Like a year ago I made my last purchase of the lighthound keychain lights. They are wickedly bright, only a dollar, and just had two CR2016 cells and an LED in them. If you were REALLY cheap like me you could change the cells in them.
Well my last one stripped a screw, and now I can't find them on lighthound! They have this lame PCB one that is out of stock anyway. Where did the fauxtons go?
They all migrated on DX.
I see no point in replacing cells in fauxtons. They themselves are the cheapest source of CR2016 cells I've found so far (not counting the bare cells from DX on account of so many of them being dead on arrival), so when the cells die you might as well open them, salvage the leds (and possibly the keyrings) and throw the plastic casings away.
The one exception I can think of is if you're using a single CR2032 cell in your fauxton. This can be a good idea if you prefer battery life to high brightness, but you really want a DS or GS LED if you do that - the generic ones in standard fauxtons tend to be too dim for most practical purposes when powered by a CR2032.
The black ones are otherwise preferable because they don't have backwash light.
Funny, I prefer the white/transparent ones precisely for that reason. LEDs don't throw much light sideways, but what little they do gets wasted in the black-cased ones.
Since we're talking about fauxtons, are DX ever going to stock more GS ones?
DX sold the ones they had in a heartbeat but apparently didn't bother having more made. They've been out of stock for months.
One of them is permanently attached to my keychain with a CR2032 cell in it, and I'm very happy with the performance.
I questioned my own sanity when I ordered five two-packs, but I'm glad I did that now...