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

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  • Most likely these vendors will put items into that box they cannot sell anymore (outdated, returned items or even ones with minor imperfections).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.

now That`s something I would probably get behind! :slight_smile:

I like the idea

Also like the idea of a raffle type thing , few flashlight guys do this on Facebook

Example 150 doller flashlight

10 people at 15 dollers a piece , winner gets the flashlight

Jccustoms does this and I’ve won a few times

Loverly titanium/copper fw3 with amber secondary’s

Katherine Alicia - cool :+1: i would too, would be fun and useful. potentilly inspire modding, new designs, etc.

I voted no... like many have previously posted, I don't think it would work well for this type of community. If you're a member of a flashlight forum, my bet is you have a particular taste in what you like in a light. Most of these types of surprise subscription box things just end up being random junk, might be good for a "muggle" but not for most people here... just my humble opinion.

no

i have enough trouble ‘liking’ all the lights i thought would be ideal but my pickiness ruled them all out

which is about 90% of them - fail to make it

i can;t imagine that i would like any lights that i didn;t intentionally want

plus now i have so many ‘’second class’’ lights that are all over the house—the ones that didn;t make EDC status
they are good enough for now and then, but not 50 times a day

wle

It’s all about the audience… AND I’d agree most here would be put off by a monthly “pitch” UNLESS it was PURELY informative (as in not trying to make a buck) :money_mouth_face:

I want to bypass the middleman with BLF… and get the skinny on what cool deals are HERE today (and often enough— gone tomorrow).

So, we already have that here (ok, sad some of us have nothing ELSE to do but scrounge BLF for deals) :person_facepalming:

But it is what it is… and I think I’d end up deleting a monthly email because it’s from some seller OR an honest BLF’er who’s trying to help up out— but a day late and a dollar short. :wink:

BLF’ers are market mavens who (often) already know about deals and the latest thing (which can be brought to our attention by MANY users AND is!). And thus, we already would KNOW what was in any given email- so moot to us and often would be “old news”

My random thoughts anyway :stuck_out_tongue:

Another monthly bill for stuff that I may or may not like, want, or need?

Pass.

plus isn;t grab bag stuff usually ‘the stuff we have a back room full of ’?
because it didn;t sell?

where would the products come from?

i just don;t see it as viable

wle

I don’t consider myself a modder. A re/de-lego-er at the best, with an OCD for fine-tuning. But my spare parts are looking more and more alike. I fear that these surprise boxes are filled with stuff that need replacement parts, Leaving me with even more of the same stuff, like PCB’s with XM-L2 leds. So thanks, but no thanks.
I already have shelves filled with lights from an age between top-of-the-bill and golden oldies.

This idea is a great marketing move from the large overseas shippers, all their surprise bags and gimmick items are filled with stuff that were returns and/or didn’t sell before. flashlights are also in them. If anyone on here bought one of those surprise bags from BG - how was the experience?

ok i amend my answer

yes if i could get any non-broken light - for under $1

so $10 a month would need to be at least 10 lights
preferably 20

and excluding anything that runs on 3 AAA cells with 9 terrible LEDs