Hey guys. Kinda promised more pics, so here they are:
Welcome to Ap Liu street, a mecca for lights, LED's, new and used anything, and tourist junk!
Starting with the main street stall for ultrafire's:
Prices are all in HKD ( $8 HKD = $1 USD ), so these ~$2xx lights are around $30 apiece. not a great deal, but these street stalls seem to mostly cater to tourists. On the upside, bagged sets are a decent enough deal with light/batteries/charger for maybe $100 more.
If you want your LED's in a less unrefined form, down the street you'll find them sold by the string, the roll, and probably the crate:
(they have strips on display, but if you check out the shop behind the stall, they'll wholesale you rolls of SMD units)
Oh, and random junk... lots and lots of random junk:
Ahh, and here's where we try to bring a tear to a persons Foy..err.. eye.
The 'Wall of SolarForce':
A closeup of actual retail packaging (not red bubblewrap!):
Honestly, I had no idea that they made matching assault tailcaps to go with the assault crowns!?
And, of course, shots of the biggest ones they had!
WOW! I want to be there with cash and a big duffle bag.
Did you notice that big "BLAZE" in the lower left of the last picture?
"Awesome throw and a hernia" Hahahaha
oh my god that is so cool..I would spend all my cash right there lol
When I think about it, the amazing thing is the contrast of brick and mortar verses an on-line shopping experience. All I ever see is a page with a bunch of flat 1D pictures and a description written in almost decipherable Egrish. There's something to be said for putting your hand on something, paying for it and walking out of the store with it. That "350" isn't HKD is it? That would make a Masterpiece Pro what, $44? That can't be right.
Seriously dev, thank you very much. Great to see where my favorite light comes from.
ohthehumanityFoy
The tail cap with the shiny SS top is brand new on Solarforce-Store I think yesterday, it's the one from the new M6 - http://www.solarforce-sales.com/product_detail.php?t=LF&s=26&id=205
Also availlable on it's own for $15 - http://www.solarforce-sales.com/product_detail.php?t=FA&s=18&id=206
true but getting a brown enveloppe in the mail box is like christmas morning..I pretty much always have to have something on the way from honkers just for that feeling..doesn't even matter if it's a 2$ item..it's the dragon i'm chasing I tell ya!!
and did anyone else chuckle and read solarfoyce in the orange tag??
That's what I was telling someone here recently. The anticipation, thinking about it on the way home from work, "will something be there for me tonight?" Kinda fun, even if it's just some torch lube.
Foy
yesFoyce
Sorry, no. I can't read chinese, but I'm pretty sure it's a lumen rating.
(click http://i.imgur.com/aecDl.jpg for the original size)
If you look close, you'll see it's $500 for just the head.
lol lube nice..I love hearing my dogs barking at noon..mailman's here..
I'm not sure why I thought the prices would be better. So dev, did you buy anything?
Foy
Considering the margins, and the cost of an actual store on a busy street, I'm not terribly surprised. But oh, the ability to hold it and be like "no, let's try that one over there instead, yeah... oh, that's just right" ...
Aside from a bump on the head and an empty wallet, I managed to get a little loot home. And I'm one happy addict (for today. still want to go back for that ultrafire 502_c_ body.)
So, you want me to add "4283" to my L2P serial number registry thread? Okay. I though you might.
doneFoy
Wow, talk about quality! I figured they'd just stamp the same number on each and every body, regardless of make or colour.. this might just shape up to be per batch! (or random to mess with us)
That would be awsome. I would be so hyper having to look at everything at once. How expensive, minus light budget, could a HongKong vacation be?
Depends on when you travel, where you live, and how cheap you're willing to live, I guess
My flight was high season, first day after exams, and non-stop, so I ended up paying close to $1200 for a ticket from Vancouver to HK. My girlfriend is flying out to Vancouver in July, indirect through Beijing, for a bit more than half that.
A decent hotel will run you maybe $70 a night, food another $20-$30, and then throw in another $5 or so for the trains to get around.
Overall, not cheap, even if you get a good flight and a couch to crash on. Worse if you're in a hurry and/or a lovestruck fool.
Edit: on the upside, you can get a big mac combo for $2.25!
A bigamac combo for $2.25! What are you trying to do to me man! Orbits says $1950 per person for me, flight and hotel. Not as bad as I would have expected. I showed my wife your pics and she thought it looked like fun. I have to start researching Hong Kong.