coleman Lanterns

[whitefam5]

found these two Coleman Lanterns for really cheap and wanted to know if anyone knew the value in them...The guy i am buying them from have all kinds of old coleman lanterns. Anything i should look for when trying to buy older lanterns? The guy also has around 8 old (looks old) Coleman 2 burner stoves, what to look for and where to know how old they really are...Thanks for any info anyone has...Brad

[Cliffmeister2000]

Deleted.

[WarPony]

That one on the left looks like a military lantern. The one on right has one of those cool bug screens for a "globe". I'd buy them, I haven't seen one of those type of military lanterns before but I have seen that big hat......... love 'em!!

Jeff

[doug hodder]

Brad...check the links that are sticky above for some info on reading dates on the older lanterns. For a lantern...typically..the older ones are nickle tanks on them. How to read the date may vary as some will have both month and year stamped on the bottom, some will have just single numbers that will indicate month and year. Some also are stamped on the sides.

On stoves...older multiple burner ones will have a cast iron manifold in them, and tanks will have flat ends....mid century ones will have capsule shaped tanks and stamped manifolds...just some rough info. Dating them is by looking at the numbers and letters stamped into the box, or by the bottoms of the tabs on the fuel tank which can be stamped, or by the decals that may have been on the box body. Once you play around with a variety of stuff....you just sort of learn as you go.

As far as value...you can pick up lanterns for next to nothing in flea markets, garage sales and thrift stores. I've had a lot of them just given to me. Unless you stumble upon something very rare or in mint condition...value is sort of "whatever it's worth to the person buying". Don't get into a bidding war on an E-Bay lantern/stove with someone out of Japan...they're pockets are bottomless when buying. If you don't get one that you're bidding on...just wait...another will come up very soon. Just my thoughts....most of all, just have fun with it ...they clean up easily, is a relatively inexpensive hobby and are all usable. Doug