Welcome JUL! I am a Wacko here in the forums but as I've only been collecting for a year I'm a newbie in that regard.

Now I collect HL's for all the reasons you stated above but am also concerned with the cost as my funds are far from unlimited. While I enjoy shopping at my local dealer, when comparing retail prices with some of the bargains found on Ebay or the Marketplace I find it hard to resist buying from those sources.

With so many of the 9500 and 10000 edition HL's out there I feel it's really foolish to pay retail if you don't have to. And many of the Ebay sellers of these "bargains" are dealers trying to clear their backlog of HL's. As the new year ushers in edition sizes in the 6500 and 8000 range as well as a new collectors, I see an upwards trend in secondary market prices.