carried the volcano. he said no, because nobody would pay $900 for it. so the markup for them on vape seems to be double
i do not know much about cheap hand blown glass, but does it come from china? alot of the junk seems to look the same, and you'll see it at gas stations all over as well.

 

[l_d_d]

Go to school or send one of your buddies, learn to blow glass... and start your own shop. Give them some competition.

Maybe you or your buddy can make something higher quality than Bangladesh glass ... and sell other stuff for normal markups

 

[schwilly]

Yea most of the cheap glass is chinese.

Glass breaks. I only smoke J's, tubes, and gandalf style pipes which break in a slight breeze. No short pipes anymore.

My nice and thick chinese single tree perc tube has lasted me a few years now. It's not original or anything, and quite plain, but it functions as well as a name brand bong that would have cost me ~400 rather than ~100. Sure my friends' roors and jerome bakers are nice, but they break just like a cheap tube.

Find a good shop. I go through several gandalfs a summer cause I use them to solar outside when it's nice, festivals, etc. The shop I go to (cheapest in the midwest) has them chinese for 20 or so whereas a domestic equivalent pipe would be hundreds.

I hate buying chinese but sometimes I just want function, not art.

Need a reputable shop though. Most places mark up the chinese shit to near the price of a domestic pipe.

 

[MIway]

yeah... knew this guy that ran one of those knick knack shops... ordered it all from overseas... hella, hella cheap


oops... schwilly got it... lol

 

[Stoner4Life]

those shops are obvious ripoffs but you need to remember this, when the cops come to confiscate all that paraphernalia and arrest the owner that he'll very likely lose all his goods and have to hire an attorney to keep the fine or jail time at a minimum. Do you really have to wonder why some of these guys flip out when you start calling their water pipes bongs?

how much would you have to charge given that scenario?

 

[supermanlives]

1000$ a bong minimum ^^^^^^^

 

[MIway]

and only viewable from the buzzed in back room... w the assault rifles... right next to the massage tables... free moonshine though ;-)

 

[zymos]

They are only for tobacco- what's all the fuss about?

 

[walt cunningham]

in this state they are legal to sell as long as a certain percentage of your sales are tobacco.
there is a cool shop that is family owned, they use a local blower, and are very cool people. unfortunately, the new law that passed said they have to sell a certain amount of tobacco to sell pipes, and they didn't sell any. It's still open but they cut down their glass selection by like 75%
if i buy anything, i try and buy it from them. the mom and dad that own it are hippies in their 60's. i love it when mom helps me, because its this nice old grey haired woman telling me how well certain pieces hit. she rules, a few times she's told me we aren't supposed to call them bongs or say what they are used for, but fuck'em.

 

[longearedfriend]

it's hard to survive when everyone wants to save as much as possible

some headshops are more touristy/expensive/dont care about you

some are really part of the community, and have been for a long time
i have a couple of images that come into my head, and they have decent prices..
obviously you can find cheaper stuff on the internet for some places, but not everything is overpriced

offering seeds (I know you can buy off the net, not everyone does.. not everyone likes to)

selling various art, collectibles, music, grow equipment

if you want some papers, they have

also like some have said... it's not always easy running these shops

I knew an owner that had a headshop in a smaller city and there was political pressure against him, pressure from police

at same time, there were so many smokers for him to cather too


i find organic food much more overpriced then stuff in headshops

but I have seen some 400-500$ bubblers.. and that, I guess is something else...

I think most of those I have seen we're from the u.s.

I could never throw that kind of money and have a hard time understanding it, I guess it's because it's art and unique

 

[Dislexus]

in this state they are legal to sell as long as a certain percentage of your sales are tobacco.
there is a cool shop that is family owned, they use a local blower, and are very cool people. unfortunately, the new law that passed said they have to sell a certain amount of tobacco to sell pipes, and they didn't sell any. It's still open but they cut down their glass selection by like 75%
if i buy anything, i try and buy it from them. the mom and dad that own it are hippies in their 60's. i love it when mom helps me, because its this nice old grey haired woman telling me how well certain pieces hit. she rules, a few times she's told me we aren't supposed to call them bongs or say what they are used for, but fuck'em.

I got a fix for their business man!!

From now on they're running a special, buy 1 pipe and get 1 free pack of cigarettes. Add the cost of a pack into the price tag on the pipes. If people bitch tell'em its because of the law change, and they can just give the cigs to a friend, everybody has at least 1 friend who smokes cigs.

And hey having tobacco in the inventory is another revenue stream... If cartons are cheaper like a tobacco shop should be, they can bring in foot traffic from a demographic that might buy pipes. There are a lot of cig smokers out there that just smoke Js when they smoke weed, or blunts.

In my area these people are making the switch to glass on a massive scale... Even gas stations are selling the fake weed and chinese pipes hand over fist.