Have any of you ever wondered how many HL's are in stock at dealers compared to being in the hands of collectors? I know retired pieces will eventually disappear from the shelves but you still find a dealer, here or there, that has many of the older pieces in stock.

Then comes the dealer dumping on eBay. If you check eBay on a daily basis, you will see it. Large numbers of auctions with the same wording being offered by one individual. Most of them seem to be pieces that you always see on the dealer's displays when you visit a store (large number editions especially). The dealer gets fed up with slow sales and wants to recover some of his or her investment in HL stock, gets rid of the slowest selling pieces, and make room for the newer pieces.

I've noticed numerous older hard-to-find pieces being offered on eBay and selling for some very reasonable prices. I only wish I was completing my collection now instead of doing that many years ago when I was paying premium prices for these pieces.

Do any of you read through the descriptions on eBay or do you just look at the current price, the edition number, and the number of bids so far? I'm beginning to think that there are more HL's bought that were never displayed, never came in contact with smoke, were never near a child or pet, and have only been removed from its box twice in the last 5-10 years for inspection or photo work. How the heck can you buy these things, put them away for 5-10 years, and not ever look at them?

Lets hear your educated guess on what percentage of each edition gets displayed by the collector, remains in dealer stock for long periods of time, is purchased only for specualtion of future worth and not displayed, and how many end up being bought for giftware purposes with no thoughts of collecting more in the future.

Bob