Equal quality bong will cost the same. RooR isn't even that expensive. Ehle and illedelph cost almost the same.
Back when I had time to smoke I alternated between three different roors as my daily drivers. Money well spent imo. Will china glass at half the price get the job done? Sure it will. But it will never compete with how nice it feels to smoke out of a roor, illly or any other high end piece. you get what you pay for.
Roor was good 25 years ago, but you can get an exact bong for $50, maybe even cheaper, although glass type and joints won't be as clean or pure. I paid $400 for my mobius, but because it hits so well. Everyone likes using it. I was all about the $40 bongs til I hit my friends collection of higher end bongs and loved the mobius and bought one.
Would these other brands.. break? Would Roor not? Is it a customer service issue? (I say that jokingly but have seen people use that as an excuse). Is it the psychological reasoning that drives people to buy what was considered by some to be the "best" based on "brand name" popularity as a status symbol?
No quality glass is built better and held to higher standards. Plus like the other guy said my more expensive pieces just hit better.
No it's not. Things that are built better and to stricter standards tend to work better than their cheaper counterparts.
So you can tell the difference in the smoke between Roor and a different company that makes the same rig to the same specs?
That's the thing, it wouldn't be the same specs. The quality doesn't even come close when looking at fakes. They don't care about quality, they just care about selling the most at the cheapest price. I'm done arguing over this though. I'll keep using my Roor's and you use what you like.
I've owned my RooR for about 25 years and it is still in the daily line-up. I've had a bunch of cheaper chinese glass and most of it has broken or doesn't get brought out and used. I think it is a mix of quality glass and the fact that people will take better care of something they spent a decent amount of money on. When you have a piece that is going on 30 years of use it kind of evens out the cost. Goes with the old saying "I'm too poor to buy cheap"
I purchased a Black Leaf “Ganesha Rising” (black) on sale from Grass City and it’s beautiful and functions perfectly. They had a better sale shortly after I received mine so I bought one for my best friends for Christmas. The shipping charges were much better from Amsterdam than direct from Germany. They now seem to have a lot of inventory in the US as well.
I think what we’re actually hearing is that for some folks, status enhances the pleasure of using a particular high quality piece. Is it measurable or even provable? Not really. But that doesn’t mean it’s not real for those people.
