I am not a Newbie to collecting Harbour Light lighthouses, in fact I've probably been collecting these pieces longer that most out there. I had always wondered why the Cheryl Spencer Collin lighthouses had never taken to the publics eye like Harbour Lights did. These pieces are much more detailed than Harbour Lights and they come with a beautiful wooden base and a brass name plaque, yet they do not sell at the retailers or on eBay. Before eBay, I couldn't find a HL's Cape Hatteras so I bought a Spencer Collins Hatteras. Now that I have both, you can easily see which is the more detailed. Even the colors are more vibrant, and in most cases the edition size is lower. I am really amazed that these works of art have never taken their place in the collector's world.

Caio,
Brian
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[This message has been edited by whizkid3 (edited 09-30-99).]

[This message has been edited by whizkid3 (edited 09-30-99).]

I've never taken a close look at Cheryl's creations. I'm a true HL Collector and I don't purchase any other line. My family is very well aware of the fact that HLs are my only choice when it comes to lighthouse replicas.

I have been purchasing (for my wife) Cat's Meow lighthouses and Shelia's lighthouses to help with the nautical theme in the new "Harbour Lights" room. I like the 3-D effect of the Shelias.

Bob

I've only taken a close look at the CSC lights once, and here's why I didn't take to them: there seemed to be a general sameness to all of them. Whether it was the vegetation or the colors, I don't recall, but they simply didn't seem as distinctive as Harbour Lights. I like how each HL piece has its own character, whereas the individuality of lighthouses scultped by CSC seemed smoothed over. Also, there was a bit too much of a "cutesy" factor with the CSC lights. Just one person's opinion, but to me the CSC lights seem more like the Legacy Light sign by Harbour Lights.

When I first started collecting, I had to make a choice which line to collect. At the time CSC lighthouses were all produced in New England which was kind of nice.
When looking at the pieces though, they don''t seem to be in correct scale within the actual piece. I've seen the CSC West Quoddy Head and it just doesnt look right, the tower was just "too" stubby. The gloss paint used on the CSC piece never appealed to me either.
Early on, CSC lighthouses paid more attention to cute details such as an otter or something, while HL were more basic.
I also question the integrity of the collection now. I could be wrong but I think they have had re-issues of LEs.
I think an earlier post said it right in that the CSC pieces have a cuteness to them while I would look at HL as more faithfully producing a true architectural miniature.
These are just some of my thoughts and preferences.
I have seen the CSC model of Boone Island, ME and loved that piece.

Tim

[This message has been edited by Tim3167 (edited 09-30-99).]

I own two CSC lighthouses, Piedras Blancas and Ponce. The lantern room on Ponce is warpped some. These were the first "larger" replecas that I bought. I have some spoontiques and Scassies. Once I saw a Harbour light in person I was hooked. I agree that the artechural accuracy of Harbour Lights is unmatched by anyone. The cuteness of CSC was what attracted me at first. However the dimensions of most of her pieces are not proportional, as was true with some of the early HL's. But now the HL's are a far better representation of the real thing. I now have 18 HL's and three more on the way!

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"!

Mombo

This beholder's eyes sees beauty in HLs and have never even seen a one of Cheryl's, except in catalogues. The cuteness doesn't appeal to me. I do have a few NC Cat's Meow and Sheila's in other rooms of the house.

Nana

We own one CSC, Nubble Light (Cape Neddick) I liked the fact that all of the buildings were on the piece and found it to be more realistic than the HL piece. However, I must agree that the other pieces were NOT as true to form. Look what HL did with Pemiquid and CSC only did the fog bell. Goat Island is another example of lack of detail. I also agree that something is up with the scale on most of the CSC.

I'm glad to see that others feel the same way about CSC lights-I do not care for the vibrant colors, cutesie-ness, poor scale. I first saw HL and was amazed by the detail of each piece. They are miniatures of the real thing. The only thing slightly cutesie is the seahorse, which I really like anyway. Kinda a fun touch to a serious piece. I saw CSC lights when I visited NY and someone said-"hey look-HLs!" knowing I was collecting them and wacko about them. I looked and my impression was that they were HL knock-offs! Terrible, but true. I guess CSC was actually first, but I didn't know that at the time. I'm hooked on HL all the way-no other LH collectible will do (although I do have Lefton nightlights-I just thought LH nightlights were cool.)

