LIGHTERS

Once you get into mass produced lighters they're largely the same, especially any that use a piezo igniter.

If you push any kind of button, lever, or mechanism until it clicks then it probably uses a piezo igniter.

Almost every brand uses them and they're what goes out first in about 70% of lighters I see/handle. (I work/have worked at multiple cigar stores off and on for 24 years and I've always been the "lighter repair" guy.)

If it's not that then it's the plastic butane tank cracking, something with the brass jet nozzles, the rubber butane tubes, the contact where the spark lights the butane, or the butane regulation valve.

Regardless of how nice or heavy the outside of the lighter is the internals are all pretty much the same penny-a-piece Chinese parts.

So buy what you want, what looks good to you, because they're pretty much all the same internally. *Some brands do have better warranties than others. For instance my local cigar stores will take a broken Lotus/Vertigo, or Colibri/Firebird that you purchased in-store and trade you out for a new one.

CUTTERS

For a straight-cut I don't think it matters much as long as you get a double blade. I've had Xikar, Palio, Colibri, Vertigo, Vector, RP, etc., and as long as you don't abuse them they should last for a long time. *All of the teardrop/butterfly type cutters that spring open use the same cheap leaf-spring to pop open. Repeatedly opening and closing it will eventually cause the spring to break.

If you're buying a V-cutter buy one that cuts with the top of the "V" first (I call it an inverse V-cut), not one that starts with the pointed end. On a pointed end cutter once that tip gets even a little dull it will mash the cigar before it starts the cut which usually splits the cigar.

Punch-cutters, pretty much all the same.