I'm guessing that you are a fairly new collector based on the questions you ask. I'll be reasonably nice in my answers.

There are collectible lines where the value of a piece increases, sometimes significantly, if the artist has signed it. Harmony Kingdom is one line that comes to mind. Harbour Lights prefers that the lighthouses themselves be the stars and so they keep the names of the artists unknown.

Bill Younger risked a lot of his own money in order to follow his dream of establishing a lighthouse collectibles company. He is very well-liked and so people started asking him to sign their lighthouses. Bill will sign just about anything you put in front of him. Having his signature on some of my lighthouses is just something to remind me of one of the many times I have met him.

The fact that he signs so many pieces makes his signature irrelevant as far as the secondary market price is concerned. He does that on purpose, again, so the lighthouses are the stars. When you go to a Harmony Kingdom signing, the artists usually have a limit of 3 pieces for each person.

Now as far as the packaging goes, it is indeed a big deal. The average person in this country moves every five years. In my own case, it seems to happen more often than that. I have lighthouses that are worth over $1,000 each and I am not going to toss them into some old box when I move. They will go into the box that was designed to hold them during shipment. To do anything else would be silly.

I will agree that some people go a little nuts with their concerns about whether the box has the right number on it, but I won't buy a lighthouse unless it comes with SOME type of harbour lights box and some decent packing materials.

Unless I get one hell of a deal on the price, that is.

Now as for your comment about finding lighthouse replicas made by other companies that are just as nice and that cost less, I'm afraid I'd have to ask you to take a breathalyzer test before I'd even consider believing it.

I have been to all of the major collectible shows this year and have been in more collectible shops since last August than more people go into in their entire lives. And I have yet to see a lighthouse collectible company that can touch the quality and attention to detail offered by Bill Younger's stable of artists. In fact, I find many of the other lighthouse sculptures to be almost comical.

Of all of the companies that make architectural miniatures of any kind, there is only one that is more accurate than Harbour Lights. And that is Enesco's Lilliput Lane cottages. The only problem with them is that they are so very expensive. And yes, I collect those too.

To answer your last question, no I can't say that too. I love lighthouses as you do, but I care very much who makes them.