Yeah I’m sure paying someone to do it is like $100 by them time all is said and done. I figured I’d just buy the tools and do it myself since I’ll end up buying a few more over the coming years. And they do seem to be pretty nice lighters.
They can be finicky, though. I haven’t spent enough time fully disassembling mine and dialing them in, I just did the needle conversion and swapped out some old seals and springs. The silver barley lights first try every time and the flame is super consistent at where I had it dialed in with the gas key. The gold one sometimes takes a few tries, and if it’s left sitting for a while there can be a big flame that jumps out and I have to fiddle with the gas key to get it settled in. Not sure why, but it’s not a huge deal for me.
They are expensive relative to a lot of lighters, but mine were still cheaper than the Old Boy I bought brand new a few months ago.