Yesterday, I bit the bullet and spent the day pulling out all my HL's and recorded all the flag #'s and exactly what I have in stock. I also took advantage of this elaborate move to clean my curios and put many of the lights that were on display, back in storage.

An inventory of your HL's can show you the evolution of your particular style of collecting. The most identifying factor is usually found within the flag #'s. Next is the actual location of the real light. Like many of you, I started with lights from my area and lights that I visited. Then I started to expand my collection by buying lights that I liked and looking for the more valuable pieces. Then there is the phase that you'll buy a double of a light because it has a more appealling or lower flag#.

The final phase is usually when you make the decision to "get'em all!" This happend to me at the Providence Reunion. It was a long row to hoe but eventually, with help from my many friends who frequent this forum, I was able to fill in the last few pieces needed to complete the collection.

Now, after a full day inventory, I'm discovering pieces I didn't even know I had. Brand new pieces sitting in their boxes and probably only removed to inspect the day I bought them. Many doubles, some triples, and even four of one HL. No wonder my storage area is filled.

The best thing that came out of this inventory was the fact that I pulled out a major portion of the original lights and they are currently being displayed in my main curio. For awhile, I felt the new pieces were so much better looking and a better value. Now I realize the old pieces have a beauty far beyond that of the newer and more elaborate pieces of today.

The hunt for those very special HL's is still on, but in a different form. Lightning rods are the current quest. I don't own any green water pieces, so that might be next. That may take care of itself with the "double-bubble", lighting rod pieces with green water. Then there is the elusive AP's. Will it ever stop?

Bob

Easier to keep up that inventory if you do it as you go along.

But cleaning those curios, that's never easy! If I had realized what a chore I was taking on I probably would never have starting collecting. Or I wouldn't have bought curios. While they don't show off as nicely, the barristers I have some in are much easier to clean - less glass.

Bob -- and others. How about photos of your Curios and displays? It is always nice to see just how people show off their collection.

I DID know what I had in my inventory until my external hard drive bit the dust. The HL and David Winter cottages databases won't be too hard to build, but the list of every lighthouse I have ever visited and WHEN I did that will be a chore.

Robert

John,

Your idea of photos of our displays sounds like a great idea. I'll have to work on that one.

I'll start since these are already posted...

The following thread has pictures of a couple of my cabinets...

Oak Harbour

The following thread has pictures and some links to pictures of other angles of "The Cabinet"... I am still looking for an image of "The Twins", may have to add it later..

The Cabinet

Bob, after I had bought about 10 pieces I began keeping track of what I bought in 2 separate MS Word files, the first one is a record of each purchase, Price, Date, Dealer or seller- e-bay or whatever, the number on the piece if numbered. The second file is a numerical list of everything HL has produced, where I would just fill in the number off the piece on the corresponding line and if it was a green water or lightning rod or any other info. I am glad I did that when I did, I think it would be a monumental job to do it now. It makes it quite easy to look up a piece when I want too, and I also keep another file on what I have sold or traded.

Mark

I have an inventory of all pieces I have and have had it since the beginning. I have several individual files listed by area(Southeast, Northeast, Gulf, Great Lakes, Western, Society/Christmas and Misc.). I list the pieces in each catagory alpabetically and include HL number, name, serial number, edition size, issue date, retired date, retail price, actual cost, secondary market price and where the box is stored in my box storage area. I also include whether the piece is signed and any special information about the piece such as "green water", Canadian, lightning rod, etc. I have a hard copy that I keep at my desk and keep the files on hard drive with a CD for backup. I also include on the bottom of each section a totals list for retail,actual and secondary costs. It helps me and also serves as information for my wife in case some unforseen incident should happen. That way if she should want to sell she has an idea of the value. Sort of like an additional insurance policy. Works for me!

I keep my inventory on a modified version of an Excel spreadsheet that was provided from someone (sorry can't remember who now)on the forums. The original info was all on one worksheet and contained the product#, Name, Introduction date, retired date, height, SRP, & Edition size. As new pieces have been released, I have updated.

