I was interested about everyones take on buying damaged HL on ebay (or anywhere really). Is it worth grabbing a slightly damaged piece..for example item 6186303628 #125 Portland Head ME. On the average, would you be better off holding out for an undamaged HLs ( for substantially more money,) or taking one that has minor damage in order to fill out your collection ? I have a few in my collection that are slightly damaged. Tybee Island I bought without the ventilator ball. Some damage to 2 others occurred when for some strange reason, the shelf collapsed onto the one below it. In the scheme of things, how does a few damaged ones affect the value of the whole collection?

Cathy

If a piece is valuable to YOU, that should be all that matters...

I have a slightly damaged Portland Head. There is a small chip out of the roof overhang that is totally unnoticible to anyone except me. I payed $150.00 for it back in the days when Portland Head was selling for 3 times that much. I touched up the chip and am perfectly happy with it. A missing lightning ball is no problem either. Wooden beads of the right size from a crafts store, a little bit of epoxy for filler and some touchup paint from the same craft store and your in business. It boils down to buy what your happy with and forget everyone else's opinion.

I'm a purist. I would rather not have the piece if it is damaged. I am willing to wait or pay more for a piece that makes me happy. What makes you happy is the key here.

Thanks for your opinions. I have no intention of selling my HL's. I guess they don't need to be perfect. They all do make me very happy and that is the reason I collect them. Guess I knew the answer all along!

Cathy

Personally, I would avoid damaged pieces. Sometimes you get that unfortunate surprise when a piece arrives damaged when you thought you were purchasing what was described as mint or excellent condition.

Microchips are common and flaking is a curse on some of the older pieces. I guess you have to accept that. What I feel is unacceptable are missing ventilator balls or actually small pieces broken off a sculpture. Other folks may feel differently about that, and that's fine with me.

You buy something for a real deal and you can do whatever you want with it. You can make a repair, have it repaired, touch up some flaking, spray paint it gold, or whatever. You bought it, it's yours. Do with it whatever you like. If it feels good, just do it!

Bob

Basically you get what you pay for. If you want one of the pricey pieces and you don’t want to pay the big bucks, a damaged L.E. may be the way to go. You can fill your missing spot for little money and still say you have that piece. The bad side is that if that piece goes up in value the damaged one will not.
The first thing we need to do is classify what a damaged piece is. A damaged piece is one with something missing or a chunk of the lighthouse missing that touch-up paint won’t hide. I personally believe that a damaged piece should be used for your office collection or to fill that missing spot that you would never be able to fill. I also believe that a damaged pieces value should be no more than $10 for the common lights and no more than $30 to $50 for the pricey collectable lights. A coquille or cape Hatteras would be worth more, since you could have it restored for $180.

The following are not damaged lights but might bring in a lower price.
1. Micro chips- tinny chips on a lighthouse that if touched up would never be noticed.
2. Paint wear- The older L.E.s were water colored and many a time some are found with the paint falling off of it.
3. Minor base chips- These are common with the Canadian made.
4. Dirty looking.
5. missing or broken lighting rod
6. marked stained, cut or missing felt.