Depends how bad you want it. You can sell a testicle for $50,000 then you’d have your 10k budget easy. You can sell one to science and they will put a metal one in there so it still looks like you have two. And then you can say you have balls of steel. If I was older and completely on test replacement therapy I’d consider it
The problem is - and the reason I shy away from most budget stuff these days - is because of the hit-or-miss build quality. You just can’t depend on getting a good $40 light very often, or recommending one to someone else while having confidence that what they get will be as good as my unit. You are limited to a select few brands.
For some reason, it took me years to find that out. The clone is never better than the real thing. Get the real deal and you come away with more.
Man, i thought kidneys were valuable, 50k for a testicle huh, whats a kidney or heart worth?
IMHO budget doesn’t mean “cheap” as much as it means “good value” and there are plenty of those here in stock form and via modding. I read a huge amount of old posts before joining and yes, there’s a difference today. No longer do people get ecstatic over a $5 light because there are better lights and better deals to be had. And there’s many good stock lights now unlike in the past. Some of the deals we’ve seen here are as much as 50% less than the actual price you can buy or build that kind of light for; how can that not be “budget”? Look at the M24X2 GB and price it against any comparable light. Ditto for the CooYoo Qyantum when it arrived on the scene. And where can you best the Q8 The Miller is doing for us at a price of $40?
What BLF is today is great knowledge, great people, and a great attitude. That hasn’t changed and I hope it never does. Sorry that somebody has a problem with the rest of it- perhaps if they’d looked for the good things they would feel differently 
Phil
I started out on CPF when I jumped into the light scene. I quickly figured out that most of the people there were less than friendly and some were flat out rude…especially when a new person would ask a question. I was really curious about modding lights because that’s all I would read about but it wasn’t about actually doing the modding…it was about buying the already modded lights from so and so. A few months later I stumbled into this nuthouse and I’ve been here every since. Everyone seems to be fairly friendly and seem to enjoy sharing their eye scorching skills. I knew nothing about flashlights before I joined BLF…I had a Streamlight Protac HL (CR123A Vampire) and my wife bought me a Fenix LD60 for my birthday shortly after joining CPF. I still peek in over there every month or two but I tend to stay here. To me…it’s not about finding the cheapest light. It’s about finding a light that you like and then upgrade it by about 300%! I :heart_eyes: you guys.
Yep! You've got that right! ;)
Lumintop Tool, Worm 4.0 and Jetbeam JET - u only cost less than $12 each. Back in 2013, I was only able to buy crappy Ultrafire with that budget.
tbh some day I will dig a giant 20ft hole in my back yard, make a giant parabolic reflector, and use a $3k 24000W Osram lamp with 2.3 million lumens to make a giant sky beam.
$10k budget? Sounds like enough.
What makes this forum awesome is not the budget, it's the people :D
Exactly. BLF is the only community I know of where an incredibly effective and innovative collection of members collaborate together to create something unlike any other. Not only that, but to then communicate and liaise with international companies to manufacture their designs and innovations! This kind of innovation from the hobbyists end usually is the stuff of dreams. But BLF makes it a reality! And that’s something very special.
Just like the OP has done “so many times” lol.
You are right I don’t know of any other forum that actually gets its ideas made in to reality by international manufacturers.
I’m hanging for the Q8 and possibly may even jump on the GT depending on price.
The issue is simply about
Chinese Lights => Chinese Production Cost
MSRP => US price
Chinese Premium Brands => Know that US market can afford much higher price, so why not set the MSRP to this market to make higher profit
Good thread, good points here
You are feeling better ? That's all right , this was the point ! I have to admit that the "advertising" became much too agressive but , this is a free market and you have the freedom to decide to buy or not .., this is your DECISION , and belive me , it's counts !
It is true that on BLF the things has changed but is normal , as everything in this world is changing , we like it or not. I'm happy with that ? No , but also , I'm not happy that the books of my youth almost dissapeared , that the computers own to much of my life , that the time spent with my friends and family is too short , that the grass is not so green and the waters are not so blue as they used to be...
I know , you are looking for the same feeling of satisfaction and happiness at the beginning . I urge for it , also but ,maybe is not the BLF who changed , maybe WE changed ..?
