Good Monday Morning!

The Founder's Collection Offering closes tonight at 5:00 PM - if you are interesed the FAX 888.579.1911.
If you have questions call me 800.365.1219.

THANKS!

AJC

Tony
When will we know what lighthouses we got?
Can we call our dealer tomorrow and find out or do we find out when they arrive?

You know, Daniel, I kind of hope they just send them to us so it would be like a surprise present at Christmas.

I know which ones of the listing of 45 I gave them that I would prefer over some of the others, but there's no changing your mind mid-stream, so time will tell!

I'm just happy to participate in such a great opportunity as the Founder's Collection. I consider it a once in a lifetime opportunity at retail pricing. Who could ask for anyhting more.

Bob

You said it, Bob! It couldn't get any better; it is a fantastic opportunity. I hope you and Daniel (and whoever else ordered) will let us know what you got.

I wasn't able to afford any, but would love to hear what other CF members got.

It is now the 15th and no word concerning the Founder's Collection. Has ANYBODY heard anything(email, pnone call, snail mail, UPS, etc.)?

Rich,

I've heard absolutely nothing.

bobo

I would imagine the folks at Harbour Lights are very busy sorting orders and playing the numbers game. Think about it, we don't know how many people ordered but one would think there were a lot of orders. Then they have to check your preferences against the other orders. Then they have to locate those pieces amongst the Founder Collection's inventory. After that, they have to pack them up and ship them to us. I don't think that's going to happen overnight. Be patient, my friends, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the average collector. I know I'm quite excited to be a part of it.

Bob

... right Bob. But I understand the impatience. The guys at HL are not the most communicative people in my experience.

It would not hurt to "say something" about what is going on and even when some more information will be available!

Speaking from a dealer's perspective, this time of year is the most hectic and busy for all of us in the industry. I know that I have been keeping the people at Harbour Lights quite busy for the past 6 weeks with the multiple orders I've been placing. Multiply that by however many dealers there are throughout the country, and the numbers are HUGE. Add on to that all of the things businesses must finish off at year's end, (taxes, etc.), and one can understand that with so many things happening, no matter how many people you have doing them, (sometimes the more people, the more complicated the processes become), that a few things may lag behind the everyday operations of the business. As I see it, although each and every one of you are a very important part of the Harbour Lights overall success, and this isn't meant as any disrespect to any of you at all, (quite the contrary, as that is the reason the Founder's Collection became available, I am sure), the matter of the Founder's Collection is something that can take a little bit of a back seat to the "nuts and bolts" everyday business of the company, which really is what makes it a solvent enterprise, especially now when a good or bad Christmas season can make or break many businesses within the gift industry. A good Christmas season by the company will serve as a catapult to many good things in the upcoming year for those who are loyal customers throughout the coming year.
Not only are we all very busy professionally, but personally, aren't we all going off the wall as well preparing for our own personal Christmases? Bob is right, patience is rewarded in the end.

To add to what Bob stated - don't forget that you are dealing with a small staff who do have other responsibilities in addition to taking care of Founder's Collection issues. This is being done for Bill as a courtesy by Harbour Lights. Bob makes excellent points about all the background work involved. For someone to have to pick up the phone and call each person who placed an order to tell them what lights they would receive would be extremely time consuming. Same for trying to send an email. That is part of the reason everyone was asked to make multiple choices. I would believe the most likely scenario for you to hear from HL would be if they were not able to give you pieces you requested.

Whoa, hold on guys and gals. I just asked a SIMPLE question and that is if anyone has been contacted in any way. It sounds like some of you are just as interested in hearing something as I am. I've spent 23 years in the Military and I know how to wait.

Good Monday morning!

As you know, the weather in New England has been tough the past several days and I have been working from home. As of this morning I have allocated the Founder's Collection based on the inventory supplied to us by the Younger family. As was noted on each one of the options, Lighthouse Marketing has not yet verified this inventory. However, past experience would indicate it is within a 5-7% margin of error.

I am still awaiting several return phone calls from collectors that requested replicas that were sold out as a result of this offering. As quick as those calls are returned I will be able to move forward. If anyone wants to email me, I can let them know what has been allocated to them.

AJC

That is an exceptionally nice offer but I'll pass at the moment. I would rather you and your staff spend your time with the business commitments you already have to your dealers. Like many of us, I'm sure you have more than enough to do with Christmas only a week away, and people waiting for a very special Harbour Lights gift to come in before December 25.

I say be patient everyone! All comes to those who wait.

Bob

I agree, let's slow down and not be too critical!! I've spoken to Tony twice concerning my questions about the Founders Collection and both times(phone & e-mail) he got back to me quickly and was very patient explaining my options and answering my questions.
WHOA!! As I type this a phone call from Tony!! Some of my Tier 1 choices were sold out and he was inquiring if I had any other choices!
Without a list in front of me I told him to fill in with what ever was available! A possible single digit is more important to me right now than worries about duplicating something I already have!!! He said he would and would try to select based on what he felt my preferences would be based on my other choices. He sounded harried so we did not talk long!
With the exception of LL Bean(also in Maine)I have never been treated more cordially than I have been by the people at HL and the LHD!
Rick

You are right Bob. We all should be patient and wait till we get our lighthouses. The problem is that I allready asked Tony before I read your post.

Got all of mine from my list and I just ordered the three packet. I am very very very happy with what I got. It is like going to a event and winning three of the giveaways right in a row.

I AM GETTING THREE FLORIDA LIGHTHOUSES

Daniel, are we allowed to ask which FL lighthouses you got and their numbers? I live vicariously through the experiences that the rest of you have, so I love to hear all the details of purchases and trips, see photos, etc.! Hope all of you who purchased got close to what you wanted - it really was a super fantastic opportunity.

I do not know the number yet.
I am a strong Believer in seeing it first before I start saying which lights I have. I will share with everyone what I got as soon as I get them in person.

I thoroughly understand, Daniel. I'm looking forward to hearing from you and everyone else from the CF's who was able to make a purchase.

Like many of you, I'm patiently waiting for my Founder's Collection HL's to arrive. Their arrival may be a personal "high" for me since I started collecting HL's many years ago. I'm a numbers person so having the opportunity to add some single digit flag#'s to my collection is an opportunity I didn't want to miss.

I'm getting the feeling that the FC pieces will arrive before the end of this year. Do any of you feel the same way?

Bob

I certainly hope you are right in your feelings Bob, but, I say they will arrive during the 1st 10 days of January.

I calculated (With some educated guessing) that Harbour lights will be shipping around 650 lighthouses to around 30 different buyers. How long would that take?

I haven't seen the credit card charged yet.

Is this a wild guess???
That would be an average of 21.6 a buyer?
I'd figure the average buyer gets 6, with only one or two at higher volume buy level.

Shipping will be much easier than searching the inventory to fill collectors wish lists. Matching personal preferences with inventory was probably the most time consuming part of the process.

Good point about the credit card not being charged yet. That would be the primary indicator as to when the pieces may be arriving.

I still feel the shipments will be arriving really soon. Maybe before the end of the week, or maybe the first week in January 2008. I hope it's this week.

Patiently waiting in Massachusetts...

Bob

Has anyone actually had "confirmation" either by HL directly or through their dealer whether or not you will be receiving "any" pieces at all?

Once the fax was sent to HL office, who knows if it reached the office, was legable, torn up, or what ever (?).

I'm curious, I submitted a request but never heard anything about it. Surely a few of you guys are "connected" and know more than most of us collectors.

Mine is confirmed, read above.
Just email Tony if you want to know what you got.

Talked with Patty today and she said the Founders pieces would start shipping next week towards the end of the week. Also talked to Harry and wished him Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and while I was on a roll I left a voice mail for Tony if he found time to email me and let me know what pieces I got(if any). He sent the email and I'M EXTREMELY HAPPY with the results.

If you don't ask ye shall never know!

Using tier one as the base I figured that the maximum amount available was 26 lighthouses x 9 equal 234. Since all the options except the first option states that for every one of tier one that is bought that 2 of tier 2 must be bought That would make the max purchased 234 x 3 = 702 If one person chose option four it would add 107 to the max making it 809. But for my guess-estimate I am assuming only option I, II, and III was chosen making the most sold 702. I feel that if anyone wanted option 4 they would have purchased it in 2006.

I know that all these sets are not complete by reviewing the 2006 Founders collection list and we have to assume that some were purchased in 2006. Also I think some of less popular ones in tier one, were not purchased. With all that in mind I deducted 50 and rounded it off. That’s how I came up with the 650 for total and 216 for tier one..

