u/CockroachUseful2195

I recently picked this beautiful Ibelo Monopol, which I believe is probably from the ~1960s-1970s, although I'm not really sure about that.

What's quite odd about it, is that it features both the Ibelo bottom stamp (as it should), and also an additional Colibri marking on the pull button (picture 3).

Now, I know that Ibelo and Colibri were very closely related companies, and that they might have manufactured a sizeable share of their production in the same factory in Germany, but have you ever seen that in the wild ?

Here we have a beautiful Winchester squeeze lighter with its original box, made in France probably during the 40s or 50s (no tax stamp ==> post 1945) since the production of petrol lighters mostly trailed off into oblivion after the 1950s for the most part (especially for such niche models).

It looks very similar to TCW or Regens style lighters of the 1930s but I couldn't find anything on the manufacturer so it's totally possible that it could be related to them.

The side engraving appears to be promotional, and not directly related to the lighter itself, and again I couldn't really find much on this one either so it's probably long gone at this point.

Hope you all like it, tell me what you think !

Edit : as pointed out in the comments, it looks identical to the Franz Balek "Reformette" lighter from the 1930s, so this French version might very well be a licensed production (it even follows a similar naming scheme to the Franz Balek lighters).

Bought this one way back in 2013 when I was still collecting Zippos, and I recently dug it out of my old collection.

According to Glen's zippo website, this would be a 1946 nickel silver zippo case with a non-matching insert (although I'm not sure since the flint wheel has a checked pattern instead of straight lines), but the plating seems to have worn off almost completely (little isolated patches are still visible on the pictures).

The case is not magnetic and smells of zinc/nickel (IMO) but the insert is indeed magnetic. The case features a 3 barrel hinge with a longer center barrel (early 1946 ?), with a wide bottom stamp logo lettering. The insert has that tight kerning between the letters of the "ZIPPO" logo, in addition to an open 16 holes chimney and diagonal flint wheel teeth, suggesting a late 1947 production.

It initially came with 2 insert, the original one with a broken cam spring (featured on the pictures), and a 1950s one that must have been in there for a while since the bottom stamp is now bent out of shape because of the flint screw.

Any thoughts on this one ? Is this an actual Nickel-Silver Zippo ?

Thank you all !

I started collecting lighters way back in 2013 (Zippos and IMCOs exclusively for some reason, didn't know any better i suppose), but eventually stopped in 2014 when i had to move away for Uni.

I recently stumbled upon lighter content thanks to the Youtube autoplay feature, which swiftly reignited my interest in lighter collecting, and it all snowballed from there...

My reasons for collecting ?

I would say that it is borne out of the fact that I was somewhat traumatized by Junky/plasticky/disposable items, typical of manufacturing trends from the 1970s-Today, and these little sturdy, carefully engineered items were an absolutely mindbending discovery which connected me to an era where people cared about what they manufactured (not to say that quality doesnt exist anymore but it certainly aint front and center for the most part these days).

These little things are also a ton of fun to figure out, take care of, and fidget around with.

Although this little collection ain't that impressive, it does contain a few standout pieces such as :

- well worn Nickel-Silver Zippo (Bottom left corner)

- Final Production Run - Silver Plated Niagara Falls Zippo (3 from Bottom left corner)

- Silver plated 1967 Dunhill Rollagas (2nd to last row, 1st lighter)

- Myon 201 French Indochina - sterling silver sleeve (3rd to last row, 3rd lighter)

For those of you who were curious :

• average cost per lighter = 15€
• median cost = 9€
• priciest ones = KW pocket lighter (60€) & Dunhill Rollagas (50€) & Lancel (25€)

I exclusively bought them online (I currently don't have access to a flea market, nor the time for that atm), so the average cost tends to be a little pricier that offline (+ shipping cost average = 2.5 €)