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Vape cartridges vs shatter?

coldcanna

coldcanna

Active member
Veteran
Hi, at the expense of sounding stupid I have a question regarding products at dispensaries in Denver. If a gram of shatter goes for about $35, why is a .5g vape cartridge going for $55? I understand that there is a cost for the raw materials and labor of a cartridge, but twice the price for half the product seems crazy, unless my math is flawed here. Any explanation would be greatly appreciated.
 
Capt.Ahab

Capt.Ahab

Feeding the ducks with a bun.
Veteran
Convenience would be my first thought.
It's a value-added product.
Here you can buy good extract for $15-20.00/gram, in bulk.
Filled carts with approx. 1/2 gram in them sell at one for $50, two for $85.
 
Infinitesimal

Infinitesimal

my strength is a number, and my soul lies in every
ICMag Donor
Veteran
not to mention, it has to be cut w/ propylene glycol to fill and work in the cartridges... look it up. stuff is food safe for consumption but not so much for inhalation.

Id stick to the kind of vapes that you can load your own shatter/wax into and vape the pure stuff
 
Capt.Ahab

Capt.Ahab

Feeding the ducks with a bun.
Veteran
Some ceramic cartridges require no to very little cut but require a bit more voltage from the battery.
 
coldcanna

coldcanna

Active member
Veteran
I figured for that price there was some added potency or something. I mean the value added markup does make sense but on a commercial scale the VG/PG/terps plus cost of the disposable cartridges and labor may be worth $5-10 but at those prices your basically paying $100-110 for a gram of shatter which is absurd.
 
D

Digital Man

Member
Infinitesimal said:
not to mention, it has to be cut w/ propylene glycol to fill and work in the cartridges... look it up. stuff is food safe for consumption but not so much for inhalation.

Id stick to the kind of vapes that you can load your own shatter/wax into and vape the pure stuff
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with vaping oil cut with PG. It's fear mongering. Let's put it this way .......... there are 10 million active e-cig smokerrs in this country. These are people that are vaping hundreds of hits every day and the liquid they are vaping is about 90% PG. Nobody is dying let alone having any serious effects from that. Some people have an allergic reaction to PG and they then use a VG product. Compare that to a vape cart of concentrate that is going to have at most .... 50% PG and the user is going to be taking way less hits on it than an e-cig user would.
 
Infinitesimal

Infinitesimal

my strength is a number, and my soul lies in every
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Digital Man said:
Nothing wrong with vaping oil cut with PG. It's fear mongering. Let's put it this way .......... there are 10 million active e-cig smokerrs in this country. These are people that are vaping hundreds of hits every day and the liquid they are vaping is about 90% PG. Nobody is dying let alone having any serious effects from that. Some people have an allergic reaction to PG and they then use a VG product. Compare that to a vape cart of concentrate that is going to have at most .... 50% PG and the user is going to be taking way less hits on it than an e-cig user would.
Click to expand...

nah, I'm not fear mongering at all...

but its a fact that it has never been studied or approved by the FDA for inhalation and only considered safe as a food additive and people haven't been vaping e-juice for very long so really no one knows... and there are several reports of people having ear/nose and throat issues directly following their vaping of both e-juice and hashoil cartridges cut with PG. There are several articles written by doctors suggesting to avoid both nicotine e-juice & cannabis oil cartridges...

people can do whatever they want but should be informed of what they are putting into their bodies along with the known and unknown potential for adverse effects... and I know for a fact most smokers off the street don't know their cannabis cartridges are being cut.

regardless, I want to vape something pure for the flavor and potency, and to the OPs topic... it shouldn't be that much more expensive (twice the cost for half the amount)... especially seeing how it is cut with PGs and sometimes non-cannabis derived terpenes.
 
D

Digital Man

Member
Infinitesimal said:
nah, I'm not fear mongering at all...

but its a fact that it has never been studied or approved by the FDA for inhalation and only considered safe as a food additive and people haven't been vaping e-juice for very long so really no one knows... and there are several reports of people having ear/nose and throat issues directly following their vaping of both e-juice and hashoil cartridges cut with PG. There are several articles written by doctors suggesting to avoid both nicotine e-juice & cannabis oil cartridges...

people can do whatever they want but should be informed of what they are putting into their bodies along with the known and unknown potential for adverse effects... and I know for a fact most smokers off the street don't know their cannabis cartridges are being cut.

regardless, I want to vape something pure for the flavor and potency, and to the OPs topic... it shouldn't be that much more expensive (twice the cost for half the amount)... especially seeing how it is cut with PGs and sometimes non-cannabis derived terpenes.
Click to expand...

People have been vaping PG in e-cigs for nearly 10 years now and in 10X the quantities a cannabis user would. There's plenty of data already. If it caused problems, e-cig userrs would be coming down with serious health problems by now. It isn't happening except for the small minority of people that suffer an allergic reaction to PG and simply switch to VG.

