How do you stop buying flashlights and other related stuff

True signs of flashaholism - this cannot be stopped - only toned down - buy a keychain light... or 10 keychain lights... dammit. ;-)

It is hard to realise that you are a junky .... isn't it?... on the other hand there are a lot worse addictions/obsessions. ;-)

Like in my previous hobby, I had bought gallons and gallons of car cosmetics and not I need hundreds of litres of storage space for them. And believe me, these flashlights are small :)

In my case the addiction isn't severe. I keep few flashlights and sell/gift the rest. That way i have access to many flashlights and few expenses.

I am past the keychain stage - tried that and I'm still buying. I even bought the missus one. I told her its not my fault they brought out xm-l leds and I have to upgrade.... she gave me a strange look and said she is going clothes shopping tomorrow.

You are right - There are much worse addictions/ obsessions. I seem to move on to one after the other. ( I have a lot of knives as well)

@ Budgeteer

I should start doing the same. These 1x18650 Li-Ion batteries aren't that widespread here unfortunately. So I'd need to sell batteries and chargers too so make them sellable. This turns everything into trade business.

Maybe I could get rid of those AA lights I've collected, but I like them :)

Just keep those you regulary use and perhaps a few that don't get used at all but you like very much for unknown reasons. :)

Sell the rest. I have two chargers i will keep and both XTAR(wp2, mp1). The rest is rubbish in my opinion.

I keep only 1 good thrower light i use just for fun occasionally. 1 AA (the SS C3 from LT prize) a junk zoomie and a few p60's.

I would love to have a huge collection but i can live without just fine. :)

Btw, be sure youre not cought doing so since it is regarded as "illegal" trading. No taxes involved. Heavy fines can be paid! Beware!

Most of the lights I bought, have got a new owner shortly after. I don't make a huge profit out of it, but it allowes to cover a part of my expenses for this hobby. Most of the buyers are not flashaholics, but they want a flaslight for their specific personal use. I help them to get to the "just right" light without the hassle of trial and error.

AA lights really can find a home easier. I just can't explain that they'd need a big 18650 battery to get 700 lumens. And there climbs the total expense for them, charger, battery etc.

And there are still folks that say they have a very bright led light, bought at a fraction of what I paid, those appear to be a no-name bluish led and a candle powered 3xAAA light. Neither can explain why this light is $80, or what led efficiency is.

Same here, and i suspect many others follow that path. The tiny markup you add to them keeps the hobby costs low in the end i don't feel bad as they get alos my expertise and rapairs if needed. It's a win/win situation. Also they get decently cleaned, improved, hatsinked flashlights.

This reminds me of a bumper sticker about fishing and wives I saw in Alaska a long time ago but for our purposes I'll change the wording a bit.

My wife said that if I buy 1 more flashlight--she's going to leave me.

Gosh, I'm going to miss her!

And it's all my fault! 0:)

http://budgetlightforum.cz.cc/node/363#comment-4110

LOL. F%&kin' flashlights, can't stop buying them. Arrrrr LOL :bigsmile: S)

Wife: Q: Why have you bought some many flashlights- you only have two hands?

Me: A: Then you only need one dress as you only have one body. hahahahahahahahahahaha... (I'm in the dog house now)

Sleeping on the sofa for a while?

Fortunately the assistant doesn't care as long as there's food in her bowl. But then she's permanently in the dog house but this is probably because she is a dog.

Tell my wife what I've bought lately?

Heh. Been there, done that. When I took Econ 101, they taught me to "start small, think big". That's BS. What you want to do is "start big, think big picture".

