I was told, a month ago or so, that Surefire products will be dealer direct. So, as a dealer, I am wondering if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe good, because the distributor middleman is eliminated. This might lower prices. Maybe bad, because the company might have high minimum orders, and or bad fill rates. I say this because their accounts receivable department will go from a small amount of distributor accounts to a huge amount of dealer accounts. As it stands, an internet customer can buy batteries for the same price that I get them from my distributor. The same goes along with other accessories. Surefire has advertised the G2 for $34.00. That light is $24.00 wholesale. Yes, $10.00 is money made, but there is a hell of a lot more mark up on their other lights. Most dealers get $39.95 to $49.95 out of G2's. I guess we will find out after the first of the year as to what direction the company will go.

Surefire has to do something.  10 years ago they were the only game in town for high performance flashlights.  That's not true anymore.

Arc builds LED lights that are equal or better than Surefires LED offerings.

The Pelican M6 outperforms the Surefire 6P at G2 prices.

The Streamlight Twin Task lights cost 1/5th the cost of a Surfire A2 Aviator.

Surefire is pricing itself out of the market.

If they are pricing themselves out of the market like people have been saying ever since I took an interested a few years ago, how come SureFire are selling more and more units and can't keep up with demand in many areas?

From where I'm standing the price of SureFires does not appear to be an issue.
Having said that, "Just image how many WeaponLights they would shift if they knocked $100 off each Millennium model!"
The single user gunowner would become SureFires market. That would require a huge increase in production and being able to cope with all the problems that brings.

Al

As a longtime surefire customer, I completely agree that they are running the risk of pricing themselves out of the market.

Sure they are still #1 in quality and technology, and probably also #1 in sales, but I think they would be doing much better if they lowered their prices a bit.  I'm a good example of a typical individual surefire customer.  I like gadgets, and I'm willing to pay for quality.  I also like to equip many of my firearms with surefires, but I'm not made of money...  

5 years ago, over a 1 year period, I bought 4 different surefire weapons lights.  Over the past 4 years, I have only added 1, because the prices have gone so high, that only the M900 was unique enough and useful enough to justify the excessive cost.  Plus, the damn things last forever, so I'm content with using my 'Classic' surefire lights.  However, if their prices were reasonable, I would probably own twice as many lights today.  

5 years ago, I would have never thought of buying a non-surefire weapons light.  Today, there are other options out there and they are priced more realistically.  I've been wanting a new handgun light for about a year now, and I'm holding off on the Surefire to see what the new competitors bring to the market.  Or I will just buy a USED Surefire...

A big fat Govt subsidy called "The war on Terror"

To sell lights to casual gun owners they had to come out with the cheaper G2 lights. That was their attempt to recapture the market they lost to lights like the Streamlight Scorpian and Pelican M6.

I certainly think that the increased exposure of WeaponLights and "tactical" lights led by SureFire has meant that others have been able to sell a cheaper product to a wider market.

Al

Absolutely.  We've come a long way since duct taping a maglight to the forend, but that doesn't mean it's okay to charge $300-400 for a 6v 'tactical' rail mounted light w/ a pressure switch...