#10 - Undated 242B - Visiting the Red Light District

Vital Stats

Model: 242B

Date: Unknown.  Possibly October 1935.

Technology: Instant-Lite

Fuel: Gasoline

Date Acquired: September 3, 2016

To me, much of the joy I get out of this hobby is the thrill of the hunt.  Going to some flea market or yard sale and seeing an old survivor being purged from someone else's shed as "junk" , envisioning it's history and ultimately turning it into my treasure is the real joy.  But as we descend deeper into the abyss of collecting we begin to lust after the must-have models that seem to evade us, and if these models are not turning up in the usual locations, we turn to canned-hunts. We go to the red-light district.

There aren't many avenues for targeted collecting.  It really boils down to two options: trading with or buying from another collector, or eBay.  Most collectors don't like dealing with eBay, though sometimes the pull is too great.  Exorbitant prices, added fees, shady sellers, competitive bidding, inadequate shipping are just some of the landmines facing the potential buyer.  Even more, experienced collectors can even miss flaws in pieces they are buying when holding them in their hands, so to limit your research to sometimes a few fuzzy pictures makes this practice even more unreliable, but the pull of eBay is just too great.  The ability to find exactly what you want when you want it is just too much of a temptation. Even when I'm not necessarily buying I find myself window shopping there.  

Such as it was in my early collecting days that I just had to have a 242.  Most collectors will include one of the 242's in an unscientific "best of" list, or subjective "favorite lantern" list.  Plus, having just discovered the joys of owning a 200A, of course I had to have its predecessor.  The 242 was produced in 4 variants from 1934 to 1950; the "no letter", 242A, 242B, and 242C.  

None were falling in my lap in the usual places I shopped (craigslist), so off to eBay I went.  I found one in my price range that needed a little work and some original parts, but otherwise was in nice shape.  Here's the pictures from the ad:

The sale actually went fairly smoothly and I received the lantern in a reasonable amount of time with no breakage.  In fact it was delivered while a tropical storm was blowing outside and because of that I dubbed it The Storm Lantern.  My first dealings with eBay were wonderful!

The model itself is a 242B, but has a peculiar anomaly. It was apparently assembled just after the 242A run was completed but there were still A parts left over. In true Coleman fashion, parts were not discarded. They took a 242A collar and stamped a B over top of the A!

A few other interesting points about this lantern is that it does not have a definitive date stamp on the bottom, only a "10" where the month usually is.  It also lacks the Coleman sunrise logo stamped on the side of the collar that started with the B in 1937.  The "official" documentation puts the production dates of the 242B between 1936 and 1942, but there is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that a 1935 would not be out of the question. I therefore date mine to Oct. 1935 though I can in no way prove this.

I have since added a globe and pump assemblies that would have been period correct.