which probably puts me in the minority

the "new" HL only cares about tourists now

As a retailer these days, only about 10% of our Harbour Lights sales come from collectors. The other 90% are visiting the Cape Cod area, and want to purchase a replica of a lighthouse they've seen. We have every current Harbour Lights on display in 3 cases, and with the flick of a switch, all of the GLOWS will light up. After that, just about every person will purchase a Chatham, Brant Point or Edgartown. Sales of the non-lit Nauset and Highland GLOWS, and "limited" Race Point are basically non-existent this year.

The average Harbour Lights customer today is not a collector. They don't care if it's a low numbered piece; they don't care if Bill or Nancy signed it; and they certainly don't care if it's a remake of a previously-made piece. They want to come into our store and find replicas of popular lighthouses they've visited. The light-up feature only makes it more realistic for them. In real life, isn't the lighting sequence of a lighthouse its most intriguing feature? Doesn't it make all of us just sit and stare?

These comments are not made to oppose or offend anyone else's comments, especially those lifelong Harbour Lights collectors. This is just an observation of what is happening on the retailer's end these days.

I don't think Jim is saying that tourists are being catered to. He is just sharing his observations about what the average person buys when they come into his place of business.

Well that's pretty much the final nail in my HL collecting coffin...I was barely hanging in there as it is...but it's obvious after this last post that the "new" HL only cares about tourists now...

I'm sure you would certainly want a steady flow of customers boosting your retail sales on a daily basis

QUOTE from Jim Awrey
Can this be a bad thing? Sales of GLOWS would be close to zero without the light-up feature. Although not fiancially feasible these days, we'd love to see all of the GLOWS gradually re-made as light-ups, starting with Cape Hatteras.

QUOTE from Daniel
09/18/2003

This is what’s going on.
Basically all the popular Glows have been made.
The glows are now starting to face the problem that has all ready effected the Limited Edition models.
All the poplar lights have been made. (Yes there are a few like Ocracoke left, but HL is basically running out of the big sellers for the GLOWs)
The money is in staying with the same first 50 or so popular lighthouses and keep redesigning the same lighthouse every couple of years. For Harbour lights to make the money they have to keep punching out new models every year. There is no money with issuing the same glow each year and putting a different letter on it. It doesn’t take long until it reaches it saturation point.

First came the L.E.
Then the glow
Then the ornaments
Then the revised GLOWs
Then the Spyglasses
Then Special limited edition event pieces of lighthouses all ready done.
Then the LLOM
Then the Guardian of the night.
Now it is the revised Glow with light.

What the lighting up does, it gives HL the opportunity to reissue another whole line of the same Lighthouses.


02/07/04

I expect to see the lighted glow to be the Harbour light main seller remaking all the big sellers and the L.E.'s just filling a void for the avid collectors.
Our collecting world is changing.

I personally feel that it is a good idea for Harbour Lights to remake all the GLOWS as lighted Lighthouses. This makes them more of a giftware and a novelty than a collectable. This will also bring in profits so that Harbour Lights stays in business and is still around to keep producing L.E.’s
This will in turn take away the competition from the L.E. and allow the L.E. flourish as a separate entity .

QUOTE from Jim Awrey
These comments are not made to oppose or offend anyone else's comments, especially those lifelong Harbour Lights collectors. This is just an observation of what is happening on the retailer's end these days.

You can go back in the forums and find a lot things that have come true about Harbour Lights