I totally understand, Sandy! You are a true HL Wacko! There are a lot of Wackos out there in various stages. Many reach a plateau and never get to the peak. I believe you're very close to the peak. You certainly have made a sizeable investment in rare HL's.

Just think about the "rare bird" wackos that have curios full of extremely rare pieces and have no one to share them with. The people who frequent the CF get to share their HL experiences and the joy that comes from finding, buying, and owning a very desireable collectible. Collectors who are not connected to the Net are missing out big time. Some may not even know what their rare pieces are worth and how to sell them if and when the time comes.

Does anyone dare venture a guess on how many complete or near complete collections there may be out there that we don't know about? Are we talking a handful of collectors? Maybe a hundred or so? Could there be more than that?

What do you think will happen to their collections when the time comes? Will they be passed on to a non-caring relative who will put them out at a yard sale? Will they just put an ad in a local paper and sell the whole collection for a fraction of their worth?

Remember, if they're not connected to the Net, then they probably don't know about eBay. If there is no true secondary market dealer accessible to them, they will have no idea what their HL's are worth.

I posted a little story a couple of years back, that was told to me by a dealer I stopped to visit one day. He told the tale of an old time collector who had passed on and made no arrangements about what should happen to her collection. Her immediate family wanted nothing to do with those old lighthouse figurines, so they threw them in trash bags and they went to the local landfill. Just think about how many times similar incidents happend when cleaning out Grandma's house. Kind of a sad state of affairs to a connected collector.

:rolleyes: Bob :rolleyes: