Many years ago I picked up numerous lights from Jetbeam, Manker and others at bargain prices, often using an offer code from freeme or one of the other posters on here. Over the last few months I haven’t seen comparable bargains, just a few pounds off an Aliexpress price say.
Have bargains gone, or am I looking at the wrong time of year?
One bonus of living in the U.K. is that today’s news about tariffs (for the U.S.) won’t directly affect the U.K.
To answer your question, it does seem like that there are fewer bargains than before. 
Indeed, but if Trump introduces tarifs, it could seriously shock the world economy leading to inflation and worse. 
I think it’s partly due to reduced option, Intl-outdoors used to be keenly priced, from what I remember, unfortunately it’s closed down.
The best deals seem to be the AliExpress 11.11 deals. Occasionally something will pop up on superdeals, if you’re shopping for lights, subscribe to the AliExpress thread here:
Or various users here have discount codes that knock a couple of £ off (when then work).
I find AliExpress deeply frustrating, discounts often dont work, advertising is misleading (pic is a flashlight, with alow price, then you go on the listing and one of the options a low price accessory, the price of which is the one advertised and the light is regular price), the combi deals bit is a separate basket to your regular basket, the app is awful on slower WiFi because it’s so data hungry, I suspect there is an awful lot of data harvesting going on…
Convoy remains good value for money, IMHO. Simon has said he set up his own shop after refusing to play the AliExpress game.
Intl-outdoor (Emisar) used to run offers, did these stop?
Yep, I’m concerned about the U.S. economy, the world economy, and a bunch of other stuff that I won’t get into.
I tell myself that I have little to no control over these issues, so I shouldn’t worry about it, but I do think about it, partly because I follow the news so closely. 
It will affect the UK indirectly, I think fewer deals are available from Chinese retailers as they brace for whatever trade deal/tariffs are put in place.
These are only the first tariffs to be announced, I’m sure will be threatened even if they are not implemented. The UK is no longer in EU so doesn’t have collective bargaining power it once had.
Yep, that’s true, and Convoy lights on Simon’s sites almost never go on sale.
Sofirn and Wurkkos are also good deals, and they sometimes go on crazy sales, though it seems like it’s less frequently than they used to.
I don’t know about the UK, but I’d say inflation began way before 1/20/25. I never thought I see the day where eggs cost what they do. Higher prices on Flashlights are the least of our worries.
Obviously I meant much higher inflation than at present, and on all goods. Currently UK inflation is about 2.5%. Prices rose a lot in previous years thanks to Covid and the Ukraine war, of course.
Are you thinking of something else? https://intl-outdoor.com is the official website for “Hank” lights, Emisar and Noctigon. IIRC up until a couple years ago they basically never went on sale. Now many lights have shown a “sale” price for quite some time.
Thanks I’ve updated the typo in my post, I’m pretty sure I bought my D1S when it was on offer, perhaps it was a clearance deal…?
They all seem to be more pricey than doing a Google. Mybe it’s because I’m UK based, not US. Oh well.
Iirc, james_c is UK based and posts deals in that thread. Sometimes the codes work for me, but, as my comments above, I find AliExpress deeply frustrating with their “bait n switch” pricing or their discount codes which may, or may not work, depending on “reasons”.
I picked up a couple of bits during the 11.11 sale that was generally cheaper than I’d seen them, discounts are not huge though, I’ve only really seen prices 10% cheaper than normal “offer” price. sometimes I think they’re guilty of inflating the price prior to offering at a “discount”.
My belief is that companies took a big hit during Covid, and then after Russia’s overseas excursion in Ukraine due to increased energy bills and this is why offers are less common, and not as good. I used to pick up hockey gear cheap from one shop. Not any more. As you say, a lot of UK shop offers are fake anyway, increase the price for a month or two in one branch only, then reduce it back down to the usual price, and claim a huge money off offer in all branches. Currys do that routinely. I got some good Black Friday offers last year, my washing machine with installation and 5 year warranty was at least £150 cheaper than the current prices.
I suspect we just have to look our for occasional deals when a shop can’t shift a product, or they got hold of a product in bulk quantity cheap.
https://couponsfromchina.com/ultimate-flashlight-coupons-deals-list/
This list used to be good, the website looks different (at least on my phone), so perhaps it’s less good nowadays.
At least for Convoy it’s not good.
Convoy S21F with EVE 5Ah: Lowest ever price: $41.12
Price for the same flashlight on Convoys website: $31.95
I’m in the US. Yes, AE is very frustrating but sometimes there are good deals and I try to post only the good ones in that thread. Lately the AE Super Deals haven’t been anything special lately.
I sure miss Wallbuys prices and their 50% off Fenix lights.
I saw that Acebeam had 30% off for Black Friday. Maybe that is the best time of year for bargains. The Wayback Machine is quite useful.