Building Your Collection

Interesting, my first pipe was a Donegal Rocky as well. I've followed a similar course--a variety of shapes, stems, and finishes from the big name midrange producers. The pipe I have coming to me fills my last major 'gap', as it will be dedicated to VaPer's, so after that I'll be able to space out my purchases a little more and go for pipes that really call to me.

I am fairly neurotic. I took a liking to the look of the Zulu shape, got one and liked its moderate size and graceful lines. Enoyed how it smoked and then decided to carry through with Zulu shapes on all my pipes. Now I have 10 new and vintage, plus my Make Twain Dublin Cobs, as the Dublin is the closest Missouri Meerschaum shape to a Zulu. Zulu and Dublin are related. Shooting for the "magic number" of 112 briar Zulu pipes +/- plus a few Mark Twains.

Errr...that is a little neurotic. :crazy:
But I wish you good fortune in your search! Live long and--oh..."Zulu"...nevermind.

You're off to a good start and have an interesting strategy. As for a goal of 7 pipes, do you mean this year? PAD is a addictive thing and takes a lot of discipline to control. Something I have yet to master.

The way i built my collection was by pipe origin. I went through an Italian phase, then american phase, then strictly Dunhill phase. You will most likely end up with more then one of the same shape! Just embrace it!

I used to buy going off how the shape appealed to me. Now that I've been smoking regularly for a few years my tastes have mellowed and the shapes that I prefer have began to emerge. I have several different shapes in my collection bit its the small billiards, cuttys, and zulus that get the most use.

It was quite simple....what looked good that I could afford! My first pipe my wife simply gave me a price limit. I googled the begeebers out of pipes reading about quality....then bought the best I could afford that had asthetics I appreciated.
Same continues today.

I shop a lot and buy only some, but cumulatively quite a few. I think there's a lot of impulse, but I have gone with briar, cob, and a few Mountain Laurel only. I have a wide variety of shapes; no shape is verboten. I have a prince, a diplomat, several zulus, a number of billiards, Dublins, two brandies, and so on. No over riding plan, just a sort of journey; all that wander are not lost. My focus at any particular time is very targeted. When I was shopping panel pipes, that was all I could look at. Most of my pipes are lower-mid level. I have a few higher end, and some lower end I'm very proud of -- a Kaywoodie, Yello-Bole Checker, and some excellent house pipes and basket pipes.

My "approach" has been more or less random. When I first looked into pipes, I didn't much care for straight billiards as I thought they looked kind of stodgy and boring. I went with a bent egg, then a couple of churchwardens, a bag of Missouri Meerschaum seconds, and at about that time wound up unemployed. By the time I had the funds to indulge again, my tastes had shifted, and I'd started dedicating pipes to tobacco types so that I could keep flavor profiles straight without having to worry that I was tasting a "ghost". I added a Jobey billiard (see? Now they look classic, not stodgy...), a Tsuge blowfish, a Rossi Author, a few more cobs, and a meerschaum. Basically, whatever strikes my fancy at the time I'm looking.
Now I'm pretty set for pipes for a while, so I'm working on tobaccos. We're in the process of reorganizing the den where I store my pipes and tobacco, and I've been promised a dedicated cabinet. Once that's purchased and installed, I'll probably feel the need to fill out a pipe rack or two... not to mention cellaring more tobacco.

I think your approach makes a lot of sense. You are going after pipes that interest you and are getting various pipes to give you choices for a particular smoke. One thing you might find common with a lot of folks is that their current collection is different than from the one they started out. This is a natural progression and one of the facets that many enjoy about pipe collecting. I have had different pipes that I loved at the time but grew less fond of over time. It was not that the pipe had changed but my focus had changed. It might have been that I was more interested in a different finish or shape or they way a certain pipe smokes a particular tobacco. Follow your interests and when you find a certain pipe, ask yourself what it is about the pipe you like and why you like that certain aspect.

