INTERESTING LIGHTHOUSES ON EBAY
Doing a top ten on ebay just isn’t practical anymore. So I decided to just pick interesting Harbour Lights on Ebay. I have listed two below from a total of ten that I have chosen. Hopefully the rest of ten is to follow.
1. Pharos collection- Wants $1500 but didn’t sell
Set of 5 Harbour Lights, Pharos Collection. Needles Point, Truyn Du, Bell Rock, Ballinacourty Point, Portland Bill.
This set is from a limited edition of only about 400 of each made. My son gave me this set some years ago. Only out of box to take photo's. and are in brand new mint condition. My son sold over 200 sets in the states from his nautical shop in England, as I am sure people will remember. The price will include free shipping on a 3day international delivery, Any tax incurred in the US to be paid by the buyer. This is a truly rare chance to buy this set.
Well this obviously didn’t sell for $1500, and it probably would even have a hard time selling for $150. The Name of his Son that the seller is talking about is Mark and the name of the dealership was “All Things Nautical”. Just after the Millennia, Mark was able to offer cheap shipping at $40 making him cheapest overseas dealer to buy from. He sold around 200 and I doubt that no more than another 50 were sold in U.S. by other UK dealers. Even though 400 Pharos was produced and sent to the UK, I estimate that only 250 of them actually made it to the States.
For the few that may not have heard of the Pharos, The story goes back to 1999 when HL intended it for marketing outside the US - starting in England and Germany. Then in February of 2000 Harbour lights decided to add US to the marking plans for the Pharos. With an edition size of 8,000 and the first 2,000 was now to go to the US. It didn’t take long till all the orders in the US were filled.
But in October 2000 because of quality control problems HL decided to Table the Pharos but 400 of them where released in the UK. Their numbers started with 2001 and the ended with 2400. The hunt began. The Harbour Light dealer search had 49 UK dealers with their phone numbers. Many collectors started their search and came up empty. But those that was resourceful where putting the Pharos up for Market in the US for as high as $750. Then in August of 2001 it was announce on this forum the email address of Mark at “All Things Nautical” and that opened the door for all the forum members to purchase the Pharos at a reasonable price of $279 including shipping.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290448239585&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
2. HARBOUR LIGHTS HL102 $203
LIMITED EDITION: #668 of 5500 "MADE IN CANADA" WITH ORIGINAL BOX
This Lighthouse Sculpture was issued in 1991
This Lighthouse measures approximately: Base 4 1/2” by Height 9 ” These items have been “Displayed” in a smoke free environment and may have some worn spots needing touch up. The original box may have some worn rough edges and small tears on the lid flaps. This box is “NOT” in new condition due to being in storage.
For a Hatteras HL101 this went a little high. They have been going around $100 to $150.
But lets look a little closer.
Before reading any farther, take a look at the picture of this Hatteras and see if you can tell what’s different about it. If you said that its number was gone over with a brown sharpie, while that is true but there is something different about this particular Hatteas that makes it stand out from all of the rest.
That’s right, it’s the stripes. This Hatteras starts its white stripe at the door while the standard figurine starts with black. If you have never heard of this variation you are probably not alone and the reason this variation has not been publicize is that it was never considered a variation but an artist preference. Jim Rutherford who was the first Author on Harbour Light material started the game rules on how we identified variations.
He felt that since the painting was done by human hands and that there were so many variations of painting style that they should not be considered variations but as artist preference. He went one step farther and stated that only factory changes was a variation.
To a point I agree with Jim. It would be ridiculous to identify all the Old point Loma flower color types or all of the Michigan City green water varieties. First of all somebody would have to identify these paint types so we can classify them as a variation. Well I don’t see that happening. But when it comes to hard case black and white evidence I think we should consider ones like the Hatteras stripe color change as a variation.
Okay back to the white stripe Hatteras variation. As far as I know they have only been found on the Canadian versions. There are at least five of them to exist; generally their numbers are from 668 to 718. But they are not held to those numbers. One has been found with a number as high as 2020. My guess-timate of how many exist is around 50, but no one knows for sure.
The last White stripe that was one ebay about two months ago went for $350. I would use that as the going price since I believe the one that went for $203 to be devalued because of it not having the original hand written number. I also would have no problem seeing this variation valued at $500 for insurance value.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200485017561&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
