2 Pak 9 led lites on sale - Any good?

Hi. Noobie here. Found this forum a while ago. Got a Dorsey 1 watt, a 3d mag upgrade, and a P1D-CE on the way. Love these things, and to think I didn't have a clue until a month ago. Anyway, I ran across this ad in Techbargains.com and I wondered if they would be worth the money. Here is the link. http://www.surpluscomputers.com/store/main.aspx?p=ItemDetail&item=CES11121
I thought these would make cheap gifts for the girls to keep in their purse or maybe the auto glove box for emergencies,. Thanks for any help. Uncle Ken

Much cheaper here:
9 LED Flashlight 20000mcd 2-pack $5.75
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1255

Compact 9 LEDs Flashlight 2 PACKS $4.75
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1099

All the 9 LED lights I have seen are about the same. A good amount of light enough to complete about any task that would require a "normal" flashlight. These are cheap enough if you lose one or give one away it is not that big of deal.

Hello Uncle Ken and welcome to the CPF. Dive in head first and get dizzy from info overload. Visit the Dealer's corner, sales & external review sites that are listed in different forums. Sit at the Cafe for entertaining issues not flashlight related.

Have fun. Are you a fun uncle? Most families have one or more.

Also hello to metapy. Do you guys work for competing sales agencies?

Welcome to CPF! You'll find many of us are knowledgeable and some of us not. I believe I fall somewhere in between the two. I suppose I might be biased, but I don't think cheap multi-LED lights are any good, but they will do fine for most (unenlightened) users.

Personally I like the Target River Rock 2AAA 0.5w LED light for $10 and the Mini-Mag + NiteIze 3-LED conversion for $15, myself. A nice glovebox light might be the Brinkmann Maxfire LX, at Target for $17 and Walmart for $20. No circuitry to fail from extreme heat and cold conditions.

Anyway, as the saying goes, watch your wallet!

The deal extreme lights aren't bad at all. Pretty bright and to give away. Get the
5.75 ones they have a better battery carrier.

I don't know if they're still available in some of the Costco stores, but they were carrying a rubberized version of this light under the Garrity branding in 4-packs for under $13. There are a number of variations of these 9 LED lights in aluminum that seem to be on a lot of web sites. Overall, they actually put out a decent light. And for the price, if they go bad, they can be discarded. And for those so inclined, you can take the battery carriers and use them as 3AAA to 1C adapters for use in a 2C Mag Mod, though AAA NiMH batteries don't have much capacity and one is probably better off with 18500 or 18650 LIon batteries.

Uncle Ken said:

Hi. Noobie here. Found this forum a while ago. Got a Dorsey 1 watt, a 3d mag upgrade, and a P1D-CE on the way. Love these things, and to think I didn't have a clue until a month ago. Anyway, I ran across this ad in Techbargains.com and I wondered if they would be worth the money. Here is the link.

Click to expand...

No, I don't work for any sales agency. In fact, I don't work at all, since I am retired. I will have to check at Costco next time I go for that 4 pack of lites. BTW, I ordered the P1D-CE off of Ebay. From the photos I have seen on the net, the packaging and light look the same as the Luxeon P1D. When it gets here, how will I be able to tell the difference and know that I they didn't substitute the Luxeon for the Cree? The last 3 Watt lite that I bought from Ebay was no brighter than the 1 Watt Dorsey CR123 model, so I am a bit worried that I won't get what I paid for. Thanks for the info! :sweat:

Those lights are very good for those situations where a little additional light might be needed to clearly read small text or even normal sized text. Since you're retired, I think you're already familiar with what I mean . I forget how long it's been (maybe 3-4 months?) since Costco had those Garrity lights. Our stores don't carry them anymore, but there may still be some in some of the Costco stores (I once walked into one in Montana and found items that hadn't been carried in our local stores for years!)

Update Seems that a colleague at work has the lights that you originally inquired about from Surplus. Insofar as performance, they're almost exactly the same as the Garritys that Costco had. Seems that we both them in our desks

Uncle Ken said:

No, I don't work for any sales agency. In fact, I don't work at all, since I am retired. I will have to check at Costco next time I go for that 4 pack of lites.

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Much cheaper here:
9 LED Flashlight 20000mcd 2-pack $5.75
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1255

Compact 9 LEDs Flashlight 2 PACKS $4.75
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1099

All the 9 LED lights I have seen are about the same. A good amount of light enough to complete about any task that would require a "normal" flashlight. These are cheap enough if you lose one or give one away it is not that big of deal.

Click to expand...

I have bought a bunch of them to give away (or mod).The color of the light is a bit blue and they are pretty bright (like a 1 w luxeon) but they dont throw very far. Ok for most tasks

jayflash: Man you are seriously jaded, I must also assume you don't frequent this forum much as you seem to be new to dealextreme.

If you really think that dealextreme pays people to fill third party blog with their "overpriced and obviously needed a sales pitch" stuff you probably also think that the moon landing, global warming and the rest is all a hoax too.

Sorry to unload, long time lurker, first time poster, figured I'd save the guy a few dollars. If you'd prefer me to continue to lurk keep posting that paranoid crap!

P.S. I know where you are coming from, but this was NOT the way to welcome new posters, you might want to think of something more constructive to add next time, but then again you have 3,000+ posts I imagine you have to boost post count somehow.

You're better off paying a little more and getting this instead: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1120

Being able to use 1 AA instead of 3 AAA's, and it being brighter makes it worth the extra cost

Or you could get this one instead:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1137

Takes AA, is still very inexpensive, and is not quite as ugly as the one mentioned above. It is not as bright as the one mentioned above, but it will run MUCH longer on a single battery. One thing I think many people don't remember here is that not everyone is a flashlight freak, most people don't need or want a really bright light, just something that they can find a door, light a path, or search the back of their car w/o turning on an overhead light.