Are you able to find top LED flashlight brands in stores near you(except Surefire)?

HighlanderNorth

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If not for finding this site, I'd be completely unaware of all of the better name LED flashlight brands, because I dont see any of them in any stores around the tri state area where I live. I can go to one of the gun stores and find Surefire lights there, and I can go to Home Depot/Lowes and find mid-grade Coast/LED Lenser lights, along with brands of cheaper lights like Stanley and whatever else.

But I have never seen any of the other brands anywhere around here. I went into our local large camping/backpacking store and all they have are headlamps made by Petzl and Princeton Tek. Maybe Black Diamond, but no LED flashlights aside from cheap ones.

There are stores in some towns that sell them, like Goinggear in Ga has a physical store you can go into and buy lots of brands of LED lights, but that doesnt exist around here that I am aware of, and I live in between Philly, Wilmington DE, Baltimore, etc. There's probably some small specialty store in the city that I am unaware of, like in Philly where I dont go all that often.

Do you have stores that sell these brands of lights in your area?(aside from Surefire, Streamlight)

Why dont these brands make the effort to expand their business from just selling in a few online stores to a limited crowd, to advertising and selling in walk-in stores like better dept stores or camping stores, outdoor stores, etc? Like major chains in other words.... I guess they are mostly pretty new, and maybe they will do that eventually, but it doesnt seem to be happening yet....
 

Sintro

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Only brand I really see is Dorcy at Sports Authority. But that's a great brand for non flashoholics because they require only standard batteries, and are lower powered so they don't need as much metal, and are therefore pretty cheap.
 

Grizzman

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The only higher end light that I've ever seen in a local store has been Surefire. I was in an REI camping store a couple times, and I think they may have had Fenix in addition to Surefire, but I was visiting another state.

Every light I've purchased since my 2D Maglites of 20 plus years ago have been sourced from the Internet......and the only one I'd actually ever touched before I owned it was my first 6P.

Grizz
 

harro

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Much the same in Aus. Everyone seems to have a few LL's, but i have'nt come across any shopfront stores that sell only torches and associated paraphanalia ( batts, chargers, etc. ). We do have a reasonable number of excellent O/L stores that have plenty of choices though. Sometimes, you may come across an outdoors store that has Mags. and possibly an Olight or two, but thats about it. If anyone else in Aus. has found somewhere, lets know.
 

Erzengel

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In Germany we have Led Lenser and Maglites in many stores. Led Lenser German company with Chinese production. Globetrotter, the largest German outdoor retailer, sells Fenix, Lupine, Spark and of course MagLite. They also tried to sell Surefire, but i think they were too expensive and tactical for the German market.
Many military equipment stores sell some name brand flashlights.
 

Norm

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The local camping shop has some JetBeam at exorbitant prices, as well as overpriced 18650s and chargers.

Norm
 

ZMZ67

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Target used to carry INOVA in their stores but they have stopped now and there is a gun/sporting goods store not the far away from me that has a few different brands but limited selection,mostly SF.I haven't had any luck finding anything else but the standard fare and I am always on the lookout.I believe better brands are just too expensive for the average consumer and even if they are looking for a "quality" flashlight they are likely to think that something from Mag,Energizer or some other well known brand is the best bet.It's probably hard to convince most retailers to carry lights that retail in the $40+ price range unless they sell to the LE market and even then they will probably go with SF or Streamlight.Fenix seems to have developed some following so maybe they will be able to get into retail B&M stores but I am skeptical.Likely we will be ordering online for a while unless you happen to be lucky enough to live near places like Going Gear,Lighthound etc.
 
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tam17

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Can easily find almost whole product range of Jetbeam and Fenix (also some models from Solarforce, Nextorch, Inova, Mag and Lenser). No S-F though, as they're not oficially represented here. Nice choice, considering that I live in Serbia, but prices here are completely different story!

Cheers
 
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Teufelhund

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They seem to be plentiful around here if you know where to look(mostly gun stores).
At various places I've seen lights by Fenix, 4Sevens, Pelican, Innova, Elzetta, Olight, Jetbeam and of course LOTS of Surefire and Mag.
There also used to be a guy who worked flea markets around here on weekends. He must have had 3 or 4 of every model and sub-model Ultrafire ever made, incandescent and LED.
 

Xacto

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In Germany we have Led Lenser and Maglites in many stores. Led Lenser German company with Chinese production. Globetrotter, the largest German outdoor retailer, sells Fenix, Lupine, Spark and of course MagLite. They also tried to sell Surefire, but i think they were too expensive and tactical for the German market.
Many military equipment stores sell some name brand flashlights.

And even the gun stores switched to Fenix and Led Lenser and dropped Surefire. I suspect a very good marketing department/importer, price differences and older stocks of incan Surefires that lost at the sales counter when compared to newer and cheaper LED lights.

Although I do have a very good online shop with super-swift delivery at hand (mostly within 24h), I nonetheless would sometimes love to come home after a saturday afternoon shooping tour with yet another new flashlight.

Cheers
Thorsten
 

luciferous

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Same issue here in UK with actual physical stores but there are a couple of very good on line stores based in the UK so postage is a bit cheaper . Still it's not quite the same as being able to handle the lights and get a proper feel for them. having said that I'd rarely purchase anything without checking one of the excellent and thorough reviews by the likes of selfbuilt or turbo
 

Swedpat

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Ledlenser and Maglite are almost everywhere, Gerber also quite common. One store carried Fenix E20 some year ago. But apart from that there are usually only junklights.
 

bushmattster

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If Wallyworld doesn't have it, then it doesn't exist in my town. 25 miles away I can find a small selection SF and Streamlight. 40 miles away a few Fenix, 4sevens etc. SF's are losing ground to the chinese lights around here. The SF selections are getting smaller because of price. The gun stores are trying to stay with SF but the average Joe isn't going to pay that much, and the other cheaper lights start creeping in. It's a shame that it cost so much to buy American made products, but that's another topic all together.
 

HotWire

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There's one gun store about 10 mile away that sells SureFire lights. I've not seen any other of the *famous* brands anywhere near.
 

Echo63

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I can find led Lenser and maglite stuff at nearly every outdoor shop I go to.
most dive shops sell Underwater Kinetics.
and there is one shop in the city (20 min drive away) that has surefire, fenix, jetbeam, streamlight, pelican and a few others.
they still seem to push the Led Lensers though
All the local stores are overpriced

Actually - CPFMarketplace is on the computer in my house - that's pretty close !
I can get a wide assortment of lights, for reasonable prices from hobbyists like myself who know what they are talking about.

I buy most of my lights online these days - the last 2 were from CPFMP
 
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Croquette

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Here in Belgium (Brussels) there is a small cutlery (do not know if I may give the address) that sell some Fénix light and CR123 batteries... but that's all.

You will only find mag or crappy led flashlight...
 

jonnyfgroove

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I have an REI close by in Berkeley and they have a decent amount of good lights. Surefire, Fenix, and all kinds of head lamps. Priced reasonably too.
 
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harro

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A couple of years ago, i was quoted $799.00 ( !!! ) for a LL X21 from a very well known Aus. surplus shop. Needless to say it stayed right there. If you've done your homework, and know what you want, O/L stores round here will get them to you within 24 hours. Still nothing like going into a shop and actually looking at what you want though. Nothing like picking them up and trying them out.
 
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