Would you be interested in a Flashlight/EDC 'Surprise' Monthly Subscription Box

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https://web.archive.org/web/20221220093741/https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/72884

Ok, so whilst browsing I came across these EDC monthly boxes/crates. The idea being you spend say $25 /$50 or whatever per month and a box turns up with usually double the price worth of random edc goods.
Some of these look really cool. Barrel and Blade type of thing.
So far I haven’t found a flashlight specific one, which got me thinking would people be interested, I would. I think it’s doable. Maybe a little light, and a little blade, a keychain - that sort of thing.
If you would be interested please vote how much - so if anyone is watching they would have an idea (suppliers I mean).

If I were to do it , then it would have to be cancel at any time, and also upgradable should you want to.

I’ve considered offering one, it’s very hard (impossible?) to make it a good value in price and in products at the same time. And you inevitably end up receiving stuff you don’t need.

The second issue is addressed with a trading forum for then to swap stuff but still, I’m not convinced its something that can consistently offer good value to customers

That’s kind of a neat idea. Reminds me of the idea behind subscriptions like bespokepost.com.

I think it’s a neat idea but I agree with Ozy that it would be difficult to provide a good value consistently and avoid duplicates especially at the lower price points. At least with lights you run into issues with personal preferences on tints, colors etc.

Anyone on a budget light forum shouldn’t be drawn to the idea of spending money every month just in case something you want shows up in the mail, and anyone who cares about this planet shouldn’t pay to have something they probably will throw away show up in the mail. Subscription boxes are terrible.

I find these things to be marketing gimmick and you never get the value you spend.
They just find crap they can throw in that may seem decent but is only there to inflate the retail value to ‘double what you spend’.
For those with disposable income who really don’t care about getting jiped for the convince of getting some random stuff without researching a purchase.

As others have mentioned, making it a consistent value is nigh impossible. Too often this type of thing is exploited and becomes a way to offload old stock on unsuspecting buyers. Maybe if the consumer knew ahead of time what was being offered it could be viable; otherwise, a subscription service with random flashlights isn’t going to appeal to most educated consumers.

I will say that I’ve been in subscription boxes for cigars that I felt was worth it, mainly because A) it’s a consumable, and B) it’s something I enjoyed sampling a wide variety of.

Flashlights aren’t really like that. Maybe flashlight themed stickers can be considered a consumable (sig related) but even patches wouldn’t be. And people are generally searching for the “perfect” light, not looking to try a variety of them. LED’s excepted, but they’re not really a consumable, unless you’re djozz or clemence

For me, it wouldn’t be a good idea. When I buy a flashlight, I buy it thinking about its features and the use it’s going to get. While I have more flashlights than I need, I still try to buy useful ones, and I don’t see that changing soon.

I buy a few flashlights compared to other people here, and for me choosing what I want is much more logical than risking that for a discount. Maybe for people that are collectors, or for people who have uses to all kinds or flashlights it makes more sense.

No for me, once you get to use a really nice flashlight with great UI and performance is hard to step down to a lesser one. More than half of the products out there are flawed, either it’s ugly design, bad ergos, crappy UI or poor choice of emitter.

These subscriptions box things are more useful for make up and beauty/care products because they run out and it doesn’t hurt to try new things, plus there are a million different products. Women loves to have a variety of clothing and beauty stuff, men in general set to get very specific things.

There is a company that tried this with EDC items and the included products were pretty disappointing.

I am extremely picky, and I have to pick out all of my purchases myself, so that's a "no" from me.

Sounds like a good idea for others, though.

NO….

there are plenty of tactical/EDC/military/outdoor/airsoft subscription services out there. They pretty much all include a flashlight here and there… and…. these are lights we as BLF folks would laugh at.

let’s assume in the first month you get a S2+. which is great if you don’t have one yet. What will you ship in the second month? In the third? Fourth?

