This post may stir up a hornet's nest, but I was wondering whether anyone has stopped buying HLs (for whatever reason - too many, hate the GLOWs, lost interest, etc.) but still likes to hit this website to see what's going on with everyone, or perhaps what's happening to HL in general.

Deb

From my point of view, I don't think I will ever quit buying HL's. Of course, I don't buy every one that comes out. I just buy ones that we like and have been to personally. I'm sure you will get varied answers to this question.

Ruthie

Like Ruthie I will never stop collecting HL's
But at some point in time because of space and cost I fear I will be reduced to what I like best instead of my original goal of ALL OF THEM.

good topic
don

As a Wacko I can reflect in hindsight. I think every collector goes through a "slump" some times, and it can be driven by any number of factors. For me it was the over whelming number of new releases of not only LE's, but the GLOWs and special pieces too. I tend to collect things I not only enjoy, but that I feel will hold their value. Many of you who went through a buying frenzy 1 1/2 - 2 years ago will recognize yourself. I bought several pieces on the secondary market at greatly inflated prices for fear that the prices would only keep skyrocketing. All this was done while Ebay was just beginning. Now many that I bought are being offered on Ebay & even the Marketplace for half the price. I'm not looking to make a profit on these wonderful lighthouses, but I would have loved to see them retain their value. That's what a "collectible" should do.
With the advent of Ebay, and when the GLOWs came out, the prices of the LE's plummeted. Since these items have no intrinsic value except that which someone is willing to pay, many of us took our chances and have since "lost" money. Like stocks, the loss is on paper only, but a loss never-the-less. I will be more careful in the future before plunging into a buying frenzy again for any collectible. Newbies, be forewarned - collect them 'cause you love them and for no other reason!

[This message has been edited by Deb Weissler (edited 07-31-2000).]

Just like Ruthie, I only collect those that have a special interest with me...and for that reason I doubt if I'll ever feel any pressure with my collection. Because of that I doubt if I'll ever "think twice" about buying the ones I prefer for a far as I can see into the future. I admire those that collect'em all because I see a remarkable dedication to a great hobbie....but, I guess my dedication is slightly more passive. Collecting HL's is one thing.....being a part of the HL "Family" is something else.

Deb, If I ever start to feel a little down about the prices of some of the LEs on Ebay,I`ve got a sure-fired way of forgetting about it.I just take a look at the stock price of my employer.In other words, things can always be worse.

TerryBarfield

Terry,
If I was a bettin' man, I'd bet you were employed by Uncle Philip. My step father lives in Concord and I hear that about his stocks every time I talk to him.

As far as the value of the HL's I've collected, I'm gonna let my kids and grandkids fight over them long after I'm gone, so if the value goes down, they'll have less to fight about.

Mike (now really land locked in New Mexico)

Being a collector of many different subjects I learned not to concentrate on 1 collectable only. A few years ago I started collecting HL's and quickly got "caught up" in the frenzy, spending every available dollar on HL's and nothing else. My first love, coin collecting was quickly put on hold and neglected. Last week I decided to check the rare coin market values and I discovered that the coin market has been going through the ceiling in my absence. Coins that I had been wanting but putting on hold so that I could get that next HL have now become financially out of reach in just a short amount of time.

My enjoyment of HL's hasn't dwindled in the slightest and I will continue to purchase them, just a little more selective. The search for every one has come to an end and now I will just concentrate on the ones that are special to me. I guess that I'm just trying to say that if you collect several different "collectibles", don't get caught up with only one. Watch the market values of all carefully and spend wisely.

Quit collecting Harbor Lights? Never!!! I started collecting because I liked them. At first I just couldn't get enough. I wanted every one I saw! Now I collect the ones from the east coast, especially Maine and Florida. And anything else I see that I like. Living in a condo, I should slow down because I know I will run out of space to display them. It's an added bonus when they go up in price,that's not the reason I collect them
Some day I will probably leave them to my grandchildren.

Gravedigger - thanks for your input. I too gave up my other "hobbies", collecting Steiff and dollhouse miniatures to the exclusion of HLs. And like your coins, I turned around and realized what I had been missing. Now I've sold off many of my HLs and have kept only those that have special meaning - a place I've vacationed, a special "look", and future vacation plan. The others I can admire but have to just "let go". It was a marvelous obsession while it lasted!

Interesting topic when I first read it several days ago. It brought to mind all the people I've seen dispose of all or part of their HL collections during the 1+ year I've been involved with the forums. I added some great lights to my collection.

Then I read gravedigger's post. Realized I, too, had put my stamp collection in limbo. It will always be there but I stopped attending stamp/coin shows. Haven't even purchased the album supplements the past two years.

