Hi all,

Just left the HL Atlanta event. We had a super great time!! The biggest news that was revealed at the "gathering", was the first sighting, in public, of the Statue of Liberty light that will be sold from Jan. to Dec. of the year 2000. Numbers will be limited so you best call your dealer NOW!!!
Proper name is "Liberty Enlightning the World".

The other piece was American Shoal. It is now a reality. The 250 HL collectors that were in attendance really took to the two new lights. I know I did. Both are GREAT !

Many HL pieces were given away to the group. I thought the best ones were a "work in progress" and a finished American Shoal. Bill promptly offered $500 for the 1st AS. A ten year old collector won a artist Coquille River. Boy was he excited! Bill also offered him $500 and was also told no.

There was great food, fellowship and a reply given by Bill about his traveling. Next year he is going to try to interview as many of the members of lighthouse families that are still living as he can and therefore will not have as much time for signing events. With the great response for this event, I think this kind of event is a wave of the future.

It was great to see Bill, Nancy, Kim, Harry, Maureen, "KB" as well as Bob and Sandra Shanklin, Cullen Chambers and many collectors that have been at other events. A good time was had by all !!!!

This day trip from Tampa to Atlanta was worth the time and money. Besides, I got to see my grandchildren for a few hours after the event.

Derith

[This message has been edited by Derith Bennett (edited 10-11-99).]

Derith,
Thanks for the super report on Atlanta and the "news" on the 2000 pieces. The Statue of Liberty sounds interesting.
Jim

>>American Shoal. It is now a reality. <<

Great news - this should be a popular model. Finally the stamp set gets completed. :-) Any info, Derith, on when the piece will be available?

__
/im

Derith, thank you for the report. I'm glad that you had a good time. I wish I had been able to go but my car needed new brakes. These things happen at the most inopportune time. I'm looking foward to seeing the pieces that you mentioned.

Joanne

Thanks for the FAST and GREAT report, Derith. Great news about American Shoal and the SofL for 2000. Were you allowed to take pictures of the new ones?

And how did the signing portion go?

Thanks for the quick report Derith. Sounds like there was great attendance. Will be keeping my fingers crossed for a regional event within reach.

Dave

Thanks for report, must have been great event.

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Bob

Atlanta WAS great!!

Tim,
American Shoal should start shipping before the new year. It will cost $99. Lady Liberty will cost $125.

John,
We WERE able to take pictures.

Sorry I don't remember the edition numbers.
I was caught up in the roar of the crowd.
Nana

[This message has been edited by Derith Bennett (edited 10-11-99).]

JChidester,
Not to just jump in on Derith, whom did a great job of telling it like it was, but the signing went great. There were a lot of pieces there to be signed. I wound up near the back of the line and it didn't take too long. They had several tables set up in a square around Bill, and they would have everyone keep the spaces around the table full, and Bill would just keep going around in circles signing pieces. That allowed everyone to get their pieces unpacked, and ready by the time Bill would come around. As soon as he finished with your pieces, you packed up, and someone else would come in and fill your space. I agree with Derith, we had a great time.
Rusty

It is great to read about all the neat new stuff happening with HL. I for one will be happy to miss some local signing time to allow Bill to visit with the lighthouse keeper families. This sounds like a great challenge and a great chance to record the history of lighthouses and their keepers. Sounds like a book in the making. I look forward to Bill's reports on his travels.

I guess I need to start saving money for the new and very interesting items to be offered next year.


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Jim

Dr. Who ?

Thanks Rusty for answering John's question. I did not have any to sign, so I really did not pay any attention to what was happening in the signing area, too busy talking about lighthouse trips with the Shanklin's.

There are a couple of things I forgot when I was writing last night, so, here goes:
Martha Moore, Buford, GA won the American Shoal, work in progress, Jim Woolen, Duluth, GA won the painted American Shoal and Braden Buckner was the fortunate young collector who won the Coquille River.

HL is, as most of you know, very generous to their collectors and I was remiss in not telling you about the tee shirt that each person received. The front is a picture of 6 Southern lights by Mark Sherman.(I was not able to stay for the drawing for the large print of the same picture.) The back of the shirt had a map of Georgia with the saying, "Harbour Lights lights up Atlanta."
As far as this collector is concerned, HL did just that.

By the by, the size of the Lady Liberty is petite and I think everyone will really want to own one. American Shoal is a nice size as well.

