To the tune of Death of a Clown (apologies to the The Kinks - Rod & I are proably the only ones who know this song, but what the heck...)


My cabinet is empty and buzzing with flys
I'm drowning my sorrows in bourbon and rye
The old wacko's flame don't soar anymore
St. Auggie is cheap and Glows are a bore.

So let's all drink to the death of a wacko
La la la la la la la la la la

The market we knew lies dead on the floor
Nobody wants the old ones no more
The collector of North Heads sobs on his knees
'The new ones are better, I think I'll buy these'.

So let's all drink to the death of a wacko
La la la la la la la la la la


I hadn't checked e-Bay for a while and haven't really been paying attention to secondary prices this summer. Looking this evening it was kinda sad to see a reserve met at $200 for St. Augustine and a Burrows Island at $180. Granted, with a couple days to go these aren't necessarily final, and maybe the bidding will continue, but it sure took me by surprise. I realize that summertime is not always the prime buying season.

Are prices continuing to sink?

Have all the "true" Wackos (in the original sense of the term - one who collects 'em all) met their goals?

Or are they a dying breed?

From the flight deck of The Foglifter, somewhere over Caribou Island,
__
/im
[This message has been edited by JTimothyA (edited 07-04-2000).]

I've thought about this very subject over the past year as I handle the traffic at R@R. I think the 'wacko' lives, but has morphed in intention.

Long ago in a far away place (AOL) many of the regulars here found each other and shared an interest Harbour Lights. At that time it was easy to envision a collection of one of every Harbour Light displayed in our curios. Of course, there were less than 100 available then and if you hustled you could still find a Sandy Hook or a Nauset on a dealer's shelf.

Two fundamental changes, in my mind, have changed the definition of 'wacko'. The first is the shear number of pieces that Harbour Lights has done (what is it now Rod, over 200 LEs of one flavor or another?) and the second is the introduction of the OEs.

With over 200 Limited Editions it's easy to decide to collect a small subset of what's available. One's you've visited or climbed, or maybe lights from your home state or region. And the presence of OEs allows a 'complete' collection to suit one's needs.

In my own collection and in the requests that come through R@R I see more and more of this specialization. I think the 'wacko' lives, but has a much more discriminating criteria for what they will make room for in the curio cabinet.

Happy Independence Day everyone!

Rick

I resent that Tim..... I love the Kinks!

I don't resent your song, just that you and Rod would be the only ones that would know the song.

SaintWackoPaul '
Keep the Flame

Great - always good to know another Kinks fan! We can all sing along. :-)
[This message has been edited by JTimothyA (edited 07-04-2000).]

Catchy tune, Timmer. Fret not: The prices usually explode in the last minute or two of an auction. St. Auggie has been holding her own, averaging about $450 per eBay sale since January 1 of this year:

[img]http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=42289&a=613183&p=23794707&Sequence=0[/img]

You can see this and all of the charts for pieces that I track by downloading the latest Excel workbook in the Secondary Market Forum. The news isn't quite as depressing as you may think. Prices generally are off their peaks but holding steady. Some scary moments and some exhilarating ones along the way, but on average, pretty stable. Now drink some warm milk and go back to bed. :-)

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-Art

Speaking of the Kinks, I too am a fan.

A memory of a theatre marquee in my town reading, "One Night Only..The Kinks" comes to mind. Everyone thought it was a joke. Why would The Kinks play a small town theatre where the total population was around seventeen thousand? Sorry to say I didn't take it seriously and didn't attend.

I found out later it was a small crowd but a great show. "So tired, tired of waiting...tired of waiting for you...

Bob

I've kept up with the Kinks for better than thirty years now!
Had the pleasure of seeing Dave on his solo tour when he played a small club here in St. Louis.
He played "Death of a Clown".

I too have been a Kinks fan since the late 60's. I've seen them live several times, but not for quite awhile. They have put on great shows the times that I saw them. I like "Death of a Clown", but my all time favorite is "Waterloo Sunset". It's not a typical Kinks song, but I still like it best. Some of their albums are getting the remastered/rereleased treatment.

