Daniels topic about recommending a "non-lighted Christmas piece" limited to 500 pieces got me thinking. What would you folks think about a "500 Club" for HL Collectors? This 500 Club would be somewhat of an exclusive club and would require a separate membership above and beyond a HL Collector Society Membership.

My initial thoughts would be to have a "buy-in" for say $100. Your $100 investment would give you the right to purchase each and every HL that would be released with the edition size limited to 500 pieces, at retail pricing. If you are a member of the 500 Club, you must purchase each release that falls under the 500 edition series. If you decide to relinquish your membership in the 500 Club, your initial $100 would be returned to you, and your membership number would be resold to the next interested collector.

Now let's crunch a few numbers; 500 memberships at $100 each equals $50,000. This money would be held by Harbour Lights with the understanding each individual membership fee would be returned to the original collector upon resignation from the 500 Club.

A few more thoughts via Q&A:

Q. How many 500 size editions would be produced each year?
A. Personally I would like to see at least two and maybe as many as five.

Q. How would the flag numbers be assigned 1-500?
A. Who ever currently receives flag#'s 1-500, would be given first refusals at keeping their auto ship number. Any remaining numbers after refusals and the possibility of a number between 1-500 not being an auto ship number, would be assigned via a lottery to be conducted by Harbour Lights.

Q. What about a collector who is unable to be a member of the 500 Club because he or she isn't on auto ship for HL's 1-500?
A. My guess is we may not have 100% participation by all people on auto ships 1-500. Not everyone is a super serious collector and would want $100 of their money sitting in the HL account. Did the 500 edition of the Erie Land Light and Bailey's Harbor sell out immediately? The answer would be not really.

Q. Wouldn't we be discriminating against those who may have an auto ship numbers greater than 500?
A. Not really if you consider the idea is to keep the edition size to 500. I still believe that not every collector who currently receives an auto ship number 500 or under will buy into this idea. Selling 500 $100 memberships may not be as easy as some people may imagine. That's why we would need serious commitments from collectors with auto ship numbers below 501.

Q. Would there be any stipulations about what a 500 Club Member could do with his or her pieces?
A. Absolutely not! Keep them, store them, display them, or sell them for a profit as soon as you recive them. The pieces are yours to keep or sell.

Q. Do you think this idea will ever become a reality?
A. Stranger things have happend. If the folks from Harbour Lights read this and whatever responses follow, they may give it a second thought. It would be an opportunity to take care of 500 serious and devoted collectors. It would also generate some extremely rare editions of HL's which in turn would become very desired collectibles.

Q. Would this 500 Club prevent any other requested 500 editions from being produced for special events involving Lighthouse Clubs, etc.?
A. Absolutely not! Harbour Lights can do whatever they want, and produce low volume editions for anybody they want. Pieces produced for the 500 Club would be considered a special series and not the only 500 editions that could be produced.

Please express your positive or contrary minded thoughts on this matter. Let the rest of us know what you think. We often use the phrase, "Harbour Lights listens to its collectors". Well lets see if they are listening to this proposal. Just keep in mind that the above were thoughts off the top of my head and have nothing to do with what the people at Harbour Lights may or may not do.

Bob

NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND I AIN'T GIVING UP MY AUTOSHIP NUMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't like the idea for a couple of reasons.

Those not in the 500 group would view it as 'elitist' and feel shut-out of the opportunity to take advantage of pieces with lower edition sizes.

And second, the ideas for the White Hull Mackinaw were to restore the 'thrill of the hunt' to collecting again and to stir up interest in the product line. Having a 'guaranteed' shot at any small edition sizes would remove those possibilities.

Other issues to be considered: Neither the ELL ot the Baileys Range pieces were widely publicized or made available.

Personally, I feel that HL would be adverse to collecting a special registration fee from folks and then having to manage it. I would believe they would have to set up a special and separate trust account since you would return funds under your idea.

The white Mack was available across the board to dealers. While some will claim they didn't know I would venture a guess that they didn't know this was because they didn't read their mail and if they were covered by a rep that the rep failed in their job.

I like the idea of very small editions, but it would have to be something that is avaiable to all dealers.

I'm with Dave.

Dan

I'm against the idea because it would set up barriers for the collectors not in the elite group and that would cause troubles. Half the fun of collecting Harbour Lights is the fun of the hunt. That would be eliminated for the elite 500.

No Way!!

There is in the market place a well known little stuffed figure with little round thingees in them and a club named after them. The way this club works is ones signs up once a year, and it is free, and a series of product is produced for them that is different from the regular product the general public is offered. It seems to be working well as the club is around 6-7 years old.

Maybe something like this would be mutually bebeficial for the company and the buyer. The company would know how many to make and the buyer would be participating in a low edition size. Also, those who have a low auto ship would retain their number because this would be a seperate series.

I know this sounds a little like the present society program, but it may be easier to maintain with a lot extra product not laying around.

Just a suggestion.

My thoughts:

How would it be communicated? Would HL have to send a mailing to those on autoship? Do they know who is on autoship, or just the dealers that they autoship specific numbers?

I don't believe there are 500 people receiving autoship. I base this comment on the fact that my dealer regularly displays pieces with a number smaller than 500. This would open the 500 Club to people other than autoship people. How would people be notified that there are openings?

Last thought, in other threads people have said that they don't want a greater number of LEs made each year. This proposal is for 2 - 5 more a year.

While an interesting proposal, I don't particularly like the idea.

I have a hard enough time having the funds to keep up with the LEs that come out every year. I would rather Harbour Lights come out with another collector exclusive piece each year then to take the chance of being in a 500 Club and be able to buy all the pieces this year, but not be able to buy them next year, because of something unforseen coming up and have to relinquish my membership because I could not purchase each piece that falls under 500 edition series.
I think the idea of the lower edition size is great. Even though I ran into the same problem of not having the money at the time the White Mac came out and missed it completely. I have come to the conclusion that I may never be able to get my hands on one.

My dealer calls me if I want a particular new release. She consistently gives me a 2 digit piece with no questions to becoming an autoship member. Ask your HL dealer. They may have access to low numbers.