Surefire Price Increase

A dealer is saying that Surefire prices will increase by at least 30% on September 1st. Has anyone else heard about an increase?

Haven't heard of that. But if it happens, I wonder how fast sales-numbers will drop

30% increase is like shooting yourself in the foot,sounds like the 2+2=5 brigade are out in force or someone put a nought on the real idea of a 3% increase imo.To be honest it does not bother me as i would never pay there prices at present let alone with any increase.

mcnair55 said:

... To be honest it does not bother me as i would never pay their prices at present let alone with any increase.

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Me neither, although I'm interested in their new P1R Peacekeeper. First 18650 Surefire light

Ouch!

I'm trying to find out if this is just one dealer. I've been thinking about the P1R as well. Now I may not be able to afford it.

LA Police Gear just emailed an ad saying the increase starts Sept. 1st. They don't give a percentage, but they did show the new price on a couple of lights. G2X goes from $49 to $63, and 6PXD goes from $74.20 to $95.40. That looks pretty close to 30% to me, and even more for the G2X. Ouch!

Edit:
I went back and looked closer at the ad. The 2211 wrist light goes from $299.99 to $445. That's 50%, give or take a point. I went and looked at the MSRP on the Surefire website, and it looks to me like maybe Surefire isn't so much raising their prices as cutting the dealer discount. For example, the current MSRP on the 2211 is $495. Allowing a dealer to sell it for 1/3 less doesn't make a lot of sense, as it gives the impression of over-pricing by Surefire. The same with the P2XD, with a MSRP of $165 and currently selling at LAPG for $104.

Oh well, about all we can do is sit back and watch what happens, unless one had some discretionary funds immediately available.

Wow, Bummer, Guess I need to pull the trigger on the P1R. Been waiting but no reason to wait now. One good thing is that it may help hold the prices for the Used market? Also it will likely lead to lower sales. Therefore helping hold the values??? So, I guess its not all bad news.

If Surefire is raising prices that much in this economy, with as much competition as there is, their business must be really bad and they want to try to make it up on margin instead of volume. Very interesting move, or very stupid, time will tell.

I know I am not the best to talk about it but other than LE and military contracts surefire has been barely holding on. I tried to get my Z2 combatlight repaired and they sent me a new 6PX. I like modularity and if I wanted a 6PX I would have bought one, but with streamlight taking more Firefighter and EMS contracts at the federal level and the rise of maglite again it will get harder for them to keep a profit. Also xeon lights are still better than LED in smoky environments. My last deployment was in 2010 and we got pelican lights due to AA capadability. I like surefire but I do not search for them first unless I need another 952V for one of my M4's.

There is another side to this as well. I am sure Surefire has some 'open buy' contracts with entities like the DOD, where affiliated units can purchase with a PO or credit card, rather than go through the hassle of soliciting proposals, etc. If Surefire changes their MSRP price in any major way, those contracts go up for re-bit, which I know from experience is a PITA. But if the contract language says they pay the same price as the maximum dealer discount from MSRP... Lower the dealer discount and the bottom line improves and none of those juicy contracts gets triggered to go out for bid.

EricSF said:

If Surefire is raising prices that much in this economy, with as much competition as there is, their business must be really bad and they want to try to make it up on margin instead of volume. Very interesting move, or very stupid, time will tell.

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You might be right but from the sounds of things so far it appears SureFire may be raising the Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) which only affects the retail prices of the lights. This would increases profit margins for the retailers but, by itself, does nothing immediate for SureFire's bottom line. If anything, it may suffer a little bit. Longer term, the higher margins would make their products more attractive to a wider base of retailers and increase their footprint in the market. Whether this will ultimately lead to increased sales will depend upon whether or not people will pay the higher retail.

However, as others have mentioned, contract sales are SureFire's bread and butter and have a whole different dynamic.

inflation must be some part of their decision, maybe not thirty percent but a decent portion of it. When every part of the process of the production of goods is heavily taxed and regulated and the state controls the currency it's no surprise why prices continually rise and never go down again. I would not be surprised if new regulations makeup at least 5% of the increase. Firms are forced to submit to these regs or face extinction, they are not going to eat the cost, they will pass it on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

Sure there may be sales here and there, but the long term trend is always that prices rise. You can rest assured that a currency-monopolistic state will not stop the printing presses. How would they pay for state expansion, war, the drug war, the police state, the welfare state, etc? If people who supported the drug war all of a sudden got a bill for it, they would magically find it in their heart to love those hippies next door. But instead the cost of these state programs is hidden from them through the printing presses, which is essentially theft since more money in circulation steals buying power from savers. It's why the FRN has lost nearly 100% of it's value and why bread and milk are no longer $0.05. It's why no one saves money and why massive bubbles emerge and pop because markets are inflated(ex 2008 real estate) Why save when your dollar are consistently losing value, why not spend and put that value into tangible things, gold, silver, investments that earn more than inflation or Bitcoin? Printing is why many people have no savings.

