The (Reunion) Fun Has Now Begun...on E-Bay

This just posted for a 7 day listing tonight:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Harbour-Lights-05-Re...1QQcmdZViewItem

For those that can't work a deal or gotta have it...

Steve

No bids on the mini as of yet. I'm sure there will be people bidding but no one wants to be first out of the chute.

It will be interesting to see what happens. One would think that a better offering would have been the actual reunion piece and the matching mini. That auction would have drawn a lot of bidding traffic.

Bob

I agree Bob
The set everone wants is the reunion exclusive with matching number mini

Just checked it out and there are three bids. Up to $51. but the reserve has NOT been met.

Bert

Took a look this morning. Up to $91 with five bids. Appears that there are two serious bidders. Good luck to them both. I'm anxious to see what happens.

They still havge 5+ days left.

bobo

It will be interesting to see where this auction leads.

The original reunion mini, New Point Loma, was considered to be the rarest of the rare way back when. It often times was considered worth more than the full size reunion piece.

Then came the mini reunion pieces from the next two reunions in Providence RI and Baltimore MD. I don't think they quite ever achieved the actual worth of the mini NPL (Daniel, do you have any facts on that point?). Actual estimates of their worth would be interesting to compare to the offering we are currently watching on eBay.

I'm afraid we will not get to know the true worth of the latest reunion exclusives by watching eBay. Unfortunately, for every person who may be willing to pay an actual worth of a piece, there is another 100 people only looking for a bargain.

Ebay is a bargain hunter's paradise and an easy out for someone who wants to just get rid of something even if they don't profit heavily from the sale. I guess it's the only show around that is readily available to all.

Let's see if these reunion exclusives start showing up at the New Marketplace at the CF. Maybe then we will get an idea of what they are really worth.

Bob

Bob
I don't have anything on the new point Loma Mini but I have written down ebay prices for the NPL reunion piece for the calendar year.

$355
$350
$300
$260
$175.20
I believe an NPL-MINI goes for around $250 if you can find one.

The 1998 reunion piece and Mini usually goes for $200 to $250 for both. Haven't followed it lately.

There was just a bid on the 2001 reunion and the results was:
2001 Reunion Hooper Straight #640 $110.20
2001 Reunion Hooper Straight #641 $93.70
2001 Reunion Seven Foot Knoll dinner $68.99

Of course all of the past reunion pieces are pretty well saturated. Who ever wants one probably got it by now. There are a lot of eyes watching this reunion piece.. 197 hits so far with 4 days and 21 hours to go. I bet there are a lot of collectors wanting this mini.
But like Bob said will they lay low and hope for a bargain or will they go out fighting for the bid incase it ends up in high demand.

I feel the collectors are going to come at fighting.

I think you're right on the money on the mini-NPL "if you can find one". At one time they were going for twice that price because they were rare. I think the introduction of other mini's plus the LLOM's took away the uniqueness of the mini-NPL.

I used to have three NPL's but I sold one. Now I have two but one was damaged in shipment. I only have one mini-NPL. I may consider selling it if anyone is interested.

Thanks for the factual response, Dan. You are definitely a Harbour Lights Guru.

Bob

Well Folks,

The 2005 Reunion Mini Waugoshance & Thumbnail is currently up to $127.50 with 12 bids. Only 5 hours left. The seller -- supposedly -- even lowered the reserve.

Who knows? Who wants this bad enough?

bobo

Three hours left and no change.

bobo

There are now 13 bids with seven different bidders. The bid is now at $132.50 with an hour and 15 min left the bids are still pretty modest. I expect the last minute will have a substantial increase with the reserve being met.

Still $132.50 -- 32 minutes left.

bobo

$137.50 -- nine minutes left. But I only count 6 bidders with a total of 15 bids.

bobo

FINAL -- 16 bids, $137.50, RESERVE NOT MET, 6 bidders.

I guess the sellers wanted more than the bidders were willing to pay.

bobo

It looks like the buyers are going to hold out and try and get a deal. or they are holding out for matching numbers mini and reunion exclusive.

