I’ve lucked out on a few occasions on ebay where I’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
I’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 “600lm” 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.)
Good to have a warning. They are too cheap to be true.
Nonetheless, I have been using a non-Cree AAA twisty light from eBay from 5 years ago. I put some dx tape on the lens, an it's a great little bedside light my wife used. No modes, just on off. And with the tape a pretty smooth beam.
Bought this item, and it came in brown but I took it apart and its a real cree. I wish I hadn’t lost it. Cost the same as an SK68 but it uses a 18650 battery and does cool white.
I lost the flashlight, I have a side pic of it… but it won’t help to identify since its too blurry. At this price its probably fake, but I didn’t know they’d put so much work into a fake light. I was looking at the ultra fire site to identify the flashlight but I didn’t find it. Want it anyway?
I have several of these lights, my versions all have real Cree XPE inside them. But they were bought before the cree-fake-craziness, can’t guarantee these new ones would be the same.
Do you know what size of the driver it fits? I am looking for one of the cheap Ebay flashlights for testing LEDs and 17mm drivers. Right now, what I have cannot do both that well. sk68 uses 14mm drivers, I think, Ultrafire SH98 and E17 uses 20mm driver. I can use them to test LED with no problem but cannot really test 17mm drivers. P60 cannot test LED because it has to put the reflector on in order to turn it on.
All I need is a flashlight with a pill that can accept 17mm drivers. If it can easily access the LED from the front will be even better. There are quite a few of 18650 flashlight on Ebay for about $3 but e.g. this and this but I don’t know if they accept 17mm drivers for my purpose. Hope somebody can help so I don’t have to by something useless even though they are cheap. Thanks in advance.
If you’re using this for testing as you say then this may just be the one you want.
It does use 17mm driver, 16mm LED base, and better still you can remove the zoom and reinsert the pill only - bare LED straightaway accessible for whatever tests you need to do.