It amuses me when cannabis vape users start claiming PG is some sort of evil byproduct yet completely ignore the fact they are inhaling significant amounts of pesticides ....... which are far, far worse for you then any amount of PG you are inhaling.

Sorry to get on my soapbox ....... I was in the e-cig industry when it first came out and I've heard it all.
 
Infinitesimal

Infinitesimal

my strength is a number, and my soul lies in every
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Digital Man said:
People have been vaping PG in e-cigs for nearly 10 years now and in 10X the quantities a cannabis user would. There's plenty of data already. If it caused problems, e-cig userrs would be coming down with serious health problems by now. It isn't happening except for the small minority of people that suffer an allergic reaction to PG and simply switch to VG.

It amuses me when cannabis vape users start claiming PG is some sort of evil byproduct yet completely ignore the fact they are inhaling significant amounts of pesticides ....... which are far, far worse for you then any amount of PG you are inhaling.

Sorry to get on my soapbox ....... I was in the e-cig industry when it first came out and I've heard it all.
Click to expand...

I hear ya, but really 10 years of being in use is nothing really... and its never been studied scientifically, but its all good. People should just know what their ingesting and that there are unknowns. And the pesticide thing is the main reason I prefer to smoke my own especially when it comes to concentrates (that and the stuff made with cheap canned butane). I Just wish people were more well informed about what they are smoking whether it be hash/flowers w/ pesticide residue or hash oil carts w/ PG


beyond that, the issue and topic at hand is cutting the oil and then charging a bunch more for it on top of that. From a consumer point of view, I would rather get more bang for my buck, but not every smoker cares and the carts work fine for them I'm sure... and they support the company they like, which is in business to make dough... so in the end the market will speak for itself. .

again, all good. *gets down from his soap box too*
 
D

Digital Man

Member
Infinitesimal said:
I hear ya, but really 10 years of being in use is nothing really... and its never been studied scientifically, but its all good. People should just know what their ingesting and that there are unknowns. And the pesticide thing is the main reason I prefer to smoke my own especially when it comes to concentrates (that and the stuff made with cheap canned butane). I Just wish people were more well informed about what they are smoking whether it be hash/flowers w/ pesticide residue or hash oil carts w/ PG


beyond that, the issue and topic at hand is cutting the oil and then charging a bunch more for it on top of that. From a consumer point of view, I would rather get more bang for my buck, but not every smoker cares and the carts work fine for them I'm sure... and they support the company they like, which is in business to make dough... so in the end the market will speak for itself. .

again, all good. *gets down from his soap box too*
Click to expand...

Regarding the issue and topoic at hand .......... when Open-Vape introduced the first cartridge back in 2012/2013, it was cut with PG and tested out at about 18-20% THC. They sold hundreds of thousands of these weak-ass units per month once they rolled out in Calif. from Colorado. They were priced at $30-$40 retail and the public could not get enough of them. That became the benchmark for cartridge pricing and it really hasn't changed much since. Of course taxes have gone up quite a bit since 2012 not to mention regulatory issues increasing costs .... but the bottom line is $30-$40 was the entry price for the light beer version of cartridges and it's still that PLUS some today.
 
Drewsif

Drewsif

Member
Those wax pens are the money maker. A stupid trend.. The wax is the lowest grade they can get..

Wax carts are the "would you like a 5 dollar drink with that popcorn?" of the dispensary world.

Theatre drink full of ice.
 
P

Prime_Extracts

New member
I believe most Vape cartridges these days are raw distillate mixed with terpenes, no PG needed. And as for the price difference, well you have to consider all the extra equipment, supplies and time that will be required to process your regular concentrates into distillate cartridges.
 
D

Digital Man

Member
Prime_Extracts said:
I believe most Vape cartridges these days are raw distillate mixed with terpenes, no PG needed. And as for the price difference, well you have to consider all the extra equipment, supplies and time that will be required to process your regular concentrates into distillate cartridges.
Click to expand...

This is true ... most is distillate and it does take quite a bit of extra processing and that means money. Back in the day when one could simply take a BHO extract and mix it with a bit of PG to get it to work in a cartridge, it was far cheaper to produce and was a far better tasting product. Didn't have to winterize back then (I blame closed-loop extracting on the necessity for that these days) .... and the terps were not lost in the process. Yeah the stuff was dark and you couldn't see through it but it tasted like the flower it came from.
 
P

p0opstlnksal0t

Active member
Down south in the BM cartridges run 35 bucks and bulk pricing is about 20 bucks. A processor actually loses money on them down there when comparing good indoor pricing is at 2-2200 a bow
 
N

NugarifiK

New member
Infinitesimal said:
not to mention, it has to be cut w/ propylene glycol to fill and work in the cartridges... look it up. stuff is food safe for consumption but not so much for inhalation.

Id stick to the kind of vapes that you can load your own shatter/wax into and vape the pure stuff
Click to expand...
Pens don't require PG. You can just as easily cut with terpenes.
 
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