Derith

As I sit here in Arizona filled with envy I must say thanks to Derith and all who posted so quickly the info on the Event. I wanted to go so bad but was unable to, due to a prior commitment. Great news about the new releases. I hope the detail is a good as the latest releases have been. They sound wonderful.

I wonder, will there be a west coast event in the near future?

Dale

Just a point of clarification to Derith's post; the Mark Sherman piece that was given away at the event was not a "print", it was the ORIGINAL oil painting!! In addition to the painting, the American Shoal pieces and the Coquille, they also gave away probably 25 or 30 current and retired pieces and a good number of Anchor Bays. I of course didn't win anything, but had a great time anyway. And no, Bill did not state the edition sizes of SOL or American Shoal.

I surely wish that the Forum Wackos in attendance in Atlanta had known who each other were. We are a subculture of HL that share and expound to one another and it is great to meet in person. Think I'll mention it to Kim and Maureen. Perhaps we can wear our new Wacko pins at the next one. So many of those that I spoke to personally are not regulars on the Forum. I told them they needed to be. Everyone of course agrees with me, RIGHT?
Derith

Any chance we could see the pictures that Derith took? HL Wackos want to know!

We arrived early and my daughter hurried up and got us seats up front. I was able to hear everything that went on. I skimmed over what was told about the Atlanta event so far and a have a few things to add. As mentioned earlier there was a lot of distraction going on with the SOL and the A.S. being carried past each row.

Bill announced that the production size for the SOL would be 30,000 and as already stated by Derith it would be available from Jan 2000 to Dec 2000. I doubled checked with Kim on what was going to be the Actual production number and she said the SOL would be available that whole year and that orders stop at the end of the year 2000. I actually held the SOL and my wife took a picture of that occasion. I have many pictures but I have not got them developed yet.

Now the American Shoal. I have a few things to add about Bill’s announcement on American Shoal. The production size shall be 6,500. The Florida Reps complained that they could sell that many in Florida alone, since Florida lighthouses are very popular. Bill thinks they found enough of the original US American Shoal stamps to go along with it.

Had lot of fun. I have more to add latter.

Daniel

Thanks Daniel, I now know how hard it is to get every thing covered when you are telling what happened at an event. I agree with the distractions, so much seemed to be going on at the same time.

I, like Daniel, have not had my pix developed. Will try to do that tomorrow. Will try to get one on the forum tomorrow night.

You had better call your favorite dealer if you want one of the American Shoals. I called mine on Monday morning as soon as she opened.
Derith

[This message has been edited by Derith Bennett (edited 10-12-99).]

Thanks to all of you who shared your experiences at the Atlanta meeting - all of us who live too far away to go there for the day are really sad to have missed it!

Does anyone know if we will be seeing photos from HL of these two new pieces?

Barb

A 30,000 edition size for the Statue Of Liberty??!! That can't be right. They'll never sell that many in 1 year for $125 a pop. It would seem to make more sense to have the edition size be dictated by number of orders. I'm not sure how that could be handled since this is not a society piece. I'll be very interested to see how the distribution and quantities for this one play out. I sure hope this piece isn't sitting on dealer shelves 2 years from now.

Tim

I was told by Harbour Lights that "Liberty Enlightening The World" would be available to order from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2000.

In that sense, it is like a Society piece, but you do not need to be a Society Member to purchase it. As the deadline approaches for orders, I imagine some dealers will order additional quantities - depending on how they've seen sales going through the year 2000.

So the flag presumably does not have an edition size and one will be announed after 12/31/00.

I'm a little confused,which is not unusual.Will auto shipments still go to dealers on the SOL?

Yes to the autoships for "Liberty Enlightening the World"

John

Thanks John for the quick answer!

Derith,


This thread may help people in the future-

http://216.46.163.97/forums/Forum24/HTML/000011.html

Dave

Tim



I do not know why Bill said that SOL would have a 30,000-production limit.
Maybe that would be the absolute limit that would be produced or maybe He was insinuating that Harbour Lights is prepared to produce up to 30,000 for the year of 2000 if need be.

But the real limit on production is on how many SOL are ordered between Jan 1, 2000 to Dec 31, 2000. Like you I don't believe the SOL will reach the 30,000 mark.
Unless Bill and Kim are planning some fantastic promotional stuff.


Daniel



[This message has been edited by Daniel (edited 10-13-99).]