Zippo Lighters: An Identification and Price Guide
Russell E. Lewis
ISBN: 0873496973
I always hate giving what might be considered a “negative” review, especially of something I really love.
I still carry a Zippo and I have carried one style or another almost daily for most of my life. I stopped carrying one in ’87 when I got married, since my wife had a view of Zippo’s that said, ”If you carry one, you will smoke.” It took a while to disabuse her of that notion. So, when she made me stop carrying a knife I dug out one of my Zippo lighters.
I love the smell of one when it strikes and the sparks connect, and the flame comes up. Some people seem to think that aroma is nasty, or that it degrades the flavor of a cigarette or cigar, but I don’t care. I just like it.
The one I carry now is a 21st Century with an Olivia image on it. I have about 10 Zippos, which is not many for some people but I try to pick ones that actually mean something to me, or that has some emotional attachment.
When I first heard about this book, I was excited on several levels. I wanted to see the history that the book might provide, along with the price guide and maybe some images of lighters and how they are made.
So, when I got it and saw the many reproductions of Zippo ads, and all the photos of various designs of lighters, I had a great time. Then I got to the “price guide” section of the book.
Now, I know that a price guide is exactly that. A “Guide”, used to determine a general price for something. It is not a bible that can’t be broken, with a solid listing of exact prices. They will vary from place to place, and design to design and to condition.
Mr. Lewis used eBay for a lot of his pricing and while I have no problem with that, I think eBay is not an accurate way to determine the price of something like a Zippo lighter. Most of the buyers using online auctions are looking for either a bargain and get into a ‘feeding frenzy’ forcing the price up, or the seller will start the price out to high, or have to high a reserve price on an item.
So, I took the book with me to about a dozen antique stores in Old Town Sacramento, CA and in the foothills of Sonora and Jamestown, CA. These are three very busy places, with a bunch of tourists going through everyday and a fair number of people who are local (within a couple of hundred miles) passing through each week.
Using the book here, I found the prices to be almost useless. One storeowner in Sacramento felt the prices in the book were too high. She thought that at the prices quoted she would have had almost no sales. Another in Sacramento thought the prices for the oldest ones shown were pretty good, but the ones from the Viet Nam era were vastly under priced.
In Sonora and Jamestown, the situation was almost the same. I also found that most dealers, no matter how their price looked against the book, were willing to dicker. I found one guy who would go almost 50% off his marked price, and it was a low price anyway.
And, I have to admit to some other problem with the price guide. I would have rather seen a year-by-year breakdown on the various styles of lighters, and the designs of the lighters. While there was an attempt to go by year, there were almost to many images. It seemed to me that had there been either fewer graphic, or if they had been grouped differently, maybe a more concise listing of pricing could have been done.
I did like the explanation of identification codes and the pictures that went along with them. It does make it easier to track down information on an older lighter you may have.
In general, the information provided is good entertainment. The old magazine ads were interesting, but back to pricing once more, maybe if they had done a separate book filled with old ads, they could have used this space to give a more in-depth look at Zippo pricing and a look at the Zippo lighters themselves.
Zippos are a part of America. They are a way to measure social attitudes and even cultural attitudes over the last 7 decades. Looking at how Zippo has changed would have been better then a look at dozens of pages of the factory, which often were the same picture just from different positions or day time and night time photos.
As a book to look at, it is great. With over 700 images it gives the reader plenty to drool over. But as a reference guide to pricing it falls short.
As a reference guide to collecting Zippo’s I think there must be better books out there. Sorry, except for the pretty pictures I would have to pass on this one.