Made popular during the WW-II by the United States military, Zippo lighters have come a long way in terms of usage, price, model and even as a collectible.
For Bangalorean, A Franklin, these rectangular metal cases with a hinged top, are a craze. He has a collection of over 500 Zippos or Surprise Lighters and Trick Lighters as they call them in Japan.
His collection includes Harley Davidson, Zippo nonlighters, Zippos by various artistes like Claudio Mazzi, Richard Wallach, Linda Layden and others.
His craze to collect the Zippos started in the year 2000.
Speaking about his first Zippo, he said, “My wife presented me a Zippo as a Christmas gift in December 2000 and one more in January 2001 as a birthday gift and thus started my craze.” He added, “When I was counting my Zippos way back in 2005, I realised I had 200 of them. After reaching the number, I decided to collect the artists’ collection. It took close to eight months to put the set together.”
Besides bringing the regular collection, Zippo also brings out limited editions using metals like brass, gold and silver, and most are chrome plated, while others are silver or gold plated.
They also update the editions depicting the current events in their designs -- Harley Davidson, FIFA world cup, Statue of Liberty, Bingo, gambling, slot machine and bowling are a few among many.
These special editions are more expensive than the regular ones. The cost of these depends on the rarity of the designs and the metals used.
“Besides USA , Japan is the only place where Zippo Manufacturing company has given permission to modify Zippos. They come up with amazing designs and my favourites,” he added when asked about his favourite collection.
He also got the opportunity to visit the museum called Zippo/Case visitors center, located in Bradford, Pennsylvania at 1932 Zippo Drive.
“This 15,000 square foot building contains rare and custom made Zippo lighters, and they also sell the entire Zippo line,” he said.
Expressing his opinion about the classy art of Claudio Mazzi, he said, “I accidentally met Claudio on the internet and saw some of his works on the Zippo click site. The curiosity to know more drove me to gain knowledge about the Zippo club Italia which he had just started. After interacting with Claudio, there was no way I could stop being a part of the club.”
He is currently the member of Zippoclick # 876, Zippo Club Italia # 50, GLCC, ZEN, Zippo Club of South Africa and Zippo Club of Thailand.
When asked how frequently he buys the Zippos, he said with a smile, “I do not buy Zippos everyday, but a few every month.”
He expressed his enthusiasm to update his collection in the coming days.