Top Ten on Ebay March 5, 2005

1.#102 Cape Hatteras $970
Flag Number 937 of 5500. Made in Canada- White Castle Studios Box. Has Lightning Rod. Lightning rod is bent. This is in Good Condition. No Chips, Cracks or Breaks. Original Box. Box Labels and numbers match the Item.

I haven’t seen a bid this high for a Cape Hatteras since Bill auction off one of his private stash at the Collectors show in Atlanta. It had 60 bids and most of them are from two bidders. They bided it up from $133 with an intense competitive 53 bids. The highest bid that I have tract in the past couple of years was $700 The fact that it is made in Canada should have nothing to do with it being more valuable. With Canadians having numbers as high as 3500 they are no way harder to find than a Malaysian made. Apparently this seller bought 41 others Harbour Lights and 14 A.B from a Garage Sale for an average price of $21.50 a piece.

2. Umpqua River Oregon # 107 $284.99
This is a Harbour Lights Limited Edition Figurine, hand numbered in a limited edition of 5500. Excellent condition, no chips, cracks, or repairs. Certificate of Authenticity included, this piece is numbered # 55 / 5500. Item was still packed in its original carton, removed only for these photos.

I feel that this is a fare price for a two-digit with brown box. The fact that it looks brand new and is in mint condition, I would even say it’s on the low side of its value. It has the green felt that is short from the edge and a brown box with the words Castle Studios. This would make it a Canadian and most likely a California mold. Probably the only true Umpqua River California made with gray felt is the Artist proof. This does not follow the Artist proof paint style that has heavy antiquing, red roof, no brick painted on the chimney and no flowers.
Value $250 to $350

3. Big Bay Point #700.. $283.59
This is a "Special Edition Lighthouse" 5,000 were produced. These were not numbered by the company so this one has no number. This went into production in 9/95 and was retired on 12/31/95. This had an original list price of $70. Original BOX, Foam Packing and Box Labels Match contents. The foam has a couple dirty fingerprints inside. This is in Brand New Condition. No Cracks or Breaks. Bought from an estate of a collector and their collection was in Original Boxes and looked to be Never Displayed.

This is on the high side of the going price. You find them after Christmas for under $200 after the market is flooded. The usual price is between $200 to $250

4. #125 Portland Head ME $219.70
Number 2499 of 5500. This is in Brand New Condition. No Chips, Cracks or Breaks. Original Box. Box Labels and numbers match the Item. Bought from the estate of a collector and their collection was in Original Boxes and looked to be Never Displayed.

This is probably the going price. They use to go for $750 in 96 to 97
I paid $600 for mine in 98, which was considered a good price. I believe that this is the first time since I have been doing “Top Ten on Ebay” that the Portland made the top ten list. Who would ever believe that the Portland head which was considered number 3 of the most desirable Harbour lights (Third only to Hatteras and Coquille) would go for around 200 bucks.

5. #103 West Quoddy Head ME. $219.70
Number 1968 of 5500. Made in Canada- White Harbour Lights (Canadian)Box. Has Lightning Rod.Flag reads Boston LIGHT 1991 1044/5500. This is in Good Condition. No Chips, Cracks or Breaks. Original Box. Box Labels and numbers match the Item. On this one the only box "labels" were written on. Bought from an estate of a collector and their collection was in Original Boxes.

Again a West Quoddy going for a high price. Canadian West Quoddys are not that hard to find. I have tracked Canadian West Quoddys with a number as high as 2072. The going price use to be between $130 to $150. I don’t see anything with this one to justify the higher price. But I do with the box. The box is a white Canadian box with the Harbour Lights label on it, instead of the castle studios label. This box was used toward the end of the Canadian production and is Not very common. I have only one and it came with My Canadian Tybee. By the way there are three types of white boxes that were used by Canada.

8. OCRACOKE NC #135 $184.70
Perfect Condition w/Box & Paperwork #2433/5500

This is now the going price. It was only last year that they were going for $300 to $400. One Malaysian even went for $600.

7. 138 St. Augustine FL $180.25
Number 4758 of 5500.
This is in Brand New Condition. No Cracks or Breaks. Original Box. Box Labels and numbers match the Item. Bought from the estate of a collector and their collection was in Original Boxes and looked to be Never Displayed.

This the going price. Since I started the “top Ten on ebay” the price has been going for around $150 to $250

8. 128 Southeast Block Island RI
Number 4627 of 5500. $165
This is in Brand New Condition. No Chips, Cracks or Breaks. Original Box. Box Labels and numbers match the Item. Bought from an estate of a collector and their collection was in Original Boxes and looked to be Never Displayed

Going price.

9. #113 Fort Niagara NY
Number 4455 of 5500. $152.50
Made in Malaysia, NO Lightning Rod. This is in Brand New Condition. No Chips, Cracks or Breaks. Original Box. Box Labels and numbers match the Item. Bought from an estate of a collector and their collection was in Original Boxes and looked to be Never Displayed.

This is on the high side of the going price.
This is almost the greenbook value. Fort Niagara has held its own and usually goes for more than it did in the 90’s. I paid $95 for my Malaysian in 98 which was the going price.