DANIEL,

Any smart buyer would want both pieces with matching numbers. At least I would. So we agree.

bobo

You know, all I can do is sit here and shake my head. All that is is greed. $137.50? And that doesn't meet the reserve. Have you looked at the piece? Gimme a break. I bought two. I wanted one for myself and one to trade (for a Hooper Strait regular and mini - it turns out - that I'll be happy to display). I guess more power to you if people will pay that much, but for just the mini alone...I don't know. I'm sure some of you will disagree, but to me the mini doesn't hold the collectible value. The full size edition is what I'd want. The mini is just a tag-a-long. I don't have either of the NPLs. I'd love to have the full size NPL, and for that I'd pay a fair price. If any of you have one you like to sell, I'd be interested in speaking with you , but I have no desire to have the mini.

I've never been to the reunions so I may be way off here, but doesn't the mini come with the full size? Like the 2 for $70 or whatever?? If so, then this is the freebie and a thumbnail (which is that a freebie too for all practical intents and purposes?) that they apparently were trying to pay for their $70 full size, the E-Bay costs of the auction and perhaps their flight/gas to and from the reunion!?! Who knows, maybe they wanted the reunion to end up free too!!!!

Price of the reunion piece with mini: $70
Price of trip to reunion (including meals): ?
Cost of Reunion: ?
E-Bay costs to post auction: ?

Reserve: $1,873.45

Steve

Oh yeah, they did supposedly lower it...

Reserve: $1,870.00 :p

Steve

I think the whole auction was done to try and establish a buyers price, not to sell it. If the bid was high enough, it would have set off a few sellers to contact the bidders.

The current value for the 'Full Size' is a trade straight up for a full size Waugoshaunce for a full size NPL.

Bob

ps I think the mini is one of the most unique pieces produced by Harbour Lights. That it doesn't have a full size (same style as done in the past), increases it's value. Of course as always 'for every seller you need a buyer.'

The mini is provided to each participant as part of their registration. There are only 400 of these "in the system". The full size piece is an optional, additional purchase by participants. Each participant could order 2. Some ordered 2, but there are also those that ordered only 1 (or in some cases, none) of the larger piece.

So, there may well be Reunion participants who registered two people and have 2 minis but chose to order only 1 full size piece. They may be willing to part with one of their minis and maybe the thumbnails. At the same time, there may also be a single registrant who ordered an extra full size piece to sell, but is not willing to give up the 1 mini they do have. So, the potential exists to obtain both the pieces, but not with matching numbers.

Don't dump on a person because they chose to test the waters. Someone has to be the first. It isn't out of line to expect that some will sell their extras to help recoup some of the funds they spent on attending the Reunion. The only way to try to establish a value is to post one for sale and see where it leads. People who did not attend the Reunion and want the piece will have to decide what they are willing to pay, and those that have pieces they are willing to sell will have to decide what they would accept for the piece. That's the nature of the business.

Dave,

I wasn't dumping perse, just ribbingly being facetious (though it may have been more accurate than I was leaning towards). It might have been greed, it may have been need, it could've been that they wanted to go buy some weed; but they did the deed that planted the seed, and took the lead to make the feed, and let the buyer heed that if you were treed by the cost that you seed, then your hopes might recede or you'll continue to be peed.

Dr. Seuss

Steve,

Actually you are not too far off in part of your reasoning.

It's been a tradition that people who attended the Reunion would buy the maximum of anything they could and get the maximum of freebies given to each individual guest and use the extras to help defray the cost of the Reunion.

There always were some who would do that in a trade situation- say a scarce limited edition for one of the Reunion pieces.

Hey, like it or not these are scarce items and many of the people here are long term serious collectors and can remember when items went up in value almost immediately upon being issued and sold out or fully distributed.

Is it greed or capitalism at it's finest ? The decision has to be made individually. They put an item up for bid and had either a price in mind that they would accept or the set a high enough price so it wouldn't sell low and got an idea of what people were willing to pay for an unknown item.

That's the way the process works. It ain't wrong and it ain't right it just is.

Dennis

Dennis,

I gotta agree with your profound analysis. It's sort of like "Whatever will be will be."

There is no right or wrong -- it's just what is.

bobo