Stamp on top of gold Blip bottle cap.

[Dustin Bargsley]

 

I am new to this group, so first of all, my name is Dustin and I love to collect and resale lava lamps.   I recently bought a blip lava lamp and I’m having trouble determining the authenticity of the bottle.  It has a
gold cap on the bottle with a stamp on it. I am attaching a photo of the cap, stickers inside the base and the lava lamp itself.  Where do I find the list of codes and the corresponding colors that match the codes for these stamps on the bottle caps?  Can anyone determine if this is an authentic bottle/lava lamp?  Thanks for the help guys. Again, I’m new at this so go easy on me

[Cowmatian]

Hi, Dustin. This should help: http://oozinggoo.ning.com/page/lava-lite-color-codes

Some production runs were made without their normal white and red bottle caps (particularly toward the end of their USA production). It is authentic. 

[Dustin Bargsley]

Thank you so much for the information!  It is certainly helpful. I love learning anything I can about lava lamps. So, to me, it looks like the cap on my lamp has large letters that are: 03C.   Then they are followed by smaller letters that say: 020222p

                                                                                                                                                                                    022702A

It’s difficult to determine the last small letter at the bottom on the end, but my best guess is that it is “A”.  What do you think?  The link I’m that you gave me said that the date is the smaller numbers that indicate the date after the large numbers which indicate the model number/colors.  I cannot tell what the date is on my cap.  And am I mistaking by saying the large digits are 03C?Can you tell?  I have zero experience trying to do this so I apologize for my ignorance, but I do appreciate any insight.  

[Cowmatian]

Yeah, it's an 03, blue liquid/ white wax. The C doesn't tell us anything. 02 indicates it was made in 2002. The following numbers and bottom row of numbers encode the date and the time of day the bottle was produced. I'm not sure how to decipher it exactly though, as there seem to have been different conventions used over the years. 

[Dr. WHAT?!]

C probably means CHINA lol I think these were made there but still used the original formula before it went to shit :)

[Dustin Bargsley]

Ahh!  I see!  That makes perfect sense.  Thank you for taking the time to get me this information!  You all have been very  helpful!  By the way, does anyone have any idea what it may be worth, if anything? Maybe a ballpark estimate of what it may be worth if sold to a collector?  I bought it from a a girl who was selling things from her deceased Uncle’s storage.  I paid $7 for it and picked it up in person right down the street from my house, so $7 plus plus 15 minutes of my time is all I’ve put in this lava lamp; so if it’s not worth much,  it’s no big deal because I would’ve paid much more than that for it just so I could look at it because I love lava lamps haha! 

[Critter]

The “C” isn’t for China.  These 20oz Blip bottles were some of the last USA production bottles.  The move to Chinese production began in 2003. The Blip is a model of lamp that had bottles made both in the US and China.  This is a US bottle.  These were the only 20oz US production ever I believe.  

[Dustin Bargsley]

• Oh wow!  Well it sounds like I found a good one then. It’s the first blip I’ve ever owned. It works very nicely. For $7, ya can’t beat it.  I do remember reading somewhere that the gold cap blips were of much better quality and functionality than those that had silver caps.  Thanks for all of your help. It brings me joy to learn about these magnificent gooey, glowing, lava lamps! 

[Dustin Bargsley]

Thanks so much to all who have commented on my lava lamps. I love learning about them!  I also have this Garfield Lava Lamp that I just got today. I’d love to hear anything and everything that anyone will tell me about it.  As a kid, I loved Garfield as much as Garfield loves Lasagna! Lol. So I had to grab this guy when I had the chance. 

 

[Critter]

I have four blips and three of the four have USA bottles (gold caps like yours) and one is a China bottle.  The China bottles have the red and white sticker as all China bottles do.  I think Lava Lite must have been out of the red and white caps during the last bit of USA production because I have not seen a USA 20oz Blip bottle that did not have the plain gold cap.  And yes these bottles are better than the China 20oz bottle.