10. Castle Hill Rhode Island # 116 $152.50
Excellent condition, no chips, cracks, or repairs. Certificate of Authenticity included, this piece is numbered # 64 / 5000. Item was still packed in its original carton, removed only for photos

It has green felt that didn’t go all the way to the edge and came in a brown box with the words Castle Studios. Probably a California mold. This is another one of the original 17 that the only pure California with gray felt may be the Artist proof.
Kim Andrews said that she had 250 of the first 17 manufactured at California. We have always been lead to believe that all of them or at least most of them came directly from the California factory to the dealers. As I have been able to log more and more of the first 250 of the original 17, I am finding out that most of the lighthouses that was manufactured in California were shipped to Canada then to the dealers.

Value $250 to $350

Another fine job of tracking and reporting on the state of the ebay secondary market, Daniel.

Thanks for putting in all the time on this.

Daniel,

Once again, an excellent report. Please keep it up. I always look forward to your excellent expertise.

bobo

Excellent report. What a windfall from a few hours of garage saleing.

Once again, Bravo! I know what you mean about Ocracoke. Just a few months ago, I remember you reporting those $300-400 prices to us. What can make a light have such a sudden plummet in value?

Greg, I think that a couple times a year a few new collectors begin trying to build a collection of retired pieces quickly, at the same time, competing with each other creating a short term bubble. Sometimes you'll notice the same 2-3 people bidding up a bunch of pieces at the same time, often creating artificially high prices, and then there are times of great deals when a piece goes for the one and only bid at the minimum price. Collecting retired Harbour lights takes quite a bit of patience if you want to pay a so-called reasonable price, Over the past few years the number of older/desireable pieces available on ebay has been increasing, I don't know why, maybe it's just ebay, more people finding ways to get rid of things they never had a good outlet to sell, who knows?

Once again, a terrific report. Regarding HL 138, St. Augustine, it seems that this piece has the most volatile price. You said the spread is between $150 - $250 during your tracking period. Certainly that price spread is the widest you've routinely quoted. Am I understanding you correctly?

cclighthousebuff0
The St Augustine was on ebay for around $150 when I started "top ten", Then it peaked around Christmas at $250. and just went for $180.25 this post. It is normal for Lighthouses to go for more around Christmas.
Ebay isn’t constant. Beside glows and new collectors impulses, there are many other factors to consider. The time of the year (are most people snowed in or is the time of the year for vacations), the day and time the bid ends, Taxes, is there a picture of the lighthouse, how comfortable does the seller make you feel and so on. If we could plug in a program of all the variables maybe some of these bids would make sense.
$100 difference between bids is not uncommon. The Cape Hatteras with box went for a low of $238 last year and just went for $970. The OCRACOKE has radically changed in bids over the past year.

Had a feeling that Ocracoke would lose some of its collectible status when HL introduced the open edition--some 11 years after the limited edition was introduced. Paid $330 in 2001 for the #3716 LE I have. Hope I'm still around when the market picks up again.

Okracoke should be worth at least $250. Anyone who sells that piece below that price is just giving it away to get rid of it. I really don't feel the introduction of the GLOW reduces the true worth of the piece.

Some folks believe GLOW introductions reduce the value of the LE version, but I don't buy that view. That view is accepted by people who purchase GLOW's in lieu of biting the bullet and spending the big bucks for an LE. Don't believe that theory for one moment.

:rolleyes: Bob :rolleyes:

Sorry , Bob, but I disagree... I think that OE and Event versions of the older LE's have a direct effect on the secondary price going down on the older limited edition lighthouses.. I wish it wasn't that way but it is!

Such as St. Augustine?

I completely agree with Paul and add that the 800 pound gorilla here is EBAY! Anybody can now open a store without ever getting out of their pajamas, but how can you sell a bunch of anything at retail.... You don't need to, Mark it down, just make $10-$15 per item, tack on an extra $4-$5 to the shipping and you can make a few hundred to a thousand a week in your spare time, there's no overhead! no store to rent. Ebay is deflating the value of collectibles at the retail level long before the piece has a chance to have any secondary value. Until about 3 years ago I was on autoship, had a complete collection except for a few rare variations. I decided to go off autoship and just buy a few pieces, I think in the past 2 years I have only bought 8-9 pieces. Back in December I made a drastic change in plan, I canceled out of the reunion, Lack of sustained value wasn't the only reason but it was a contributing factor. But going back to the beginning, watering down your own product line with open edition pieces especially when they are more detailed than the original sure ain't helping! The Len's seem to be holding their price on ebay... Wonder why, Hmmm what's the difference?

(Afterthought) Maybe Ebay is just reflecting any item's true value, without a middle man's interference, that would have been caused by buyers not having many sources to locate an item, allowing a small number of secondary sources to set prices.

Perhaps I should rethink my position after the statements by my esteem collector colleagues from Indy and Munster. I will remain steadfast on the price of Okracoke should be no less than $250. It may be a "plain-Jane" but it isn't easy to come by. It can be tough to find one for sale unlike some of the pieces from the past.

Sandy paid $330 for hers but the extremely desireable piece was at the high end of value at that time. The overall value of the piece was not reduced by the GLOW being released. It was the whole collectible market spiraling down that reduced it's worth.

Does the release of a GLOW version reduce the number of potential purchasers for a LE version? Yes, I would say it does. The actual controlling factor is expendible cash. If you had the "extra" cash, would you buy a LE or a GLOW? Deep pockets would buy the LE. Limited budgets would buy the GLOW. Deep pockets makes an investment. Limited budgets has purchased a wonderful looking piece of giftware that will never be worth more than what he or she paid for it, if that.

Buy what you like and like what you buy. If you really want to save yourself a bunch of money, purchases LLOM. They are considerably cheaper than GLOW's and you don't need a lot of room to display them.

Bob