Smokers and other people, such as campers, who often need to ignite a lighter outdoors often turn to a Zippo lighter to do so. This is because Zippo lighters will still hold their flame in very strong winds, which makes them great for lighting a cigarette or starting a campfire on a windy day or night.

The Zippo Manufacturing Company was started in 1932, with the first Zippo being sold in 1933. The company started to create a lighter that had a typical flint wheel ignition but also had a wick that was soaked in naphtha, which is a highly flammable liquid. It’s this construction that makes the lighters so extremely wind resistant. During the first year, there were approximately 25,000 lighters sold by the company and while most of those had very plain exteriors, some still had different designs and features on them that made them unique, and personalized to the owner. However, we doubt that any of them had the embellishments that the world’s most expensive Zippo lighter has.

The most expensive Zippo lighter was sold in 2007 to celebrate the company’s 75th anniversary. However, the Zippo wasn’t created just for the occasion. In fact, the lighter was one of the original lighters that the company made back in 1933 and it was sold as a piece of history from the company. And, the lucky buyer of the Zippo now owns a piece of that history, after shelling out a high price of $37,000. And that Zippo didn’t even have any embellishments or designs on it!

That’s not the only high-priced Zippo that’s been sold recently though. Another one that was decorated with diagonal lines across the lid also sold on eBay for $18,000. That’s a lot of money to pay just so you won’t have to deal with the harsh elements!

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