The upside to this HL addiction is the thinning of my depression glass collection/accumulation. This is a good thing! I always bought & never got rid of anything. Now I'm disposing of some of it thru E-bay.

Still have my Wade figurines, washboard & iron collection. Carnival glass, Golden books etc. So its not like it is all going.

Can't imagine selling any of my lights. Sure I have plenty of lights that aren't on my coast or I haven't visited. But by next week the N. Carolina lights will mean a lot more to me after we visit them. Maybe I'll even get out to the Great Lakes someday!

I would never say never, but right now they are too special to me just like so many of my other collectibles. Anybody want to buy some glass??

Donna

Deb,

I can totally relate to feeling burned out on Harbour Lights. I have been there.

I started out slowly with my addiction, only buying a few pieces at first. Those five or six pieces prompted my to find out more about the lighthouses that I had taken for granted all of my life. The more I learned, the more HL's I had to have, not just because I had to have them all, but because I thought they were beautiful.

I found the then Harbour Lights Collectors Information Center. I joined John's site and got "Keeper Status". I joined the HL Collector Society. I discovered the secondary market and the collection grew rapidly. Soon I received and offer to become part of Lighthouse Depot's "low number program" automatically being shipped #178 for every new release.

Then I started to become overwhelmed. The credit card bills started rolling in. I was running out of space and needed more curios. At times I felt like "What am I doing" and actually thought about selling my collection more than once.

Before I started collecting Harbour Lights, I collected fire memorabilia. Helmets, fire extinguishers, nozzles, ect....Since I found Harbour Lights however, nothing has been added to the collection in that category.

Everyone knows what is best for them. The advice to collect what you like is good advice. It is another to follow that advice when you like them all.

Still collecting after all these years and still in love with Harbour Lights, although at times with all of the releases still a little overwhelmed.

-Todd

When I began collecting HLs, I was an avid collector of various guns, some military, but most are hard to find skeet and trap collectables. (I will not debate with anyone regarding gun advocacy! I'm a second admendment kind of guy. ) I have spent literally tens of thousands of dollars on my previous hobby. I have now found a hobby that I'm really loving and hope to continue for years to come. Yes, my gun collecting days have slowed down drastically, but my love of lighthouses has now manifested itself through my collection of Harbour Lights. I too hope that I can say years from now... "Stop collecting Harbour Lights? Neva!!!"

Tim - Keeping the flame lit...

Donna,

I never thought I'd sell any of my HLs either until, like Todd, the credit card was screaming and the curio cabinet threatened to collapse. When I started planning my vacations around collectibles shops carrying HLs I knew it had to end. So I established some parameters, sold off (actually I'm still selling) the pieces that fall outside those parameters, and moved on to my other interests. I love the HLs I've kept but now will only buy those pieces that I fel will enhance my collection.Well, I'm off the cruise the Steiff site on Ebay!

Deb

[This message has been edited by Deb Weissler (edited 08-02-2000).]

Deb,

I think the question you raised about collecting is one that everyone thinks about at some point in time. I thought I was the only one who ever thought, "What am I going to do with it all" or "How am I going to manage keeping up with it all"?

Before Roy and I were married I had already established a rather extensive colleciton of David Winter Cottages and a somewhat smaller collection of the Disney Classics (talk about over production and high prices of things, Disney takes top honors in my book).

Roy and I found that we shared a love for lighthouses and the history they have, so for a wedding present I gave Roy a membership to HL and purchased the Stamp Series for him. It wasn't until after we purchased it that we found out the issue date on the stamps was June 17, 1995. This just happens to be our wedding date. Needless to say we think this series is pretty special. Since that date we have focused primarily on a collection of HL.

I still keep track of the other collections but for me right now I find great pleasure in collecting HL with Roy. Like others have mentioned we only purchase what we like for the same reasons everyone else has given (vacations, stories behind the lighthouse).

Living in the Midwest we are really limited as to which lighthouses we can see. We also have a problem with not enough curio space. As much as I love HL, Roy has to share what space we do have with my other collectibles.

I guess for me the answer is to spend wisely and thoughtfully. If we avoid buying on impulse we can manage to collect what we want. As for the production of too many HL at one time I would have to agree with you. I too have a friend that owns every piece manufactured by David Winter. More power to him. I am glad that he can do that. It's just not where I plan on going with any collection and I know that Roy agrees with me. There has to be a limit on things and each person needs to decide for themselves what that limit is.

Most important of all is the friendships that Roy and I have made through HL. If for any reason we are not able to purchase HL in the future we will definitly maintain contact with this website. I can't imagine not keeping in contact with so many wonderful people. There is no mistaking the quality of people who visit this website. Anyone who shares a common interest in such a worthy topic (love of lighthouses) is truely someone worth knowing.

