Importing LED Lights, who to avoid?

I am looking at purchasing a lot of LED Light Bars for my 4Runner; I haven’t determined a brand or size yet as I am still in re-con mode. This isn’t my first time doing the Importing stuff from China thing; I buy a lot of stage lighting for my business. So I know what needs to happen with the Taxes and such.

I would love to buy some Rigid, Vision X or Baja Design lights, but they are out of my budget. Thus I’ll import a lot of lights, keep what I need and eBay the rest.

I was about to email Aurora lights about pricing, until my quick internet search brought me to a statement saying that they’ll sue me if I try and sell “Aurora” lights. They didn’t say which model or if it’s all of their products.

They also said there are other companies that I couldn’t re-sell, but didn’t list them. Does anyone know who they are?

Does Vision X and Baja Designs have any companies or models that I should avoid?

 

Ok so what are you actually trying to do here...first you state you want LED's for your 4runner, then you go one to state Aurora will sue for re-selling their product.

 

We've had this discussion with a Rigid Rep before on this site. It is not illegal for you to buy or resell Aurora lights. Rigid will threaten that they will sue, but legally they don't have the ability to do so. The only people they can go after is Aurora themselves. Aurora is the one infringing on the patent without Rigid's consent.

The problem with purchasing Aurora lights bars straight from the manufacture is you have to purchase a minimum of 10. Great, if you want to resell and put a little money in your pocket... Problem is you need starting capital of about 3-5grand.

If you want to get lights for your own personal vehicle without any restrictions, worrying about patent infringement and all that bullshit involved in reselling 10 lights bars from a manufacture that doesn't provide a warranty then buy your LED bars from OKLEDLIGHTBARS.com. I'm not associated with them, but the owner is a member on this site and as a very happy customer I love recommending his products.

 

Here's the thread with the discussion with a Rigid Rep:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/lighting/252528-how-long-before-led-light-bar-prices-drop-4.html

Here's a very good read from the NY times... I'll just quote the original poster:

 

There have been some threads saying that the new Aurora lights do NOT infringe on the Rigid Patents. Basically saying they've had a re-design.

If you're buying for personal use, and end up having a few leftover, I think it would be unlikely for Rigid to sue you, unless you're importing a ton of lights and trying to sell them for profit. If you were to, however, start an ebay or Amazon based business for the sake of selling the lights, there could be an issue, if it turns out that Aurora's product is in fact still infringing.

*disclaimer* I do not know this for a fact, but I don't see how Rigid would benefit by going after a personal user, who bought a product they don't have a use for and are trying to get rid of it... I would imagine that this could get them some bad press on internet forums such as this one... people on here have already stated that they won't buy from Rigid because they felt that some of their posts were threatening in nature.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/gene...47-china-led-lights-cheap-product-review.html

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/lighting/252528-how-long-before-led-light-bar-prices-drop.html

Those links go to a few threads that have addressed a few different brands of lights, as well as the Rigid infringement issue.

Also, look up forum member "SoCalTacos", he's got some threads relating to the issue.

Another light company located in China that many people seem to be using, is Hanma. They make quite a few lights, but if you read through the pirate 4x4 thread, the Hanma's don't seem to be nearly as durable as the Aurora lights.

Another thing to consider, I have personally contacted both of these companies. Hanma told me that their lead time, to build and ship the lights, after receiving payment, would be 8 weeks.

Aurora, by comparison, from the people I've talked to in the US that have ordered them, had their orders delivered in about 3 weeks.

Shipping is not cheap, either, when I asked for a quote from one of them for sample lights, my estimate, for a total of 17 lights, including;

Double Row:

(3) - 2"
(1) - 4"
(1) - 6"
(2) - 10"
(2) - 20"

Single Row

(4) - 6"
(4) - 10"

The freight was about 230.00, but keep in mind my estimate was pretty massive.

 

Also, Aurora does have a 2-year warranty, technically... But I cannot imagine it would be very easy to use... considering they're in China.

They did tell me that if you want to order less than 10 lights, they are willing to do it for $20.00 per light, and I've also read about people being able to haggle with the Aurora Rep and bringing that down to $10.00 per light, sometimes waiving it all together.

 

I’m well aware about the Warranty” situation; I have had a couple Par Cans stop working on me and I’ve replaced a few LED elements and power supplies in the last 4 or so years. If it’s not repairable, most of the time, they’ll give you a credit towards your next purchase.

At least with stage lighting, the “clones” always have quirks when comparing them to the real thing. I know reselling stage lighting doesn’t bring up any legal issue on copy rights. The lights that I purchased come to me unbranded.

I just wanted to make sure that Rigid wasn’t going to come at me if I sell the extra lights on eBay or something.

 

This isn't neccessarily a correct statement. I've ordered less than ten items from them on more then one occasion. Never had any issues. In fact one order was for a single 30", not even $500 worth of product.

It would be as easy as shipping your light back to them and they repair or exchange and ship back. Not seamless by any means but that difficult either.


As for the OP ebaying off his excess, don't expect to make money on this little endeavour. You've missed the boat. Companies like TWF Fab have ordered shipping container size loads from these companies and are blowing them out at very attractive prices. They are also warrantying (sp) their product via exchange so it almost makes more sense to give a stateside company your business for the few extra dollars it will cost. My 2 bits.

 

My last China order of LED Par Cans, I used them for 6 months and a few shows. Turned around and eBay'd them for what I paid for them. I don't expect to make a ton of money; just enough to cover the expenses of getting the lights to the USA.