I'm new to this stuff. I'm about to place my third order to DigiKey in the past month for Cree leds.
Digikey's search function sucks, so I have better luck actually finding a place in their catalog via google search. But in the course of searching google for a particular XM-l2 led I find this url....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aluminum-Al...ED-Flashlight-Torch-Lamp-3000LM-/130891791687
Now my order for three XM-l2 leds from Digikey is 25.50 before shipping. Even the lowest cost ship, USPS priority mail, brings it in at above the price for the flashlight linked above.
My apologies if this topic has been well discussed at this forum already... but unless the leds used in that flashlight are, with reasonable certainty, counterfeit, then I have to wonder how Digikey gets away with such an astonishingly steep markup for these LEDs. A Chinese supplier can assemble an entire flashlight around three XM-L2 Cree, with machined, threaded, anodized aluminum tubing, seals, 3X reflector, switch, and circuit board, and send it to me shipping included for LESS than the price of those three LEDs from Digikey to my door?
What am I missing here?
Digikey's search function sucks, so I have better luck actually finding a place in their catalog via google search. But in the course of searching google for a particular XM-l2 led I find this url....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aluminum-Al...ED-Flashlight-Torch-Lamp-3000LM-/130891791687
Now my order for three XM-l2 leds from Digikey is 25.50 before shipping. Even the lowest cost ship, USPS priority mail, brings it in at above the price for the flashlight linked above.
My apologies if this topic has been well discussed at this forum already... but unless the leds used in that flashlight are, with reasonable certainty, counterfeit, then I have to wonder how Digikey gets away with such an astonishingly steep markup for these LEDs. A Chinese supplier can assemble an entire flashlight around three XM-L2 Cree, with machined, threaded, anodized aluminum tubing, seals, 3X reflector, switch, and circuit board, and send it to me shipping included for LESS than the price of those three LEDs from Digikey to my door?
What am I missing here?
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