Hi - I'm new to this forum and not very familiar with Harbour Lights although I am an avid lighthouse collector.

In searching the products guide on the Harbour Lights website I see that some lighthouses are listed as GLOW.

Could someone please tell me what that means?

thanks very much

The term GLOW stands for the name of the series.

Great
Lighthouses
Of the
World

These are Lighthouses that have been made as Limited Editons and all of those have been sold.

There were several GLOWs issued that did not fit this definition, but after some feeback from the Collectors those items were changed to Limited Editions.

The idea behind a GLOW is to have an edition of the Lighthouse available for sale, particularly if it's a popular Lighthouse. A portion of the sale price of a GLOW goes to the preservation of the Lighthouse. Also, the price of the GLOW is less than most Limited Editions and they are generally smaller than most Limited Editions.

On the other hand the GLOW version of a Lighthouse might be more detailed than the original Limited Editon- due mostly to the general improvment of the craft over the years.

GLOWs are a topic that has strong opinions on both sides- many collectors are adamant that they should not exist and lessen the collectibility of Harbour Lights and others take the view that at least those that came late to the table can get a quality version of a wanted Lighthouse. Very few people fall in the middle ground on this topic.

You could do a search on this topic in the forums and spend days reading the various threads that play into this area.

Dennis

Hi, welcome to the forums. It's great to have another member and a new collector for Harbour Lights.

GLOW stands for Great Lighthouses of the World. The GLOWs are Open Edition lighthouses that are brought out after the Limited Edition lighthouses of the same name have retired. If the Limited Edition lighthouse has had a successful run and was a very popular piece and there is still a demand for the piece that was not satisfied by the limited edition size, it is usually brough back as a GLOW. The GLOW is an Open Edition of the same piece, usually in a smaller scale and in a slightly different configuation (ie, additional buildings, less buildings, added landscape, etc.). The price will be less and the piece will have a serial number with a alphabet letter prefix (A for 1st year of production, B for 2nd year of production, etc). The GLOWS usually do not increase in value but fill in a collection nice if the Limited Edition is to pricey to buy. There are some GLOWS that have gone up in value a little because of retirement (even though they are Open Editions and shouldn't retire) because of production changes to make the replacement GLOW more correct to detail.

Hope this helps and I sure that someone else on the forum can add some additional information that I have left out.

Rich

Welcome - glad to have you join us ont he Forums. Dennis and Rich have given you two very fine and detailed answers to which I can add nothing.

One of the big reasons Harbour Lights are becoming a giftware versus a collectible. There is to much confusion over what a GLOW is when they compete with the LE in detail and size, IMHO. You can blame current economic problems for the secondary market if you want but the market was soft before then, IMHO.

Welcome to the forums aj1861!
Don't hesitate to ask questions. The knowledge of the people here is amazing. This is the best group of people you will meet anywhere. Looking forward to hearing from you some more.

Dale

Thank you all so very much for the information you provided. I'm really not sure why when I began purchasing lighthouses that I leaned toward Spencer Colin's vs Harbour Lights but I did. Just before Christmas a friend showed me the Harbour Lights Fresnel Lenses and I just had to have them. So luckily through this forum I found the 4th order and have got my reservation in for the 3rd and 3.5 order lenses. It's funny because I got HL's Nobska Light for Christmas...my very first one. Boy what a difference in quality compared to my Spencer Colin's lighthouses.

thank you all again

OH OH !!!!!!!!
I think there is about another one to be HOOKED on collecting
All it takes is the first one !!!
Larry

My 1st lighthouse was also Spencer Colin's Ponce De Leon. My wife bought it for me in 1994 for a birthday present. I then saw the HL version and boy did I get hooked. I returned the Spencer Colin and had my wife buy the HL version of Ponce De Leon. This was the beginning to my downfall on buying Harbour Lights. A footnote to this is in 1998 when I was in the same store where my wife bought the Spence Colin version, they were clearing out all Spencer Colin Lighthouses at 60% off and guess which piece was still there? The same Ponce De Leon (same serial number) that my wife had bought in 1994. I bought it then for nostaligic reasons and to think how much more money I would have in my pockets now if I had just kept the Spence Colin and not seen Harbour Lights attention to detail and lesser price.

Rich