Is BulbAmerica.com a Scam? How Does Bulb America.com Work?

The fact that BulbAmerica.com is practically giving away light bulbs is downright suspicious to some folks. Look -- compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL for short) are expensive to produce and since they're still relatively new technology there's no reason that a website should get away with selling them this cheap. Is BulbAmerica.com a scam?

It seems like the whole world is lining up to tell me that I should be using more energy efficient light bulbs. You can't watch a home repair show on television without the host suggesting a switch to compact fluorescent bulbs or (even more extreme) LED bulbs. You read about it in the newspaper, in magazines, online -- you may have even noticed your church or your kid's school switching to those strange little twisty light bulbs. What's really going on here?

What is BulbAmerica.com?

BulbAmerica.com exists to sell you light bulbs, lamps, and lighting accessories of all kinds. Sure, they sell good old American incandescent light bulbs (of all shapes and colors) and yes they are a cheap source of all kinds of light bulbs (from lamps for medical applications to automobile dome lights) but the real star at BulbAmerica are the energy efficient lighting sources. It is all well and good that BulbAmerica.com supplies replacement fridge lights and hard-to-find outdoor lights, but no company is going to make money selling these rarely needed devices. No -- BulbAmerica wants to turn your home into an energy-efficient green wonderland.

For starters, look at the prices on their LED bulbs. LED is the next wave in energy efficient lighting (I guess compact fluorescent wasn't good enough) and LED lights are advertised to last for 60,000 hours. That's ten times as long as CFL lamps and over a hundred times more powerful than the incandescent bulbs we all know and love. How does LED do it? No doubt you've seen LED lamps around town -- like the "light strips" at the movie theater lighting up the aisle -- but now environmental geeks want to put LED lamps in your home. Light-emitting diodes produce a very bright and very small point of light which is then reflected to increase its volume. Though LED lamps for the home are usually prohibitively expensive ($40 a pop at the hardware store) BulbAmerica is selling popular LED models for around $20. That means you can put twice as many LED bulbs in your home for the same price you'd pay at a retail store.

BulbAmerica's CFL Prices

Since LED may be a bit too ahead of the curve for most people, BulbAmerica obviously does a lot of business selling CFL bulbs. These almost ubiquitous twisty little bulbs are sweeping the nation at $7 - $14 per bulb. Yes, you'll save money in the long term switching to CFL, but that high price can be a hard investment to make. BulbAmerica is offering popular models of CFL bulbs that cost anywhere from $1.50 to $4.

You can even pick up CFL technology for your outdoor lighting needs. This is where you can really save a ton of money -- installing solar-powered automatic outdoor lighting that uses CFL light instead of incandescent. You'll save money with the solar power switch (the light won't get left on) and using CFL bulbs your outdoor lighting will last a lot longer. Yes -- it is true that energy efficient bulbs will extend the life of your light and cost less long term.

Still -- I don't know about you but when I see such low prices I immediately suspect a scam. This reminds me of the time I bought a PhD online and only got an Associates degree in the mail the next week -- sure the price is low, but there has to be a catch.

How Does BulbAmerica Work?

You've already seen the big discounts on "green bulbs" at BulbAmerica -- doesn't it seem a little strange that a company would be selling a popular product so far below the asking price at a big retail store? Makes you wonder if Al Gore is a primary stockholder or something -- maybe BulbAmerica is in cahoots with the folks over at the global warming think tanks -- convince us all to switch to fancy light bulbs, drop the price real low and get us hooked, then once we're all addicted to the sweet soft LED light pouring out of our lamps they'll ramp up the price and have us all at their mercy.

Alright, I can't even think that with a straight face. While I don't know exactly how BulbAmerica can sell expensive LED and CFL bulbs at discount prices, I can probably come up with a better theory of "why" they do it than a massive global warming conspiracy.

Since the light bulb market is obviously in transition from the standard incandescent bulbs we've used faithfully for decades to new-fangled LED and compact fluorescent bulbs, smart retailers will try to corner that new market in whatever way they can. Wal-mart takes their chunk of the CFL market just by offering them for sale -- put anything on a shelf in a big box retail store and it'll sell at just about any price -- and electronics stores have staked their claim to energy efficient bulbs by selling fancy bulbs that can be programmed to move, change colors, and probably cook you a pan of bacon.

BulbAmerica has found their niche -- selling desirable and cutting edge technology at ridiculous prices. That's all that's really going on here -- BulbAmerica has suppliers that provide them with X product at X price. This allows them to set their prices extra low. No global warming scare, no BulbAmerica scam -- just great deals on all kinds of lighting equipment.

Any time I see a retailer practically giving away a product, I get suspicious. That's natural for humans. We're cynical and walk around on the lookout for people taking advantage of us. The fact is that BulbAmerica is a respected retailer -- they've earned an "A+" from the Better Business Bureau -- and they're just trying to make a little money in the margins. Check out BulbAmerica.com to see the great deals on all kinds of light bulbs and light accessories.