Well I think your pretty lucky. Most life spans of new bics last as long as they are in your pocket then a day or week later. poof. gone.

I have certainly had fluid evaporate quicker than a decade. I think the heat in my car killed a bic in a desert summer. The opposite side is rust. I do think, and could be remembering wrongly, that if a bic gets wet from a dunking, it will rust around the flint.