I have wayyy more than I need to use, and there are a LARGE proportion that do not even get used anymore. With all that in mind, especially after working out how much I’ve spent so far !!!, I can say that the result is one of a change of perspective. I don’t end up with the feeling of needing to stop buying torches, or anything along the lines of that, but the feeling of - How can I make BETTER purchases in the future.
I end up looking at what torches I do have, which ones I really like, and then looking for new torches that fit these refined criteria. I won’t be buying every new thing that looks somewhat cool, its more a case of quality over quantity. I must warn you however, that although frequency does go down significantly, Total expenditure keeps going up!
For example, for the purpose of hands free lighting, headlamps, The zebra light/ spark headlamps are the top tier models, and at $90-120 each, way out of budget! So I used normal torches on a headstrap (so that it could still be used as a normal torch (double use from 1 torch!), starting with with existing AA torches, from the $3 Police light, up to the more recent sunwayman C10A (awesome for headlight use with the soft button), but then I looked to dedicated headlights because they are lighter and more floody (better for headlamps). The ultra fire headlamp was a budget headlamp, but it just wasn’t perfect with PWM and a difficult to use ramping mode system. By now, total expenditure was WAY beyond a zebra light anyway, but I never actually bought one.
Last week (6-12ths later) I got my H600w Zebralight headlamp and this thing is significantly nicer on all criteria! But what happens in the end? Ive bought the out-of budget light in the end, but Ive also bought all the other torches along the way in an effort to save money for this “hobby”.
What is the take home message? - Expect to be buying everything and spending more than you expect to. And I don’t think of my self as an impulse buyer, It still takes me months of reading/comparing/searching before I actually commit to buy.
So how do you cure it? - As suggested above, death works pretty well… alternatively, just buy the perfect torch… :party: