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Author Topic: What is the most you'd pay for a lightbulb?  (Read 8668 times)

Offline Yoshi

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What is the most you'd pay for a lightbulb?
« on: July 08, 2003, 09:21:00 pm »
Let's assume that the lightbulb in question is the most awesome lightbulb you'd ever want to add to your collection. How much would you pay for it? I would pay around $35. Yes, I know that's a very low amount, I have seen bulb buyers bid up to 430 times more than that, for a single lightbulb!! Are such people millionaires, or do they just want the bulb very badly?
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Offline Tim

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What is the most you'd pay for a lightbulb?
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2003, 05:25:00 pm »
Hey Yoshi,

Tough question to answer.  Quite honestly, I believe it all depends on your interest in the hobby and how much cash you have to blow on bulbs.  These are two variables that can be figured into the equation of determining how much someone is willing to lay down for a rare gem.  It?s a personal question that I doubt few people would answer in an open forum such as this.


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Kilokat's Antique Light Bulb Site
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Offline Chris W. Millinship

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What is the most you'd pay for a lightbulb?
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2003, 05:44:00 pm »
Interesting question indeed. If I was given a once-in-a-lifetime offer to purchase a seriously rare or historically significant lamp, I could possibly see myself melting the credit card trying to get a hold of it if the conditions were right. But, such offers do not happen very often.

Because of my location (generally overseas from the majority of very early bulbs for sale) I have a sort of psychological upper limit as to what I`d pay for just one bulb, for the fear of it arriving damaged and losing money. I`ve forked out generously for some quite large lots of bulbs, but just can`t often bring myself to pay similar large sums for just one small, fragile glass metal and carbon bubble.

Ironically, the one bulb I paid the absolute most for to date (the Big Red one) arrived damaged - only serving to reinforce this paranoia!

Therefore if pressed to put a price limit on things, I`d say that I`d consider around hundred bucks would be about the most I`d pay right now for early bulbs, and that would have to be a fairly special bulb too. With the exchange rate swinging more and more in my favor right now too, I might push that to $150 or so. Again, depends on the bulb and also my current position (both financial and personal). I tend to be quite "seasonal" in my collecting - some times I just don`t feel like searching out light bulbs, sometimes there are other similarly rare things to collect!

I`ve spent an absolute fortune on flashlights lately, but can kind-of justify the sometimes significant expenses (take a look at http://surefire.com  if you don`t believe you can spend vast sums on a flashlight!) because they are essentially tools that I can use as well as collect, and also tend to be very robust, and usually replaceable too if they break. Oh, and I review them too, eventually.

Isn`t credit nice?!


But if someone offered me the chance to purchase one of those vast-sized and seriously rare 75KW lamps that have been mentioned lately, I might just have to sell my brother to buy it!

   

Offline Yoshi

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What is the most you'd pay for a lightbulb?
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2003, 02:23:00 am »

Hi Tim, Hi Chris!

So I guess the reasons that lead us to collect lightbulbs are quite varied? Because I like lightbulbs a lot, yet I wouldn't easily pay $35 or more for one. I would only pay more if I knew that I could later re-sell the lightbulb in question for a much higher amount (which stops being collecting and becomes reselling).

I have also noticed that most collectors give a $0 value to any bulb that is in non-working condition, even if it's a 19th century bulb. I have a Westinghouse base Swan bulb in perfect condition (no glass darkening, no scratches, no rust) except that the filament is broken on one end, and I won it for $8! On the contrary if it were in working condition people would be paying around 25x what I paid for it! Why is this? I believe this bulb should be more appreciated even though it doesn't work, don't you think? Or hey, maybe I just got a bargain??

The 2nd most expensive bulb I have ever bought arrived with a broken filament too. It was a Columbia T-H bulb in perfect condition. The stupid seller totally ignored my packing instructions, and later he had the grace of becoming "Not a Registered User"! I paid $32.50 for the bulb (plus shipping). It is very irritating when a seller ignores packing instructions and the bulb arrives in non-working condition. And even if you get your money back, you've lost a great little jewel that had been intact for so many years, and now its end has come...  

Amazingly, I have been able to buy bulbs that are worth well over $35... for less than $35. My best bargains have been: 20 sylvania fluorescent christmas bulbs (4 bulbs of each color) for $7 (my best bargain so far!), a 250w mazda streetlighting bulb in perfect working condition for $10, a pair of Westinghouse base carbon hairpin fil. bulbs in perfect working condition for $31 each, and a 187w twin hairpin GEM bulb in great working condition for $8! I also have a no-string type HYLO bulb in working condition which I got for $20, but it has considerable glass darkening. All of these bulbs were bought on eBay, and they are my most prized bulbs! This means that you can still get great bulbs without selling your brothers and sisters! (LOL!), but it certainly requires a lot of daily browsing on eBay. It pays off in the end though. It took me a year of daily browsing (and a lot of luck!) to find all these great bargains.

Wow Chris, I see you REALLY love flashlights! Your high bid is impressive!  


-Yoshi

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Offline Alan Franzman

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What is the most you'd pay for a lightbulb?
« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2003, 02:48:00 am »
quote:
Originally posted by Yoshi:
I have been able to buy [...] 20 sylvania fluorescent christmas bulbs (4 bulbs of each color) for $7


That's a fairly hot category (which interests me too, but I sometimes don't search it for a while). To get a deal like that though, the seller must not have known what he had and either had $7 for a Buy It Now price, or failed to use the right keywords in the title/description. Am I right?

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Alan "A.J." Franzman

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Offline Yoshi

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What is the most you'd pay for a lightbulb?
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2003, 06:56:00 pm »
Yes Alan, the seller thought they were flashbulbs, and listed them as such! I was searching for rare flashbulbs when I found them. I knew what they were worth and I placed a bid as high as I could afford (not much anyway). The auction title was bad even for what it was intended! It was "Flash Bulb Lot 03 1223H". It did not have a Buy-It-Now. I sold half of the bulbs a few months later and earned $130!   Nothing like buying a bulb lot at a 1857% discount huh?


[This message has been edited by Yoshi (edited July 10, 2003).]
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Offline Alan Franzman

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What is the most you'd pay for a lightbulb?
« Reply #6 on: July 12, 2003, 07:08:00 pm »
I've had my share of great deals I suppose... but I have to keep the details of the current one under wraps until I finish selling off the items.  Some of the buyers (and potential buyers) might read this and demand a discount!
;-)
A.J.