Thank you for affording me the opportunity to learn from you and share my thoughts.

Sincerely,

Carolyn McBee

------------------
Roy & Carolyn

To Quit or Not To Quit!!! That "has been" the question from time to time for most serious collectors of Harbour Lights.

It was 1993 and, as with many of you, MJ and I started out by buying one we had visited (St. Augustine, FL). One became two and we became hooked. We had to have all of them and visit as many as we could (still planning vacations around them). Of course we also had to buy all the books we could get our hands on, mucho postcards and a zillion photographs. We joined several lighthouse societies, foundations and clubs.

I remember seeing Coquille River (LE) on the dealers shelf but didn't buy it because there were others we were more fond of and had to have first. Suddenly, #111 retired and I had the opportunity to buy it for ten times what I could have gotten it for at the store (we passed on this due to lack of funds and the fact that "I'm not going to spend several hundred dollars on something I could have gotten for under $100").

The GLOWS were starting to be produced but before they hit the shelves I was telling MJ that "I'm not going to buy them, I'll only collect the Limited Editions." FYI, we have purchased all of the GLOWS to date, just because we "like" them.

Many times I have wondered why I was so addicted to collecting Harbour Lights and have thought about stopping. We were running out of room to display them in the three curios that we had purchased just for HLs.

In Oct. we sold our house to our son and his family and are presently residing in it with them while we get our condo ready to move into. Needless to say all of the HLs are in storage (as there isn't any room for them here now). But that hasn't slowed down the buying.

I told MJ that we weren't going to buy the "This Little Light of Mine" series. While visiting Collectors World on Cape Cod this past May we viewed them for the first time. We fell in love with them from the start and MJ suggested that, since we were moving to a condo, we could just collect the little ones and sell all of the big ones. It is still a possibility (sometime down the road) but right now we are still buying ALL THAT HL IS MAKING (ornaments included).

We probably won't have room for all of them in the condo but we keep buying. We even thought that we would keep the storage bin we have rented (to store our belongings while getting the condo ready) and, after we move, "rotate" our collection from time to time, keeping those not displayed in the storage bin.

There will probably come a time when we will have to stop collecting Harbour Lights and just enjoy the collection we have amassed. Maybe there will come a day when we decide to sell the collection (or will be forced to). But, for now anyway, we still enjoy collecting Harbour Lights and being part of the Harbour Lights Family and don't know when it will end or when we will get the next urge to quit.

Ron
(CT Keeper)

Deb,
Thanks for the string. It's been very interesting reading the replies and discovering that there are people out there who go through the same thing that I do. The question that I have is why, why do we continue to purchase until it becomes an obession? Is it true that the first person to die with all the toys wins?

Tony

Hello everyone. It's been awhile since I've posted anything on here, but not without good reason.

It's strange that this topic should come up at this point in my life, but I think I shall never collect Harbour Lights again. On Sunday, June 25th I had a fire at my apartment complex which completely destroyed my apartment and all of my Harbour Lights. The greatest loss though, was my fiance of five years which was trying to help me extinguish the fire when she became trapped inside the apartment.

Harbour Lights was "our" collectible and I just don't think I can find the enthusiasm that I once did to collect them without her.

I do have one very special piece that I will keep that she bought at the Sanders Country Store event in Savannah. I purchased HOTM and she decided to buy the open edition Hatteras and have Bill sign it. When she asked Bill to sign it, she said to him "Mark's getting the Hatteras on the move, but mine's just standing still". I think Bill was tickled and signed it with his name and below it put "standing still". I will cherish this piece forever.

[This message has been edited by digitalman (edited 08-03-2000).]

I will never stop collecting Harbour Lights. They hold a very special and indescribable value to me. I do limit myself to collecting only Lighthouses that I have visited, so space is not a real concern. I'm sure I will need a nice big curio cabinet soon though .

John

Digitalman, you have my deepest sympathy for such a profound loss of someone so dear to you. Your story about the last HL event was simultaneously humorous but very sad too. I know that the Hatteras GLOW is more valuable than any of the other pieces you ever or will ever own.

Doc John

Digitalman...I am so sorry to hear of your loss of your fiance. What a devistation to your life. I'm sure the HL family of collectors send their prayers and deepest sympathy.

The question asked by Deb is one that I'm sure we have all thought about from time to time.(especially when you have the entire collection) A year and a half ago I was building a new house and moving. With all the extra expenses of a new home I kept thinking maybe I should quit buying the new 1999 HL's. I didn't buy for a while but after six months I suddenly thought how much I was missing not getting the new ones. It took me through Nov. 99 to catch them all up again.

I still love seeing my lighthouses every day and enjoy reading about them and still planning vacations around seeing ones that I haven't visited. It is quite interesting that so many people see something related to lighthouses and they immediately call me or mail clippings to me.

