I used to have a pewter life counter just like in the picture, but I cant find it anywhere.
I too have a tight knit MtG crew who I get together with occasionally and do a draft. We have know each other years and played in the 90's, but its not so serious now.
Im thinking about buying one off ebay since i lost mine as well. Have you and your group ever tried the Commander game type variant?
No haven't tried Commander, it gets a bit manic for me, and there's just too much going on. We play as 4 people and which gives us 3 matches. It takes an entire afternoon as some are slow players. We plan to do a Dominaria sealed this month sometime.
That sounds like a lot of fun. I only ask because it unlocks the deck building parameters actually increase the flexibility, usefulness, and value of your card collection. Though I can understand avoinding it on account of the increased time investment per individual game.