Paul, I am in a different situation than you are and so I have a differing viewpoint. I do not disagree with your thoughts on Ebay and on "dumping", but I do offer a different tack.
You own an extensive collection, and have been collecting for some time. I, and others like me, are relative newcomers to HLs.
About a year ago, I started gettin' in to it and have gone from 15 to 80 LEs in that time. I have purchased from several dealers, R@R, and the marketplace. I have also purchased from Ebay. For the most part, all have been good sources.
None in my collection is a "heavy weight"(Okracoke, Key West, Portland Head Etc). I simply cannot afford them. I was, however, able to amass a nice curio full of HLs in a short time without getting a frying pan on the backside.
Paul, I love these little guys like you do, but I could have never gotten them without Ebay and the "dumping". Part of the fault of the lower value of some of the HLs belongs to Y&A. They made an error in increasing issue size to 10,000. Dealers couldn't get rid of them and needed the space. If you examine the prices of HLs on ebay, it shows that the models going for the lower value are NOT the heavies but rather the 10,000. The Ocracokes are holding their own and in many cases increasing in value.
In another part of the forum, Art discusses the BINs - same thing - most are the 10,000.
Paul, now that I have a larger collection, I too will hope for greater value and now that Y&A has decreased their edition size; I see a rosy future.
- Joe