While I still think of BLF as “budget” I have to admit that flashlights, modding and gadgets/electronics in general are an addictive hobby! I can’t wait to see new replies, new mods, the latest BLF designed light or a new board on Oshpark.
I only own budget lights (average value per light around 10-14 bucks) but the tricky situation is that the overall expenditure is quite high. Just think about all the extra parts, tools and shipping you have spent to get to where you are. Sure, a programming clip is only 3 bucks on aliexpress, the latest emitter will boost your light for only 2-3 dollars and the next battery sale will be cheap with coupons and points.
But my overall spend within 6-8 months was more than 300 dollars if I include all the tools, shipping and parts I bought! that is quite a lot just for a “hobby” I recently picked up.
Also, all the amazing promotions the shops are running may lead us to buy products we don’t necessarily need? Sometimes I buy flashlights just because they are cheap… (not blaming anyone but me here!) 
Its not all bad… People get drawn here by reviews of popular flashlights. They have the opportunity to read reviews on $100 lights and $20 lights. We have many people who do great objective reviews and incorporate hard data like runtimes, lumens, etc.
These people drawn here by a review get to see that lights like the c8 outperform most higher end lights.
Some people end up buying that c8 because we take the time to review all flashlights. They save money and end up flashaholics like us.
The beauty of this forum is that we have a huge baseline to compare other lights to. We can give people really good recommendations because we don’t limit ourselves to certain types of lights.
In the end people come here looking for guidance, and we can show quantitatively the difference between a $20 and $100 xml-2 light.
We are a forum where a guy who does search and rescue work can come to find a budget priced professional grade flashlight.
For example the lumintop sd75 is a great budget light for a S&R team.
What makes this forum awesome is not the budget, it’s the people
[/quote]
+1!
Hi there, could you elaborate a bit more on this? Are you referring to the banner advertisements on BLF, or the advertising that vendors post in the Commercial Sellers’ Spot category? I really do try to avoid the ad banners from becoming excessive or annoying.
Stop with the frikkin’ moaning………
Didn’t we just have this thread a few months ago?
Complaining about what someone else lists a product for is kind of silly. They can list a product for whatever they want, this is the beauty of a free economy (well that could lead to another debate but we are not supposed to do that lol). If you do not like the price or product, simply don’t buy it!
A product is only worth what people will pay for it. If people will pay $30 for a C8, then it is worth $30.
If people refuse to pay more then $15 for a C8, then it is only worth $15.
The fact is it is none of our business what the seller lists an item for. As long as the advertising is Honest and Accurate if they can sell a C8 for $50, more power to them.
Now is listing a light that costs $15 for $50 honest in itself? people will have different opinions but the fact is that yes, it is.
Do you have any idea how many items you buy on a daily basis that are marked up by just as high of margins?
Heck most department stores won’t even carry an item unless they are making at LEAST double their money on it. 300-400% profit margins are common place along the aisles of walmart, target and don’t even get me started on the “higher end” stores (aka, they pay almost the same cost but charge twice as much for it).
This is honestly like complaining that a Youtube video is stupid, why the heck are you wasting your time complaining that a video is stupid? If it is so stupid you need to tell them it is stupid, then simply Close. The. Video.
I think this is the essence of the matter. I know there are some of us (myself included) who still appreciate the bottom-of-the-barrel ultra-cheap true “budget” lights. Threads about those lights will never be deleted, and I will personally PM anybody that posts in those threads with an insulting tone. But the number of people on the internet who like those lights enough to post about them is extremely limited. By allowing and welcoming anything that you consider to be “budget”, we open up the prospective audience to the small but huge niche that is “flashlights” in general.
I started this forum (1) because the really cheap lights were scorned on CPF, and (2) because they didn’t allow direct links to items in Chinese stores that I wanted to ask questions about. I thought it was unnecessarily complicated to have to post in code about “SKU 2089 at DX” instead of simply:
http://www.dx.com/p/powerlight-hx-g011-1w-1xaa-led-flashlight-grey-2089
The main reason why I called it “BudgetLightForum.com” is actually due to this thread:
Is there a budget light forum? | Candle Power Flashlight Forum
So many thanks to CPF user “Hoggy” for the great name! :sunglasses:
But let’s not forget our roots. Check out some of my first reviews: