Slowly getting rid of my collections...

I shipped my collection of 133 police, fire and Coast Guard patches with lighthouses to Dot Black as a donation to help raise funds for the Maine Lighthouse Museum. I also enclosed over 50 HL Thumbnails to the cause.

I have two large boxes containing 24 limited edition, AP and 2-digit numbered pieces packed up and will probably be shipping these to her later this month. Retaining two Fort Gratiot, one Huron Lightship and a dozen thumbnails and that will basically end my 16 years of collecting Harbour Lights.

I enjoyed making many great friends who've shared my love of lighthouses (which remains) and collecting HLs over these years.

So what are you going to do to keep yourself occupied and spend your extra money on?

I haven't purchased any Harbour Lights in many years, Rich. As webmaster at harbourlights.com, part of my compensation was an AP of each new product that came out. That job ended in April 2009, I think it was. With retirement came down-sizing my space for collections.

In 2007, I donated about 200 pieces to the Salvation Army store and threw away about 50 more. It would have cost more to move that much of my collection than I could get for them on eBay at the time.

The remaining 24 pieces which I will probably donate to the Maine Museum, were the 'cream' of my collection - APs, serial numbers under 50, etc. Those pieces haven't been out of the storage box except to create a list of them in 5 years.

I started collecting at Monadock Gift Shop in Mackinac City in August of 1996.

I hooked up with a few self-acknowledged Harbour Lights collectors on the AOL Lighthouse Collectibles board: Paul Brady, Sean Thompson, Hal Dean, Ken Reese, Warren Diamond, and others. [I know I've left out some of the AOL crew - forgive me and please check in with a reminder reply.]

Then I found a copy of Jim Rutherford's annual and within 90 days, I owned one of each of the pieces that had been released except for the Coquille, Cape Hatteras and a few variations.

No regrets. It has been a lot of fun at events over the years and with fellow Lighthouse Wackos as friends.

The highlight was creation of the Harbour Lights Collectors Guide with my friend Paul Brady and with the support of Don Devine as the new owner of Harbour Lights.

I'm in good health and I hope to live another 20-25 years and this part of my life will always be fondly remembered.

By the way, I have a sideline business of publishing books -- a skill I learned with the Collectors Guide. Everyone knows some person or group that is looking to publish a book of some kind - biography, cook book, mystery, how-to, etc. Put them in touch with me and I'll get their book published usually in 40-60 days.

Well, you sound like you have a plan and that is what counts. Too bad that some of the pieces you donated, or want to doante, are not the few I'm still looking for. I have advertised enough in the Trading Post for them and I'm beginning to wonder if they even exist.

Your book, with the pictures and extra info from other Forum members, is great. My 1st copy is starting to fall apart so I ordered a replacemnt from LHD. I use it all the time and really used it when I was gathering the information I needed to get all the variance pieces for my collection.

I enjoyed meeting you during one of the St. Augustine Regionals and hope that you will keep active on the Forums as much as you have time for. I realize that you probably participate more on Facebook than the Forums now, but, I am not a Facebook person and will miss your informative posts on HLs if you give up posting here.

Congrats webmaster. Thank goodness no one can take away your memories. Or photos. Your great guidebook can always be a nice remembrance and you do not need a lot of space for that! I bought my first HL piece this year and figured on one a year. With all the deals I just bought my 45th piece. I am done though with the exception of the remaining 2 I search for (see trading post). It is a blast and could go on for a long time. I just wanted to get the pieces of the places that were special to me. I hope you enjoy your new pursuits and kudos for your generosity to so many others.
-Randy.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - the best part of collecting for me has always been the great people I've met along the way, either in person or on line.

My curios need cleaning, again. Many of my HL's have been packed away for a long time. Sure they're nice but only the cause which lead to the above effect.

Geeze John, hopefully Sister Island and Sherwood Point made it to the Salvation Army rather than the trash...

I want to hear John's answer to your HL252 & HL265 question, Mombo..

Interesting story John. Kind of sad too!

John
Every time I look at the Harbour Lights Collectors Guide I am over whelmed with how complete it is with every HL listed with pictures. The only thing that I do regret is that somehow I wasn’t more involved with this project to define the production runs of the variations.

I hate to see you just give your life earned collection away. I think you should sign some and put them on the forum to sell. You are just a part of Harbour Lights as Bill Younger and I feel it would be appropriate for you to sign your collection and offer your collection for sale just like Bill, especially the AP’s. (But keep the money)

I always felt you were the father of Harbour Light collecting and HL would have never gone as far as it has if it wasn’t for you, your website, then eventually moving to webmaster of the Harbour Light web site and the collector’s forum.
You were all of our mentors, teaching us about collecting and the many variations.

