I'm broke!

This flashlight addiction thing is killin' me. I have no damn money left and I have over 100 flashlights now + counting. No end in sight. Please help.

You've done the hard bit by admitting your addicted! Now you need an action plan? First give all your lights away to all your friends on CPF, then seek help from FA (Flashaholics Anonymous). If that doesn't work then you are as doomed as the rest of us!

Doug

you're beyond help, better just keep buying more

Hm, i think i contributed to your problem. At least you could carry a different light every day for 3 months, thats pretty cool. I found out quick which lights i use and which i just dont care about. Sell the ones you dont need, keep the ones that mean something.
but yeah, its not easy to stop spending money on all these lovely tools.
remember the days when you had one maglite and thought you were "set"
-bobby

You could always take up smoking, drinking or collecting guns.

Since the price of gas is going up, you could off set your gas savings by getting 100-150 mpg by buying a 22-27 thousand dollar prius and the 12 thousand dollar battery up grade.

You could just keep the best light of each type (based on size, function, battery type or whatever) and sell off the rest. That might get you down to 10 or 20 lights.

Greg

dougmccoy said:

You've done the hard bit by admitting your addicted! ... then seek help from FA (Flashaholics Anonymous)

Click to expand...

I'm on step 8. I've got to apologize to everyone I've temporarily blinded with a quick flash in the eyes. :devil:

sizzlechest said:

Please help.

Click to expand...

PayPal invoice sent!

No, wait... you mean help *not* spending money. Sorry, but I can't help with that! It's against the rules; I'd be banned. :laughing:

I'm working on getting rid of what I'm not using or needing.. unless somebody wants to send me about ten grand, that is..

Maybe what you're addicted to (like me a little) is the actual buying of the light (and maybe a little initial playing with the light) more than the having of the light. I won't even mention the using of the light because at 100, you're way, way past that.

Seriously, I suggest a 4 step solution:

1) force yourself to have a playing schedule with the lights you own. You're going to toy with each one for say 10 minutes until you cycle through the whole set (excluding NIB ones for resale).

2) one's you don't appreciate playing with, put aside for sale.

3) sell them. This applies to the NIB for resale ones, too. There won't be a better time than now for almost all of them, given the advance of technology. There are very, very few real classics around that will appreciate with time - and if you have 100 of those, you deserve to be broke.

4) repeat until you enjoy - at least a little - the ones you're playing with.

I just went through selling a number of my lights and toys. Lost money on each one, but oddly enough, I'm happier now. Someone is enjoying my Blaster Jr, Infiniton, etc. and they're just not my concern any more. And now, maybe I can buy something again.

Remember - this is not a hobby to make money with (unlike guns in the old inflationary 70's, for those old enough to remember). It is a hobby to have fun with at reasonable cost.

Just do it....

While on skid row be careful nobody steals your flashlights!

what!!! no one warned you to hold on to your wallet

seriously... someone posted this and it makes sense.

sell your best light as it will be obsolete soon anyways.
keep lights that you have sentimental attachments to.

and don't be telling me you are attached to all your lights :green:

Yes, I agree that you should thin out the heard. You could always give good ol' Danno (<--me) a good deal on some SF stuff eh? :lolsign:

100+ lights?

I guess that rules out the "collection list in the sigline" thing.....:lolsign:

Yeah, its over 100 lights.....and I don't have a lot of the "must have" lights listed on this forum. Anyways thanks for the words of wisdom and support.

PS - Don't get me wrong, I'm havin fun!!!!!!!!!!

greenLED said:

PayPal invoice sent!

No, wait... you mean help *not* spending money. Sorry, but I can't help with that! It's against the rules; I'd be banned. :laughing:

Click to expand...

Been there, done that (twice). Never got the t-shirt. :ironic:

The solution is easy to your problem. You can buy all the flashlights you want. You save money by not buying batteries. :naughty:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this was tron3's last quote prior to being BANNED for real this time! OUCH!

sizzlechest,

Probably, and if we discuss that here, it will be quite off-topic and probably not very popular among the admins... :shrug:

Anyway, PM me your PayPal adress and I'll send you something so you can at least buy pasta. I once bought flashlights instead of food one month... Bad idea...

Winny,

In the true spirit of CPF I sincerely appreciate your offer! I haven't lost my shorts quite yet however........and I think I'm just going to thin out the heard a bit.

sizzlechest,

You're quite welcome! I've always liked acting a low-pass filter, whether in traffic when everyone else is accelerating and braking tremendously near traffic lights or when it comes to money (lending from them when they have too much and lending/giving to them when they have too little).