Dennis

[This message has been edited by wheland (edited 07-05-2000).]

Funny how these threads turn out. Rod had posted a line from the lyrics to 'Death of a Clown' in the Name that Tune thread. Thats what I had in my mind when I purloined Dave's song.

Waterloo Sunset is a super tune - for some wierd reason it makes me think of David and Julie Eisenhower. And great to know there are Kinks fans out there. Ray Davies is the greatest rock lyricist of all time. (Followed by Elvis Costello).

Getting back to our un-topic...

Are Wackos a dying breed? Does anyone new to the HL Collector ranks intend to collect them all? Is the hard core HL collect-em-all fanatic a thing of the past?

Back in the FS
Back in the FS
Back in the FSB,
__
/im

Tim,lets e-mail MonaLisa and ask.
(The paper bag is on my knee)
TerryBarfield

[This message has been edited by TERRY BARFIELD (edited 07-06-2000).]

Wacko? You betcha!

Starting form scratch in 1996, I have aquired every limited edition piece except for Cape Hatteras, Sandy Hook, Coquille, St. Augustine, and Hilton Head. I have the reunion pieces, society pieces, event pieces, ornaments, some GLOWS, and more.

For that, I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I have accumulated a debt of over $30k. Was it really worth it? Yes and no. I am thrilled to have found and aquired so many pieces, but I am paying the price now, scrimping and saving to pay on 5 different credit cards.

Would I do it over? A definite maybe.

-Todd

I've always thought that WACKO was a much more distinguished term than CRAZED ENTHUSIAST and, as such, am happy to consider myself as a WACKO collector. The real key here is the word "collector". As I've mentioned in the forums before if you are a born collector then you naturally want one of everything, regardless of what it is. It's something that's hard to define and even more difficult to control. As Kay points out, there's really very little reason to own five Minot's Ledge pieces. When I tell her that I understand completely, but that you can't have a complete set of Minot's Ledge pieces without having all five all I get is a pitying stare. By the way, whichever side of that particular example you sympathize with will tell you whether you are or are not a true WACKO collector.

As to the original question, I still have as a goal to obtain one of every HL part number. Right now Kay and I are about 9 pieces short of the goal, but I have noticed that the feeling of needing to obtain them quickly and the general sense of urgency is not nearly as great as it seemed to be several years ago. Average prices appear to be somewhat lower now on the older pieces, and relatively stable, for maybe a couple of reasons. One no doubt is ebay. Before, most transactions weren't really visible to the general public. Pieces changed hands through the forums or through secondary dealers or at shows and you really didn't have a flavor for how many actual transactions were taking place or how the existing price structure was being supported. With the advent and use of ebay as a marketplace the transactions became visible and, like most free markets, I think more realistic average price levels have probably been reached. Some auctions go high and some low due to condition, seller reputation, paperwork, picture clarity, number of people of vacation and who knows how many other reasons. But when the smoke clears you have an actual pile of transactions that mathematically have an average and that average, as Paul stated, seems now to be relatively stable. Secondly you have the introduction of many, many new pieces and with each new piece availability becomes greater. This doesn't mean individual piece availability, but rather availability of lighthouse sculptures in general. Per Rick's comment, specialization may be running rampant. More people may now have a tendency to pick a specific area of interest to collect due just to the overwhelming number of pieces being released. Space is a third consideration. Even if you wanted one of everything it will be hard to find the physical space necessary to display the pieces and to store the boxes. Lastly, common sense sometimes rears its ugly head as in "Would you rather have your kitchen redone, a new patio added on, gasoline for several years, hundreds of meals, or an original Cape Hatteras?" Since you can sit inside, diet, and walk most places the answer is obvious to me, but many new collectors might have a differing opinion.

Prices always go up on rarer collectibles if there exists a support base of people who want them and are willing to pay for them. Rare is just a synonym for "more buyers than objects". The fact that most older piece prices do seem to have stabilized suggests that the base is currently alive, maybe not aerobically enthusiastic but at least breathing. Comparing the averages next year at this time may provide some evidence as to whether that base is increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable. In the meantime, don't worry, be happy.

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Reminds me of Steven Wright: