Where to buy in England

Hi there,
Being new to this hobby (only an E2E and A2 so far) I'd love to know of good sites to buy from. Heinnie Hayes seems to have everything but there must be others. Also, anybody else resent paying a huge amount more for our torches, £155 or $264 for the A2 compared to $195 on the Surefire website!

Welcome to CPF!

I have mixed feelings about buying SureFires (or other "American" gear) in the UK.
I feel it is important to support UK dealers - they do not set the prices and they are supplying a niche which costs more.
However, some American dealers make it easy to order from America rather than buy from your local dealer. This is not the case for SureFire.

When purchasing from outside the EU you must factor that the declared (insured) price could very well be used to add Customs Duty & VAT etc which has in the past been like adding about 33% of the declared price.
Also, this declared price often includes the high shipping cost you already paid.

If you do not feel happy paying one third more than the price you've already paid then you should order from a UK dealer. Sometimes you don't get caught by customs but usually I have been caught which is why I factor the cost in and consider it a bonus if I don't end up paying it.

I use Niton999 to buy 5.11 clothing because I am supporting a dealer offering great discounts to Police Officers. They also sell SureFires although I've not had reason to purchase any from them yet.

Al

Don't buy anything off UK suppliers, especially heinnie. They're super highway robbers (and there aren't really any others). Try John he's a good supplier to the UK. If you pay the price they charge (HH) , then they'll carry on charging it!. Don't support dealers that say they support the police either, just to look good, if the police had their heads screwed on they'd sort their contracts out and buy in bulk.

I have made a couple of purchases in london over the years, an SF6P (old-style,about £50,new in 1990's sometime) , a G2 (£40-recently-impulse buy!!). But I guess I have always made purchases over the 'net for most of my lights,either ebay,lighthound (My favourite!),pocketlights,j2ledflashlights - etc.

Most purchases are for no more than $150-$250 at the most.I may have been lucky to have never had a problem with customs,but even if you do have to pay a fee, in most cases it's still worth it.

Have fun...





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