Thanks. Appreciate the response.
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Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
Thanks. Appreciate the response.
Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk
... it's not what you take when you leave this world behind you, It's what you leave behind you when you go.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
So after reading the last 40 posts over the weekend while I was at camp about going out of business I decided I needed a H600W headlamp and would order one on Sunday when I got home to my computer. Sunday evening I go to the Zebralight site and just about everything is out of stock. Thanks a lot guys !
Kata Ton Δaimona Eaytoy
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
You snooze, you loose unfortunately.Originally Posted by Lou Minescence
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... it's not what you take when you leave this world behind you, It's what you leave behind you when you go.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
All this talk and activity in the Zebralight thread made me anxious, so I've ordered 2 more SC5c II, along with a desperate request I expect will be ignored or denied. Worth a try. I don't mind the Cree XP-L2 EasyWhite tint during the day, but into the evening and night, the green cast starts to bother me. FWIW, I'd like these in sw30k and sw40k. Wish me luck.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
Great marketing strategy happening here lol! Highly doubt they going out of business. Probably just a revamping.
In no order: HDS/Malkoff/OVEREADY/McGizmo/Sky Lumen -PSM
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
No kidding. I always thought their site was goofy and they always seemed to have no stock or back ordered on just about every light I ever looked at. So it doesn’t seem to me that they are going under.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
I agree with that completely. I use the SC600w IV HI as a general-purpose outdoor light for hiking. It has enough of a spill to use up close, though it's best for medium or farther distances. It's not going to compete with a dedicated thrower, but it's useful enough that you only need to use one light.
The SC600w IV Plus I use as a cycling light. It has a wide bright spill to see to the sides, but a good hotspot that can show things out to medium distances very well. It's also very efficient. I can run it for almost 3 hours at 700 lumens, using a Sanyo GA battery.
Lol. If this is all fake, I expect they'll be having a bankruptcy sale every Christmas!
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
Like the furniture store that's been going out of business for 23 years straight now.
GOOD TINT!
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
But this is real (from their site): "Starting Jan 1, 2021, we will accept orders from U.S. customers only."
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
Yes, and right now, most of their lights are back order or out of stock. I suspect most of those back-orders will never be filled, but we'll see next year.But this is real (from their site): "Starting Jan 1, 2021, we will accept orders from U.S. customers only."
If this is a ploy to get sales, they really suck at it if they don't have stock.
Personally, there's a couple of lights I'd like, but there's no way I would trust placing an order now. Zebralight charges your credit card or paypal as soon as you place the order, not when they ship. I guess you're protected with paypal, though.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
I went with amazon just to be safe...but really for the prime shipping.
GOOD TINT!
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
are they gonna get you the best tint sample?
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
It is absolutely normal and unremarkable that Zebralight has so many models on backorder. I had 6 lights ordered and fulfilled since September (obviously not counting my order today) of backordered SC5c/w II, and they were never not on backorder. First couple orders were fulfilled in 2 weeks, my last order took a month
I agree, but this practice of running out of stock is all too common by sellers of pretty much everything.
Maybe wait until or after Jan. 1, 2021? See my point? You have 30 days to order a Zebralight, or forget it, or have a friend in the South proxy for you.
This is pretty normal, too. Without experience ordering from Zebralight, you're right to be paranoid WalkIntoTheLight. But they're a good seller, many many satisfied customers, and no complaints of unfulfilled orders. It is ok, really... they won't screw you. It might take a month to get to you, but IKEA takes 6 weeks just to ship a quad of NiMH cells, and I have a Convoy I ordered 3 months ago that still hasn't arrived. Sometimes getting a flashlight is a slow process, for whatever the reason, but it doesn't mean there's a scam or risk here.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
I've ordered half a dozen lights from Zebralight in the past. And yes, I'm aware they're slow. I'm saying that I'd be hesitant to do that now, given all the signs they might be going out of business.
So, yeah, I'll be missing out on ordering my last zebralight. If they no longer want to sell to me, that's okay, it's their choice. Very strange business practice, if they're actually not going out of business. A Chinese company that doesn't want to sell world-wide anymore? That's a first.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
Sorry, I read the comments above and saw the speculation, but I see absolutely no signs of anything. What signs?
