Good hookah for the price
You could say that, as with many things in life, you get what you pay for in a hookah. Having seen a bunch of negative reviews on hookahs which seem to be from the same company as this, I was aware of potential quality control issues. As such I ordered from a site other than Amazon, which I've had good dealings with in the past and which I knew would handle any issues I had, but as it turns out it was unnecessary. Either I got lucky or this hookah company suffers from a lot of bad press, because while it's not something you'd find in the Louvre (visible seams, uneven frosting on the glass base, tool-marks on the lathe-cut metal stem, industry-standard ugly finish on the wooden hose grips, cosmetic marks on the tray, so on and so forth), it is reasonably air-tight (minor problem with a tiny leak where the hose ports connect to the stem; I sealed it, or tried to, with epoxy), and quite pretty glasswork despite it not being executed perfectly. Basically, it's a good hookah for what you're paying for. Don't expect perfection, but if you want it to smoke and look good to the average joe, this is a great hookah for you. Oh, and one final note, the other hookahs that come with cases on this site are basically from the same manufacturer from what I can tell (they send a small flier with the purchase showing pictures of them). The people who leave reviews saying they can't get these back into the case are morons, because it packs up nicely if you have any spatial awareness at all. Does need to be dismantled a bit (hoses removed, stem removed, downstem separated, bowl removed) but it's not like it'll take you more than thirty seconds to put it back together again. They actually pack it into the case for shipping, along with some air bags to keep things from moving around, so there's plenty of room in there to get it all back in.<br /><br />tl;dr You're paying forty bucks, fifty with shipping. That's definitely a fair price for this, just don't compare it to a hookah that costs a hundred plus. Moderately handy people can fix most issues with it. Play a little Tetris and putting it away is a snap.
Rating: 4 stars