Daniels topic about recommending a "non-lighted Christmas piece" limited to 500 pieces got me thinking. What would you folks think about a "500 Club" for HL Collectors? This 500 Club would be somewhat of an exclusive club and would require a separate membership above and beyond a HL Collector Society Membership.
My initial thoughts would be to have a "buy-in" for say $100. Your $100 investment would give you the right to purchase each and every HL that would be released with the edition size limited to 500 pieces, at retail pricing. If you are a member of the 500 Club, you must purchase each release that falls under the 500 edition series. If you decide to relinquish your membership in the 500 Club, your initial $100 would be returned to you, and your membership number would be resold to the next interested collector.
Now let's crunch a few numbers; 500 memberships at $100 each equals $50,000. This money would be held by Harbour Lights with the understanding each individual membership fee would be returned to the original collector upon resignation from the 500 Club.
A few more thoughts via Q&A:
Q. How many 500 size editions would be produced each year?
A. Personally I would like to see at least two and maybe as many as five.
Q. How would the flag numbers be assigned 1-500?
A. Who ever currently receives flag#'s 1-500, would be given first refusals at keeping their auto ship number. Any remaining numbers after refusals and the possibility of a number between 1-500 not being an auto ship number, would be assigned via a lottery to be conducted by Harbour Lights.
Q. What about a collector who is unable to be a member of the 500 Club because he or she isn't on auto ship for HL's 1-500?
A. My guess is we may not have 100% participation by all people on auto ships 1-500. Not everyone is a super serious collector and would want $100 of their money sitting in the HL account. Did the 500 edition of the Erie Land Light and Bailey's Harbor sell out immediately? The answer would be not really.
Q. Wouldn't we be discriminating against those who may have an auto ship numbers greater than 500?
A. Not really if you consider the idea is to keep the edition size to 500. I still believe that not every collector who currently receives an auto ship number 500 or under will buy into this idea. Selling 500 $100 memberships may not be as easy as some people may imagine. That's why we would need serious commitments from collectors with auto ship numbers below 501.
Q. Would there be any stipulations about what a 500 Club Member could do with his or her pieces?
A. Absolutely not! Keep them, store them, display them, or sell them for a profit as soon as you recive them. The pieces are yours to keep or sell.
Q. Do you think this idea will ever become a reality?
A. Stranger things have happend. If the folks from Harbour Lights read this and whatever responses follow, they may give it a second thought. It would be an opportunity to take care of 500 serious and devoted collectors. It would also generate some extremely rare editions of HL's which in turn would become very desired collectibles.
Q. Would this 500 Club prevent any other requested 500 editions from being produced for special events involving Lighthouse Clubs, etc.?
A. Absolutely not! Harbour Lights can do whatever they want, and produce low volume editions for anybody they want. Pieces produced for the 500 Club would be considered a special series and not the only 500 editions that could be produced.
Please express your positive or contrary minded thoughts on this matter. Let the rest of us know what you think. We often use the phrase, "Harbour Lights listens to its collectors". Well lets see if they are listening to this proposal. Just keep in mind that the above were thoughts off the top of my head and have nothing to do with what the people at Harbour Lights may or may not do.
Bob