I took the original and broke it into separate worksheets for LE, Special Editions, Christmas, Event, Society, etc. I added columns for 'Have', how acquired, amt paid, and flag numbers. This way I have all the info on each pc and if I have it.

I have 2 large curios my husband built for me, and a smaller, wall hung about 5" deep for the LLOMs, Thumbnails, small stuff. My collection is small enough (& the 2 curios large enough) right now to display everything.

You folks are an inspiration to "inventory control"....I've really slacked off in the past year or two and need to get my act together!! Thanks for bringing the subject up Bob!

I keep an inventory of all that I have on Microsoft Excel. I find it the easiest way to know at a glance what I have and what I need.

I was once a little more organized like you guys. I use to utilize the software from "Greenbook for Harbour Lights" that was given out at the Providence Reunion. The problem with that was it only covered HL's through 1998. Since then many more HL's have been released.

Bob

I completed an inventory of my HL collection in August. What a job. Wish I had done it a lot earlier.I keep my inventory on an excel spreadsheet of my own design. Sheet two is comprised of the collection parameters,core of collection etc. Now if I could only stick to that plan... LOL

I've set my inventory up using Word Perfect software and a merge set-up to print. It's 3-hole punched and in book form with a table of contents. I've indexed it with A to Z separators and listed each piece with its HL and serial numbers on the separator, and listed detail in page form behind the separator. An example of my detail is:

Admiralty Head
Washington
HL 101 # 649 of 5,500
$ I paid for piece
( 1st of Original 17)
Origin: Canadian Mold with rod
--"Admirality"
Signed: B. Younger, '97
Secondary Market $ (if known)
Box, Commemorative Stamp, C of A, TC
Issued: 1991
Retired: 1994
Seahorse Location: Near sidewalk on grass
next to addition on house under window.

Miscellaneous pieces (those not in named sets) are listed in alpha order by state at the back of the book.

Having the inventory on computer has become indispensable as it allows me to search quickly
to determine if I already have the piece. Prior to keeping a written inventory, I duplicated a few pieces that were in storage in my attic (I've run out of room in my display cases and curio cabinets). Not wanting to make that same error required taking the time to enter the data. We're in the planning stages of building a new home and one room will be designated my lighthouse room where I'll be able to display all the pieces I have and those I anticipate getting. What was to be a hobby has taken on a life all its own!!

I have two access databases to keep track of our Harbour Lights / Anchor Bay collection.

Database 1 handles alls the pieces whether they are little lights, GLOWs, LEs, Xmas, Anchor Bay, etc.

Database 2 handles all the other things HL does with lighthouse on them. This includes calendars, postcards, Lighthouse Legacy, Sherman Prints, Brochures, buttons, and so on.

Keeping them both up to date and accurate is tough. I need to do an inventory to see how accurate they are.

I just printed up some sheets with columns for info like edition numbers, serial numbers, name of the light, when and where purchased, price paid and a column for special info.

I also use the Collector Society binders which hold 8.5 by 11 inch clear two pocket pvc sheets. In each pocket I keep the certificate of authenticity, sales receipt and other papers that come with each light. This works great.

Tom

I use Excel to track my HL information for 2 reasons. First it lends itself well to columnar organization, and calculations. Secondly it is the format that Harbour lights allows for sending in information, although I have not done this for a couple of years now. In my spread sheet I have columns for:

HL #
name of HL lighthouse
state LH is in
issue date
# of piece
initial production count
actual production count
date of issue
issue cost
purchase cost
estimated market value
difference between market & purchase cost (formula)
% differnce (good visual)
who I purchsed HL from with city & state columns
notes on unique characteristics (rods, can, AP, etc.)
type of box
COA (yes or no)

In addition I divide the spreadsheet into the followiing sections:

LImited editions
Glows
Specials (including Anchor Bays)
Extra pieces

Through formatting I can seperate the HLs by years and lock column headings for accurate display, and show selected columns as needed. I update the spreadsheet each time I make a purchase (if possible). Each of the sections is summarized so that I can see the count, actual cost, the theoretical cost, the theoretical differnce (purchase to value), and the theoretical increase (or decrease in value). This helps me with insurance and costing. Also it helps remind me of the investment that I have, and gives me a printout to put in the safe for insurance purposes.