All monopolistic state currencies in the world are constantly losing value, you may hear on the radio that the dollar is up against the euro, but what they don't tell you is that they are all in a free fall scenario. In other words, they are all falling, one just rose slightly in relation to the other while they are all on their way to being worthless.

Legitimate market forces can also play a role on prices. There may be a shortage of certain materials causing surefire to have to pay a higher price to obtain them. Or people may be buying up tons of surefire lights as of late, which is probable given the uptick in firearms sales. Lights are often the first accessory added to a firearm. As demand for surefire lights rises and supply remains constant or decreases(Surefire factory is running max output or have exceeded raw materials supply), the price rises to ensure a supply to those who are willing to pay more(who want it more). Many call this price gouging, it is merely a market supply control mechanism and is devoid of notions of "right and wrong" since the transaction is entirely voluntary.

As others have posted as well, state contracts may have something to do with this. When you are spending someone else's money, it isn't a big deal to spend $1000 on a hammer. I'm not sure if these new prices apply to the state as well, but it is common for people selling to goods/services to the state to artificially inflate their prices given that the state is not subject to market forces since it prints and involuntarily takes money at gunpoint to fund itself as opposed to market firms who must voluntarily provide a product or service that people want in order to obtain funds. The state can also create shortages, just look at the ammunition market.

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I also got the email from LAPG as well.

I'm going to buy a spare EB1T because I love mine so much, a spare G2X just because they're cheap and effective, and a 3 cell Fury I've been wanting.

If prices do go up, and stay there, it will be several years before I buy another...

Isn't the appeal of surefire lights durability and the fact that they use dual springs in weapon lights? Does anyone else use a spring in front of and behind the battery on flashlights?

880arm said:

You might be right but from the sounds of things so far it appears SureFire may be raising the Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) which only affects the retail prices of the lights. This would increases profit margins for the retailers but, by itself, does nothing immediate for SureFire's bottom line. If anything, it may suffer a little bit. Longer term, the higher margins would make their products more attractive to a wider base of retailers and increase their footprint in the market.

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A few years back, SF lowered retail prices by lowering the MAP. It gave consumers a discount and lowered dealer margins so far, many dealers closed their SF sections completely (many SF displays shelves were showing up on Craigslist and eBay). I don't recall the amount, but this appears to undo that.

Perhaps they thought it would help with online pricing only to realize brick and mortar is to important to loose. The main question is why they took so long to change back. Whatever the reasoning, the pattern over the last few years is of someone inexperienced being put in charge.

Yeah go for it. I say charge as much as they're willing to pay, so long as their market forecasts etc. predict more profit even if fewer people buy.

I just think is funny coming so quickly after putting their stuff in more big box stores. I've seen the same few sf's collecting dust in a walmart glass case all year- maybe once they increase the price even further beyond the rayovacs & mags, the right walmart customer will perceive their value as being higher, enough to buy.

ElectronGuru said:

A few years back, SF lowered retail prices by lowering the MAP. It gave consumers a discount and lowered dealer margins so far, many dealers closed their SF sections completely (many SF displays shelves were showing up on Craigslist and eBay). I don't recall the amount, but this appears to undo that.

Perhaps they thought it would help with online pricing only to realize brick and mortar is to important to loose. The main question is why they took so long to change back. Whatever the reasoning, the pattern over the last few years is of someone inexperienced being put in charge.

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Interesting comment. Makes me wonder if the opposite could happen. Exhibit A: Prices too high, sales don't keep up with new releases? Therefore leading dealers drop the SF line? Know what I mean? I have noticed the one of my local SF dealers is starting to carry several other lines of lights. They claim the Nebo & Streamlight is their best seller (to the general public).

Oh, a footnote, I would love to obtain a display case for a reasonable price.

Cabelas dropped Surefire a couple of years ago (I'm kicking myself for not buying all the E2E-HA they had for $50), and Bass Pro only carries the G2X, 6PX, and Fury (at prices at or more than 50% higher than what you typically find online). Alternately, both stores carry a ton of different Streamlight products.

IMO, Surefire is going to find itself on the endangered list here pretty soon. Only 5 models have an MSRP of under $100 (and I'm even including the G2 and 6P), their brick and mortar presence is almost non-existent, and the war in the middle east is winding down (some could make an argument against that with the recent developments with Russia/Ukraine, and ISIS in Iraq).

Maybe they have contracts I'm not privy to, or their LEO/mil sales are still going stronger than I imagine, but I don't know many enlisted men who are issued Surefire lights (I'm talking about your typical Marine, not high speed special ops or anything).