Dave

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Biography

I have been buying, selling, and collecting miner’s lamps for about 25 years.  I can still remember the first miner’s lamp I bought that got me hooked on collecting.  It was a carbide lamp that cost $6 in Sierra City, California.  Of course, I learned later  that the lamp was a mixture of Auto-Lite and Justrite parts!! I think we all have a story like that.

My personal experience in the mining industry is not measured in years, but weeks.  When I graduated from the University of Arizona in 1984 with a degree in Mining Engineering, the copper industry had almost 50% unemployment and wasn’t in need of my valuable services.  So, I took a job with a scrap metal recycling company owned by a steel company that utilized 100% scrap to make new steel.  I became a modern-day “Fred Sanford”.  My main claim to fame was the engineering and construction of 3 large automobile shredding facilities.  Automobile shredders are basically hammer mills, but instead of rock, junk cars were fed into them.  The cars would be shredded into fist size pieces, and a downstream system would separate out the ferrous and non-ferrous metal, and non-recyclable material.  The machines I installed ate 1-2 cars PER MINUTE.  

Jennifer Findley and myself with US Ambassador Pete Peterson.  Photo taken in Ho Chi Minh City (Sai Gon) at the new Consulate located where the old US Embassy once stood.  Pete Peterson spent several years as a POW in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton”. 

After spending over 12 years in the scrap business, I decided to go to graduated school on a full-time basis to earn an MBA.  Since  graduating in May of 1999, I have been to Vietnam twice on special market research projects to investigate future trade opportunities.

Collecting has change significantly.  Back in the 1970’s, it was very difficult to find information about miner’s lamps. It was also very hard to find lamps.  Back then, collectors did not sell duplicate lamps but only traded.  This is because cash prices on lamps did not reflect their true value.  Needless to say, trading was difficult because you had to find something the other collector didn’t have, which was usually something you didn’t have in your collection either.  Because the prices now reflect the true value of lamps, more and more specimens now show up.  With the advent of Ebay, it is obvious that mining items are not as rare as we thought they were.  Its just a matter of price now…….