I agree their business practices are strange compared to what business should be (stock up, sell stock, stock up, sell stock... why is this so hard?), and it doesn't excuse it, but there are a lot of weird flashlight businesses. Surefire is friggin weird. McGizmo is super great and all, but the business is weird. Maratac and County Comm are weird. So many flashlight makers are weird, that if one wasn't weird, it would be weird.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
LOL!! I haven't played that game for a long time, so maybe I'll do well. It just got delivered 10 minutes ago so I'll know here soon...
There are a lot of weird people out there...glad I'm not one of them
GOOD TINT!
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
Well, it's already been mentioned in this thread, but I think it's the recent changes in Zebralight's business that points to them closing soon. They are not selling anywhere other than the US starting next month, they have permanently closed their Texas location, and they are discontinuing some of their best models (without replacements).
Sure, the fact their website sucks is nothing new, but the other things definitely point to rapidly shrinking business. My guess is that the owners (who live in China) have moved on to something else. I think they've been doing this for almost 10 years. Perhaps they found a better opportunity, or got bored with it. It's been 3 years since the last major shake-up of their models. Just the SC700d, earlier last year, for anything new. That's pretty slow design for an electronics company, if they were serious about the business.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
Amazon is rife with "unintentional" knock-off fakes due to binning. I haven't heard of any knock-off ZLs....but I wouldn't be surprised if there were.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
Didn't we find out a few years back that the owners name was "George something" and he lived and ran the business from his home in Texas (manufacturing being in China)? Didn't the story say he was an expatriate from China?
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
Contracting services seems to be the norm for most businesses these days. Personally, I am not overly concerned.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
FYI, after finding the Orbtronic data pdf, plus weighing and putting the calipers to them, anyway, these are the same cells.
$10.75 from Orbtronic, $6.00 on sale from ZL.
The SC64w HI is just freaky good. Phenomenal tint, and what a range of output. I'm used to my old SC52w, and the difference between its dingy tint and the new light's is pretty drastic. Between that and the tighter spot, it seems brighter, and provides noticeably better illumination, at similar output.
Most impressive to me is the output on the H2 level I chose, that's rated at 467 lumens. Sure, it pulls 240mA more(1.1A vs 860mA from the same battery) at the tail than my beloved old ~300 lumen Malkoff M61N, but I wasn't expecting it to just walk all over it. The comparison did confirm what I'd always thought-that my M61N has exceptionally good tint. Just a fuzz warmer, and a bit rosy in the spill(which actually makes natural colors stand out). Man, these newer LEDs are awesome, though...
Last edited by Owen; 12-01-2020 at 05:31 PM.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
I missed the bit about closing their Texas location, but I would question the source of this news, as the website still lists a TX address for returns and warranty.
But more poignantly, you may have an opinion, and that is fine, but I see no support for the argument: "facts x, y, z, therefore they're going out of business." Support might be something along the lines of, "I saw three other companies that did z, and they went out of business," even if that is weak, it does support the argument.
In my experience, product companies do not prepare to go out of business, other than filing chapters 11 and 13... and do not give signs of going out of business other than reporting poor revenue for a long time. Rather, they just pop out of existence with no warning, and all their stock shows up on eBay. I just don't see the evidence as evidence of anything, but I am willing to entertain the idea they are going out of business, if only there was support for the argument.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
I doubt it. Zebralights would be too hard to fake (unibody), and are not popular enough to be worth it.
Zebralight's directors are listed as George and Ling Yao. Not sure where they live, but someone else said China and they sounded pretty certain about it. I think that is most likely, since all the manufacturing is done there. (And probably design, when they used to do it.)
But, you could be right. There was probably some reason they incorporated in Texas. Might have been legal or tax reasons, though.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
Last edited by WebHobbit; 12-01-2020 at 06:34 PM.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
Probably a downsizing, like ArmyTek has done
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
I think you missed this as well. Regarding our “source,” a couple of us looked up ZL on Google Maps in Texas. The plant is listed as “Permanently Closed.” Why would that not serve as a “sign” that ZL could be closing?
You “see no support for the argument?” Ok
- Texas plant “permanently closed.”
- Key lights discontinued.
- ZL responded to questions about the discontinued lights and were told “no replacement lights planned.”
- Their website states they are only selling to the US market starting in Jan.
- VERY few new products in recent years.
Those reasons are concerning to a ZL fan like me, and they appear to be symptoms of a failing company. This line of thinking looks logical to some of us.
