Yeah, see, that's the problem. Up here, it doesn't appear you CAN buy anything but the minis; I haven't seen a regular BIC lighter since I escaped the DFU territories. Maybe it's some safety regulation about the amount of liquid butane per unit, I dunno. The single most common lighter I've seen is a 3-pack of BIC minis.
Weird... Must be a local or Ontario thing. Out West here the standard (big) ones are the norm, with the minis more difficult to find, not that I have any idea why you'd want the minis.
I buy the big ones in the 5-packs, usually about $6 or so, the individual prices are insane now at most stores.
(As an aside, the novelty Extra-Large and EXTRA-HUGE ones that I've seen are all just a regular sized BIC in a massive piece of plastic, it's not like you get any more gas.) Also, you used to be able to find ones with randomly smaller and larger flames (after they stopped making the adjustable ones) and I would always try to find ones with smaller flames if I was buying individually, since they last
so much longer, but now they have their QC to the point where they always have giant flames to make you burn up the gas faster. The bastards.
As for size comparison objects, +1 on an "obviously AA"
batterycell. That was going to be my suggestion the other day but forgot to actually post it.