Flashlight as a gift?

Here in the Netherlands, 99% of the populations still thinks: "A MAGLITE! Whoow... he gave me a REAL Maglite instead of a Chinese copy!" whenever I give one to someone...

I always have a few Solitaires, AAA and AA incan Mags in stock as giveaways for birthdays etc etc.

I remember to have given a blue AA to a good friend of mine, we always go climbing in summer. He read books with it at night in his tent, for hours and hours per night... one set AAs after another empty...
Finally, when we were home long, the first bulb gave up. He didn't know, a spare one was in the tailcap... so when he recognized this, Maglite was king again :thumbsup:

This light is somehow precious to him, as he always stores it in the gift box immediately after use.

What are your experiences with flashlights as a gift? I'm sure I'm not the only one who came up with this idea :devil:

Timmo.

I gifted my dad a Nitecore EZ AA warm tinted version because he reads at night with a crappy 3 led chinese knockoff with a really ugly blue beam, he still keeps that crappy light by his bedside table, never seen him use the Nitecore and a few weeks ago he bought a 25 led shower head torch, so my experience of gifting flashlights are bad.

Gift yourself nice flashlights and wait for someone to go wow when they see it in action then you can tell them where and how much or give them one of your 'old' models

Do your friend a HUGE favour and get him one of these http://www.aexpertsecurity.com/index.php?item=1408

If he thinks the mag rocks now, wait until he uses this. Also he will only need one set of batteries per outing.

Most recently I gave my brother a QMini AA, and he seemed greatly pleased. I feel pretty confident he'll be EDCing it next time I see him. It's nice to see a flashlight gift truly appreciated.

Geoff

I gifted my Dad with a Luxeon Rebel light and an ultrafire A10 and carried it always with him together with his leatherman. Has always been proud telling his friends how useful has been the light that I gave him.

I gave my dad a Nitecore EZCR2 and 5 primaries when it was on sale at 4sevens. He was impressed with it when he got it and did edc it, it got quite a bit of use. Then he lost it for a week and had to use a 2x AA M*glite his work gave him.. Never has he been more appreciative than when he found it again!

I have been given two flashlights as a gift that I can remember. My dad worked for an autoparts wharehouse, so I have a personalized 2AA Maglite with a Ford/Motorcraft logo on it with the plastic storage case. I have never really used it and have had it for about 20 years. It would be hard to replace and very dim by todays standards. The other was the standard 5 D cell Maglite cop stick.

I lent/gave my gf at the time my SF E2DL. She loved it so it's hers. Even after we broke up I still saw her wearing it when she took her dog for a walk, even during the day.

I gifted a bunch of less expensive LED lights as part of a bigger gift. At least one person liked it.

I gave my wife a few lights (all Surefires) as gifts. She now has:

- a 6P in gunmetal color along with an loaded Spares Carrier for it in her vehicle.

- an E2D for her side of the bed on her night stand.

- an E1e in her emergency kit in her vehicle.

- an E1B Backup for her EDC light. She ALWAYS carries her E1B as well as one of many knives I've bought for her. (She is partial to Benchmade, CRKT and Spyderco)

My wife is awesome!

@ Jash: every 14.5 minutes, this one switches off! "IQ-switch". I know my friend well enough to tell: he won't like this to such a degree (when reading books with it) this drop in will be out in just one day again...
And: he, just like me, likes the warm tint an incan has... all the batteries he used were NiMH, so this was not a problem at all
I saw these things in action... they are terribly BLUE :sick2:

I just ordered one of the new limited warms from 4sevens... this may be the very first LED light that's really acceptable to me

Timmo.

Jash said:

Do your friend a HUGE favour and get him one of these http://www.aexpertsecurity.com/index.php?item=1408

Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I'd been looking for a source for that switch with reasonable international shipping. Any other store suggestions?

99% of the people I know are happy with cheap flashlights, so I would buy this 3.35$ cheapo.
I tested these and the specs are: ~one mode 10 lumen 1xAA with 8 hour runtime using alkaline cell, the clip sucks and the beam is blueish.
A great loaner or a backup if he/she decides to buy a real flashlight.

In the last couple of years, I have gifted flashlights to family who may not necessarily be serious about flashlights but they definitely love gadgets:

Sister: LD01
Brother: LD10
Brother-in-law: LD01

It made sense that I stuck with common battery formats (AA & AAA). As gadget people, they certainly are wowed by the brightness in a small package single cell light and seem to make good use of their gifts.

I did not have a chance to give someone a higher end light yet but i have given plenty of key chain led lights away. They seem to be very popular with everybody and most of them seems to use it on a regular base. I would definably pass them out to my co-workers around the holidays again.

Not a great idea IMHO unless the light gifted both uses normal AA or AAA batteries and works reasonably well on alkalines or the light uses normal AA or AAA batteries and you also give them a set of LSD NiMH's and a charger.

My experience is that it needs to run from AA alkalines.

I have run into network administrators, architects, and very many people in high professions who "just can't get it" if it doesn't run off batteries from the local supermarket.

My experience anyway...

It just blows me away to see such affluent people, who make way more money than I do, who intellectually lock up on the concept of any battery other than an AA, C, or D alkaline...