On thing I noticed here in Korea is that lights are way more expensive than in the international market. (Or should I say, Chinese market?) My very first “flashaholic” light was a cheap 18650 zoomie with a Q5 (XP-G?) emitter. I was pretty excited and blown away by it’s cool zoom feature. However, it costed me about $35 bucks including the light, cell, and the cheapie charger.
When I discovered DX, I was pretty surprised to see that the light was being sold at a third of the price, and when bought as a set, it was less than half of the $35 I paid.
Now, as I’m searching for the TN30 in the local market, it retails for $320+, whereas it’s MSRP is about $160. Even at the local forum in Korea, people are buying and selling lights twice the MSRP.
Is it the fact that flashlights are an esoteric tool here? hmm…
I’m sure in the US market, lights are being sold for the MSRP or under.
some thing happen in South East Asia especially for the premium brand like nitecore, thrunite, olight, etc…the price gap mostly at starting from 10ish % for small cheap EDC up to 100ish % for more higher end. for instance EA4 is being sold at around $75 while we know FT selling them around $46. that also happen to popular budget light like C8 (mostly $15-20) and being sold at $25ish.
Australia is the same, all the online shops selling the torches over here are way more expensive than the Chinese market. The TN30 XM-L version is $260AUD on an Aus online store. Yet I bought the TN30 XM-L2 version last night from WB for $148USD ~$154AUD.
I thought I had found a company in Korea that was selling flashlights? I can’t find the link right now, but if I find it again, I’ll post. I think they sold to outside of Korea, but the shipping was kind of ridiculously high.
yes they are. the authorized dealer also do the same thing. luckily we have internet now and free shipment from China.
even with shipment, buying from US sometime still cheaper than local.
I was about the write the same, everything here is more expensive for no other reason than we have higher wages. I know many people wont buy from overseas as well, especially from China and don’t even give a second thought to buy something for often 2-3 times the price because its in Australia so the sellers keep selling them at 100% or more markup because people keep buying them.
I kind of feel bad sometimes because I buy nearly everything apart from food from overseas but even if I was to buy things locally, they all come from overseas anyway and I’m just giving money to a middle man thats way better off than I will ever be.
All of our markets are more expensive. That’s why we’re all buying from China. Local vendors have to pay import duties , add on all kinds of government taxes, buy business licenses, add on more federal, and provincial (state)… Etc. the list goes on and on. China subsidizes a good part of its intl. sales to keep its economy stimulated.
exactly my feeling. a lot of people at work have stickers on their lunch box or tool box that says if it aint made in america dont buy it. yet most of them wear carhartts made im mexico. almost all of my flexfit hats are made in korea (fox, and a few other brands). that remote for your tv? china. the mouse for your computer? china. all those nintendo games? japan.
i would be living a very simple, boring life if i only ever bought stuff made in the US
but another thing you have to think of is the overhead for smaller companies . they have to import the goods, and reship. web hosting costs or rental costs for a store front. stores like FT and DX sell way more goods than a specialized store thats local. they can afford to sell at less of a profit per item because they sell way more items than a small local specialized store could ever dream of selling
A few days ago I saw a simple looking LED flashlight. About 37$ USD locally. XR-E emitter. I just put it back on the shelf right away… Thinking, that was expensive and outdated.
If anyone think flashlights are too expensive locally. Start a shop, and see how easy it is to make a profit out of flashlights and various stuff. Im sure prices would be considerably higher in all countries.
The thing is, flashlights are not more expensive locally than they have to be.
They are just so dirt cheap from China. Especially due to no taxes and mostly free shipping, etc etc… There is no way local stores can keep up with such pricing.
I would say Maglites are dirt cheap in the US. (Compared to here, most things in the US are dirt cheap.)
All prices are adjusted for the economy. We should just be very happy we can get such low priced items delivered in our mailboxes for so little money.
I sure am .
So just go to show there’s many more flashaholics who don’t know about the internet or this forum! I’d say for every member here there’s 5-10 times more, who will never see flashlights online except in real life retail stores.
Good heavens we have Fasttech, doingoutdoor, WB, etc., and for the price and promotions they are giving us, personally I don’t really mind their sometimes ‘odd’ business practices.
Since you’re “there”, it might be interesting to see what they do? Everytime I run across them when random googling, I wonder about that. They seem to have some stuff that’s related to McLeish (the McClicky guy), for some reason…
Edit: I just added 2 Pana 3100 mAh unprotected, on their website, and it comes up here as $20.00 USD. Shipping is either $5.00 (registered mail) or $14.00 (EMS)?
Edit 2: The $95.00 was for a 5 pack, which sounds like 10 batteries (not clear :()…
Hmmmm…. I think I remember somewhere in the back of my head reading some similar post some 1-3 years ago. I think the user was complaining about Asian prices (not CN) as well. I know AU has the same “problem” and me being from Austria and having had to deal with German prices before I moved to the US of Cheap where you get a free SRK everytime you login your forum of choice (-;
