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http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/led-bulbs-cut-out-the-middle-man-buy-from-china-for-007-each

Youre going to spend way more than the $600 to get all the bulbs you need from China to LED your machines

Since this Pops up again, here are some numbers.

$.26 Each here, in small bulk with free shipping.

Costs for Rectified LEDs from China, after Shipping, paypal fees. etc $.20 $.21. (non rectified, .03 less, B grade resin, -$.01, B grade Diode, -$.02. C Grade diode, C grade resin, $.15...looks bad.
No Bull. 8 machines using low end LED at average of 150 bulbs per game,
$7.50 per game saved. Your Total possible savings, for the same product from a US based vendor with Quality products, for 8 games $60.00.

Pinball Life and Titan Pinball, will also get you very close in Bulk, with good people and good products.

I hope I can retire on that!

5000, 10,000 pieces..a little less.

Good Luck!

Its the only way to go. You will still find bulbs you need locally but it will get most of your machines done inexpensively. My last order was for 1200 bulbs. Don't bother with any yellows. Just a waste of money. Use whites in its place. These guys charging $1 per bulb is silly. This is where LED bulbs come from.

The comparison was for regular resin encapsulated diodes, when the discussion was started.
Non ghosting costs more. Be happy and enjoy whatever savings you find!

Would love to see how they look after you get them all in

Would love to see how they look after you get them all in.

There wouldnt be fifty pinball sepcific LED vendors if there wasnt buckets of money to be made... just saying

These Chinese LED vendors on alibaba will sell out who they supply to as well if you want to get matching product. Just send them some creative emails and you can figure it out. Thought about entering the LED game myself, but nah, missed the boat on that one.

The pinball LED vendors will defend their ground (you can't blame them) and tell you it is not worth it to import from China, but it is if you need bulk.

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/led-bulbs-cut-out-the-middle-man-buy-from-china-for-007-each

Ive bought many LEDs from Art/comet. They look great. Ive bought only the lowest price and the second to lowest price. I bought the super expensive LED kit for Dirty harry and its just too bright and when the flashers flash its unplayable. You def don't need the brightest most expensive LED bulbs.

make sure you buy frosted also for the PF and BG...

You simply can't beat Art for LED bulb knowledge. This guy puts more time into it than you can imagine. He @ Comet Pinball and Chris @ Rock Custom Pinball are the only guys I deal with for all things LED. Not to mention the fact that if you have a problem with some LED's...These guys will make sure you are 1000% satisfied. And if you have a question, they are right there ready with all the help, support and advice you need. Try giving China a call for help. LMAO!!!

On a personal note, why not pay a little more and get a way more quality product from a fellow Pinsider who does nothing but make the hobby better? Seems like a "No Brainer" to me.

Remember, its ONE thing to get something cheap in price that is cheap in quality. But it's another to get a FAR superior product from a GREAT guy that is an awesome price to boot!

I shouldn't say this, but I'm going to whether they get mad at me or not. But let's say you saved $50 bucks buying from China, and everything worked out perfect. Next time you place an order, it's another crap shoot. Hopefully it's a perfect order again. But honestly, when you support our USA Pinsider friends, they give you all sorts of free stuff. No lie, I NEVER have asked for anything from these guys, but I place an order and I get sample packs and extra bulbs just for being a loyal customer. One time I even yelled out in an e-mail...I DON'T WANT ANY MORE FREEBIES! Why? Cause I feel bad. These guys work on slim margins as it is. And to be honest, with how hard they work and how little they make, they ain't doing this for the money. They are doing it because they enjoy it and want to fight to keep out hobby alive and well. Don't you realize that? Don't you think about that? You think these guys are getting rich off selling LED's!?

SO please, think about THAT the next time you think about trying to save a couple cents per bulb.

Rant over.

Say i have 20 pinball machines. Say all twenty average 150 bulbs per game.
20 x 150 = 3,000 light bulbs.

Say i could get high quality LED lamps from a domestic retailer doing the middleman role for $0.40 each. Just using random numbers.
3,000 x $0.40 = $1,200

Say i find the same supplier on alibaba the domestic middle man uses, but he charges $0.20 each for the same bulb.
3,000 x $0.20 = $600

That is a lot of money. I guess it comes down to what is your time worth? What is your level of resourcefulness to seek out the right supplier? How many bulbs do you really need? How loyal are you to a certain vendor?

my time is worth a lot.
my resourcefulness is not an issue.
i don't need that many bulbs - only 3 machines.
i've only had great experiences from CT and Comet.

not really worth it to go through the hassle / risk just to save a few bucks. other people of course are in different situations.

Highly reccommend Titan bulbs. Hard to scoff at .29 a bulb for AC/DC
http://www.titanpinball.com/products_detail.php?ProductID=29

My favorite GI LEDs are Comet's 4+1s. In fact they're the only GI LEDs I have ever really liked. I briefly looked into them on alibaba, but the discount wasn't significant at qty 200ish, and I couldn't be sure theirs wouldn't look like crap.

On top of that I don't speak any Chinese and the sellers weren't particularly fluent in English. And the ads were really unspecific, with the title mentioning 6.3v, and the body 12v, etc. So I felt if I didn't like them or got the wrong thing I'd end up taking a bath on the deal. No such worries dealing with Comet.

Since the topic is getting bounced around pinside quite a bit lately can you post links to the vendors you bought from OP?

There's many hobbyists looking to try some china direct purchasing.

Seeing the territory being barked over right now. Lets get a list of decent chinese vendors going.

bumping a year ol topic?! doubt you'll get your answers here

Bumped because of the current "rah rah rah" going on with the last bulb thread, that was posted a couple days ago. They didn't want to discuss the issue in their cheer-leading thread, so it was a good idea to bump a topic that deals with the question specifically.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/im-a-bulbaholicwho-else-wants-to-admit-it#post-2587360

You wont go wrong with the seller I listed..... speaking only from experience...

I saw that, and will likely contact him for some kind of sample. That was great info.

His name is David Hu, and English is a challenge, but his products are great. I had him create some colors for me (pink, purple) and then he added those to his inventory. The purple are crap, they are super dim... He gave me a full refund on those and told me to keep the ones I ordered. The other colors are great.

I only do DC in the 555 style, as I don't have a problem spinning them, but he will do AC in that style for another 4 cents per bulb.

I have had a few guys from Canada contact me and have been doing business with him for awhile now, and they love the bulbs and the shipping costs.

Where are the LEDs that Comet Pinball sells made?

ALL these LEDs are "Made in China" and that doesn't change even if we might not like it!