Grace,
First and foremost, I neglected to assure you that I do NOT bake my own cookies. When I am in the kitchen, I have the IQ of a cabbage. Besides, I seem to be having enough problems with the "cookies" in this website, inasmuch as I have to clear them every time I try to sign in! On to other matters, however.... I suspect, as I gather and sort my thoughts along the way, there will be a generous sprinkling of "etc.s" thrown aside.
Deal with it!
After you have done your preliminary reconnaissance of the new (to you) dealer, there are a few ways that you might cultivate her/his/their involvement with Harbour Lights. You could invest in a reasonably inexpensive, well-illustrated, general guidebook to lighthouses---of which there are several options---and present it, gratis, to the dealer to have on hand as a "store copy" so that the dealer can help the potential customer to understand that Harbour Lights are actual lighthouses rather than fantasy creations. A fair share of people, having casually glanced at David Winter cottages, Lilliput Lane, Department 56, etc., tend to assume that the lighthouses are variations on the same theme. Most dealers have their industrious little hands full with staying on top of all their collectible lines; the Harbour Lights understandably merit no greater attention to them than their Boyd's Bears, Thomas Blackshear figurines, Precious Moments, Seraphim Angels, Sandicast dogs, Armani figures, Harmony Kingdom, and a gazillion other productions, so they will undoubtedly welcome any promotional tools and savvy that you can give them. Also, after reviewing their inventory, make sure that they have the lights that are "indigenous" to your area and to Texas, and that they know some selling points about them. Certainly, the Bolivar light, and its role in the great 1900 Galveston "tidal wave," needs to be featured, possibly with a copy or reference to the book, 'Isaac's Storm.' Also urge them to maintain an ongoing stock of the more popular GLOW editions [Split Rock, MN, seems to be the high-volume, high-turnover item here]. The average dealer may not realize that Portland Head, Cape Hatteras, Heceta Head, Split Rock, Key West, etc., are tourists' icons. Share with them, too, some helpful associations that certain lighthouses carry, such as Harbour Village (Sea Pines) with golf, and [as a lady from Missouri, an ardent Andre Agassiz fan, enlightened me only last Monday] Key Biscayne---known to us as Cape Florida---light with tennis. [She didn't know what "that lighthouse" was, but she had to have it because of its proximity to the tennis tournaments.] Movie associations are useful to them, too: Round Island, MI (for "Somewhere in Time") and Alcatraz, CA (for "The Rock"), etc. Appropriate stills from the movie, pulled off the Internet, or DVDs might help raise awareness. An occasional copy of 'Lighthouse Digest' can give the diplay reinforcement.
Until you "personalize" them, Harbour Lights are only so much merchandise to most dealers, but if you go a little out of your way to help them appreciate and "move the product," it works to everyone's advantage. You could even design a discreet, small placard to place with their display that provides the web addresses for the Collector Forums and for Harbour Lights. Above all, make sure that the dealer gets to know you personally as a Harbour Lights collector, especially one who is interested in meeting with others whose lighthouse awareness runs the gamut from simply curious to obsessed. One other thing; donate to your dealer one or two inexpensive, plastic magnifying glasses, in protective pouches or plastic sleeves, which can come in handy for inspecting all sorts of collectibles. Most dealers never think about having so simple a tool handy.
Even if you, personally, don't buy certain pieces, try to think of angles and suggestions to help the dealer sell them, whether it is historical significance, cultural relevance, specific and winning details or features in the piece, etc. It is surprising, yet human, to discover the multitude of ways a person's attention can be engaged, even if there are negative connotations. Certainly, I don't necessarily advocate the ghoulish coupling of recent events per se---John Kennedy Jr.'s plane went down near Gay Head light, while Swiss Air crashed off Peggy's Cove, and Flight 800 fell within sight of Fire Island---but even information like this adds a relevance and dimension to the lighthouse, and it draws attention to lighthouses in general when there might have been none. Thanks in part to the candyfloss portrayals by Thomas Kinkaid and the symbolic appropriation by assorted religious concerns, lighthouses are in danger of being romanticized into generic fluff. Getting emotional about lighthouses is just great, but it can be more satisfying and enduring when done for substantial reasons. Enable your dealer to see that she/etc. is not merely selling trinkets and baubles, but---as I alluded to in an earlier posting---offering things on which to hang memory and sentiment.
Make a gradual, seamless shift from being a passive customer to a dynamic partner who wants the dealer to succeed.
Or...chain yourself to the display, invoke aid from the invisible but powerful agency of armies of Harbour Lights zealots, conjure up a peculiarly unsettling wildness in your eyes---rolling them alternately or in concert, according to whim---and, by all means, wail like a banshee that the Harbour Lights must be supplied. Alert the media first!
Danny
