What do you guys do with your older flashlights?
and how long do you wait to do that. Or maybe when is the point you do that?
One of my earliest big and bright flashlights was the Acebeam K40M.
(Before that, I mainly got cheaper, smaller flashlights. )
But I am not so sure what to do with it.
1- Upgrading to XHP isn't doing to much of a difference I think. I can just keep it for fun.
4. ad infinitum.
No waste of time, no bad conscious.
With all of them?
I have over 200 lights looking at me every day.
2 shelves over the desk.
1-7 compartments shelf on one side.
It doesn’t end there.
I have like 100 in the music room.
And over 400 in boxes. In part of the garage shelves.
I do like the museums. Rotate the art once a year.
Cheers.
most of them just sit around on shelves, are in cupboards and drawers. collecting dust. missing a tail cap. never to be used again.
Sell some, give some to friends & family. The rest sit on a shelf above my bed for whenever someone needs one. Oh, and a couple scattered around vehicles and convenient places like basement and garage shelves.
I give them away. I don’t like owning more than around 20-30 lights. I like to use my lights.
If I never use them I will give them away or sell if they were expensive and not Muggle proof.
What is old flashlight you ask?
I have a few old lights.
Manufactured in 50’s, 60’s. Got 1 made before WW2. Carbide type.
I keep them. Some day will cost fortune.
Mike
My 47s that I bought for 80bux (when discontinued, yet) makes about as much light as a 2×AA Sofirn for less’n 20bux or whatever, maybe 10-15 if on sale.
Seems silly to sell it (who’d want to pay anywhere near that, even half, anyway?), and dumping it for less would just grate. So? I hang onto it, keep it around, even occasionally use it, green-beam and all.
Lotta lights that were cutting-edge back then, and cost as much, would be laughably “inadequate” today.
So most probably end up on shelves or in boxes, stored away like sad unwanted unplayed-with toys.
#5
Of course my oldest torches are only about nine or ten months old. So people don’t look at me like “what am I supposed to do with this old cinder block of a flashlight.”
My old flashlights were heavily used and cheap made compared to today’s lights I own, so they were trashed as they broke. The newer lights are in useful places around the house , in cars, or at work. The bigger lights are in a cabinet locked away from the grandchildren. I have given away several lights, but all my modded lights are here to stay for a while. 
Man, this has been on my mind a lot. I’ve given some away but I literally just got my second emissary d18 today because I wanted to try the osrams. I use them all occasionally but the newer ones I always gravitate to because they have the new bells and whistles. I should sell some and buy something else or something. Idk, I’m still attached to the old ones. Lol I’m literally running out of room for them though.
I have family members still using old lights I gave them back when they were state of the art. They like their lights and refuse all upgrades 
As a result, several of my old lights are the same old models, kept in storage as replacements and parts sources in case those family members lose a light or wear one out.
The old-model Fenix E21s have stood out as real workhorses over the years - I only have a few left as people have gradually worn them out. One person killed theirs with alkaleaks, though, which is why I’ve issued Eneloops and Panasonic chargers to everyone…
The rest of my old lights are in storage too - some pending LED upgrades, some as backup lights, some as hosts & parts sources.
The exact same thing that I do with old classic rock tunes from the late 60s and early 70s: I enjoy them. They make me feel happy. I can’t make myself feel happy but old Led Zeppelin, old Pink Floyd, and old flashlights make me feel happy. They bring back great memories.
I use the ones I have kept. Old incans get LED drop-ins and 3D printed adapters to run Li-ions.
I have a box in my basement that is labeled “flashlights” which has old incandescent flashlights from way back when. Some of them were mine, others from my kids. Not sure why I still have them and at some point I will throw them away, except for the more memorial ones. Like my old free Radio Shack flashlight. Way back when, it was the brightest of them all.
3 things…
1. kept my ancient Rayovac. many camping trips. still works. original bulb.
2. give them to children with parental consent. i am a hero for fifteen minutes.
3. take out the batteries and recycle.
They are not many. Two Solitairs, one Philips. Everything else is 2017 or newer, and those lights will probably only get obsolete when the battery types used will become unavailable. The oldest of them, the S1R, is still up to date imo. LED technology reached a level where advances are minor and usability for the intended use-case is at maximum.
Agree that there’s no point in selling what we’re pretty nice lights for little money. I swapped the original XPG-R5 in my Fenix ld20 to a nichia 219 nice UI (head tight for turbo, loose for L>M>H).
I think for the most part, all lights since c.2012 are still pretty usable, still much better than candles or badly designed incans. Biggest downside for the early lights is the LED tint/CRI.