All of this work not only helps me track the pieces for a variety of reasons, but makes it easier to sort and view the collection in a variety of ways. It takes about 5 minutes to update everytime I get new pieces, but it is well worth it when I want to review my collection from a variety of persepectives. The only thing that I have not added to this system is someway to link where the boxes are for the pieces in storage, but this will happen when I retire next year. Now if I could only force myself to sell some of the 60+ extra pieces it would make it easier to maintain.

Outside of the spreadsheet I organize the COA's & tent cards in photo albums, and have a box that I organize all of the other documentation in. The photo albums are put on display with the LH's so that guests can read about the lighthouses.

I too, like Bert, keep an inventory in an Excel spreadsheet of my own design and update it each time a new piece is acquired or a piece is sold or traded.

I estimate that I am able to display about 2/3 of the pieces I own (mainly LEs). Of the ones's on display I have broken down the boxes to lay flat ... takes up a lot less room that way. I have kept the foam inserts .... halves are taped together, marked on the outer surface with it's HL# and piled up along a wall, rather unattractively, in my finished basement. My plan is build a storage shelve in my garage above the garage door this coming year once the weather turns better. Obviously my garage is not heated.

For 2004, considering that I have so many pieces in boxes now without the room to display them, my purchases will be severely limited. I will buy the HL300 piece as a cap to the 100 ----> 300 grouping and will acquire a HL304 piece because it's a Michigan piece. Other than that will play it by ear.

Dan

I found what Dick had to say of interest as I, too, have placed the COAs in what was designed to be a photograph album. A friend of mine presented me with a 6" x 6-1/2" x 2-1/2" album that she covered in a lighthouse print fabric. She makes albums for all occasions and sells them in gift shops in our area. She came across a lighthouse fabric and, knowing of my love of lighthouses, covered a 2-ring binder for me as a gift. The COAs have to be trimmed a little to fit the plastic sleeves, but I've placed them in their sequential order (Original 17, Lady Lightkeepers, Great Lakes Series, etc.) and am in the process of laying out and printing separator pages and a table of contents for each of what is presently three albums. I purchased two additional ones for the COAs and a larger 3-ring binder for the photographs we been taking to complement the sculptures. Even though there is only one pattern, my friend was able to cover each book differently by using different portions of the fabric. Pemaquid Point, West Quoddy Head, and New London Ledge are the lighthouses pictured.

I found sticky-backed label holders in an office supply catalogue and I use them to hold the tent cards. The cards need to be trimmed, but they fit into the peel & stick vinyl sleeve which I then attach to the edge of the glass shelves that my sculptures sit on in the cabinets, thus providing identification for each sculpture. The sleeves are designed for use in labeling binders and are named "IDENT-O-SPINE". They come in a 12-piece value pack and measure 3/4" x 2-3/8" and are for 1" binders.

I've also had a local sign shop produce small brass name plates for each group of sculptures I have, i.e., Original 17, Fresnel Lens, Great Lakes Series, etc. These name plates also have a sticky back and I adhese them to the front of each of the five the cabinets that I use to display the sculptures. The sticky back is deliberately not so strong that it mars the finish if I have to remove it.

Any pieces that aren't part of a series are in a display case marked Miscellaneous and are in alphabetical order by state first, then sculpture name.

When I clean the cabinets I remove the vinyl sleeves from the shelf edge and lay them on a sheet of wax paper. When the "stickiness" disappears from one edge, I remove the tent card, turn the label upside down, and reinsert the tent card to get twice as much use from each sleeve. The sleeves are small, don't obscure the sculpture, and provide immediate identification.