Hey CrayJay and welcome to the nexus!
I am hoping to shed some light on your questions about "dabbing" and vaporization of DMT.
The sight you linked is indeed a good website to find reasonably priced pieces of glass. That being said, there are probably thousands of similar sites, not to mention all of the stores across the world. Because of this there is not really a universal "best" piece. In general there are a few things that matter when looking at new glass:
1. What type of joint does it have? (10,14 or 18mm/ Male or Female)
2. What type of percolation does it have?
3. How quality is this glass?
Almost every single rig I have came across has either a 10, 14 or 18mm joint. These are not exact dimensions (i think it is 14.5 and 18.9) that is how they are commonly referred to. Male or female refers to the direction of the joint. If you put a nail or bowl inside of it than it is female. (These are usually sold as water pipes for tobacco) If you put the nail or bowl over the joint than it is male. (These are usually sold for concentrates. The main reason for this, in my research, is because titanium expands when heated. If you put a TI nail inside a joint and then heat it up to take a dab there is a small chance that the metal will expand too much and crack the glass. Because of this I always look for male joints or buy adapters so that I am never putting a nail directly into my rig.
Percolation has been discussed a lot above and I won't go into much detail. I have seen many different opinions but a lot of people seem to think more percolation means less DMT getting through while others think it makes no difference. Either way you will not need or want more than one perc. The triple and quads are pretty cool but very impractical and usually far more expensive.
As for the last question this is where price will make a
big difference. Most glass online from sites like DHGate are selling glass made in china. A lot of these are made with molds and all of it is made with cheaper more brittle glass. I personally would recommend going into your local smoke shop and trying to find something there if you can afford it. Although you may have to pay upwards of $100 more for american made glass you will most definitely be able to tell the difference. When properly annealed glass is VERY strong. I can throw my pipe down my driveway and it will be just fine. The best example I can give is for anyone who has seen chinese glass break. It shatters into hundreds of thousands of pieces even when dropped from very low. American glass, when made properly, will not break and if it does it does not shatter like that. It usually just cracks. For me this is well worth spending and extra hundred dollars or more, not to mention I get to support local glass artists! :thumb_up:
In short, get whatever you can afford and make sure ahead of time that your nail or slide will fit the joint properly. You are going to get what you paid for and sometimes cheap is better when other times you want something that will last a long time.
Hope this was helpful! Let me know if I can clear anything else up or if I need to clear up what I just wrote. :d