Is It A Cult Or A Conspiracy?

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sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,630
44,855
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
There has been a recent spate of surprisingly high prices paid for vintage British factory pipes. Could this be, as some here have intimated, a conspiracy or possibly cult driven activity? Or could this be simple stupidity.
WTF

 

condorlover1

Lifer
Dec 22, 2013
7,995
26,613
New York
It could be a 'ring' buying and selling between themselves with the aim of luring in the asian buyers. I saw something like this at the end of the 1980s boom in classic cars with E Type Jaguars being passed between dealers then sold to the idiot suckers for $700,000.00 and then the whole thing went 'tits up' when the bubble burst in 1989. I would assume that with pipes being smaller it would be relatively easy to 'mark' the market in a particular make of pipe especially with enough unsmoked examples to pass around between the players as you move the price up.

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,254
108,359
Read in the old farmers almanac, a few years back, that buying smoking paraphernalia was hot due to the decline in tobacco usage and possible skyrocketing of resale to potential collectors. Now I'm all about buying what you like, but even I have my limits.

 

pitchfork

Lifer
May 25, 2012
4,030
605
It could be a classic bubble. Pipes that sold a year or two ago for $2-300 are now selling for two or three or four times that. I suspect people with too much money and too little sense are getting all wound up by recent price signals. Didn't tresurpipes sell some top-shelf Barlings a while back with silver rims, caps, etc that went for "only" several hundred dollars? Lately we've seen Barlings with simple silver bands sell for well over $1,000. Just as long as they don't start bidding up BBBs -- which are HORRIBLE pipes, by the way.

 

lochinvar

Lifer
Oct 22, 2013
1,687
1,632
It's a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, ensconced in a riddle, sitting beside a little white lie. Oh, and it's definitely aliens.
I've noticed the Barlings have steadily been on the rise. They were always a little too expensive to me (the shapes are kind of ehh and the ones I came across were always on the small side), but the prices here lately are straing into Cooke territory.

 

dmcmtk

Lifer
Aug 23, 2013
3,672
1,685
The price was in the ballpark until the last two bidders, what the thinking was placing those last two bids, can't say, but yes a little bit crazy. If those are "real" sales, and some people are willing, or foolish, to pay those kind of prices, well, I have some pipes to sell them!!!
Dave

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Group psychology. It's a problem with ebay, which magnifies the group-think of auctions

in general. I don't doubt there are mind games and schemes woven into it from time to time,

but I think many or most of the sales are prompted by herd instinct. Warren Buffet made his

billions NOT following the crowd and being an old Puritanical stick-in-the-mud.

 

dmcmtk

Lifer
Aug 23, 2013
3,672
1,685
On a related note, Barling's, not ET, see here,
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/wheres-the-popcorn

 
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