Is this a good buy?

[Cowmatian]

Hello, I am in the USA, and as you know it is difficult to find a mathmos astro at a decent price. Anyway, I was on ebay and found a blue/ blue astro for around 80 US dollars including shipping. I contacted the seller about seeing a picture of it flowing, and they were very great about it. They said I could buy it and they would post pictures of it flowing, and would refund me if I didn't like what I saw (definitely one of the best ebay sellers I have ever dealt with, they also seemed quite knowledgable about lava lamps, maybe it's someone on here). They sent me a link to pictures of it flowing, and the wax looks pinkish/purple in blue liquid. They said that the wax faded over the years, and I actually really love the color that it has turned. It also looks to flow nicely. My only concern is that the wax looks a little bit grainy or bubbly. I really like this lamp's color, and the seller couldn't be better to deal with, I am just worried that the wax will go bad (cloud the water or quit flowing) soon. What do you guys think?

I'll post pics below

[Cowmatian]

Here's another pic, and by the way when it's cold the wax looks blue.

[Cowmatian]

Here it is off

[Loren]

Nice!

I'm definitely no expert on mathmos lamps, but I have 1-2 lamps that go through a bubbly phase right when they begin flowing, and it lasts for a while, until the bubbles all get worked out. Maybe that's the case with the pictures of this lamp? Quite often, when a seller of a lava lamp wants to take pictures of it for a sale, they don't wait very long after it starts flowing to take pictures.

In any case, if they offer a guarantee, then why not? Return shipping would be an issue, but if he's a decent seller like he seems, that probably won't even come up. I think you'll like it!

So yeah, I say go for it. :p

I think shipping would be not much less than 40-50 bucks anyway, and that lamp is worth more than $20-$30, I think.

[Jus]

I tell you no lies-one of my lamps I've had over a year-and I never turn mine off-but anyway, yesterday out of the BLUE it bust out with a bubble explosion!  They left, then came back half as bad, and right now there's like 4 bubbles in every blob of goo!   WEIRD!

But I would buy that lamp for the colors alone!  GET IT!

[Brad]

the blue/blue astro is one of my favorites!  it was also my first mathmos lamp.  i ordered it brand new from electricplanet.  sadly, the blue/blue is no longer in production.

the blue color has definately faded in the lamp you posted, but it still looks great. there are visible bubbles and grainy spots in the wax, but those may work themselves out over time. i agree with loren's point on sellers not waiting for the lamp to fully heat before taking a photo. that may account for the way the wax is in the photos. for $80, i would have a hard time turning that down.

 

here's my blue/blue

 

[Cowmatian]

Great news! I emailed the seller about the grainy wax. They said that it was grainy/bubbly when the picture was taken because the pictures were taken shortly after it started flowing as Loren said, but after running for a few hours, it gets completely smooth. I will be getting this lamp for sure now! I am so excited about getting my first mathmos lamp!

Thank you to everyone for your input!

[Cowmatian]

I looked up magic wax and some people say that it was intentionally made by mathmos, and some say its a faded blue/blue. I don't care which because I love the way the lamp looks, I am just curious. Anyone know?

[Scott]

Seems worth it to me.

[Kaia1165]

The lamp you speak of is a faded Blue/Blue. I bought a Mathmos Blue/Blue Astro when they first introduced them years ago, and after a couple of years it had faded to this colour. Blue when cold and pink/purple when flowing. There was never a magic wax introduced by Mathmos, but several people seem to have adopted this term to describe the changing colour of the blue wax. Either way, if you like the effect, all is good. The later version of the Blue/ Blue combo from Mathmos doesn't seem to suffer from this fading.

[Autumn]

The chunky look isn't uncommon. Both of my new fluidity global fluidium globes looked like that, but they look smooth after many runs. 

[Brad]

i completely agree.  i have many lava lite globes from the 90's that looked chunky when i first received them in the mail, and now they are very smooth after lots of run time.

Autumn said:

The chunky look isn't uncommon. Both of my new fluidity global fluidium globes looked like that, but they look smooth after many runs.