I started out really liking bent pipes, as far as aesthetics. My first pipe was a Dr. Grabow Omega, which at some point the following year was lost on the golf course. I got into estates pretty quickly. Bought a lot of estate pipes within a couple months and really hit good on them. Sold most of them but kept 3, only to sell one of those 3 a bit later. That was a Peterson pre-republic, and taught me that I really don't like P-lips, or the Peterson system for that matter. Oddly enough, one of the pipes I kept was a straight pipe. I planned on selling it but broke the tenon, and it really wasn't valuable, so I replaced the tenon and decided to keep it. That pipe was my gateway drug to straight pipes. That pipe, a Le Mans(from the Chacom factory in France) straight panel billiard is my most smoked pipe. I wouldn't trade it for a pipe 10 times its value. I now have a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and my straight-bent pipe ratio is approaching 50-50. I also preferred smooth finishes at the beginning, but now can really appreciate a good sandblast, although I still am not a big fan of rustication. I keep a select one or two pipes from each major estate score, as a reminder of the special luck I have had. My other PADs are largely American artisan pipes, purchased as estates. I have 2 Rads, a Batson, 2 Ruthenbergs, 2 Talberts(Ligne Bretagne), a Quagliata(little known but talented), a Florov, and a Nachwalter, with a Nate King on the way.

My collection is quite varied with several different shapes represented. I have about a 50/50 mix of bent and straight. My favourite shape is the Canadian and that is the shape I have the most of with 6. I plan on adding more Canadians to my collection. All of my pipes are "factory" pipes except one which is a Tinsky Canadian. I don't really have any grail pipes that I'm seeking out but would like to eventually have at least one pipe in each of the classical shapes. Smooth, rusticated and blasted pipes can all be found in my racks. The freehands though often beautifully crafted don't appeal to my tastes nor do Meerschaums. I'm also a big fan of Brigham pipes and would like to have one of each model in my collection eventually. That's basically the direction I am heading right now. ::

Initially, close to 15 years ago, I went the route that many do buying up everything that caught my eye. I had basket pipes, machine made mid grades, hand made artisan pieces, some old London estates that I bought without any real knowledge. I've since culled many of those and now have what I believe is an eclectic collection of some of the tried and true high end hand mades that I hung onto, some great smoking machine made mid grades and a few carefully chosen London estates. I see no reason to load and smoke a pipe if I know it's only going to deliver a mediocre smoke. I want good to great every time, all the time. That's a bold statement for any smoker to make and no, I'm not there yet but I'm damn sure working on it.

I don't have a strategy at all, I just buy pipes that appeal to me. I don't have specific pipes dedicated to specific blends or anything like that.
Sometimes I'll get overtaken with a desire for a particular pipe and nothing will satisfy until I have it. Happened recently when I decided I must have a Dunhill. I couldn't afford a new one, but thankfully there's no shortage of estate Dunhills and SPC had particularly nice one at a good price that I ended up with. But the point is, I couldn't think of anything else pipe-related until I had that one. I think that's called 'obsession'.
Fortunately that doesn't happen all that often; my collection isn't all that big really. Eleven briars and a handful of cobs. Oh, and 2 meers. Now I'm thinking I need a meer Rhodesian...hmmm.

It takes experience to figure out exactly what you want. Unfortunately, experience is expensive. :D
But your plan is as good as any I've seen.

"How did you go about choosing your wives?"

I ran into her, and I could not get rid of her from my mind, and I decided to make her part of me.

Or, I was the chosen one, by destiny, resistance is futile.

Oh, I mean pipes. Luckily one can fully refurbish them. And a change in taste and resell them. And of course have more than one, and with different shapes from different countries, all serving you in rotation. :wink:

I built my collection by hitting thrift shops and antique stores and a couple on fleabay but also from word of mouth by just talking to people. I get a kick out of finding nice pipes this way and most of the time there not expensive. You can really get caught up.