I’d recommend reading the the last few pages in this post. Regarding your comment stating, “companies do not prepare to go out of business,” I think it’s the opposite. When a company knows they are shutting down, they plan it out. I watched my dad plan the closure of his business. It took him about 5 years to wind it down. I was in upper management with a large builder in the SE U.S. that went under in 2009. We planned our exit from the market over the course of 1.5 years. We started with office closures, layoffs, cutting costs, stopped new construction, and liquidated assets. We even planned out our exit with our creditors. I remember telling our creditors in Oct 2008 that we would be out of money by Feb 2009.
I hope these aren’t symptoms of Zebralight failing. There’s no one else out there that I’m interested in, so I’m hoping this evidence is just coincidental.
Last edited by Outdoorsman5; 12-01-2020 at 08:43 PM. Reason: Spelling
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
First of all, how do you have any idea what that address was used for? Why is it a "plant?" Are you assuming they make stuff there? Why? What evidence is there it is anything more than a business office or small warehouse? I looked it up on Google Maps Street View. It is completely unremarkable, and small. Why would it serve as a sign some location was closed? Businesses move, restructure, change, grow, shrink. You can just hold up some fact and say, "see?" But that doesn't prove anything, and it doesn't even suggest anything but confirmation bias. You're just seeing what you want to see without anything to actually support the conclusion.
Nope. Not one little doggone thing to indicate that whatsoever.
deja vu. What plant??
You have an address. Suddenly, somehow, without any evidence whatsoever, it is a manufacturing plant!
Completely meaningless, and entirely ordinary and unremarkable for Zebralight. That is what they do. They develop a model, sell it for a few years, then stop when the parts are all gone, discontinue the model. There is a spreadsheet on the site of all their current and discontinued models. and every single one of those dozens of discontinued models could be described as "key" (why not?), and yet Zebralight never went out of business each time they discontinued a model. It is a ludicrous suggestion.
Again, completely ordinary and unremarkable of correspondence with Zebralight. What does it even mean? Is it possible that they were saying one thing and you were interpreting something else entirely? Could it possibly be that they might not consider some new model in the works as a replacement? I am telling you it means nothing, and there is no evidence to suggest otherwise.
Again, so what? How on earth are you connecting this to "going out of business?"
Hmm... I think the same thing is true of Apple, Inc. OMG!!! Apple must be going out of business!!! That's called counter-example and it decimates your insinuated argument (because there is no actual supportive argument here... just a "hey look! Fact X!" With a conclusion drawn that simply in no way shape or form follows from "Fact X" alone.
Show me any other failed company with the same characteristics or description, show me any failed company whatsoever that closed one location, that discontinued "key products," that corresponded with customers saying they would not replace some product, and that ceased global sales and only sold in the US. Do that, and your suspicions may not be off the wall. But if you can not... your suspicions are off the wall.
Oh, good. At least Zebralight will be here for another 5 years. See? Now you have ME jumping to conclusions without any evidence to believe such a thing.
How much inventory did you have? Oh, it was a building company, so there was no inventory. I guess that is really identical to Zebralight's business.
No one as of yet has explained why they might be symptoms of Zebralight failing... and yet the belief just comes out of nowhere.
Do not believe your worst fears simply because they are your worst fears. Have reasons that explain why you believe what you do, not simply a list of completely unrelated and unremarkable facts, which is what that short list is... it is just barely enough for a conspiracy theory.
Last edited by chillinn; 12-01-2020 at 10:21 PM.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
You jokers are just pathetic.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
Owen
Kevin Klein's daughter has a pretty cool band, but she sort of sings like Nico (Christa Päffgen) ala Velvet Underground. (The better version of Femme Fatal is a cover)
Last edited by chillinn; 12-02-2020 at 06:41 AM.
Re: The Official Zebralight Thread .
Chillinn, I’m not quite sure why this has gotten your panties all up in a wad. How the points of this discussion that are concerning to us ZL fans are sooooo outlandish. You took every observation I/we laid out and discredited each one quite childishly & deceitfully. If you don’t want to participate in a “discussion” then I don’t care one little bit. If you want to turn a discussion into an argument like a little child, then again, I don’t care. You have turned this thread into a WASTE OF TIME FOR EVERYONE. If I were a mod, I’d peal you back a bit. It’s guys like you that ruin good places like CPF.
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