Wholesale lights from China?

[Mustangnaz]

Does everyone here buy name-brand lights from resellers, or have you tried buying straight from the manufacturer? I've ordered some random stuff from www.aliexpress.com before, but not lighting fixtures. My experience has been great; the product was high-quality and shipping was less than a week. I'm really interested in the seller Guangzhou MS Lighting Co., Ltd. They have 36x1w wall washers for $133, 36x3w pars for $184, and 48x3w wall washers for $272. The seller has a 3 year history with very high ratings. What do you guys think? We need someone to be a guinea pig and do a review.

[petereit]

My experience has always been, "You get what you pay for."

[Mustangnaz]

Dangit, I so meant to get that one out of the way in my post! I figured that would be the first comment. Along those lines, I think I should get this one: http://www.aliexpress.com/store/5001...age-Light.html.

But seriously, "you get what you pay for" often has some amount of truth. Even if the quality is good, you may lose a little customer service or warranty support over a nearby vendor. But I'm thinking at half the cost, just buy a few extras. If you have one go bad, swap it out and pocket the difference!

[petereit]

That sounds good until you start renting lifts and hanging heavy things directly above your congregants.

[Mustangnaz]

Originally Posted by petereit

That sounds good until you start renting lifts and hanging heavy things directly above your congregants.

What? They weight 10-15 lbs and I'm planning on using them on the floor anyways. But even if we were hanging them on truss, how do you foresee them falling if they are mounted correctly like any other fixture? If you have valuable insight or experience, please explain.

[mstone133]

I researched these same companies when we purchased lighting for our new building. Ultimately, we bought Blizzard and Elation units from Esoteric Visions.

Having a company we knew we could trust when we had issues was important.

In addition, there is the ethical question of whether or not these companies are stealing intellectual property. It is very hard to determine which products are legitimate and which products are pirated.

Finally, while DMX is a universal protocol...some lights don't play well with others. Having the light "vetted" by an brand name we trusted is another reason we didn't purchase directly from China.

I know I didn't answer your direct question, but it's not as simple a question as "do the lights work?".

[Mustangnaz]

Originally Posted by mstone133

I researched these same companies when we purchased lighting for our new building. Ultimately, we bought Blizzard and Elation units from Esoteric Visions.

Having a company we knew we could trust when we had issues was important.

In addition, there is the ethical question of whether or not these companies are stealing intellectual property. It is very hard to determine which products are legitimate and which products are pirated.

Finally, while DMX is a universal protocol...some lights don't play well with others. Having the light "vetted" by an brand name we trusted is another reason we didn't purchase directly from China.

I know I didn't answer your direct question, but it's not as simple a question as "do the lights work?".

Thanks for sharing your experience! I've never really thought about piracy outside of software, but that's a good point. I agree, Esoteric is a great guy to work with.

[Esoteric]

Yeah, we do a LOT of research (you would not believe how much we spent on our new line) on products from China. Which ones are actually worth having, which ones have maintenance issues, which ones flicker or not on video, etc.

In addition the legality is a common issue. Some companies reproduce designs without license to do so.

Finally, for a lot of people, having customer support in the US is critical. For our line if something goes wrong, we handle it (be it repair or replacement) without you even having to know what happened.

Are there good Chinese companies? Of course. Unless you are buying Vari-Lite everything you buy is from China anyway (at least at the component level). But we did all the research to make sure you are dealing with a good company, which cost us tens of thousands of dollars spent on junk to find the right products at a good price.

You get what you pay for is partially true. But there are good deals to be had. But, as my dad used to say, why get greedy?

[Mustangnaz]

Originally Posted by Esoteric

Yeah, we do a LOT of research (you would not believe how much we spent on our new line) on products from China. Which ones are actually worth having, which ones have maintenance issues, which ones flicker or not on video, etc.

In addition the legality is a common issue. Some companies reproduce designs without license to do so.

Finally, for a lot of people, having customer support in the US is critical. For our line if something goes wrong, we handle it (be it repair or replacement) without you even having to know what happened.

Are there good Chinese companies? Of course. Unless you are buying Vari-Lite everything you buy is from China anyway (at least at the component level). But we did all the research to make sure you are dealing with a good company, which cost us tens of thousands of dollars spent on junk to find the right products at a good price.

You get what you pay for is partially true. But there are good deals to be had. But, as my dad used to say, why get greedy?

Wow, that's really cool. I didn't realize you worked directly with the manufacturers in China and tested out different products. That's good to know, thanks!

[dmot]

This is why long term relationships are important. I might add that while there may be ethical issues with factories in China there are also a lot of ethical issues with companies in the US that import and resell products from overseas. That is even true with brand name products. The OP is a good question, not just because of the cost issue, but also for all the other issues Mike mentioned. It is good to have guys like Mike who are researching that stuff.

[Esoteric]

Yeah, I haven't been to China yet. But I am probably going to make my way over there in the next couple of years (my wife and I would love to go to Japan and Hong Kong) to check out the factories we use first hand and meet some of our reps face to face.

[Mustangnaz]

Originally Posted by Esoteric

Yeah, I haven't been to China yet. But I am probably going to make my way over there in the next couple of years (my wife and I would love to go to Japan and Hong Kong) to check out the factories we use first hand and meet some of our reps face to face.

That'd be a great experience. The seller I've used is Ray Wu. He has been great in working with the DIY Christmas light community at www.diylightanimation.com.

So do you sell any "no-name" lights or are all the lights you buy from the factory rebranded?