Nothing wrong with loving other lines, but there is just something about the HL's! Might even be the people behind them, and the people involved with collecting them. Everyone is so helpful and friendly. But I do believe at least for me, it is the detail. Before i saw the HL's i collected a few Lefton Lights, but when I saw the HL's, like so many more, I was hooked for good. My only problem now is not spending to much on these things, and places to put them.
Rusty

I you want to read more about this topic check out these previous posts on this subject.

http://216.46.163.97/forums/Forum1/HTML/000213.html

and

http://216.46.163.97/forums/Forum1/HTML/000331.html

although I do agree with Paul

I own one CSC: Boon Island, Maine (I thought it was neat, and HL doesn't have one.) But if you look at both of the lighthouse lines side by side, the choice is very clear -- at least to me!

I met Cheryl at the Edison show in 1998, and she's very nice and I wish her the best. That said, she's in an awkward spot from a marketing perspective- - -her pieces bear more of a resemblance to the much lower-priced lighthouse lines (lack of correct proportion, too-vibrant paint scheme, etc.), yet they're priced like Harbour Lights. So people who want a "faithful" replica will choose Harbour Lights over CSC. People who just want a souvenier will buy the lower-priced pieces.
Perhaps it's time for CSC to re-invent herself and her product. Nothing says you can't start over. But it will be hard going against Harbour Lights. They keep improving upon their own products, obeying a classic defensive marketing rule: Always find the weaknesses in your product and improve upon them before your competitor does.

But even as king of the hill, Harbour Lights has shown a couple years of stagnation. Retirements have dwindled to a trickle. Even "Wow!™" pieces take longer to retire. They need to retire everything up to June of 1996 and make room for new pieces. They need to keep new edition sizes down to around 8,000. And they need to give the GLOWs a rest or encourage dealers to house them in separate display cases. I know we've debated this to death---at the same time, the line between collectibles ("I gotta get it before it's gone!") and giftware ("whatever...") gets blurrier by the month.

Bill
I agree. What you said here is what I was trying to get at in my post (somewhere else around here)HL is the king of the hill. But IMHO there has to be more of a distinction between the LE's and the OE's. I know you guys hate when I talk about Beanie Babies, but Ty Warner is a very good marketer. At the end of this year he is retiring his current stock. All the other stuff is hoopla but he put beanie babies on the front page for a couple of days.
Thanks,
George

Hi everyone,

About 7 years ago when I started collecting lighthouses I will never forget standing in the local dealer and looking at HL's and SC's lights side by side for what seemed hours.I agree with tim and the others,they just never seemed to be tru to form and they all had the same shape and look about them.Don't get me wrong,there are a few that are very nice but when I spent my money on the first HL,I knew I did the right thing.They are more of a cute lighthouse then a original like HL.
Bob

Bill,

I agree with you totally, espially about the edition size being kept down to 8000 or even less. Make more lighthouses for us to collect, but keep the edition size lower.

Bert (MtnHkr)

I have one CSC - San Luis Obisbo. I bought it mostly because HL didn't have one. I don't think that the paint is too bright, but it's not painted as neatly as HL's.

As an animal lover, I like the animals that she uses. They are not immediately visible and don't seem to affect the piece.

But my choice is HL.

Joanne

One difference between HLs and CSC is the scale. CSC does all of her lights to the same scale. So, the CSC Cape Hatteras will be the tallest if it's displayed along with other NC lights. HLs doesn't do that, choosing instead to pick a scale for each piece that lets them best present it. So, if you're used to the HL way, it's easy to wonder about the looks and size of some of the CSC editions.

