Sold/Expired Ahorton's sales (Lenses, headlamps ...)

[MrSypher]

Re: Ahorton's sales (Lenses, screws, headlamps, connectors, Silicone grease and more)

Received my package, THANK YOU!!! :thumbsup:

 

[ahorton]

Re: Ahorton's sales (Lenses, screws, headlamps, connectors, Silicone grease and more)

Good to hear. Keep me informed of how you use it.

 

[WDP]

Just checking: Do your dropins have the M20x1.0mm threaded pill? You'll need them in order to use the spacer kits.

For best throw, you're actually better off with an XR-E R2 or XP-C Q4 (if you can keep it cool). The SST-50 and XM-L will give nice big beams, but they won't throw quite so far.

The emitters I bought off ebay and they seem to be M20.0 x 1.0mm as best as I can measure with my inch calipers. oo:

Looking on ebay, the XR-E emitters are all rated for ~250 - 300 lumens. Do you know if there are there any hot rod emitters that are putting out more lumens than that?

Ebay doesn't show any results when I type 'Surefire' and 'XP-C' in the search box. Can you recommend a source for those?

 

[ahorton]

If they look close to M20x1.0 then they are probably right.

Surefire won't have any XP-C products for you. I make mine from bare emitters (bought from Cutter) soldered onto copper or brass which is a bit of work.

Similarly if you want the best XR-E Emitters then you'll want to order from Cutter or another reputable source. I don't know any trustworthy Ebay sellers but you may get lucky. An XR-E can work acceptably on an MCPCB which saves a lot of effort and time.

DX sells all sorts of dropins. This is my preference among the budget suppliers but they do take a long time to ship. I like to buy their pills and put my own emitters and driver in. Then I know what I'm getting in terms of emitter bin and quality of thermal glue.

 

[ahorton]

Added this invitation to the first post:

International distributers welcome:

I like providing these lenses for the CPF community, but the cost and time it takes me to fill in the paperwork and wait in line at my local post office is a real killer. So I put the prices up a while ago and now it's really sad that what could be a $5 lens costs up to $35 for the buyer. I get a lot of messages from people who are put off by the price of a single lens.

So I'm welcoming international distributers/resellers. If anyone wants to buy a bulk batch and set themselves up as the local distributer then I'm happy to advertise them in this thread. You could have your own Paypal info and prices in a table next to my prices. I'll still offer my standard international shipping, but any local distributer would be able to significantly under cut my prices.

Example:
Someone in the US buys 100 lenses at $6 each. Allow $4 for local postage plus $10 for their time. The US distributer could then be selling a single lens shipped for $20 instead of my $35. This is a big price drop and will also arrive much quicker. In this example, there's a potential for $1000 profit from a $600 investment. Better than my bank is giving me! I sold about 500 of the 27.2mm lenses in the last year and most of them were to the US or Europe. So the market is there. If you can halve my prices then I expect you to sell even more. In fact I think the international postage costs from the US would mean you'd be competitive with my prices for just about anywhere other than Australia and New Zealand.

I'm open to suggestions on how you think it could work. Feel free to discuss the idea in this thread.

 

[ahorton]

las3r - sent me a PM about being a distributer, but I couldn't respond due to a full inbox.

So the response is here. The info may be relevent to others who would like to become distributers.


Hi,

Thanks for the interest. Basically what I'm offering, is a bit of advertising space in my thread for anyone who wants to buy in bulk and resell in their own country.

The biggest market is apparently in the US, and I think that a US seller could probably sell twice as many as me by undercutting my prices and offering much faster shipping.

So let me know if you're interested and what kind of quantity you want to start with. You get more profitable at higher quantities (naturally), but even as low as 20 lenses, you could still make it work. Once you make an order, you can decide what prices you want to sell them at and then let me know. I'll maintain the sales thread so if you ever want to change your paypal details, or prices just let me know.

For your own reputation you'll need to be ready to post lenses within a day or two of receiving the payments. When I go away for more than a few days I put a sign up telling people that lenses won't ship until I get back. It's also a good idea to have a decent stock so that you don't annoy people by being out-of-stock for long periods of time. For this reason I suggest starting with at least 50 lenses, but it's up to you. Price stability is important too.

