Do you think these would be worth a look/buy?

[Erin]

Lady in nearby town (10 miles away) is selling all of these for $100. Won't sell them individually.

Do any of them look like decent lamps? I thought I'd ask the experts before I go asking her a bunhc of questions. I know the pic is crap, but at first glance...what do you think?

[Autumn]

Depends if you like china lamps.
What you have there that looks good is...
a blue? swirl. Its the most common but I would pay $15 for it.
2 silver wizards. I would pay $15 for each of those.
I would give $5 maybe $10 for the hotrocks.
I would give $10 for each midnight.
A green based lamp without a cap...$5 to $10 for that. Looks like the top has been taped up though.
Random china lamps that will go for about $10 each on ebay but they really arent worth anything as a collector unless your into them.

So at most thats $85 for the good lamps and $15 for the china lamps. I would say go for it if you want the china lamps.

[Erin]

Ah, see, that's what I didn't know by looking at them. How do you know they are the China-made lamps?

Thanks for your advice. I appreciate it.

[Autumn]

You can spot a china lamp easily. Almost every single lava brand lamp uses the same globe shape.

[Erin]

I thought the China-made Lava Lites looked just like the USA-made Lava Lites.

[Brian]

for the most part.
the easiest way for me to distinguish pre and post china move is to look at the bottle cap
the ones that have "lava lite" in red are pre. ones with stickers are post.

[Erin]

So in looking at the picture I posted, how could you tell they were China-made lamps?

[Keith]

I think that Autumn was referring to the lamps not made by Lava brand. In these pictures, the lamps that don't have the classic lava brand shape are all china made. I would make sure that the Lava brand lamps are pre-china by checking the caps like Brian said, otherwise $100 is way too much. It's sad that the non-lava brand china lamps run much better that lava brand china lamps. I have had good results from many of these types of lamps and if I had the spare change I would probably buy the lot, but I would offer about $75 and bargain ;)

[Erin]

I think there are a fair amount in there I WOULDN'T want unfortunately. I have emailed her and asked for a high-res pic.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

[Erin]

I'm gonna wait on that high-res pic and then make my decision.

[Erin]

Still no high-res pic from him. I'm not going to badger the dude. He obviously doesn't want to sell them that badly.