Why do the prices of glass bongs vary so much?

The price of a glass bong can be anywhere from $30 to many thousands of dollars, in-fact glass bongs have sold for over $100,000.00.

So what is the difference? Well there are a combination of factors such as where the bong is made, who made the bong and does the bong have any collector value.

Budget Bongs

Typically budget bongs are massed produced in countries like China. They are made to a price and for basic functionality. They have little or no collector value, they won't appreciate in value and the quality and function can be at the lower end.

This is not to say there is anything wrong with budget bongs, it just means that they exist for a different reason to high end bongs.

The upside of budget bongs is obvious, their price. If you break a budget bong it is not the end of the world and for a lot of people it more than suits their purpose. 

The downside of budget bongs is that probably not much research has gone into their design and therefore functionality can vary greatly. This doesn't make a lot of difference with a simple beaker but can mean that a budget bong with complicated percolators may drag too much, splash or just not function as well as some others.

Another downside is quality, you just can't expect the same level of quality from a mass produced budget bong as you can from a hand made high end bong. The glass may have imperfections, welds may not be perfect and the glass may not be annealed to reduce internal stresses. This can be hit or miss.

High End Bongs

Typically more expensive bongs are made in the USA, Germany or Australia, they may also be made in other countries though. 

They are generally made by hand, are designed to function well, use quality glass and are properly annealed and treated.

As price goes up you get into higher quality brands that not only make very high quality bongs but they also are innovators in the industry and employ artisans that not only create highly functional bongs but also very beautiful ones as well.

Most very high quality brands, like Sovereignty, Mobius, Mothership, Toro etc also have a high demand and low volume. So often these products are very hard to get with people sometimes willing to pay over retail to get their hands on a second hand piece. 

Some high end bongs are also so desirable that they even appreciate in value and therefore can be seen as an investment.

Heady Glass

Heady glass refers to glass that has an artistic value. This means that no matter how nice a mass produced bong is, it isn't heady. 

Heady glass culture has seen glass artists become huge names in the industry and the price of their work reflect this.

Names like Buck, Jake C, Elbo, Slinger, Banjo, Phil Siegel, AKM, Coyle, Jred, Nate Miers, Salt and many more are legitimate artists that have their products shown in the top galleries. These people produce art that is very desirable and highly collectable. 

Artists like this can produce their own glass bongs but they can also collaborate with high end scientific glass companies (like sovereignty) to produce bongs that are highly collectable and with a price tag that matches.