XPE, 3 mode, and black color are only differences I see.
I had somewhat similar issues with the price changing thing as well. On sale from $7 to $5, coupon to $3. Came back and it showed full price (7), added to cart, applied coupon and it discounted $4 instead of $2. Still ended up at $3 final price though.
I have got SK-68s for as little as $3.50, with nothing worse than tail cap threads that could easily be cross-threaded. Three modes start around $5, the best I remember.
I bought these at 2.99 And they said 1 mode but were three modes ,
They say 20 lumens but it's a mistake and they do about 100.
I like them for the price and as a change of pace from a sk68 which I really don't care for much just because of the feel .. .. They are what they are ..
As far as value they are a great 2$ light ,crappy old BLF delights were almost 2$ and were lucky to put out 20 lumens .
I bought another 6
still think the 4$ edi-t p-14 is a hard ftt to beat for 4$ 3 modes with ramping which gives you a very very low mode if youcatch it just right
Bought more of them too ..It's going to be a much easier light to mod than any AA light.
Well they do tend to have conflicting, or incorrect details often on WB, and I have yet to see someone actually get a positive result from claiming such a thing if it ends up being wrong…
I believe I may have found the issue with the 3 to 1 mode thing… maybe?
This is the golden version, claims 1 mode, #9837 shown in your cart there. The black version, claims 3 mode. Both are $1.99, and don’t change when I throw them in my cart and checkout.
Werner got the golden version a while back and wrote it was 3 mode: ?page=68#comment-476088 (Comment #2058)
So that 1 mode for the golden version is probably also a mistake in the description, like the lumens.
I should mention SK58s, if I understand what you mean by holster. They are similar to 68s but nearly cylindrical. The original Osram led is out of date, but some are available upgraded to XR-E or XP-E “Q5”, and some to 3 mode drivers. I have a 3 mode XR-E that I like, and I gave my daughter an original 1 mode Osram Golden Dragon one. There is not the same price competition as there is with 68s, but I don’t think I paid over $10 for either. There is also a similar SK-78.