Frenchman Didier Karoubi walked away Saturday afternoon the
owner of an original 1933 Zippo lighter with a winning bid of
,37,000 – the highest ever paid for an original Zippo.

Karoubi outlasted all other bidders to own the prized lighter,
taken from the Zippo archive for the 75th anniversary
festivities.

This was the first public auction offered by Zippo.

Collectors from around the world were ready Saturday afternoon
when bidding for the 1933 lighter – the last item on the block –
started about two hours after the auction began.

Before the bidding even started, however, the crowd was invited
to come to the front of the tent while Zippo historian Linda Meabon
– with white gloves – took the lighter out of the display case to
show potential buyers the inside.

Several rushed up to Meabon as if she were a celebrity to see
the lighter up close and, with cameras in hand, took pictures of
the lighter so they could at least take a digital image of the item
if not the item itself.

One woman from the Philippines scanned the crowd, darting her
camera to focus in on whoever was bidding – one man in front,
another person taking bids over the phone – so she could capture
the winning bid as it unfolded.

In the end, it was Karoubi, director of marketing of Zippo in
France, who outlasted the competitors.

“Because it’s an original,” Karoubi said of why he bid that
amount shortly after placing the winning bid, adding he did not
know how high he would have gone with his bidding.

“There’s no value for this.”

Karoubi, who has been collecting Zippos for 20 years, was then
mobbed after placing the winning bid with several other collectors
congratulating him.

Bidding for Saturday’s auction was also taken over the Internet
– the highest bid for the 1933 lighter, which sold for ,1.95 off
the production line, was ,12,000.

The bid was also more than double the price paid for an original
lighter. At the Zippo Swap Meet in Tokyo in 2001, a collector paid
,18,000.

That jump in value spoke volumes, according to Greg Booth, Zippo
president and chief executive officer.

“A ’33 lighter gone for ,37,000,” he said. “It has to spell
success.”

Booth said 27 of Zippo’s international partners made
contributions to the auction which added to the “interest and
excitement as collectors bid for the items.”

There were 250 collectors representing 45 countries at this
weekend’s events.

“It was perfect,” Booth said of the two-day event. He added that
Zippo employees had worked the past 12 months on the
anniversary.

“It could not have been more successful,” he said.

Booth himself did not walk away empty handed from Saturday’s
auction. He placed the winning bid of ,3,300 on a set of eight
lighters with anniversary logos from the 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 65, 70
and 75th anniversaries.

Only 15 logo sets were ever made – one for the auction, one for
the Zippo archives and for the remaining members of the Blaisdell
family.

That makes Booth the only person outside the Blaisdell family to
own that collection.

“I think it will be worth the investment,” Booth said, winking.
“I would have gone higher.”

A man from Dallas, Pa., has unique ownership of another set.

Joseph Makarewicz is the only person in the world to own a set
of the new Zippo BLU butane prototype lighters. The Zippo BLUs will
not be available in the U.S. until later this summer.

Makarewicz paid ,2,075 on four packages – ,1,150 for a set of
five Zippo BLU butane lighter prototypes; ,650 for a set of 16
anniversary edition prototype lighters; ,150 for a lighter with a
Bulgarian football logo; and ,125 for a lighter with an Indian
feather on it with a turquoise stone.

These new purchases join the 9,000 Zippo lighters Makarewicz
already owns, along with the 3,500 Case knives.

Makarewicz is planning on building a special room to store his
finds – a replica of the original Zippo office.

He started collecting Zippo when a friend of his gave him a set
one time.

“He created a monster,” Makarewicz said.

Makarewicz and his wife have been coming to Bradford to indulge
his love of Zippos for years.

“We come every year,” said his wife, Patricia Makarewicz. “We
always come for Zippo Days.

She remarked that the last time they were in Bradford, they took
tours of both Case and Zippo.

“The employees are very proud to work there,” she said.

Other big auction sellers were the Super Bowl XL Championship
set, the one that the Pittsburgh Steelers won – ,3,500; Claudio
Mazzi 75th anniversary collectible – ,1,600; Case Bowie knife and
Zippo lighter collectible – ,2,500; and ,2,400 for a Zippo signet
lighter.