Rich and I still go back to your earlier works like the HL Glossary and the variation list that you originally put together. Jim Rutherford started the lead but he passed it off in 2000 and you took it over and have been guiding us and supporting us collectors ever since.

I hope you don’t totally drop out and still stay involve in Harbour Lights. Even though you stop collecting you are full of knowledge to still help inspire new collectors and to help us old collectors with your experiences.

John, maybe you can start a program for recovering HL Collectors and give out coins like the AA Medallions or Sobriety Coins..

Excellent review of John's HL experiences and accomplishments from your viewpoint and experience Daniel. I'll second what you wrote with such insight and eloquence! And yes, it would be nice for John to share some of his HL collection with his fellow HL collectors who would greatly appreciate it.

Seems as though John still has a special place in his heart for Michigan and HL--Fort Gratiot, Huron Lightship, and Monadock Gift Shop. And we in Michigan share a special place in our hearts for him.

Max

In those special cases for the two special friends who picked these two to be made, I'm hoping my cast-off replicas made it to Heaven.

Paul may be remembering that at the 1997 San Diego Collectors Reunion I spoke on behalf of a number of AOL Lighthouse Collectibles members by saying "My name is John and I'm a Harbour Lights Addict..." (Or words to that effect.)

Last night I attended the annual conference of the Desert Southwest United Methodist Annual Conference (Only Methodists would understand that our regional relationships are known as "Annual Conference" -- which also meet once a year.)

I was presented with a best-of-show award for the "A Taste of Mingus" book I designed and published for the Mingus Mountain Methodist Camp near Jerome AZ in 2010. The book was nominated by the Camp and my friend and writer of the book, Mary Sue Ingraham, and I shared in the award.

If you have a book to publish -- or know someone or a group which does, please contact me.

My name is Stan and I'm a Harbour Lights Addict...

I need one of those coins! lol

My name is Daniel and I am a recovered Harbour Light Addict.

It’s been a long struggle in my live to resist collecting Harbour Lights. But I have finally succeeded

I have come back as a recovered Harbour Light addict.

I just let Paul Conlin and Dot Black know that the remains of my HL Collection will be shipping out to them early this week.

Here's a link to the list in PDF form (It still lists the 2 Fort Gratiot and 1 Huron Lightship which will remain in my hands.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16549730/Harbour%20Lights%20Collection.pdf

Some items will be live auction, others will be silent auction. Not sure how these items will be handled or if there are any arrangements for bidding by phone or online.

Someone suggested that my autograph or a verification that these pieces were from the author of the Collector's Guide might be worth something. I doubt that, but I'll include some sticky labels in my shipment and if anyone wants one, they can have one.

I've added a pair of USCGC Taney, 4 limited edition Little Lights, a Pacific Stamp Set (5 Limited Little Lights), A Spyglass Set in the Blue Box and a Wisconsin Point to my list of donations to the Maine Lighthouse Museum.

Here's the updated list: (new stuff is in RED)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16549730/Harbour%20Lights%20Collection%20-%20Maine-Museum.pdf

After opening up my two large storage boxes, I found that one of them contains 250+ Little Lights. I'll talk to Dot and see if she wants those too.

John, are you going to use the same move as Lh Depot / Harbour lights and find a new closet of "newly" discovered lights every couple weeks ?

LOL, Mark.

I guess that's how it works when your collection has been in a closet for years. Maybe one of the "Gold" Thomas Point LLs from the Bill Younger Screwpile Dedication might show up if I looked hard enough.

greetings all. this is my first ever post. in 1996 my mom, my mother in law, my wife and i climbed the st. augustine, fl lighthouse. at the time, my mother was about 75 years old. as it was sort of an accomplishment, i bought a harbour lights lighthouse for us, and one for each of the moms. it was very difficult at the time to locate three, and i had to order from all over the country. anyway, my mom passed away last week. now i have two of them. i would like to sell one but have no way to attach a value (other than sentimental). it is an original, maybe number 386/5500 or something like that. at the time, i paid something like $275. have these lighthouses increased in value at all? or, like cabbage patch dolls and furbies, have they cratered? looking for some help here. many thanks! we'll talk again soon. david l

A limited edition st. Augustine just went on ebay last week for $10.
Since you have a low number check and see if it has a made in Canada sticker under the felt. If so it would be worth a lot more.