US Recession and your flashlight habits?

Anyone here cutting back on flashlight/battery purchases because of the recession fear or because you lost you job lately or your business has been bad lately?

No...but I've never been a big spender. I'm hesitant when I spend much more than $30 on a light. If I do I've got to invest countless hours into reading reviews, asking questions, etc...and even then most of the time I chicken out. :ironic:

Instead of buying something for guns and flashlights every month, I just alternate my purchases monthly.

Not really. I went through the light collection stage already. I now only have three lights! I want to keep it at this quantity, so if I decide to purchase another light I have to get rid of one of the lights I currently have. Using this strategy, I have not purchased a new light for over three months!

I saw the post on the new SF E1B that I really like. Having a tough time deciding what light to get rid of:thumbsdow.

Yes, with all the talk about recession and slumping home prices on the news everyday, I think harder before purchasing anything discretionary.

I alluded to it in another post I just made, but we flashaholics have had it really good with a number of niche makers that have been very good at listening to our wishes and then quickly putting out products to fulfill those wishes. But it's gotta be costly and risky for these low sales volume companies to operate this way. Companies that make great lights like Lumapower or Dereelight could be here today and gone tomorrow and the blink of the eye once sales start lagging.

ltiu said:

Anyone here cutting back on flashlight/battery purchases because of the recession fear or because you lost you job lately or your business has been bad lately?

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If you mean we're in inflationary times, the best thing you could do is put your money in tangibles such as physical gold, real estate, art, guns of any sort, and, of course, collectible flashlights...

I too have been told by the media that there is a recession going on but I'm not cooperating!

Though very off topic, I predict the coverage of the coming economic and environmental armageddon will end after the presidential election if the media's candidate wins. Just a prediction...

What Spalding said. We're experiencing an economic "correction" after the big unreasonable run-up last summer/fall. We'll see a bottom soon and then, hopefully, a sensible reality based recovery.

The gospel according to BIGIRON.

ltiu said:

Anyone here cutting back on flashlight/battery purchases because of the recession fear or because you lost you job lately or your business has been bad lately?

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Nope, I've kind of hit a point where I've upgraded my old lights to the current technology, and dismissed a slew of lights that I'm not interested in for one reason or another. Always interested in a new light that appeals to me, but I'm not in a collector's mode. Next purchase would probably be a better battery charger. Computer upgrades are coming back to center stage too.

stop buying lights every month and start buying more expensive lights every so often
stopped burning so many cr123As on incandescent just for fun...use LEDs whenever possible...if alot of light is needed, L4 with 17670 usually does that effectively. if it has to be xenon [color balance], then the auroralite comes in

Yes...I'm getting rid of the ones I don't use and trying to keep only a few that I will use and get rechargeables.

Little ticket items like flashlights don't bother me but I might hold off on getting a new truck or a Blu-Ray player.

I admit I have sold several of the lights that I do not use. Getting out of the "collection" stage and keeping those that are most useful to me. The bonus is now I have money for some of the new lights that no doubt will be released this year.

Political views aside, I've actually ramped up the flashlight purchases a bit. I only bought one last year, and this year I've already purchased three.

Should they go through with the "stimulus package" and the government sends me a check, part of it is destined to turn into a Surefire M6, and the rest will attack a student loan debt.

ltiu said:

Anyone here cutting back on flashlight/battery purchases because of the recession fear or because you lost you job lately or your business has been bad lately?

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No... The recession only exists in the minds of the media. :shakehead I don't live my life by what other people tell me to think. However, if enough people listen to them, and they keep beating the drum it might just become a self-fulfilling prophecy. :sigh:

Stereodude said:

I don't live my life by what other people tell me to think.

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:twothumbs:twothumbs:twothumbs

I've never been a big spender, but we are a service company and with all the hoopla about "clean" we are in the correct business.

No new big ticket car, truck etc. But when I must replace my 32" Tube TV I will.

EDIT: Oh yeah dude. Let a Dem win and WHAT Recession? Let a Rep win and see how much worse they will tell you everything is!

I keep buying lights, but I only need to have a few to be happy. I just need them to be Q5's with great tints and good UI's. So, I buy and sell them pretty quickly on the b/s/t. That usually makes this hobby (my most expensive one) less than $100 per month.

I think my spending actually went up, because so much cool stuff has been showing up on Custom/Modified/B/S/T lately.:devil:
I have noticed that if I make an offer now, it is usually accepted.

I've always tended to think long and hard about discretionary purchases, so no, this isn't affecting my hobby spending at all. I don't plan to spend much, if anything, buying new flashlights, but that's because I never did. The discrete emitter/general lighting angle of this hobby is what interests me a lot more, and I don't plan any cut backs there. In general, my hobby purchases for all my hobbies are $500 to $1000 a year. It's been that way for years. The rest goes right into the bank, same as always.

PlayboyJoeShmoe said:

EDIT: Oh yeah dude. Let a Dem win and WHAT Recession? Let a Rep win and see how much worse they will tell you everything is!

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Exactly, everyone knows the economy is never good when a Republican is in the White House.