This Wellingon Jr. stamped lighter sold at auction for $45 on eBay the other day.


This R.B. Macbride Ashtray sold on eBay for just over $20. R.B. Macbride was a long time vehicle dealer in Modesto, California, that didn’t get a jeep dealer agreement until early 1957. Here are photos of the ashtray.


This January 17th, 1957, article in the Modesto Bee shares the news about Macbride’s Willys Jeep dealership:
Later that same year, on July 17th, the Modesto Bee ran an ad for Macbride touting the new FC-170:
This lighter is located in Italy. I’ve not seen one of these 3B lighters.
“19x9x11 cm. THE LIGHTER IS EMPTY need to be charge”
UPDATE: **SOLD** For $90.79 on eBay
This is a cool, retro lighter featuring Time and Life and a CJ-5. Why would it feature both Life and Time logos?
“Good working condition with good plunger seal, clean chimney, good printed display.”




Maury shared a pic of four of his lighters. I don’t know the exact dates, but made my best guess as to the order they might have been manufactured. Maybe someone else has a better guess?
My guesses:
1) The Willys Motors is likely the earliest, possibly not long after the merger with Kaiser. It didn’t take long after the merger for “Willys” to take a back seat to ‘Jeep’, so my guess is 1953/1954.
2) The 4 Wheel Drive one is my guess for second, maybe 1954-56. Kaiser was ramping up the advertising and “4 Wheel Drive” was definitely a prominent element of that.
3) The yellow-blue logo is from 1957ish. That logo appeared on a number of brochures of that era, including this one from 1957.
4) I can’t tell if the red ‘Jeep’ light is plastic/glass or a combination, but I will guess that one is the newest one? It kind of feels like late 1950s or early 1960s to me.
Here’s a neat matchbook featuring a jeep with a post hole digger. It still has matches.
View all the information on Ebay
“Post WWII vintage matchbook for Jeep – Fort Worth Willys Overland Co., Fort Worth, Texas. Willys Overland Motors, Inc. Toledo Ohio. Great image is very similar to the 1945 press release of the CJ-2A Post-hole digger demo.”
UPDATE: **SOLD** Was listed at $175.
(03/01/2021) This rare package includes a plaque and the original box (pretty cool box). The starting bid is $175.
“THIS AUCTION IS FOR A WILLYS JEEP MODEL FC 170 GOLD PLATED ASH TRAY IN ITS ORIGINAL BOX AND INCLUDES “CARE” INSERT.
WILLYS MOTORS INC. OF TOLEDO, OHIO
GOLD PLATED WITH 22K GOLD PLATE
THE ASHTRAY IS IN GREAT SHAPE WITH MINIMAL WEAR.
THE BOX IS IN GODD SHAPE ALSO WITH GOOD COLOR AND GRAPHICS.
50’S VINTAGE
A NICE, RARE, JEEP TOY”
Barney shared photos of this neat WWII Ashtray. Created in 1944, it celebrated the liberation of Holland prior to the end of the war.
Maury forwarded this “JEEP” pin that’s available on eBay. Does anyone have any history on the slogan “Joint Effort Extra Pay”? It would be easy to jump to the conclusion that this was some kind of Willys-Overland or Willys-Motors factory worker incentive program, but I’d want more evidence before concluding that.
View all the information on eBay
“Vintage, JEEP FACTORY PIN (Joint-Effort-Extra-Pay) 1-1/2 x 3/4 Inches”
A web search yielded a second item with the same logo, except this time on an ashtray with the an accompanying “A W” logo.
The starting bid is $75 for this unique lighter. It’s one I hadn’t seen.
View all the information on eBay
“THIS AUCTION IS FOR A 5 INCH LONG WILLYS JEEP MODEL CJ5 CIGARETTE LIGHTER.
THE JEEP LIGHTER IS IN GREAT CONDITION
THE JEEP IS WELL DETAILED AND THE CONSTRUCTION IS VERY WELL DONE. ITS HEAVY.
THE LIGHTER SPARKS WELL.
THERE IS NO LIGHTER FLUID IN IT AT PRESENT.
A NICE, RARE, JEEP LIGHTER”
This looks to be a Willys-Overland produced matchbook that allowed dealers to add their names. In this case, Ike’s Haugland Motor Company out of Wheaten, Minnesota, added its brand to this matchbook. The interior of the matchbook was the biggest surprise to me, as it listed the 9 reasons why the jeep can do all it does.

This is priced at $750. This has a late 1940s-early 1950s Willys-Overland logo along with the cursive inscription of Liz Hunnicutt. I tried to matched Liz Hunnicutt with Willys, but I didn’t have any luck with Google searches.
View all the information on eBay
“Rare Zippo Lighter Willys-Overland Automotive Advertising 1937/1950
Pat. 2032695
The Insert is a 2517191
Good Condition with Good Snap
Inscribed Willys-Overland On One Side
Inscribed Liz Hunnicutt on The Other
VERY RARE LIGHTER – ESPECIALLY INSCRIBED WITH LADY’S NAME (POSSIBLE WAR TIME)”