At the moment I'm basically sold out of the P60 spacer kits. I might make some more around Feb next year and if you want you can resell them too.

Some final requests:
As a personal philosophy, I don't bump my sales threads unless I'm adding new information. There's enough of my lenses out there that they tend to advertise themselves.

As much as possible, I'd like to know where you end up selling them. Even if it's just info like: 4 to CPF member XXX, 2 to CPF member YYY and 8 to various non-CPF members. I just like to know where my babies end up!

Ashley

 

[Dodgeb3500]

Hi Ash, Wanted to let you know the package arrived in good shape today.
I have an XR-E R2 pill along with your kit installed in a Solarforce L2T head
on an L2P body and it's great...thanks!! I will post a few pics in the next few
days.

 

[ahorton]

Good to hear!

 

[DIWdiver]

I'd be willing to do it as a service to the US community. However, if anyone actually WANTS to do it, I'd happily step aside.

I'm thinking your suggestion of $10/lens + $10 shipping would work for me. Maybe $8 each for 5 or more, and large orders should still got to Ashley. I could order 100 pcs at a time. We'd have to discuss the specifics of stocking kits.

Give it a bit to see if anyone else bites, if not, let me know.

Don

 

[ahorton]

I'd be willing to do it as a service to the US community. However, if anyone actually WANTS to do it, I'd happily step aside.

I'm thinking your suggestion of $10/lens + $10 shipping would work for me. Maybe $8 each for 5 or more, and large orders should still got to Ashley. I could order 100 pcs at a time. We'd have to discuss the specifics of stocking kits.

Give it a bit to see if anyone else bites, if not, let me know.

Don

Thanks Don.

At the moment las3r is looking at trialing it to see how it goes. Personally I don't mind multiple distributers, but I doubt there's really room for 2 in the US.

I'll let you know if it doesn't go ahead.

 

[DIWdiver]

Agreed, no need for multiple distributors in the US.

 

[trout]

Hi Ash

I will have a go here in the UK as will be ordering 100 + after christmas ( hoping you have stock )
and can use some of my existing stock for now as not got the housings to put them in yet.

Troutie

 

[ahorton]

Thanks Troutie. PM sent.

Hi Ash

I will have a go here in the UK as will be ordering 100 + after christmas ( hoping you have stock )
and can use some of my existing stock for now as not got the housings to put them in yet.

Troutie

 

[H-nu]

Hello Ash,

PP sent for:
- four (4) kits;
- four (4) spare lenses; and,
- registered shipping upgrade.

Total $186 ( ID # 5XT45993XF479344H)

Thanks and have a good night!

Cheers,
Chris

 

[ahorton]

Thanks Chris.

I'll try to send them today.


... and that's the last of the P60 spacers!

If anyone else wants a spacer, then let me know and I'll start an interest list. If there's enough interest then I'll make a new batch of 50 or so.

 

[Dodgeb3500]

Ash, I would be interested in a few more spacer kits.

 

[ahorton]

Added drawing to first post.

 

[ahorton]

Just updated the first post because I found 3 more kits that have not been used. I think these were ones I had put aside for my own use, but I'm not planning to assemble any more P60 lights (I'm getting a little tired of them) for a while so I'm happy to sell them if anyone is keen.

More will be made next year (maybe Feb-April, I'm not sure yet) so don't worry that these are the last 3 ever. At this point I'm planning to make the next batch exactly the same. The machinist prices will probably go up a tiny bit with inflation, so the prices for the next batch might be $1 or $2 more, but I doubt it would be any more than that.

 

[ahorton]

Updated first post with a warning. Any orders received from Dec 23-Jan 2 may be delayed.

 

[ahorton]

I just spent a while in my post office complaining about the bad tracking on my last few packages. The bottom line is that Australia post's 'tracking' only goes as far as Australia's borders. This is pretty useless since it usually leaves Australia the day I post it. So all you get is confirmation that it was lodged on a certain day. So I'm sorry for those who (like me) assumed that tracking meant you got some real information. I guess it's just one more reason to have US and UK based distributers!

It turns out that the only postage options I can offer with real tracking are by courier and the cost is terrible.

I've updated the first post with this info.