Rick

Sean

With all the negative response that I've been getting on the CSC's, I've decided to put both Hatteras's to the test with 10 friends who are not lighthouse collectors. 10 out of 10 said that if they were going to collect lighthouses, they would choose the CSC. My CSC Hatteras has no base or plaque, so it did not influence their decision, and yes Sean, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and my choice is and always has been with Harbour Lights, but you cannot deny that these small statistics definitely make CSC lighthouses stand out as a viable alternative to lighthouse collecting if Harbour Lights did not exist.
Harbour Lights has definitely come a long way since those very first pieces, and I for one will always be loyal to the company, but at least lets give credit where credit is due.
It is my understanding that Bill Younger was the marketing strategist behind the David Winters company, and I think that his genius there helped launch Harbour Lights into the publics preference for lighthouses. I also wish that all of the lighthouses were to scale, even if it did mean that we would have a Hatteras or Ponce that was 12" tall and a Sunken Rock that was 1", just for the fact that we could get an accurate perspective of size on each lighthouse. This is just my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions, opinions are like --- -----, everybodies got one.

Caio
Brian

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[This message has been edited by whizkid3 (edited 10-03-99).]

Stopped by my local dealer yesterday, who sells both CSC and HL (He has discontinued CSC, by the way, and is liquidating inventory).

I tried an interesting experiment. I held up CSC's sculpture of Assateague ($75) in my left hand, against the new HL Assateague GLOW (What is it...like $65?) in my right.

No comparison. The HL is superior in every way. Two things stand out: The sharpness of HL's sculptures...and the superior skill of HL's painters. Particularly the latter. Sloppiness abounds in CSC's work, sadly. Too bad, because she's sculpted a lot of pieces HL's hasn't done...and may never do.

Bill, exactly what I thought. That the detail in painting is not as precise or neat as it could be in the CSC pieces.

Joanne

My son (Chad) and I took Bill Younger out to the Toledo lighthouse to videotape part of a story about Bill, HL events, lighthouses, people who buy lighthouses and, most importantly, a nice story for Chad’s resume. On this shooting expedition, Bill mentioned that it was very important that there be several companies making lighthouses. One reason is the competition makes them work harder to be the best. Another reason is when a person buys a lighthouse replica; it makes the person more interested in real lighthouses and also in their restoration. The buyer also has become a potential customer (my thought not Bills).

I think that Cheryl’s quality of work has actually helped to push Harbour Lights to the level of quality of their lighthouses today.

Let’s call it style! My very good friend John Wisnewski owns a store in Toledo OH (where Chad and I did the rest of the story), and he sells CSC and HL as well as several other brands of lighthouses. He probably is close to the top seller of CSC in the country and a HL rep mentioned that he is the top seller, or right at the top, of HL sales in Ohio all the time. John says CSC has a loyal and faithful following buying from him, as does HL and that both groups don’t cross over except on occasion. I think the two lines have a slightly different appeal to people and that is good. It provides a choice and choices in life are always good.

I personally don’t own a CSC. I like the looks of several of them but I made the decision, when I bought my first lighthouse and started my collection, to stick to one manufacture. It easily could have gotten out of control if I bought more than one brand. (I now have about 250 HL on display)

I personally don’t care for all the pretty little flowers or whatever on some the CSC lighthouses. On the other hand, I do like the little items that HL is putting on their pieces as long as they don’t get "too cutesy" with them. The story telling items included on the Sapelo lighthouse are done well, without being overdone.

I say, "Go, Cheryl, keep the pressure on HL" because it just makes Harbour Lights get better and better at making lighthouses. That is a good thing because I collect Harbour Lights and they just keep getting better and more people will become interested in visiting and helping in the preservation and restoration of lighthouses.

By the way, Chad got the job!

Off my soapbox,

SaintWackoPaul '
Keep the Flame

Sean

If CSC would have been the cream of the crop of lighthouse collectibles, and you did have less than 10 of them, then, if your collection is anything like mine we would both be 20 to 25,000 dollars richer. I'm sure we can agree on that. LOL
I am and always will KEEP THE FLAME!

Caio
Brian

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[This message has been edited by whizkid3 (edited 10-03-99).]