There really is no set price on what pieces are worth in today's secondary market. Sellers are trying to get what they were worth before 911 which is not what they are worth today and probably never will be again. Other sellers are also trying to get what they paid for them originally but that will probably never happen.
Rich I am glad you said that. There is no set value on Harbour lights. And because of EBAYS popularity and being the number one selling tool, we rely on it to dictate the values of our collectables.
But should we?
Yes it is true you could put an old Canadian made Harbour light on ebay and you would be lucky to get 50 bucks, but what if you lost one to damages or even fire. How easy do you think it would be to find a replacement? You cannot go on ebay and ask to buy. You would have to wait weeks, months or maybe years till one became available on ebay. Even on this forum it is getting very hard to find the rarer old ones. I have had several collectors tell me how hard it is to find many of the older lights. The collecting buying fever has gone cold years ago but so has the selling.
I have said this many times in the past, we should not use ebay for valuing our collectables for insurance. Insurance value is a different animal compared to selling.
Insurance is replacement cost, not what you can sell your lighthouse on ebay for.
I still have all mine valued at the old green book price and for newer lighthouses they are valued at the retail price plus a little more since they are double digits. Could I get this if I should sell them, no way, not even close. I do believe there are different ways to insure your collectables, but I chose to have mine appraised right up front. My insurance company is to pay me my insured price or replace.
But if I was to lose them there is no way an insurance company could find me replacement for several hundred Harbour lights. Especially my Canadian and California made pieces, It took me ten years to put my collection together. There is no way an insurance company is going to replace that in a couple weeks. So they would have to pay me my full-insured price.
In my humble opinion I would use the Harbour light’s product sheet and insure what the collection would cost to replace at retail and for any of the rare old ones like the California / Canadian made, and the rare variations, I would use the green book.
