I don't see your question but I do have three explanations either of which or in combination may answer your question. Note that theres an increase in the level of complexities as you go down the list, I apologize for the long letter, I do not have the time to write a short one.
Explanation 1:
This is the same question one would ask in the luxeon era why single watt lights were marketed as 7 watters yes? they call it 700lumen when in reality they may not peak 100 lumen?
Its just marketing...as with runtimes also. Its best to read reviews before buying a light nowadays, same with big things like cars, planes, boats, and small things like rubbers
Explanation 2:
Many here [me included] have impulse buys on occasion, who would also understand that in such a competitive marketing selling MSRP prices on CpFM is shooting yourself in the foot, so in exchange for speed some prices are marked lower?
It could also be a marketing issue. bladeheads here know that there's no perfect knife that works for every task, same goes with flashlights. While the ads may be very convincing once you as a end user starts using it then it becomes very clear whether or not it is suited for the application you have in mind.
Custom builders do one of two things
1: Building to spec customized by the buyer, often to ensure that the light will perform exactly as the buyer expects
2: Making limited runs, when quantity drops, prices increase sharply, naturally to compensate for the troubles in manufacturing.
Before we became enlightened folks we lived in perpetual darkness welding our feeble solitaires and minimags in the night. At that time I'm not someone who would prioritize funds on flashlights, therefore my limits were in the $20s...at max $40. Over time, [2-3 years] I began to realize that $40 is really a lowest limit to buy a decent light.
No matter how long I've been exposed to the increasing prices for lights though, anything over $300 is still too much to bear, hence any light I've managed to acquire valued over $300 has a tendency to be kept while other...more fluidly priced lights...have been sold. Same goes for certain custom lights such as McGizmo's lights, Muyshondt's lights, Milkys, etc...with the exception of people like donn_ who I guess is profit-motivated enough to open sell threads for rare lights alone. In this economy though, such acts should be strictly for either the foolish or the brave
Now before we consider the success of custom modders we have to establish a center line here, the concept is arbitrary, but it should clarify certain things for easier identification. If a product was a success, then chances are it would not have changed hands until the product can no longer guarantee its functionality and is therefore discarded or sold by salvage/scrap value. There are custom lights bought and sold everyday in the forum, though not many is posted in CPFM, there is a reason to this. Before CPFM was split to separate servers from CPF, the customs BST subforum had already been established, and most of the custom BSTs are done outside of CPFM's parameters.
If custom lights were sold, it must mean that the custom builders have failed in some way that resulted in the light being sold? right? If you agreed to this statement then your opinion now contradicted to your question
Explanation 3:
Your wondering why the newest products are MCE/P7 based while lights still use the single die LEDs such as the N2, P4, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5, R2 binned and wonder why companies just can't use the newest available LED and be done with it?
There's a couple reasons to this
- Factory turn-around time as an element is proportional to the magnitude of your manufacturing plant, especially if its a horizontal integration complex.
- When an LED enters the plant, it must first be evaluated through R&D, which could take days to determine the impact of a change. [Does the circuit have to be redone? Is the reflector incompatible? Cost analysis indicates any unwanted manufacturing costs? etc]
- Differing Company objectives
- Something that is the newest doesn't mean its the most stable variety, especially when your considering an assembly line worth of rejects if a flaw was found with the LED/mounting-fabrication process after the go for production.
- LEDs typically follow the elliptical curve of technological progression, to some point companies have to set a baseline instead of chasing after the newest all the time.
- Constantly chasing the newest would be the same as the way our community college changes software. It takes Autocad 9 months to produce a new version of software but it takes the bookstore [another department] nearly 15 months to ship in the textbooks for the next version. On such a progressive curve you won't get anything done and stockpile your inventory room with a bunch of incompatible parts.
- Some LEDs just aren't compatible
- To an extent, we must observe the fact that while the cellphone technology has progressed to the point where computers are no longer necessary on business trips and that we are able to crank out alot of lumens from current technology flashlights the batteries we use have hardly progressed at all [use increased in variety].
- Using LEDs designed for fixed lighting in flashlights could pose as hazards and certain companies either do not have the available budgets for in depth R&D or to afford such liabilities it may not be in the best interests for them to change.
- Such is the case with Princeton Tec, Streamlight, etc.
- Companies big or small progress at differing paces, plus the design philosophy of the innovative Fenix is not necessarily the same as the conservative Maglite, so you can't expect all companies to use the same at any given time.
Define "poor quality"
Whether a light's "quality" is poor depends on the preset standards of the individual who buys the light. Quality is relative, only that we have become assertive through exposure to variety that we have set ourselves a benchmark and considered lights to be good or bad. Ever since the introduction of the first 5mm LED light I haven't seen a light that's necessarily of poor quality, just poor quality
to my standards, a standard that could differ in a survery group of 100 yielding 100 possible opinions each differing from another.
As to why lights are bought then immediately sold itself has no singular, definite reason. Its partially based on the individuals changing ideals, or something she/he saw after the light was purchased that made her/him change a new one. Many of us even began hoarding lights that looked exactly the same [DM51, Bawko...]. At best I can only categorize it as the NY-stock-exchange complex, where shares are bought and sold at a heartbeat, while others are hoarded and sometimes kept to the next generation.
I hope at least one of those explanations would have helped, but if not...let me know :thanks:
