We have been to over 125 stores this year, probably closer to 150 stores in 14 different states. The ‘‘5500’’ lighthouses are not only disappearing but they are totally gone in most stores. During one stretch we went to 5 straight stores without finding one lighthouse on my retired@retail check list, which includes more than just the ‘‘5500’’ lighthouses.

At one signing this year two or three early arriving collectors headed straight to the stores Harbour Lights display and bought all the ‘‘5500’’ lighthouses the store had, before they did anything else.

Another signing we were at was a Northport, MI, we arrived in the area the afternoon before the signing and before we checked into our motel in Traverse City, we stopped to chat with the owner and check out the lighthouses before the signing for retired@retail.

They had 8 or 9 of the ‘‘5500’’ lighthouses on the shelves. The next morning when we arrived for the signing (an hour before they were to open officially) I noticed that none of them were out on the shelves. I asked the owner and he said someone had called and bought all of them and wanted them signed by Bill. I then changed my list of retired@retail for their store.

Two stores in the Indianapolis area had some of the early Northwestern United States ‘‘5500’’ lighthouses, until I checked a month ago and they had been sold when they displayed them prominently, instead of hiding them on the bottom shelf.



SaintWackoPaul'
Keep the Flame