This is great! The FSB is for sounding off or chewing the fat and that is certainly happening under this topic.
Instead of investing in HL's to pay for that on-the-water vacation home on Block Island, I should have bought stock in eBay and the various shipping companies. I would imagine that eBay has increased shipping by those companies by leaps and bounds.
Imagine those valuable cardboard boxes filled with chintzy lighthouses arriving at my home each day filling my storage area beyond capacity. All this made possible by eBay!
Nothing will go to waste! I will lay the lighthouses all over the gravel driveway to my Block Island home and run them over with my Dodge Ram Hemi until it looks like one of those cute quohog shell driveways. I will use the cardboard boxs to start fires in my fireplace keeping us very warm as we overlook the Great Salt Pond on those chilly days. I will take the COA's and use them for dividers in my recipe box. The tent cards can be turned to the blank side, marked with the letters of the alphabet, and stapled to the COA's so I'll know where to put the recipes in the recipe box. Everything will be put to use. Nothing will be wasted.
HELLO! HELLO! BUELLER? BUELLER? BUELLER? Does anyone remember the definition of the actual worth of something? If my memory serves me correctly, the actual worth is what someone is willing to give you for it. Forget you HL collection for a moment and let's talk automobiles. You decide to invest in a brand new car. The car list for $40,000 but with discounts and other dealer incentives you get it for $32,000. You love the car! You're proud to be seen driving around in such a fine vehicle. It makes you smile every time you see it on display in your driveway. It often become the topic of conversation with family and friends. You're proud to talk about it and all its features.
Five years later your once dream machine is getting old and you would like to trade that baby in for the latest model. Suddenly, your $40,000 list, $32,000 investment is only worth $7000. "Holy strawberries, Batman, am I in a jam!" I invested $32,000 and I'm only getting a fraction of that back in trade! What happend?
Well Mr. or Mrs. car owner, you have participated in the American Dream! You were grinning from ear-to-ear when you first saw your new car. The smile factor was way off the end of the measuring meter. It was probably a 12 on a scale of 1-10. You owned it for five years. It served you well. It made you smile. Now you have to realize that all of that doesn't come for free. You paid for that with your hard earned dollars.
The dealer will take your trade-in, put it on the lot for $10,999, and sell it at a discount of $10,000 to someone who always dreamed of owning such a fine automobile but could never afford to buy it new. Your former car is now making someone else smile. They proudly display in their driveway. They are proud to be seen driving it around town. They are proud to talk about the features of their new investment with family and friends. They feel good and that is a necessity of life.
Now let's back up a little. No, not the car! Leave that in park. Let's back up to the new car dealer that sold you the car. Did you consider him "greedy" when he discounted your new purchase by eight grand? When the used car dealership sold your trade-in for $3,000 more than he gave you for it, was he "greedy"? (The answer is the beginning of the next paragraph.)
*
*
*
Absolutely not.
*
*
*
Collecting Harbour Lights or whatever for display, or for resale is a hobby. Hobbies are suppose to generate interest and provide enjoyment. They can be profitable if you play your cards right, by buying low and selling high. You must be willing to wait for the right opportunity. You must be patient. Have you ver gone into a junkyard full of worthless wrecked cars and tried to buy a part for your old buggy? Worthless my foot! There's gold in those junks! Rusted out hulks of automobiles that originally sold for $4000 can fetch ten times that if they are the right model. Why's that you ask? Because one man's trash is another man's treasure.
Bob