Now to figure out how many people purchased a founders collection L.E. I probably was one of the first purchasing a lighthouse on option one since mine was 10:00 AM Monday Morning, Using what I picked as a cut off for option 2, I put the lighthouses in order of popularity and using the lighthouses I missed, I came up with a ruff estimate of 160 of tier one was purchased by option 2 and 3. I plugged in 12 people for option 2 and two people in for option 3. Using the total estimate of tier I, being 216 that leaves approximately 56 for option 1. Lets say that the average for tier one is two buys, that makes it 28 buyers for tier one. Total of buyers being 10+2+38= 40.

When I came up with thirty I did it in my head. After I played around with this a little bit I came up with 40. This will be the mid point.
making my guess-estimate range from 30 to 50 people.
How accurate is this? I would say if you were shooting at a target on a barn door that you would least hit the barn door.

Unless the barn doors were swung open!!

I sent Tony and e-mail inquiring what I would get, and was impressed that he responded within the hour.

I was less impressed with the answer - from my request for three lights (and I really only wanted one) my tier one went all the way to my fourth choice. With numbers 2-10 supposedly available, that means that 27 to 45 others were ahead of me for these picks even though my dealer sent in my fax the first day. I don't even want to talk about my tier two picks. Maybe UPS will lose them and we'll all be happy.

It was tough to decide what to ask for. I knew what I wanted as a few very special pieces, but my choices to fill the second tier request were tougher decisions.

Then I took two steps back and thought, "What am I crazy, these are Founder's Collection pieces with the lowest of the low numbers!". If I saw any of these on eBay I would probably be bidding much more than I'm paying for these now.

I'm thankful this opportunity has "knocked" and I was able to take advantage of it. This is a tough time of the year to be spending money on myself, when I rather be spending it on my family.

It's true that "It's better to give than to receive". I like doing things for my family at Christmas rather than them doing things for me.

Bob

Roger, one think you have to factor in is that even for the lights that were available in the Founder's Collection not all of them had pieces 2-10. Many pieces had been disposed of when the Youngers still owned the company. Often times a club box would include a single digit piece. I know some of the Michigan light single digit pieces were given to the Alpena festival people. There was not always a logic as to what single digit piece may have been given away, other than that was the first one they found when they went looking.

It will be interesting to see how many #2s, people will get and how many #10s which would be your worst. Just talking out loud.

How many people will be kicking themselves for deciding not to participate?

I hope Tony at least announces how many people participated?

Actually I hope he doesn't tell us how many participated, or the number of pieces that went into private collector's hands. It adds a little mystery about what went unsold and may appear in the future. Maybe those who didn't participate may get a chance in the future at owning a piece or two from the Founder's Collection, when times are better. Who knows?

Bob

Out of curiosity, and slightly off-topic...does Bill still have all the #1 pieces? I would think he'd retain at least one example of everything, and it doesn't seem that the 1s are part of the FC offer.

A collector purchased all of the number one's that were still in the Founder's Collection the first time they were offered... He also has that as his number of future models, I believe that was part of the deal..

Posted by flacoastie on 12/27/07: No packages have been left on my door step yet. Anybody received their FC pieces yet?

Bob

Talked to HL on Friday and due to bad weather the pieces will start shipping this week. Only a week late but well worth the wait.

I sure hope that the opportunity comes up again. I really had hoped I could do it the second time around but it came at a particularly bad time. Maybe, as they say, the third time will be the charm. I do hope that some of you who purchased will share your good news with us.

Not all the lights were sold.
Some of the less popular lights are still left.
I guess we will have to wait and see how and when the rest will be distributed.

And has everyone forgotten about the GLOWS? I would imagine they are still available.

Well, Ladies & Gentlemen, I live about a two hour ride away from the home office. If they started shipping yesterday, I should see something in the next couple of days, if not today.

Apparently we can expect another round of offerings from the FC in the near future. I would think even the "less popular lights" with the single digit or #10 flag would still sell like hot cakes for retail pricing. Perhaps the serious collectors are feeling the pinch in their HL budgets after the first round. I can forsee my bill reaching the 4-figure amount. The only thing scarier is where the heck am I going to store all these HL's?

Bob

Tony said today that the Founders Collection pieces will ship by this Friday.