I’m not the greatest modder, which flashlights come with good emitters (Cree, Nichia, etc.?)
Can you narrow the question?
It’s too broad to get any useful answers IMHO
you basically have to buy from a trustworthy seller with authentic products, ideally branded lights (but even those can be faked, so even more importance on the store).
i.e. if you buy a no-name SRK on an auction based platform at a cheap price there is a good chance there will be fake LEDs inside. Avoid.
however, checkout
for genuine products and good service.
Yeah I hadn’t thought about mtnelectronics for lights, but I guess they do sell lights, I’ll have to take a look. Also isn’t aliexpress ShenZhen Convoy good?
Is there a certain price point where the lesser emitters go away? Any tricks?
I used to get cheap stuff on ebay, which was a crapshoot, but always decent, at least. Sounds like that’s over? Or is it still doable?
The more you pay the more it’s worth.
eBay is still fine if you vet the seller before you buy - every single time.
1) search for the main sellers for a product, compare prices and verify the seller names against forums or websites that confirm authenticity or service levels.
Here are a couple of “safe” sellers:
solarforceHK
itc_shop
hqequipment (all on ebay).
I had really good experiences with them and shipping is super-fast with itc (once they sent me a L2T from HK to California in SEVEN days.)
2) Avoid sellers that are wholesale big box shops that sell anything from scented candles to baby wipes and also offer flashlights on the side. They typically have no clue where the stock is from but make tons of money based on sales volumes and price deltas. Most of the time they simply can’t say whether a SRK has the real XML or not. Even if they confirm their massive volumes may contain different supplier batches.
3) If stuff goes wrong - ensure a proper paper trail and ask for a refund. PP and ebay normally want any “fake” claims off the table but you are taking a risk here.
Meteor M43 
I guess a corollary of that is, you get what you pay for, except when you don’t
The meteor better not be low quality emitters! $178.
Thanks! Its kinda fun buying cheap lights off ebay. I’ll check out these sellers. One of my favorites was $2.99. Not super bright, but I use it for hiking and as a backup, so it’s fine. Nice form, too
Would the Olights, Thrunites, Shiningbeam Caveman, Nitecore, Sunwayman, or similar have lower quality emitters? How much chance is there?
most brands like Olight, Thrunite, Fenix, Nitecore, Sunwayman, FourSevens, and the more established expensive lights will most likely all have real CREE or Nichia LEDs, then the cheap, random brands like ultrafire clones, and the many other clones of other original lights like SkyRay King and others found on Ebay, or the many Chinese sellers have a very high chance will have a LatticeBright, (LB) fake cree copy in them.
I also thought that buying “cheap” lights on auction platforms is fun, shipping was free too. But you’ll quickly realize that 3-4 cheap lights are almost the same price as 1 decent light (ie Convoy). A S2+ can be had for as little as 12-13$ (look for a rebate code here on the forum or wait for a sale) and will last forever. The quality is way better and you will use it more often.
My cheap dollar lights are now collecting dust and fall down from a cupboard or table whenever something touches them… and I also don’t want to throw them away. They are really annoying.
Yeah, I got one of the BLF 348 ’s, and it is nice, was thinking along this lines. But I think it will be hard to beat my C8’s, though I’d like to get a nicer one from Richard at mtnelectronics or ShenZhen Convoy.
And my inexpensive Small Sun zoomie is nice, as are some others. And it will be tough to get a brighter single 18650 light, once you get close to 2 amps.
I didn’t really think Thrunite, Nitecore and the others would have the cheap ones, but they’re from the same sellers, more or less, so I didn’t know.