This is a very niche hobby and there are only so many chargers and lights you can ship monthly to someone who most likely already has all these things…

Otherwise, this is a good idea if you involve patches, stickers, flashing kits, indoor LED light products, dog/pet LED collar, spare parts, li-ion batteries, holsters, diy driver kits, and maybe a little flashlight/outdoor magazine or something like that. It would make more sense if you make this a wider “LED box” rather than just flashlights.
There is also the opportunity to involve the existing brands and introduce other product ranges they may have (edc knives, paracord, military pouches, and more)

as a group, we could vote on the light or product we want and get exclusive pricing… however, this is what we already have. In the form of groupbuys.

I was going to quote all the people i agreed with but it’s pretty much all the nay-sayer’s in this thread. I think you guys covered it.

One highlight i will mention though -

Nice idea but i don’t think it is for this hobby. It’d be like subscribing to a monthly box of RC parts - you might strike it lucky after 1-2 years and get a part for an RC that you actually own.

While this might be a great idea for sweets, cosmetics, bathcare assortment stuff etc. I clearly vote for NO on this one.

  • It is very unlikely that you will get flashlights of different vendors. Most likely you will only get lights of a small assortment from a single supplier. A continuous subscription would not make much sense here unless you have a whole lot of vendors in place.
  • Most likely these vendors will put items into that box they cannot sell anymore (outdated, returned items or even ones with minor imperfections).
  • You probably end up receiving of 80-95% of stuff you don't want to keep (bad tint, bad body color, bad regulation, wrong UI, ...) which leads to...
    • more trading of mostly unwanted stuff on forums like BLF
    • more workload for logistics providers to handle
    • more garbage in your trash bin as some items are unsalable
    • money for nothing

I would rather prefer something else:

Many vendors, especially on Amazon, have to deal with large volumes of returned items. Certainly, some of these items are defective but from my experience most of them are still okay. Lately, I saw on TV that these returned items will usually be scrapped. Yes, perfectly fine goods with only a damaged box or a slight scratch on the outside end up in a huge trash bin because it is less expensive than checking every single item and selling them again in a secondary market chain.

Some smart people already found and filled this market niche, buying this excess stock for pennies from Amazon, check everything for defects and bring them back into a secondary sales circle for a significantly cheaper price than the original retail price. I do not know if this would work well with flashlights, too and I do not know if any vendor would agree to it. But if the answer was yes, this could be a great opportunity for selling "loot/surprise" boxes of a mixed but known assortment of flashlights for a very reasonable price without the necessity of a subscription.

It reminds of me Selfbuilts mystery box

Sofirn/Toykeeper did something similar for amazon returns.

but those were one offs.

I like the name.

Odd comment: check
old thread: check
low post count : check
previous posts similar: check
post link to sell something: check
obvious spam/bot: check

Somebody dun activated their sleeper spam bot account. just generally intrigued… remote trigger?

I agree with a lot of the earlier comments on this thread, sounds good for other products but for FLASHLIGHTS, no. Too specific of a market, enthusiasts are looking for specific traits, and in search of their “ideal” product…

On the other hand… (this is a thought)

Something that could be interesting would be a “modder/supply” box subscription (albeit this is even MORE specific of a sub service then flashlights themselves)…

But something like -

batteries (different sizes/makes/models/unique/new to market)
emitters
MCPCB boards
drivers
build kits
clips (clip on and drill on)
centering rings
gaskets (kits, with variety)
new “tech”
Solder station equipment
holsters
wire
flashlight hosts
etc, etc…

I don’t know, this could be completely too niche for many to subscribe, but im just thinking im getting into wanting take some existing (new and OLD) lights and make them… different. I just placed a $70 order in parts with Simon, emitters/centering rings/mcpcbs/etc. what if, since some of these are consumable to have an interesting box of them show up for those who do not have a garage full of these items already. plus, could be valuable since a lot of these are (can be) low cost items.