Cool lights, kinos, what else?

Michael Carter

Michael Carter

Veteran
Hey folks - just went to coollights.biz to order two of Richard's 4x55 flo units. $379 seemed like a great price...

Until the shopping cart gave me a minimum of $200 to ship... man, wish he'd just price the stuff at $500 or whatever. (And two of those little inline switches? $28 EXTRA for about 6 oz. of gear... arggh.) Maybe $479 is still a decent price - I just hate "screw you" shipping.

Anyway - any other options out there for kino-style lights? I see people selling new 4x55 units on eBay for $299 - including shipping. Anyone using anything I should check out?

Thanks!
 
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I just ran it myself to see what you're talking about and that's just because Fedex Ground didn't show up in the shipping options in the cart. Fedex 3 day was the $200 option. Yes it would be $200, that's air express shipping of two very large packages.

Sometimes the link is down (from Fedex side) and it only shows the express options during this estimate. Thus no conscious effort to overcharge. You can always call our customer service to do a manual order. The shipping on two CL-455 by Fedex Ground would normally be about $72 assuming shipping to your city.
 
Thanks for the update - $100 a light extra was kind of a shock!

Y'know, I REALLY would love to get two or three of those inline switches for all my little fresnels with no switches - it was like $28 to ship two of those, making 'em (essentially) $24 a switch. Is that an error as well - or can you point me to a source for a similar switch that ships UPS or similar? A high-amp inline switch like that is impossible to find, all I can find are household style.
 
Shipping for spare bulbs is really expensive too when you do it individually, so if you haven't I suggest you pick those up with your order now and save yourself in the future.

The thing is that Cool Lights as a small company can't get the great shipping prices that a B&H can. However, on the flip side you can actually physically talk to Richard and that's pretty cool to be able to do. Also the gear is great for the price. I've had a CL-455P for a couple years now and it's held up great. I plan up picking up a new one sometime soon. (Edit: And by "new one" I mean a second one, old one still works fine)
 
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Drcheese mostly said what I would have said. Let me just say it a different way.

You have what happens in China and that's really reasonable and then you have what happens in the USA and that's pretty darn expensive compared to what goes on in China. I mean even the simplest things like someone putting something in a package, boxes, packing materials, shipping, etc. are comparatively expensive. Not to mention rent and other larger monthly expenses. US sellers will always look more overpriced because they do have a higher overhead. Many people imagine starting such a business and operating out of their garage to keep it simple but that just won't work over the long term. Some will have higher overheads than others of course because of the conditions they operate in. And someone operating out of Shanghai or Hong Kong, of course they will be able to sell cheaper, their overhead is cheaper. And they don't have to honor much of a warranty for example--how many people will really send stuff back to them for repair or return, the shipping would be so high.

So small orders are a problem for us. Where we really shine is on fixtures and larger orders. Its kind of how the company was setup to solve the issues with fixtures and how they've been traditionally priced. Everything else we sell is mainly for the service of fixtures. So, I always recommend when people are ordering to try and get the maximum possible on that order of other things they may think they need and they will feel quite a good value. In other words, plan as much as you can for your purchases and the value will be there.

However, if you just want to order bulbs or a switch on an impulse purchase, that's tough for us because by the time you have the labor of getting something off the shelf, putting it in a package, boxes, packing materials, shipping, credit card fees, etc., its actually a loss for us. So yes the shipping on some one small item like a $1 bulb clip will seem higher, but I don't have a better answer at this time because there are real costs involved in shipping and what all happens after we get it out of China and to the USA--that's where the real expense begins in some cases and on some of the things you would think are the most simple. I have not found yet the way to do free storage or free labor on our fulfillment which would help immensely towards lowering overhead, among other things.
 
Yes, I noticed when I tried to order that the switches came from a separate location, so regardless of the fixture order they were still an extra $28. I'll keep hunting, must be an affordable version out there! (I have several lights with household switch boxes wired in the line, I'd like to get those down to a regular size).
 
We do have them in stock in Reno now for just this reason so it would be easy to combine them with orders. You can call the customer service at 877-272-1419 to do a manual order and no extra shipping would be involved if they were coming with some fixtures.
 
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