It’s been a typical Monday really – didn’t sleep well, but the radio show went well and when it was all said and done, soon enough I wanted to buy a UV flashlight.
Okay, I better back track here and explain that last bit hey?
It started with a question
On today’s breakfast show: ‘What’s your most expensive hobby or post time?’ Think along the lines of beanie babies:
Recreational fun stuff like boats and fishing:
Or maybe collection of cars. Real ones, die cast, resin models or otherwise.
And with such an easy question, the responses came thick and fast through the phones and the socials:
-One guy shared his love of AC/DC right down to the $1000 tattoos he has of the legendary band on his legs. He’s got the albums, he’s got the posters, he sits on the official bar stools and takes hot food out of the over with AC/DC oven mitts. He well and truly has the t-shirt too if you’re wondering, buying one of everything available at the tour shop whenever he gets to see them.
-Another caller shared her love of Dalmatians (it wasn’t Cruella, we checked) admitting that because she had Dalmatians growing up, the obsession started from there. So now she has dalmatian everything including (and I wish I was kidding here), a jar with her last dalmatians testicles in it…(Yeah we’re not sure either.)
But apparently it’s a hit at parties.
-Other expensive hobbies and past times included diamond dot paintings, classic cars, photography, sci fi movie props (how cool!), lego, motorbikes and guitars.
Wait, didn’t you mention something about UV flashlights?
Yeah I was getting to that. Because another listener chimed in with their expensive hobby being ‘Uranium glass and clowns.’ Clowns we passed on but the glass sounded pretty cool, especially when you see them glowing away under UV light:
But of course as cool as the stuff is, it’s a) not that common as much as it once was and b) not that cheap either for something more than a novelty glass marble. And my want of a UV flashlight didn’t come until after the show was finished when I bumped into co-worker Joel in the staff kitchen.
I heard you talking about Uranium glass on the show this morning. My first cousin, I’m not sure if she still does this now, used to collect that stuff too. What she used to do was take a UV flashlight to all the op shops around town to see if she could find any on the shelf, pay next to nothing for it because it looked like normal glassware and then sell it for far more to collectors. She used to do alright out of it too!
Joel, super copywriter at work.
Now can you see why I suddenly want a UV flashlight on hand?
Ahh so that’s what a UV flashlight is for!
Well amongst other things. I could use it to see where the cat has whizzed in the house (am I sure I want to know this?), use it to search for insects and reptiles (probably not), check if my cash is counterfeit (actually that’s handy!) and gemstone observation. I could do all that, or I could sneaky visit every op shop around the traps for undiscovered Uranium glass – that sounds like a far better use of my time really.
I just have to find a small one first. And that’s all I need really – I mean how strange would I look walking in with a UV Flashlight the size of a Dolphin torch? Nothing suspect there at all!
Where can I buy a UV Flashlight then?
To start, I looked on Amazon. And if any of these take your interest, I’ve provided an affiliate link to it meaning anything you buy from Amazon’s site might give me a little bit of commission in which case, thank you.
Apparently this UV flashlight is great for seeing scorpions.
No I’m serious, part of the ad reads ‘Helps you spot hard-to-find scorpions while camping, adventure or indoor.’ Because I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve wondered how many hard to spot scorpions must be running around our rental here in East Albury (potentially: millions.)
Although at 15 cms roughly, it’s still slightly larger than pocket size.
Then there’s this one that’s actually 3 in 1!
And while it doesn’t mention anything about scorpion spotting (look it might, I haven’t looked that deeply into it) it does have a COB sidelight – which I guess it what you use when you’re baking or enjoying a cob loaf and the power goes out? Oddly specific really but hey, if you really like your pet clothing detection and cob loaves..
But since there’s a fair chance I won’t actually find any uranium glass that hasn’t been snapped up by someone with the same idea anywhere, I’m not really that keen to spend more than a cup of coffee on this idiotic idea. Therefore it’s Aliexpress to the rescue!
If you’ve never shopped on Aliexpress then welcome to a world of dirt cheap and occasionally cheerful…practically anything – from stickers to t-shirts, knock off gear to random electronics. Where quality ranges from abysmal to ‘Wow, that’s a bargain!’ depending on what you get. Previously I’ve bought arcade controls and encoders from there that can really take some button hammering abuse as you can see to your right. Yes you have to wait a bit of time for things to come from halfway across the planet, but for those hard to get (random things) and for some serious cost cutting, sometimes it’s worth the wait.
(Although I’m wary of buying anything you need to plug into the wall for electricity purposes, car parts or anything to do with computers for hilarious reasons.)
And yes, you read correctly – that’s a five dollar UV flashlight to my door for less than five bucks ($4.93 all up with the free postage). Just thirteen cents more than my morning medium sized cappuccino at Cafe 2640, I don’t think I can do any better (or cheaper) in the quest to become stupidly wealthy from hunting down unseen uranium glass.
Thirty days (or more) and counting til it gets here – wish me luck, update coming soon!