When I got started 'in earnest' about 2 years ago, part of my enjoyment became THE HUNT for ebay estates.
I won't lie, I had a blast bidding, winning, losing, and receiving little boxes with who knows exactly what for sure coming in so much that the mail lady commented that I was the package man.
Between new blends and old pipes I was having box openings every week for weeks. Sometimes several times a week.
Sometimes pipes arrived in unsmoked condition. Honestly? The only unsmoked pipes I've ever christened are cobs.
I even have used estate cobs.
I've kept all the ones unsmoked in that condition. Why? Because I thought (in my delusional and excited fashion) I might be able to PROFIT from their sale!
In fact, most of the pipes I bought were bought with the idea that I could at least get their purchase price back if I were to put them back up on ebay.
Who am I kidding?
I don't have what it takes to become an ebay seller, and I don't really have THAT much tied up in old/new pipes, since I didn't buy from the high end, I searched for the 'buy' end, the cheap auctions of pipes that MIGHT yield a treasure.
For me, they were and are all treasures. I have a Barling, a Dunhill, Comoys, Brebbia, and more. I have meerschaums, cherry wood, maple, and briar. I have bents, straights, billiards, Dublins, pots, and pans. Ok, no pans, but you get the idea. I've really had fun, for maybe the first time in my life, as a 'consumer'.
I don't buy pipes like I used to. I look now and say to myself, 'you don't need another pipe', but if you see one that compels you, go ahead. Life is once.
Someday, I'll smoke a new briar, but I'm in no hurry, now.
