2005 Introductions - Like Them Or Leave Them

After reading over the "like it or leave it?" postings from the past 10 days, there doesn't seem to be too much excitement over next years new releases except for a couple of pieces. (Yorktown Lightship lens and Avery Point)

Could this be an indicator of where the Harbour Lights market is headed?
Do you think there is a bright future ahead or will the lights be slowly dimmed?

I like more than just those two 2005 pieces, and the company seems to be going stronger than ever, but I continue to be bothered (for years now) by Y&A's shift in focus from its beloved HL collectors to just...customers...

Of course we are judging the latest releases on the basis of an initial photo without much detail showing.

I hope that when we have had a chance to view and handle one -- or at least see Paul's photos with some detail images -- there will be people who will be moved to consider it a 'must have' instead of an 'also-ran.'

Has that happened to you in the past? Did you go into a store and decide to buy a Harbour Lights that you had not intended to buy, but found that the detail or quality was such that you were convinced to purchase it? If so, which one(s) and why?

I don't have the time to post in each of the individual lights' threads, but I am going to post my opinion of each here followed with my general comments on the group as a whole.

• Avery Point - LOVE it! This is one light that I felt needed a great HL piece when released, and it got it. I might buy this one even though I don't buy HLs, because a) it's pretty affordable b) there's only 2500 and c) if I buy it form that place in New London, I get all the other Avery stuff I was going to buy eventually anyway.
• Portland Head in Winter - Okay...of course, it's a rerelease, but going beyond that fact, it's a pretty nice piece. Not on my list of lights I would buy if I did.
• North Block - GREAT! This is another family favourite...and well done! This would be the second of my five wish pieces.
• Egmont Key - Don't really know the real thing for comparison, but an okay piece. Nice, but not on the list.
• Middle Island - Very nice piece! This would definitely be #3
• Cedar Island - LOVE this one too! This would be the fourth of the lights I would want...another light that I really like, and well done!
• Yorktown Lens - I really like this lens. I like all the lenses, but this one being a lightship lens brings a bit of variation to a collection. After a while, all the lenses kind of look the same. This one adds variation. #5 on the list.

The GLOWs are, well...GLOWs. Nice pieces, but I miss the GLOWs that didn't glow.

Overall, compared to some lackluster '04 releases, '05 looks like it's gearing up to be a good HL year. The detail and quality of the pieces is unlike any before. For the first time, I have been impressed by all but one of the LEs. If HL can continue in this direction, they will still be able to count on me as a collector one day when I have a job and am not poor.

Overall 2005 seems to be another average year for releases. A couple of nice ones, a few average ones and a few that will make money for Harbour Lights but are not really that spectacular. I'll buy the lens and Egmont Key(because it's Florida) but will pass on the others even though a couple of them are nice looking. I have given up my autoship and buying every piece so I'm buying only special and Florida pieces from now on.

I think the following are a wow:

Avery Point
Cedar Key
North Block Island.
Yorktown Lightship Lense.

My next one is fantastic and would be a wow if it wasn’t the fact that many of the features have been done before with other lights.


Middle Island

These are my list of plain Janes.

Egmont Key
Portland Head winter

First of all I would buy them all if I had the room and still had my two-digit auto shipment. But since I don’t

I will narrow it down to Egmont Key since it is a Florida Light. And the Yorktown Lightship Lense. Maybe North Block and Cedar Key if I can figure out were to put them.
I have no desire to buy the Portland Head. To me it looks like a Glow with snow on it.

But as John has said we need to see them in person before making the final judgement.

Avery Point, North Block and Egmont Key are definites for us. We'll probably buy the Portland Head in winter since we don't have the LE. If we had the LE we wouldn't buy it but...
Judy

Like stated in some of the replies in this thread, you really need to see them to know whether or not you'll like them enough to make that purchase. Moot point for me being on autoship. I will tell you that I'm extremely pleased to see North Light Block Island and Cedar Point Long Island on the list of new releases. I've asked for those two for quite some time. I was also pleased to see Avery Point because of the obvious ties to members of the CF from that area.

I wouldn't say either to tell the truth. I would say "steady as she goes" would be more appropriate. Harbour Lights manages to keep its head above water why many other collectibles have gone down.

Bob

Bob,

I wouldn't say either to tell the truth. I would say "steady as she goes" would be more appropriate. Harbour Lights manages to keep its head above water why many other collectibles have gone down.

Bob [/QB][/QUOTE]


I don't expect to purchase many of the announced Lighthouses- mostly because I've cut back on my purchases due to many factors- display room being one of the biggest. I do like the looks of many of them, but I agree that photos sometimes do not do justice to the real thing.

I do agree with you point above , though. I know many here on the forums have complained about many of the moves that HL has made in rereleasing items, lighting the GLOWS, etc but I think that these moves and others have allowed HL to thread the needle , so to speak.

Their actions have not pleased everybody but have made it possible for them to still be around for both the serious collector and for the impulse buyer. People tend to forget that the impulse buyer tends to make the collectibles feasible from a business standpoint. Especially now that there is a downturn in the Collectibles market.

Dennis

Some of the results of the LIke it or leave it. There area few surprises here. Take a look!

Avery Point CT Will buy 15. Will Pass 4.
Cedar Island, NY Will buy 4. Will pass 2.
Egmont Key, FL Will buy 5. Will pass 1.
Block Island North, RI Will buy 7. Will pass 3.
Middle Island, MI Will buy 3. Will pass 4.
Yorktown Lens Will buy 8. Will pass 3. Undecided 1.

The GLOWS

Brant Point, MA Will buy 3. Will pass 3. Undecided 1.
Chatham, MA Will puy 2. Will pass 1. Undecided 1.
Seven Foot Knoll, MD Will buy 2. Will pass 4.

There were a lot of other comments that are worth reading. Very interesting and very spurprising!

Bert

VERY good point. What we forget is that those Portland Head in Snows and all those Lighted Glows (hey, that rhymes!) are what makes the Avery Points and Cedar Islands and North Blocks possible. Yeah, they are rereleasing a piece, and yeah, the value of the originals is going down, but if they didn't rerelease a piece or two every year (that doesn't count the annual standard St. Auggie, that's just normal now), then we wouldn't get all the real goodies.

Think about it:

There are 10 releases for Winter '05 as of now (no LLOM or Special editions yet).

3, or 30% of them are GLOWs.
6, or 60%, are brand-new releases.
1, or 10% is a rerelease.


So, we have 60% new content and 40% rerelease (counting the GLOWs). That means that over half of the new releases are new.

But without that 40%, the amount of new releases would be 0%. The entire count for Winter '05, and for that matter, Summer '05 and Winter '06 and forever more for ALL HLs would be 0%.

60% of the kill this season is still new. You don't have to buy the 40%. But just remember that it is probably the reason that we have had HLs for as long as we have. Without them, they might have gone belly up long ago.

Something to think about from Mr. Sent-home-with-pink-eye.

We have a very limited collection of HLs. We don't buy all the pieces due to 1.) serious lack of space and 2.) lack of money. Therefore, we concentrate on certain pieces -- those of Long Island lights and any others that hold special meaning for us.

Therefore, we will be purchasing the Cedar Island, but passing on all the rest. Even though the others are beautiful, we just can't buy them all.