My wife doesn't understand why I, um, "need" a gazillion flashlights (she is starting to come around though - and you sort of get used to biting your lip because, clearly, cuteness trumps brightness... or something :D) but she knows that collecting flashlights is way cheaper than collecting guns or motorcycles, so flashlights it is. :)

I have a friend who collects vinyl and even if I hadn't spend so much time around engines, firearms and other fun things that will pretty much ruin your hearing, I wouldn't be able to fully appreciate a $3k phonograph record. I get that it has soul and it's analog, and all that. And I'm actually in the habit of investing in good audio equipment when I can afford it but I can't even pretend to be that much of an audiophile. I can tell the difference between a CD and vinyl on his setup (which is awesome) but I'm just not all that interested in achieving sonic perfection when mostly listen to music in the shower or in my car. :D

What I'm trying to say is, that I think it's all about perspective. This is our hobby. This is what we do. Other people have other hobbys and there's little point in trying to explain why we like the things we enjoy. A rose is a rose is a rose and a light is a light is a light, as far as most people are concerned. Sure, you can impress them with, well, pretty much any semi-decent light but as soon as they learn that it takes "special" batteries or that it costs more than a Hamilton, they'll probably lose interest. Just try to make sure you don't raid the kids' college fund and go out and buy $30k worth of flashlights (yeah, I'm slowly catching up on stuff ;)) and enjoy yourselves. :-)

True, true LOL :bigsmile:

The question isn't "How do you stop"...

The question is -- WHY?

+ a few billion. Most of my patients think I am madder than they are.

One of the consultant psychiatrists collects toy soldiers! Well, that is mad. :P

Like you say, it could be Japanese koi carp - or Israeli ones if you aren't a millionaire. A really good Japanese one can go for a couple of million.

Or it could be cameras. I used to work for a place (now defunct) that sold more Leicas than anywhere else in the UK. For their 65th/70th/75th anniversary (I can't now remember which, this was 30 years ago) they issued a bunch of gold plated ones. My boss bought several - at around $10,000 each.

And sold them for waaaay more than that.

The SLR variant was the Leica R3. Leitz (The company that made them) were owned by Wild - a Swiss company who made theodolites and were a NATO contractor. There are serious issues with being a NATO contractor - one of them is that you can only buy components from other NATO contractors (Think ISO 9000, years before ISO 9000). The appropriate NATO contractor for electronics was a company (Thankfully now defunct) called Ferranti. While the electronics were designed by Minolta in Japan (Who are not NATO contractors), they were built by Ferranti in Scotland. They were not very good - in fact they were @W$£^%$ junk. The Leica R3 cost 5x as much as the Minolta (something)700, but electronically the Minolta was roughly a million times better. Press a Leica R3 at a certain point on the base plate and it had to go back to the factory for a new set of electronics - this on a $2000 camera body. I did this more than once. The optics were incredible but the rest was a nightmare - and I hated their rep so made life hard for him.

The Leica R3 was a wonderful idea but a bit marred in the execution.

True story.

Anyway - the boss bought about a dozen of the gold-plated R3's for silly money - we got a really good deal on the price as we sold a lot of Leitz/Leica kit. Even if the R3 was a POS and gold plating it just made it a polished turd.

The gold-plated ones sold for around what I got paid in the average decade. They were not very good but were fantastically expensive and not very good. It would have been well worthwhile paying an engineering shop Swiss rates to make it take Leitz optics - you would still have been well ahead of the game. Till you saw the price list for Leica optics.

There is now one of the gold-plated Leica R3s left. And is advertised globally.

This guy (I couldn't pronounce his name in 1982 so have no chance of remembering it in 2011) flew to Edinburgh from Japan. First Class.

To take a look at this wonder camera.

Apparently, breaking the seal on the box would have halved its value. But he wanted to make sure there was actually a camera in the box. So he phoned the local hospital (Edinburgh Royal Infirmary) and arranged to have the box X-Rayed at a cost of around $400. So I went with him to ERI with the boxed camera where it was duly X-Rayed and the films given to him (This guaranteed that the electronics were now completely destroyed - the camera would no longer work). then we went back to the shop and the lunatic paid $17000 for it.

Tell that to anyone who thinks flashlight collecting is crazy.

While i probably own more lights than any six other people around here, there is not one of them that I haven't used. And there is not one of them that I'd be afraid to damage.

I can't understand the fringe collectors. Apart from anything else, I don't have that sort of money and would probably give it away if I did.

But the whisky I drink would be a whole lot nicer. Look up Port Ellen for the finest examples of the art. Unfortunately they demolished the distillery 30 years ago.