For a while now I've been thinking of getting one of those cheap Chinese 10 or 20W emitters to full around with but looking at the prices I'm starting to think it's false economy. The 10W ones will use about the same power if I push them to the max as the XM-L yet a lot less bright (under 2/3 perhaps even under 1/2) and the 20W ones will use about double yet not be much brighter if at all. And price wise the 10W are only about half and the 20W equivalent to the XM-L. (Plus all the concerns about colour etc.)
Anyway so I'm now looking for the cheapest way to get a single XM-L emitter including shipping. Since I live in NZ, most likely something from China/HK will be best as it's pointless looking at local sites and for such small quantities shipping generally means Asia will be cheapest. Cutter may be okay if I was buying more but the AU$9.00 shipping kills the deal for a few.
I want at least a T4 but preferably a T6 or better if it's cool white (which seems likely since cool white tend to be more common/cheaper). Any tint is fine. I want it on a PCB, any size is fine but since this is for a desk or floor (haven't decided) lighting experiment, the bigger the better although obviously copper is probably better then aluminium :-P
CNqualitygoods have an allegedly T6 cool white http://www.cnqualitygoods.com/goods.php?id=1305, I think you get to choose base for US$7.00 + either 0.37 (7.37) for unregistered or 2.87 (9.87) for registered. I didn't consider the 10% discount which they may? offer for BLF.
So far I've come across this AliExpress seller http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/513259902-CREE-XM-L-Cool-White-T6-1A-LED-Star-wholesalers.html US $7.51 for 1 although from a seller without any feedback. (I guess it's really a XM-L, whether it's really a T6 is hard to say although that's always the case.) Not registered although AliExpress so it's their responsibility to get the order to you.
Ebay has one selling for US$8.22 free ship allegedly cool white T6 and discounted (looks like one of the sellers who has a nearly constant discount) from 8.65 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cree-XLamp-XM-L-Cool-White-LEDs-w-16mm-Board-T6-1A-Bin-/220875220511 and another US$8.50 free ship allegedly cool white T5 http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Cree-Single-Die-XM-L-LED-T5-0D-w-16mm-Round-Base-/390315607940, then some US$9.00 T6 cool whites. Can't find any sellers offering best offer at a resonable price.
Admitedly because of the junk I didn't search that hard, in particular for things that may have been auction. I did look at completed stuff, it seems one of the sellers led-dna once sold an allegedly T6 for US$7.50 on 18 November and another one kenjiana seperately sold 2 allegedly U2s for $7.99 each on 15 November. But no cheaper then BIN auctions since. Also from this history http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBidsLogin&_trksid=p4340.l2564&rt=nc&item=390319928941 and http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBidsLogin&_trksid=p4340.l2564&rt=nc&item=390267410768 I noticed led-dna once sold their T6s for 7.65 and 8.10 (now 9.00)
DinoDirect have two allegedly cool white T6 http://www.dinodirect.com/led-emitter-aluminium-base-hard-white-light-cree-xml-t6.html http://www.dinodirect.com/led-emitter-aluminium-base-white-light-cree-xml-t6.html for US$8.39 and http://www.dinodirect.com/led-emitter-10w-750lumens-cree-xml.html US$9.39 and http://www.dinodirect.com/led-emitter-10w-1000lumens-cree-xml.html US$9.69 (all supposed holiday discount although even before I checked out their BLF thread it was fairly obvious the 'original' price was bullshit).
DealExtreme who are US$8.90 http://www.dealextreme.com/p/xmlawt-1000-lumen-led-emitter-white-light-bulb-3-0-3-5v-51989 for what is allegedly a cool white T6. They have a few more but decided not worth mentioning.
KaiDomain have an allegedly cool white T5 for http://kaidomain.com/product/details.S009856 US$8.00 and a few different allegedly cool white T6s for US$9.03 http://kaidomain.com/product/details.S009854 http://kaidomain.com/product/details.S009877 http://kaidomain.com/product/details.S009849 . Again few more expensive that didn't seem worth mentioning.
Focal price were above US$10.79 so I didn't pay much attention.
Tmart, ultraok, Manafont, Lightake, Buyincoins, hkequipment, hotdealings (aka discoverybargain aka hoursbuying) don't seem to have
So anyway, it seems either CNquality or AliExpress to me. Probably CNquality particularly if they offer a discount for BLF although I'm not sure what their policy is on unregistered mail that doesn't arrive (but I haven't had anything go missing yet in my quite a few orders from eBay etc).
I have had nothing but excellent service from Ric at CNQG.
Out of all posted, I would shop there first.