What is the current recommened vendor on BLF(Or do people just use Ebay?)

Buy / Sell Budget Dealer Experiences
1

Im avoiding Gear”Best” from now on, so what are some actual recommend vendors that people on this forum recommend.

Ive had great luck with Ebay, I look at the vendor rating for something over 99%. Always receive my orders quickly and with cheap prices.

But are there specific vendors people recommend - or do more and more people use Ebay these days? Why not just always use Ebay then?

Thanks.

2

I think it depends on what you’re looking for and where you live. I’m in the US and I do most of my flashlight buying from illumn.com and mtnelectronics.com, with a bit of goinggear and Amazon tossed in. If I can’t get it from one of those places I’ll go with banggood or aliexpress, but I really don’t have the patience for the Chinese vendors and avoid them if I can. I haven’t bought anything on ebay in ages and I don’t plan on starting (again) now.

But that’s just my experience. Plenty of folks would rather save a few dollars and wait months for overseas shipping. Nothing wrong with that either.

3

It depends

Mountain Electronics
Banggood
Ebay
intl-outdoor.com
Illumn.com aka Illumination Supply

4

Simon’s Convoy store is good too.
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/330416

5

So far, have been pretty pleased with Banggood and Simon’s Convoy store at Aliexpress.
Similar bad experienced with Gearworst too

6

Pretty solid List.

I would top it off with Amazon Prime. Usually fair prices with extremely fast shipping. Customer Service second to none that I have dealt with.

Edit: Simon on Aliexpress is great as well (as others have stated above)

I’m hesitant with suggesting Ebay though. I’ve come across quite a few scammers there. Even at 99% rated, you have to basically vet the seller each time and spend way too much time looking through past sales to verify… bleh. Far too many variables imho.

7

Gearbest.com
Plus all of the above…mtn all the way…

8

I use mtnElectronics and Amazon. I will never use Banggood again.

9

BangGood, FastTech, Convoy (AliExpress), mtnelectronics, R-Lsales, Andrew-Amanda… all top-notch sellers.

Avoid GearBest, WallBuys, and other random chinese sellers.

10

I recently ordered from mtn electronics which turned out good and www.ledsupply.com. Led Supply shipping was free and got to my mail box in 3 days which is a miracle. What usually happens is that I order online from places and pay for overnight shipping. They send it Fed Ex and I get it two weeks later if at all. Led Supply paid for the good USPS shipping at no extra charge to me. Mtn Electronics shipping wasn’t too bad, it only cost about two bucks and took about two days longer.

11

Mountain Electronics is the go-to place for the flashlight enthusiast and modder.

However, if I’m looking for a budget host to mod that Mtn doesn’t have, I’ll check DX.com or Ebay.

12

I'm also having trouble with GearBest.

Shops I like most:

Simon's Convoy store

Banggood

FastTech

eBay

13

Buy where you will, but CYA with PayPal or your bank’s policy regarding refunds for the times when things go wrong. GB has gone downhill but I still buy there with much thought and trepidation (and research to see if I can get a similar deal elsewhere first). The stores others have already recommended are much safer bets.

No matter where you buy there will be a small percentage of problems because of the nature of electronics which can fail at any time, and the fact that mass-produced anything cannot have 100% QC. It is always the CS that makes the difference and paying slightly more to get that service is always worth it in the end. Support your fellow enthusiasts and their stores with your business.

Phil