Have any of you used this company or 473 diode?

I just received a reply from PowerTechnology about my quote request. This is odd, since I contacted laser2000.co.uk and not PowerTech.

Anyway, they won't give me a quote without me sending them specific information about the organization I am with. I didn't know I had to be in an organization . Anyway, no idea what to reply back at this point, I can't very well lie and make something up, it isn't hard to track down info on real companies.

How did you get an open dialogue with companies, Rhd?

Sigurthr said:

How did you get an open dialogue with companies, Rhd?

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I'm always honest. If I'm inquiring about a single-QTY item, I tell them right from the start. Either they'll be fine with that and give you a quote, or they'll ignore your email (or if you're lucky, politely tell you they don't sell to individuals). There's no alternative. You can't be dishonest - that's unethical, and it won't work regardless.

I also never open threads about the inquiry

Assume that everyone reads the internet! Everyone Googles their own company name, constantly. Many will even have fancy recurring keyword searches. Almost every company does this or has someone do it for them. LPF has lots of Google page range, so our threads will pop right up to the top. Almost any company will find a new post referencing them virtually immediately.

- Look how fast eMachineShop found this thread on LPF: http://laserpointerforums.com/f44/emachineshop-71066.html
It took them 13 and a half hours to find a thread about their company on a forum that they weren't even members of until that point.

- Look how fast LaserGlow found this Reddit thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/ozg2k/i_had_a_special_request_when_i_ordered_my_green/
It only took them 3.5 hours.

Everyone watches out on the web for mentions of them or their products. Companies like PowerTechnology aren't getting inquiries about 488nm diodes everyday, let alone inquiries about single diode pricing from strangers they've never done business with. I'm certain they've correlated your inquiry with this thread. To assume otherwise would be silly. This is a public site.

That's why in practice, these threads are so incredibly counter productive and unprofessional. I love the discussion that ensues, but the threads themselves are rarely any help to the hobby community, and often work against any serious efforts to secure unique rare stuff for the community.

Aye, I agree, honesty is best. I was asking how you managed to get past the "im just an individual" brick wall, hehe.

I agree, but since the thread was open and flowing I figured no harm in tossing in my bean for the pot.

It may just be me but if I was a business owner and a new market (individual hobbyists) started showing an interest in my products, I would be thrilled to do business with them. Profit is profit, right?

A hobbyist market still doesn't really make much at all of an impact with sales (unless the business is for hobbyists), sure it's profit but one or two sales here and there isn't much at all, considering what the price *probably* is. They'd be much more thrilled if a major company needed the diodes in bulk for something more "productive" than pointers. (plus having this happen would drive down the cost of the diodes)

Sigurthr said:

Profit is profit, right?

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Yes: Profit = Profit
But: Every Sale =/= Profit

For a company to make profit on a sale, of anything, they need to be paid more for that item than they paid for it, plus their expenses. Hobbyists can be very expensive to sell to, time-wise. Often hobbyists will ask tons of questions with relatively scarce intention or ability to actually complete a sale. Then we'll have odd shipping requests, equally odd payment requests, strange follow-up questions, and/or other communication nuances that make selling to us as difficult and time consuming as selling 100 of the same item to a real company / lab / business / etc.

Suppose you take 2 hours of someones time to reply to emails, answer questions and setup a sale. If you're ordering 100 diodes, then this labour cost gets spread across 100 diodes. If you order only 1 diode, then all of that payroll cost is being covered by one sole diode's profit margin. If you're not a repeat buyer, then this single sale very well may NOT bring in any profit.

Got a reply, I did not get a price quote but they are "too expensive" to keep in stock. So my educated guess is they're the Nichia diodes. Still curious enough to ask for the price anyway though, probably not on my level until I win the lottery--

Hopefully some day we'll see Wavelegnths every 10nm from 460nm to 610nm. Until that day we'll just have to enjoy the colors we have. Well the cheap ones anyway for me.

well I know its *possible* to make a DPSS unit of about every wavelength in increments of 2.5nm or less (not easily, but they can exist theoretically)
For diodes, I dont know if any made it between 526nm and 635nm. I'd tend to think the diode would have sodium in the lasing medium for in-betweeners, but I know very little about how diodes work... Next project!

Ti:Sapphire lasers go from 650-1100nm, doubled it would go from 325 to 550nm.
But if you take an OPO you have coherent light of any wavelength you choose. OPSL's are quite variable too. So pretty much any wavelength is possible if you have the money.