CNI Lasers and Nova lasers...

Ok, im sure people have noticed, but Nova Lasers sells CNI Lasers, so I guess Nova is a distributor for CNI Lasers. With that being said has anyone attempted to purchase direct from CNI?

I talked to their online chat and here is the info I got out of them.

For their PGL-III-A-532 model (Nova's Alpha model) these are their prices

30-50mW unit costs 180 USD
50-100mW unit costs 250 USD

Now this is the bigie...you might ask how does 50-100mW power range have one price of 250 USD? Well occording to CNI the components are exactly the same in the 30-50 and 50-100 mW Units, all they do is simply tune the lasers for diffrent outputs.

So CNI simply sells each unit based on its component cost, and tunes it to whatever output power you want in that range. Here is the conversation if you dont believe me.

You said:
ok what is the pricing for PGL III A ?
ava said:
30-50/Unit USD180.00
50-100/Unit USD250.00
ava said:
how about the laser
ava said:
please let me know if you decide to buy it
You said:

so when you say 50-100 is 250 USD what does that mean?
You said:

50-100 is a big range
You said:

if i want 55mW will it cost the same as 85 mW?
ava said:
yes
ava said:
from 50-100, the price is the same
ava said:
the cost is the same
ava said:
so the price is the same


After a bunch of haggling I got the 30-50mw price down to 130. I said I would buy it under the condition that they would send me a power output test on a 50mW tuned laser.

She agreed to this an promised that the 50mw typically outputs 80mw average.

So the cost is 130 plus 60 dollars shipping from china. Thats 190 for an alpha series that supposedly outputs 80mW. If I get the test tommorrow and it is indeed around 80mW should I go for it?

If i bought it from Nova I would either go for Alpha 45 (10 bucks less) or Alpha 65 (10 bucks more), but what kind of average power output should I excpect from these?


Thanks for any help.

I also got prices for CNI's PGL-III-532 model (Nova's NOVA series)

You said:

what is your pricing (USD) for your PGL-III-532 green laser
ava said:
10-50mW/Unit USD 200.00
ava said:
50-100mW USD280.00
ava said:
100-150mW/Unit USD340.00
ava said:
150-200Mw USD360.00


So for people interested in high power lasers these are big deals, since buying direct from CNI for lets say the 200mW laser will be over half the price from buying from Nova.

Pretty mind blowing how much the distributors mark up the prices for these lasers.

Keep in mind that CNI is not as good on quality assurance as NOVAlasers. This is because CNI is a manufacturer, not a distributor. When you buy directly from CNI, you have a higher chance of getting a defective unit. (In this case, be sure to say that you have a power meter.)

Another downside is that you won't get a purdy case like when you order from NOVAlasers.

well if i want to go with the 200mW laser, im not sure a 440 dollar premium is worth a case, but yes I guess there is more value for the Alpha series, since its about the same cost when you factor in shipping from CNI.