Have to give my 2 cents on this one!

My first purchase was a Coquille--just because I wanted that piece. I had a few GLOWs that I'd received as gifts and wasn't really into collecting. A Coquille came up on eBay shortly after I'd purchased a copy of the GreenBook of Harbour Lights pieces. I looked up the piece because I couldn't fathom why a sculpture I could hold in the palm of my hand would have such a high starting price. I put in a sniper bid using my hubby's buyer site (I wasn't even hooked to the internet at that time) and read the GreenBook while I waited for the auction to end. I lost out with a bid of $2,500. Between that loss and the reading of the book, I was hooked big time!

While waiting for the next Coquille to come up for bid, I began collecting in earnest. Buying sequentially, I stayed with the early pieces until I had all of the first 17 excluding CH1. I e-mailed a secondary market seller after seeing his ad in Lighthouse Digest and asked if he had a CH1. (At that point, I would have second mortgaged my home to get that piece.) We rolled on the floor laughing when the shipment arrived and we had to open the box on the front lawn because it wouldn't fit through the door! Inside the outer box were two smaller boxes packed one inside the other and MOUNDS of styrofoam peanuts that I'm still finding in the carpeting some 3 years later. I made a special place for that CH1 and beamed like a Cheshire Cat every time I passed it.

As many of you know, I recently purchased a 2nd CH1 (the first one has a white tip, the 2nd has a green tip)--again because I just had to have it. If a black tip comes up, I'm probably going to go after that one, too. My jaw is hurting from the grinning I do now every time I pass the "twins."

I don't care that the originals are of a lesser quality than the limited editions HL is now making. I wouldn't dream of replacing what I have with a newer version. The only "replacing" I've done is with a lower numbered piece which is why I have a number of LEs for sale. Replacing them with a newer, more detailed sculptures would be like replacing an antique with something made today.

Yes, the secondary market's in the toilet. So was the stock market and it's beginning to pick up. I lost big time in the stock market and had faith (somebody did mention that word) that it would turn around. It has--at least what I hold has had some appreciable gains. I have faith that the Harbour Lights market will pick up again and when it does, I'll be back at it. Only this time as a seller.

Some may think me foolish, some have no idea why I'm so nuts about collecting and displaying my collection. I don't have to give a reasonable explanation to anyone as to why I feel as I do. I haven't had this much enthusiasm over something in years and I hope it only gets better.

Would I be against reissuing LEs as more polished pieces? You bet I would!