Sometimes it's not worth the hassle!

[Monocrom]

Why spend time to convince someone that flashlights are worth spending hundreds/thousands of $$$ ???

They have their opinion, we have ours... But if they want to BORROW our "$3" flashlight for something, then - heck no !!! Buy your own HDS HI-CRI ROTARY for $3 where you just said they have...

Yup. One of the reasons why I generally have my older, least expensive lights scattered about my apartment. If a neighbor wants to borrow a light, I just reach for the nearest one. Makes life easier. Plus, if folks just assume that your lights are as cheap as the ones they'd buy, they're not likely at all to take care of any borrowed light.

 

[Samy]

This is why loaners are a good idea. My local supermarket had 4D Maglight blister packs on sale for $15 a year ago, you know, the ones with the 4 duracells with it? Anyway i keep one at home, one in the car and one at work to loan out. They're pretty tough, other people think they're 'awesome' and they're hard to lose. I don't use them at all and use my 'proper' lights, but as loaners the 4D's are hard to beat.

The only way to explain to someone why your light is so costly and/or better is AFTER they have used their cheap light. Once they have "set the benchmark" with their own cheap light only then can you turn on your flashlight and proceed to dramatically raise the bar Often it's best in a completely dark loacation too

I raised the bar with my dad last year when i bought him an XPG R5 Quark last year to replace his 4D maglight and then again last night when i whipped out my neutral XML Quark to show him the the differences. The XML Quark raised the bar

cheers

 

[mohanjude]

I can add even more to this scenario! I was finishing up the wiring tonight, this is on the main floor of the house, the bathroom floor has been taken out. I was on an eight foot step ladder on plywood, my flashlight on top of the step ladder. We've all been there and done that. I knocked the light off and down to the basement it went, landing on the concrete floor. The home owner, "Well, that lights done!" He goes down to get it, it's still on and working normally. I'm not surprised at all, my old Novatac took harder drops than that, but he's just blown away! "I can't believe that thing still works!" "Yeah, that's why I bough a $120 flashlight, it WORKS!" He has a different opinion of it after that!

I totally agree with you.. I collect flashlights and because I usually end up trying to justify them to my colleagues / friends I have had many unkind remarks. I normally dismiss them as just off the cuff remarks of the non-enlightened brigade. That was until one of them pointed out that I could buy 100 cheap flashlights ($20 cheap?) and throw them out of the 4th floor and pick another one ... 99 to go.. (sort of disposable) for the price I had paid for one custom flashlight - (this was when I showed my $2k Tri-V and they had a look of horror and disgust that I have never seen before.) I am sure you get my point. I realise custom flashlights are again another league but flashlight collecting is a disease in my mind.

Their arguement is that it is just as easy to buy several cheap lights and use it until it does not serve its purpose rather than invest heavily in expensive flashlights. Sometimes I think that I have convinced myself to a point where I am deluded.

I look at other forum members who not only buy 1 such custom $2k flashlight but have 5 -6 of the same customs at $2k each with dififerent emiters, titium vials etc..

Bottom line .. I don't discuss the price of anything that I hold in my hand if it is not available at the local shop. It doesn' make sense to anybody else and I am also not sure it makes sense to me either anymore (tritium can do that)

 

[Monocrom]

I totally agree with you.. I collect flashlights and because I usually end up trying to justify them to my colleagues / friends I have had many unkind remarks. I normally dismiss them as just off the cuff remarks of the non-enlightened brigade. That was until one of them pointed out that I could buy 100 cheap flashlights ($20 cheap?) and throw them out of the 4th floor and pick another one ... 99 to go.. (sort of disposable) for the price I had paid for one custom flashlight - (this was when I showed my $2k Tri-V and they had a look of horror and disgust that I have never seen before.) I am sure you get my point. I realise custom flashlights are again another league but flashlight collecting is a disease in my mind.

Their arguement is that it is just as easy to buy several cheap lights and use it until it does not serve its purpose rather than invest heavily in expensive flashlights. Sometimes I think that I have convinced myself to a point where I am deluded.

Nope! You're right. They're wrong. Screw them.

 

[kaichu dento]

I had a customer ask if there was a flashlight there was a flashlight he could borrow to look for his wife's glove the other night and I asked if he had a couple hundred, to which he laughed and responded with a "No". I handed him my orange hCRI Clicky and told him "Really" and gave him a look of trust as I handed him the light. When they got back in a few minutes later they both said "Thank you very much", and that was enough for me.

