St. Timoteo has hit it on the head as far as I'm concerned. It's no secret how I feel about dealer discounting. For those of you who are new, I'm totally against it, more so because of the contractual agreement.

I do feel for those dealers who have pieces they cannot sell because there just isn't a market for certain pieces. One of my local dealers cannot keep a large number of pieces in the back because of overhead and storage availability. Let's face it, HLs are not the only collectibles they sell. They have a concern for those pieces that will not sell because of low collector interest. This area of the country sells more of the southeastern lights than any other. They are just more popular because of locality, and the same goes for those dealers in New England, the Pacific northwest, etc.

So what's the solution? HL not producing large edition sizes? As a collector, that works for me. My personal opinion is keep them around 5,500.

Here is another thought... is there a network setup between dealers? Otherwords, a dealer in North Carolina has a few Cape Elizabeths they can't get rid of, however a dealer in Maine has none, but has someone who is interested in a piece. If there was a network setup, the dealer in Maine can either contact HL for a name of a dealer who has this piece, or through some form of a program, go online, make an inquiry, and find this piece for their customer from the dealer in North Carolina. This could all work off of a dealer's inventory. This would be somewhat of a quasi form of the Retired@Retail program that is set-up now. I know, I know... "who has the man power to set something like this up if it doesn't already exist?" "Who has the time to enter all of their shelf bound pieces into a database?" There are so many other questions as well. Many dealers out there are very small, with only a few people working. They may not have the capability, or the means of going online. And then, no matter what, a large edition piece may not sell regardless. That's when HL should step in, maybe retire the piece early, and purchase back those remaining.

In any case, just a few thoughts from this bos'n mate who is trying to help with a solution.

Tim - Keeping the flame lit...