It will be interesting to see how the long road ends up with where to end the lighthouse buying and be satisfied that I have enough!

It has been awhile since I posted. Digitalman – I don’t know what to say. You are in our prayers. Try to stay positive, it helps.
About this thread I guess I have thought about not collecting HL’s a lot. The cost seems too much sometimes. I would love to be on an autoship, but think I would go bankrupt or wind up in divorce court. My wife never really took to HL’s or collecting in general as much as I had hoped. I can’t remember the last Boyds resin she bought. But the deal is lighthouses are special and my HL’s remind me of them everyday. No fancy display just shelves I put up around the house. I have been collecting I think since 1996 and have 48 HL’s. I will probably keep up that pace, or with another one starting college this month maybe not. If I am not posting I’m lurking, and it seems that when anybody that knows me goes on vacation they bring me back a postcard of a lighthouse to hang in my office, I always will be into lighthouses. Harbourlights is just a part of that.

George

Digital Man, I can't even imagine a loss as great as yours - what a painful and traumatic experience! I know everyone on the Forum who has read your post has a big lump in their throat. I'm truly sorry.

The most amazing story I have heard about an avid collector is told by my local HL retailer. For years she has had an out of town customer on auto ship for TWO of everything ever made by HLs. In addition they were low numbers <300 as I recall. And he places the unopened boxes in a closet in his office! No display, no curio cabinets spilling over, no Xmas tree with HL ornaments, nothing. Just a closet collector! Unbelieveable!!

I have to say that this thread has been by far the most engaging one. I have enjoyed each story. However, I was saddened & shocked by Digitalman's tragedy. My wife and I were greatly saddened by this news. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you.

_____________________________________________


On a different note,
I only started collecting HL's in January 2000. I now have 13 lights with my wife now putting on the brakes. I enjoy the lights, the camaraderie on the chat room, and these forums. Bill and co. offer a lot to us which I am not sure is matched by other cmpanies.
I will continue to collect when feasible and rather bemoaning not collecting earlier I think of those who will begin collecting at a later date who will have more ground to cover. I enjoy the lighthouses (both scultured & real) with my two daughters) who may continue not only our hobby but also serve to carry on the torch. Will this future demand by newcomers be enough to spur price increases--who knows, but I enjoy these lights for what they are--beautiful sculptures and symbols of our past. I truly look forward to any reunion that may take place. In a way this forum & society does share a lot and I wanted to add my thoughts in as well.

Tim H

Digitalman, my deepest sympathy!!

I am curently considering selling off some of my collection. & I have just about quit buying new ones. But only because of money. I have been out of work for a while & don't know at this time when or if I will get back to work. But I am having trouble making up my mind. I don't want to wait till I'm desperate & have to almost "give" them away to get money quickly, but I also don't want to sell them off & find that I recover & don't need to dispose of them.

Mark (Digitalman) I am so sorry to hear of the tragic loss of your fiancee. I'm rather at a loss for words to express my condolences. I can only imagine how you must feel. My heart and my prayers go out to you.

Mark...This has to be the most difficult experience any person would have to go through in their lifetime. Even though you won't be collecting HL's again, I know that they will always have a special place in your heart when you see them. And you must know that when you look at them and think of her, this would make her happy. Take care and know that your have friends here that care about you.
Ruthie

Digitalman (Mark), When I read your post I just sat there with a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye. I cannot even imagine what terrible grief you are going through. Please accept my prayers and know that everyone on the forums, even those that read and not post, are thinking of you.

KYKEEPER - Pat

Digitalman (Mark) - I couldn't believe my eyes when I read your post, and the overwhelming grief I felt for you in this tragedy. Bob and I send you our deepest sympathies and our prayers. May God comfort you.

Barb

I am deeply saddened to hear of your loss Mark. I hope that you take a great comfort in having known your fiancee for as long as you did and I pray that your faith sustains you during this time. It has always been my belief that our dear ones never leave but just move onto another better place. My you find the peace to carry on.

Tony

Digitalman,
your words made me register on this site to just let you know that although I am new to this site and harbour lights that you will be in my prayers.

Mark,
I was all set to put my story in on this thread when I got to your post. As with others my heart just sank. I am so sorry that this has happened to you. Along with many others our prayers go out to you. I pray that God will be with you and help you. It is stories such as this that put everything in it's perspective. There is nothing more precious to collect than loving those that are around us.

Rusty

My comments were quite similar to everyone's in the first half of this string, but now, not much to say after reading about the tragic loss experienced by Digitalman. Even though I never conversed with you I saw your fabled name many times in the Forum. I feel terrible about the tragic loss of your loved one. God bless,
Len