I like people even if they don't understand me, share the same values or hobbies and I have little use for snobbery or cliques of any sort just because someone doesn't understand why I bought something they wouldn't have.

 

[Toohotruk]

While I believe in paying for quality, I usually don't tell too many people about how many expensive lights I have, nor do I usually tell them how much they cost...when I do, they usually think I'm an idiot (maybe I am), and really just don't get it. Sometimes I don't even really get it, I mean, just how many $100+ flashlights are really needed? Yet I find myself drooling over new lights all the time, and have way more lights of that price range than I dare count. It is getting to the point where a new light has to be pretty special before I'll get one...sad part is, all I have to do is click around this forum long enough and I WILL find a new light that is special enough that I really need. It's definitely a sickness. :shakehead

On the practical side, I KNOW that quality tools will make the job easier and safer for the most part. Sure you can often get away with using cheap no-name tools, but there's nothing worse than having a crappy tool either fail, or even damage whatever it is you're working on...then you have to spend more money to fix/replace the parts/material your working on, as well as buy another tool to finish the job. If you've never used quality tools, you don't know what you're missing.

 

[someguy4747]

Well, I was talking to a female coworker about my new HDS Rotary. I was explaining why it was so nice and unique. She thought they were all valid points. I did not tell her the price but said it was over $100. I also told her it had a lifetime warranty. I then admitted that I was slightly embarrassed about spending so much. She said, "It sounds like that is one heck of a light and that is what you like. I have a lot of pairs of shoes that cost over $100 dollars and none of them came with lifetime warranties." That is when I decided not to feel embarrassed about it any more.

 

[eh4]

so there you have it.
nice flashlights make at least as much sense as nice shoes.

 

[Illum]

I got into CPF because I was sick of low quality stuff from brick and mortar stores. For most people here lights are a mix of hobby and utility. I'm an electrician so my tools are tested and used daily. Good tools make a difference in the time it takes to do a job and the way your day plays out. Cheap tools are ok for fumbling around at home but they will ruin your day if you need to use them constantly

Heh, dad was just annoyed by the constantly changing inventory, buying using then selling. He had convinced everynd in the house to tell me I'm wasting time and money going from
2006 EDC: Inova XO[2] with a purple tint
Inova XO3
Streamlight Jr.
Fenix L2P [sold]
...
Surefire L4 [sold]
Surefire E2e [sold]
Surefire E2L
Surefire M3
Surefire M3T [sold]
Surefire M6 [sold]
Surefire E1e
...
Surefire L4, modded with a WW CREE MCE
Fenix P1 modded with a high CRI SSC... which was about here that dad blew up. He wants to see no more new lights for as long as I live in the house. In retrospect, had I stayed with my cream white L4 back in 2007, I might have saved about $3000, for I EDC only a fraction of what I buy, and the many that I buy failed to achieve its intended effect. It was not making usage any more convenient. In fact most multi-mode lights puts more frustration in my life, simple click on, click off would do. I hope the L4-MCE + 17670 will stay its course as my EDC, for the last two years I didn't buy anything else significant. In dad's words, a hobby is only a reasonable investment if it is productive. All else you can forget about it while your living in my house.

If you found the improvement useful? great! Me? ignore me.

 

[sawlight]

Sorry Illum, but I guess I'm a "big boy" now. 43 and been married over 18 years, I have to justify my purchases with my wife, not normally a hard sale as my "tools" earn their keep and help pay the bills. But in my world she may come home to a skid steer or a wheel loader in the driveway, me being gone for four days to fix a house. I'm a man, not a proud one! I can plumb, I can side, I can wire, I can fix hydraulic problems, I can rebuild engines and I've done many an engine swap in the driveway. I'm a well rounded individual, and while I can't do as much as I used to (broken back a year and half ago) it's still never a dull moment in my neighborhood!

 

[Tana]

Hm... there's like 2-3 of the same threads floating around now here...

I have 3-4 lego setups from Surefire parts and custom parts that are between $300-400 range... my most expensive flashlight that's not lego P60 is LX2 my wife is using now... I generally don't care what others think about my hobbies as I can find at least 3-4 things about them that will prove they are wasting money on something THEY like... getting into argument with them is just tiring... they might be impressed with the fact that I have 4-5 inch light that puts out 1000 lumens but that's it... it sure doesn't create any satisfactory in ME to know that they are impressed... I like ME to be impressed with these things...

Wish I had this curse for flashlights 7-8 years ago as I can see I missed quite a few cool things in the past in custom sector...