AA Deal of the Day

Daily Deals! Only at www.andrew-amanda.com

They forgot an item in my order. I called them and they shipped out the part with zero argument on their part. Postage free. They are reputable merchants. Give them a chance. :slight_smile: I am not yelling. This is a very long post. Used bold just to get noticed. Peace All.

Daily Deals for the next week. Only at www.andrew-amanda.com

Just curious…I know the listed address is NC, USA, but is this Amanda the same Amanda of Maxtoch, or no connection at all?

And are your stocks shipped from USA or China?

No worries. No, we are not the same. We aren’t connected in any way. And yes, all of our products are shipped from our store location here in North Carolina.

Daily Deals for the next week. Only at www.andrew-amanda.com

Just used “Name a Price” feature and got a great price on a Nitecore EA21 double A flashlight. :slight_smile:

Daily Deals for the next week. Only at www.andrew-amanda.com

I like the looks of your site and you carry excellent quality lights. Welcome to BLF!

What’s the story behind the name?

Wow, awesome prices! You guys in the US always get the good stuff for cheap

I am not a flashlight seller in any way shape or form, I do agree with old lumens about short term goals. But consider it is a lot like politics. We vote for folks who tell us what we want to hear. Then we get made that nothing changes.

Distributors are in a cutthroat market, and it is we who made it cut throat. Who here shops for a better price? If we gave our business on a metric other that lowest landed cost (for identical items) that new metric is what distributors would compete on. As they don’t make the lights they are stuck with the spec. They can drop a whole line (and that happens) but it takes time for truly bad manufactures to loose market distribution channels.

I don’t expect any of this to actually be new news. I did notice that on my favorite p36 (great light by the way) that they are clearly among the lowest (I know Banggood is lower but you need the code).

But these guys are openly (or maybe not so openly) advertising this price so I don’t know if this is a breach of MAP or not but I know enough pressure is out there (because of price shopping) that distributors are working hard to come up with ways to get the prices in our hands before we personally ask for exactly the reason that the asking is more work for both sides.

$.02

Is the EA41 the one on sale the 4 th of February the 2015 version?
Thanks :slight_smile:

Edit to add… Nevermind, just figured it out

But on the flip side monopolies, oligopolies and protected markets are very good at gouging customers, i agree with what your saying that a race to the bottom is destructive, but a race to the top has equal if not worse consequences.
We have no idea what the actual profit margin on a chinese flashlight is, and if we did we also don’t know what their costs of doing business are, an extra 10% discount may just be a reduced profit or may be the final nail in the coffin. I highly doubt we are buying many of our flashlights below cost, and i think we are rewarding sellers who offer good service, how many flashlights have fasttech or intl outdoor sold to BLF members, i’m guessing mountain electronics is a US distributor.

Thank you! I believe it’s the owner’s children’s names but not 100% positive.

I’ve bought several Olights from their ebay shop over the past few years and they were always great. Received my lights really fast like 2 days after ordering! Nice to see this thread on BLF, I see some awesome deals posted. Subscribed.

The question for me isnt a discount, discounts are great. Profit margin is unknown in both cases, whether set prices and we’ll beat any price by 10%.

But the idea of beat any price is a discount being offered that is beyond their competitor without stating a price in the first place. ie: X offers it at $10. Y says Ill beat any price by 10%. X has a price they are offering it at, X has said in that price that this is how we do business. Y however, is saying I want as much profit as I can get away with, but my price will vary according to my competitor so I dont price myself out of the market. One could argue thats good, lowest price and all. But in reality X will go out of business, and Y is all you have left in business (alternative is Y will disappear quickly due to lack of profits , and that means no after sales service). And we already know Y does not know how to price. Its fair to assume, youre going to pay more long term with future transaction. Moreover, chances are with that kind of ethic, your after sales service level will not be great either.

Personally, Id prefer to support X. His prices are competitive to start with, and they stand by that pricing policy by stating the price they expect. Of course they can lower prices etc, thats all good, but its the outright stating of a price from the start. Not X price - 10%. What price will they set, when they have no competitor? You can bet its not going to a marginal profit because if they could, they already would be pricing that way.

The alternative is they are willing to sell at below cost, but to what end? Thats not how you stay in business unless you plan to off the competition. ie: its a deep pockets strategy (he with the most cash to play with, can outlast competitors until they are gone, then sooner or later they must return to profitability). This cant end with lowest possible prices.

On top, as OL said, they cant provide back up and service with minimal profit margins. Its just not economically viable to do so. Theres just no way this strategy is good for consumers long term. Its good for the seller short term, and we get a few bvargains along the way. Long term, we will pay for it either in future prices, or service.

Also this cannot end by way of Socialism or Communism which says "To each according to his contribution" or some other such rot. See, the thing to remember is that although very valid points are made above there remains NO uncorrupted "higher power" by government or otherwise that will ensure equality or fairness in the marketplace.

It does seem like a good idea to develop some kind of rule here in the forum regarding posting prices offered by commercial sellers and their "discounts".

Last point - A number of very small mom and pop businesses started small and slow and after some time, effort and *good* business sense they grew a little and became bigger and bigger.

This reminds me of a story (this is connected to the above paragraph) when I asked someone who did not like "big box stores" where society, government or by self-motivation should the line be drawn between a mom and pop sized operation and a big box store. They could not answer. Some mom and pop stores grow into very modest operations and just stay that way for various reasons and some grow into what Samuel Walton later found on his hands. Both started off small and one grew and the other did not.

Should the government or society dictate how a business operates as long as it is honest and up front with claims and advertising?

Businesses should do their own work and not attempt to entice others into doing their own work and research. Anyone attempting to conduct business like that will be out of business before long.

Thank you for reading this. This is very connected to the ideas set forth in this thread. Sorry for any perceived hijack.

I can’t argue with you, but one hopes that the products in question have low barriers to entry, if one company goes out of business then another can come along and offer a comparable product or service. People often chastise customers for being picky about price, but especially today middle class and lower customers have less buying power then they had 50 years ago, the more they spend on products and services the less economic activity there will be because they will exhaust their currency much more quickly. Also on what metric do you gauge company X’s price to be competitive?

Your argument is purely price based, and youre entitled to make that choice. But if a business goes out of business, all its point of sale back up and service goes with it, often so does a consumers point of complaint and redress. This isnt about lights or batteries etc, its about car repairs or 2nd hand sales, TVs, houses, plumbing and everything in between. Its not good for an economy, or consumers if businesses come and go.

It must be competitive. Are you familiar with the concept of ceteris parabis ? Company X is guaranteed competitive because it is a hypothetical, a representative of the lowest priced option prior to the offering of Y. Its like supply and demand, a concept that necessarily must assume all other things in the economy are held equal. Otherwise you end up trying to prove a concept such as supply or equilibrium price, in a market with so many things effecting it, its far too complex to use as a teaching tool, or analytical measure.

Nothing I said revolved around any government interference. It relied on the fundamental concept of capitalism known as informed choice. I as a consumer, can choose not to reward that kind of behaviour from sellers as its in my long term best interests to do so.

Even with lasseiz fair capitalism, there are government rules, either by statute or that of common law.

Its all good for andrew-amanda, free bumps.

What do you mean going off topic!

Thanks Andrew and Amanda for providing good prices for great products!