I have been a collector for about a year now and have a substantial investment of both time and money in my lights.

I do have a couple of comments (FWIW) about the number of products, amount of each and shipping concerns. As Sean said, I am starting to feel like a "Fruit of the Month" club member. In 1999 there have been 17 new LE releases along with the usual society piece, membership piece, society ornament, event piece, 4 new OE ornaments, GLOWS, the introduction of the This Little Light series, the character series and no telling what all else I missed. I know that HL is in BUSINESS, but are we (the HL extended family) missing the boat (oh yea, the Anchor Bay series) in allowing our treasures to become discounted so often as seen on e-bay?

From the recent edition sizes, I would say a lesson has been learned about the collectibility, saleability and shelf life of some of the products. The 6500 editions as well as the 8000 editions have been selling much more readily at retail. Dealers count on merchandise turnover and do not want to be a storage facility for any product. The longer a line sits on the shelf, the more likely they are to replace that space with a different line.

The shipping issue has become a joke all 'round. Every collector knows not to put much stock in the announced release date. I noticed at Rosemont the phrase that kept popping up when a date was mentioned was "Yea,Right". BY & Kim, take a look back at your textbook retailing 101...under promise over deliver. Announce a September release and let it show up on our shelves September 1

I do collect because I love the product and the concept...but, I sure would like to see my investment hold its value.

I would love to hear your comments. Thanks for allowing me to express my opinion.
Suzee

[This message has been edited by SCombs (edited 10-08-99).]

I would think the best way to insure that your collection holds it value is to search out good deals on the ones that have proven to increase or hold their value. With the new ones "BWYL", that way if the value goes down then you will still like them.

Good points.

I think one thing Harbour Lights needs to take into account is the utter unpredictability of shipments from Asia. It's easy for freight to get bumped around, or even sit around on a dock for days. They should factor in 2 extra weeks, in my opinion (maybe even 3), in the delivery schedule. Hey, if it arrives early, collectors will be ecstatic. But you're right...when stuff arrives late, as it usually does, it's time fer grumblin'.

Edition size? No more than 8,000. Anything that's not a grand slam---6,500. Raise the price a few bucks, if necessary. But give those pieces the chance to retire while they're still somewhat new and exciting. If they don't sell, retire 'em early, lick your wounds, and move on. Wind Point and Round Island should have been retired a year earlier than they were. They were dead, dead, dead. And even with early retirement they'll STILL languish on shelves for the next couple of years.

On November 1st, they oughtta retire Brant Point, Selkirk, Charlotte-Genessee, Ida Lewis, and Cape Meares. I guarentee you...they are NOT SELLING.

Between you, me, and the fencepost, I have a feeling that there's going to be a sizeable retirement announcement by the end of the year. They simply cannot keep up at the current production pace without weeding out the no-sellers.

I agree with you guys. We certainly could use a few more retirements of those HLs that have been sitting on the shelves. I'm sure many of the dealers would appreciate it.

Bob

I agree to an extent, but raise prices just to make a smaller edition? An edition size of 10,000 may be too large, but don't limit it to 6500 and then raise the price so that it is not affordable to many collectors. I didn't get Hillsboro because of the price and that's fine, but to think that most pieces could be that price, I'd have to give up collecting. Also, raising prices would limit a lot of buyers to only buying what they consider WOW's. Right now, I could purchase 2 HL's a month, raise the price and it becomes 1 every three months. The pieces will still be on the shelf if the price is too high.

Joanne

Keep prices the same and take the LE edition size back to 5500. That way they'll stay collectible and much more likely to hold their value.

Now there's an argument I haven't tried yet ... The high LE edition size is hampering the sale of GLOWS. ;->

__
/im

You can view some of my feeling on this issue at:

http://216.46.163.97/forums/Forum14/HTML/000027.html

-Todd

I would be in favor of reducing the edition size of future LEs. 5500??? That number may not be enough to satisfy all the serious collectors in the crowd and still leave a few for those collectors who may have visited the light or buy it because it's from a particular region. Perhaps 6500-7500 would be appropriate. That would allow for future collectors to obtain the piece for a reasonable price within a two year period or so.

Bob