>>I guess this is in reference to the example I made.<<

Actually, I had Art's post in mind. Of course his purchase of a GLOW instead of a retired piece will hardly impact the market. But if most folks took this approach it will.

I think you make a good point about the need for models that will appeal to a new collector. It may be one of the stronger points for having GLOWs. The favorites of a new collector may be lights near him or that he has seen and remembered. For this reason I think its important for HL to have a good geographic spread across a year's line. For some specific areas they may be running out of lights and eventually all lights for that area will retire.

The availability of a GLOW to a potential collector who can't find, or isn't aware of the LEs which are his favorites, may indeed help get him started. I was wondering if a newbie who has several GLOWs in his initial collection would switch to buying LEs when he had a choice between a GLOW and an LE. If he keeps buying mostly giftware then I think we'd agree he hasn't been 'lured in'. If he switches then the availability of the GLOW was good thing.

Since the GLOWs seem to be built with the same materials and attention to detail as LEs I doubt most GLOWs are able to help subsidize LEs. But maybe - if the volume for a popular GLOW is high enough that all costs have been recouped. Makes you wonder if there is any GLOW thats sold or will sell more than 10,000 .

Rgds,
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/im