Well, if you want authentic, the used market is a good place to go. I used to go on Facebook to find used bridges, but most of the time you’re buying them at Cost. Plus shipping depending on how luxurious they are. I guess there’s a lot of new bridges out that are more affordable, but 2-4 years ago you’d be spending well over 100 dollars USD for one. Atmizoo was the first real company to produce some affordable options, I owned 3 of them at one point, it was called the VapeShell… It was pretty good, easy to build on, not sure if they make them. Just give Atmizoo a search.
I always preferred to support the guys who designed it and for the most part, they’re small batch hence the used price being close to retail value. There was usually a list, for instance I think I was up at 2am or 3am to get on the list for a CHANCE to buy an RBA from either Filipino or Malaysian, not sure.
A lot seem to have airflow pins, so you can tailor your hole to however you want to suck on it. I prefer DL, somewhat restricted, so opt for larger pins… Hellfire Attysmith makes the one I use the most, which would be called the Exocet V2, really nice RBA that one, fool proof.
There’s other RBAs and I think that people clued in that you could make more money if you made them accessible, so the one I’m quite curious about was featured on Vapin’ Bogan’s channel, it’s PCTG Boro with RBA deck built into it, called the Vision RBA.
What drives most people away from it are the boros I find, but I learned as I was branching away from Chinese stuff or clones is that you pay what you get for, SXK (Chinese) Boros, the seal will fall out, or perhaps you have to fuck around getting the hole at the bottom to seal, so getting an authentic one is pricey and sometimes not easily accessible if you get your milk straight from the Cow (billetbox official). But there are alteratives.
The thing with Billet Boxes specifically, is the condensation. You have airflow out the side and depending on the doors you buy, which is a whole other deal in itself. You’re going to get condensation inside, there’s things to remedy that, but it can be sticky at times depending on how much you puff on that thing.
As it becomes more popular, which I see that it has, people are jumping on, but for me, I’m a machining nerd so I guess I just liked seeing what spending that extra money got you and often times if people weren’t happy with the quality the vendor would replace. This is why I liked the crowd, but at least on facebook some guys are real scummy when it comes to deals and things like that, then there’s elitist snobby types which was enough for me to get out.
It’s quite the rabbit hole with accessories though, there’s flush nuts, drip tips, doors, glass for the boro(s), etc… Some people treat trading and selling these as a part time job, because there’s money to be made, especially on stuff that’s pretty hard to get or rare.
SXK is affordable for the Billet Box itself, but there’s quite a bit of quality that comes with authentics, they feel more substantial I guess, little more weighty, the paint years ago was a powder coat and the newer models are a chemical resistant cerakote. Most parts are interchangeable, the threading should be the same and the boros will fit.
If you do buy used, get vouches and then vouches of vouches. I sold an 2019 RPG (Royal Purple Grey) to a fellow and I had taken pictures to show a scratch on the top, the guy claimed that he didn’t see any proof of that and I was essentially scammed out of a 400 dollar setup, so pay attention to names, look at post history and if doing deals, ask others if they’ve dealt with the person.
I got burned buying one as well, I bought one with defects, so I got a deal, but I also purchased what was supposed to be an Authentic bridge and Boro, when getting it I was instantly blocked and couldn’t pull up the peculiar fellows name. That cost me 500 to get a dinged up Orange Billet Box and some SXK stuff. So tread with caution…
Good RBAs I’ve bought:
For a restricted DL, but kinda tricky to wick: Heir RBA
Budget but Quality: I’d go for Atmizoo Vapeshell, the newer styles have airflow pins, but I preferred to use coil placement.
For Ease of use: Exocet V2, this has been my favourite so far, I’ve used about 5 in my time and this one is great, there’s more assembly required, but dead simple to wick and the flavour is great. Excellent DL.
Truss: I didn’t care for this one at all, I found that the posts were tight to the chimney section and if you didn’t get your clippers right in there you’d have a short. Maybe I wasn’t careful enough, but most thought out once have a bit of a step on the Pos/Neg posts to avoid that issue. Super cheap, a new one costs about as much as any Chinese RDA.
There’s one or two others, but I’m zonked out on my anxiety pills
It’s exactly what I used to do.