deal alerts: @ ebay, all flashlights below $5

shouldnā€™t it be XP -E R3? it says Q5

Iā€™m wondering if they started to rip off even the good cheap onesā€¦

Oh, itā€™s started all right but that one actually looks genuine. This one on the other handā€¦. :Sp

It says Q5 because much people (who bought this X2000 zoomie) know LEDs mainly by names like ā€œCreeā€ and ā€œQ5ā€ - without knowing what it even means.
Thatā€™s why a lot of sellers write ā€œQ5ā€ somewhere.

You are right, I was worried also about the other informations, since here on BLF, someone showed a XP-1 rip-off

btw seems the specs are totally wrong, or maybe are the photosā€¦.

$1.99 (Free Shipping)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281756374862

This one is kind of a gamble but I just bought one (only two left).

Iā€™m not sure which flashlight is actually being sold since the item pictures show two different flashlights.

Also, the seller of this Vander flashlight accepted my offer of $2.75.

$2.75 - $2.95 (Free Shipping)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281750725950

Thats a good deal :smiley: for me shipping is only 90.65 US$ FedEX or $ 137.69 DHL They are pulling this numbers out of their buts :expressionless:

I ordered the light from the second link about three weeks ago, and it arrived yesterday. This light is identical to the ā€œUltrafireā€ variant I reviewed previously:

It has the very-loose-fit drop-in pill, and the plastic reflector/lens combination and the same ā€œXP-Eā€ (counterfeit?) emitter. As Pulsar13 pointed out, a strong point of this light is that the tailcap has a removable/replaceable switch with a proper threaded retaining ring vs. the cheaper press-fit style. Also, as I mentioned somewhere I canā€™t find at the moment, the battery tube from this host is a good fit on a 501b host, if youā€™re looking for something a bit different.

Due to the poor heatsinking, I would only use this as a host for lower-power builds. My previous Ultrafire ended up as a host for an EDC-sized UV build, and it works very well for that. Keep the factory reflector, or replace with a 20 mm aluminum reflector, replace the plastic lens with glass, and swap in a 3535-sized UV emitter (purchased via eBay). Iā€™ll likely end up using the Vander host for the same purpose, but with the newer 365nm UV emitters I received at the same timeā€¦
8)

Some time ago Iā€™ve bought a similar cheap S5 copy from eBay in silver. It had the same loose pill. Iā€™ve searched for a replacement and found a pill with the matching threads at Kaidomain: http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S024126
Instead of the reflector Iā€™ve used a 30Ā° TIR together with a XML-2 and a 101-AK-A1 driver.
But there goes the barginā€¦ together with the new parts itā€™s a nice, working light but to be honest too expensive compared to other cheap hosts.

Thatā€™s a nice looking pill via KD:

ā€¦but you are rightā€¦ after ordering a $3 light and a $3.30 pill, youā€™re better off ordering the C20 host for $6.87 + BLF discount. Then you have a quality light with a good switch and a brass pill to work with.

UltraFire AT-007
$3.61 (Free Shipping)

I have been tempted to buy one of these flashlights for a while now and so far, this is the lowest price I have seen.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/361352256422

Pregulla wrote:

Not ebay, but $3.61 for Hugsby XP-1 is a great price

I love that Hugsby and a good deal so I ordered one (not 2). Aliexpress sent me email warning that the buyer protection was about to run out on the purchase. So I opened a claim and said please wait as long as possible for the package to arrive. Next day I was refunded. Aliexpress said the vendor could not produce tracking information.

Anyone else that bought from this vendor may want to see how much time they have left to open a dispute.

For $1.79

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hot-LED-3W-260LM-waterproof-Lamp-Clip-Mini-Penlight-Flashlight-Travel-Torch-AAA-/271978994847

AAA lights

thats cheap!

Probably fake...

Hugsby XP1 for $2.95 , but crazy cheap.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CREE-XPE-R3-LED-1000-Lumens-Lamp-Clip-Mini-Penlight-Flashlight-Torch-AAA-Tool-/271979065071

$3.26

And its bigger brother.

fake?

2x AAA

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CREE-XPE-R3-LED-1000-Lumen-Lamp-Clip-Mini-Flashlight-Torch-Penlight-AAA-Tool-/281793308726

Those are fake. You can tell by looking at the clip. The real ones have a notch in the clip to attach a lanyard.

I recently did some mode of the ā€œ600lmā€ ones and SK68 clones for their bad tint and low lumen outputs. The results are amazing. They are better than my original SK68 that I always use as a benchmark in light output. It is especially true when using 14500 batteries. The output with 14500 would easily be higher than 300 lm according to my best estimate.
Your XP-E2ā€™s are good but one need to reflow them. Not everyone can do that. I found some in Fasttech works well. I have used this and this on my smaller 600 lm ones. They works great. At a better price point these LEDs should be good. I have ordered a few for my ā€œsk68ā€ā€™s but havenā€™t received them yet.
My conclusion is that the best way to get decent small flashlights is buy some cheap ones and replace the LEDs.

There are a rash of Fake Hugsby lights surfacing, and those look like the fakes. Someone here bought one and its horrible compared to the real ones.

I cant justify spendin even 1$ on these crap emitter lights unless they are well built and with long runtimes just like those cockroach lights do.

I doubt any of these are any good, Ive used so called police-lights and they have been crap compared to well built light.

You get what you pay for and Im not that rich to afford to buy cheap crap again :D!

Iā€™ve lucked out on a few occasions on ebay where Iā€™ve bought the following on auctions

2x 501B with a decent 5 modes XML2 dropin for around $3
1 x UniqueFire HS-802 with a green LED for about $5
1 x C8 with XML2 for about $5

All were good working examples. Quality of what would be expected for each model type

Iā€™ve also bought rubbish too. A C9 torch for $9 which has a hollow pill, plastic reflector and low quality host.

Sometimes you can luck out, other times cheap does = rubbish. I find that auctioned items are normally when some true bargains can be found. They are very few in number though.

I got them already and tested them out. Now they are installed in the small ā€œ600lmā€ flashlights. I think they are genuine Crees. Their tints are good. The light output are good also. I tested their light output on my home made IS. It is not calibrated so I cannot give the accurate lumen values. However, relatively, they are very good. For example, the reading from a Convoy C8 at highest brightness is 20000 lux from the IS. The two small ones with the replaced LEDs gave me 9000 lux with 14500 and 3000 with AA. Conservatively, I would divide 30 to get the lumen number but again it is not calibrated. (Edit: I made the dividing factor wrong. It should be 30, instead of 300. Corrected.)