There is no good reason to have a Zippo unless you are this guy, capable of doing countless tricks to the beat of crappy techno. Don’t get me wrong—they’re great lighters. But due to the inverse lighter-value-to-loss ratio you’ll always be better off buying a Bic. I forgot that recently and spent $30 on a custom engraved one. It’s somewhere here in the apartment, I’m fairly certain, but I’ll never see it again, because I spent more than $1.
Can you believe that three years ago the web site ZippoTricks.com was shuttered under pressure from the US National Fire Protection Association? What horseshit.
There is also a severe inverse pen-value-to-loss ratio in my experience. Whenever I get my hands on a nice pen, it is invariably gone within a couple of days, if not hours. But man, I can hold onto a 15-cent Bic pen until the very last drop of ink is leeched out of the ball point.
I carried my Zippo for ten straight years. I can still put my hands on it in 30 seconds if need be, although it’s bone-dry.
Now SUNGLASSES…those I lose if I pay more than 25 bucks. Anything under that and I’ll have them for a decade or more. I once bought a beautiful pair of shades and paid $190 for ‘em in 1995. It was an impulsive, on-vacation purchase while in New Orleans. Lost them the following summer. The 2-for$20 replacements I got at the airport on the way home? Still in my car.
i agree up until the use of a pipe. especially the the zippo pipe lighters …saves the bowl and keeps the flavour of the tobacco intact.
I’ve never had a problem losing them. I use them exclusively because I suck at using those bics. I can’t fight the wind, and zippo is my only defense (especially when driving.)
I traveled round the world (twice) with my old brass Marlboro zippo. Never came close to loosing it. I even had people running out of bars to give it back to me after I left it on a table in a drunken haze.
Ironicaly, on my way home on the last trip, i purchased a shiny chrome zippo to replace my (soon to be retired) old workhorse. I think I must have left it on the plane.
I also shelled out quite a large sum of dollars in Vietnam for (what I want to belive) is an original war Zippo. There are thousands of cheap fake Zippos being sold on the streets of Hanoi and HCM City. But this one was locked away in a display case at the back of a Hanoi gift shop in the french quarter. When I asked how much she wanted for it she told me $100! I laughed at her and told her she was ripping me off. She told me it was real. But I walked out.
5 days later I went back into the store (after completeing a grueling treck in the highlands) and bartered her down to $50.
It has the legend “If you want to make love, smile when you hand me this lighter back” carved onto the back. I thought no Vietnamese forger would come up with that!!
That’s an awesome story, Gergtreble.
Thanks Joel. Ill get some photos of the thing for you when I get home….