What Do You Value More? Pipe or Tobacco?

You could have a million pipes, and only a handful of great smokers. Would have to say that I fall in the one pipe, infinite blends camp.

It used to be Pipes over Tobacco, but now that I know what I enjoy smoking, it is definitely Tobacco over Pipes. I have enough Pipes to last me here, now if I could only build up my Tobacco stash.
Eric

One pipe, infinite blends for me. I think i'd get really bored with just one blend.............

There is one question easy to answer and another one not as simple.
If one thinks cutlery and crockery vs food, the ending question is very simple to answer: A set of cutlery and crockery with infinite kinds of food? Or infinite set of (fancy) cutlery and crockery and you are allowed to only eat potato salad with ham every meal?
Everyone has his own staple food and I believe every pipe smoker would have one or a few staple tobacco blends, and it is against enjoyment and curiosity to have to restrict to one blend.
There are two thought scenarios that may help one decide what camp they are in (you value pipes more or tobacco more):

1. A generous pipe-smoking friend is going to offer you a present, either in the form of a luxurious current production pipe (say Dunhill at $600-800 range) or in the form of tobacco costing the equivalent price (i.e. $600-800).

What will you choose?

I think people who are already 'accomplished' pipe collectors will choose differently from people who have impressive tobacco cellar.

2. A collector is going to let you choose from his collectible items, consist even of many out of production historical pipes and tobacco blends. You can pick any one item, but you have to tell him you would pick a pipe or a tobacco blend first.

3. PAD vs TAD - what is more 'reasonable' in your opinion.
I would say I value more those rare finds, even the market is small. I need to have a few staple blends around and a few pipes for smoke-and-rest rotation to keep them decently smokable.

I lean toward tobacco because the farther in time we go, it's fairly certain tobacco is going to be more expensive and harder to come by....Ok think hoarder if you want but that's okay by me.

Blends. If I only had use of cobs(not a bad thing) I'd be happy with that.

I can't make up my mind. I would say tobacco, because I could always make my own pipe. But, then I could always just grow my own tobacco. I am split, the indecisive camp.
I mean, if I was in the pipe camp, maybe I wouldn't mind smoking a low quality (in my opinion) tobacco, but I just wouldn't smoke then. Or, if I had a high quality tobacco and had to only smoke it in a pipe that taste green and nasty, or clogs easily, or the pipe is ugly and embarrassing, or some huge 20 pound free hand pipe that I could barely carry (like maybe some huge two handed tree trunk of a pipe), I just wouldn't smoke.

Nope, I am split. It has to be both or nothing for me.

One is nothing without the other. I see them as equal.

A pipe is useless without tobacco. Tobacco on the other hand can be smoked / enjoyed in a variety of vessels if a pipe is not available.

The million blends for sure, as long as my one pipe was a Churchwarden.

Very well put @menuhin.

For the sake of overcomplicating things; if going the one pipe route, is the assumption that the pipe does not have to rest between smokes? I think that would be a huge disadvantage if you still had to rest your only pipe.
Or is it more you are locked in to a single brand/style/make of pipe and can have enough of them to keep smoking throughout the day?
I feel like the main reason I have more than one pipe is to allow the pipe to rest, I fall more into infinite tobacco blend camp, but was curious as to what others had in mind when they answered.

For me it's the pipe. There are plenty of acceptable blends around and very few pipes which will meet my standards. Even an empty pipe, in my fist or jaw, has a calming influence. I know I've written that a pipe is simply a way to deliver nicotine but, in reality it is a bit more important than that. The pipe, an inanimate object, if well constructed and shaped, is a touch-stone of sorts for me. Much like my beat-up old hat, each pipe has a few special memories which come to life when nestled in my hand or hanging out of my face.
Definitely the pipe!

The resting issue taken care of as discussed: 1 Good pipe and all that baccy ::

Which is most important leg on a three-legged stool? :wink:

There are some practical limitations, as already stated, to the one pipe position. So maybe it should several pipes and many blends or many pipes and a few blends. Given that choice I'd probably go with a few great smokers and unlimited blends

I smoked one pipe and one tobacco for years, now, thanks to the Internet I have several pipes and a lot of different tobacco. If I had to, I could choose 2 pipes (rotation) and one type of tobacco.

Early on it was all about pipes with tobacco just being a given, something I took for granted. I was chasing pipes like a 16 year old boy at a sorority house. The end result was that I had a pile of mid to high end smoking instruments and a very limited repitoire of tobaccos cellared and tasted. At one point I got back into cigars over pipe smoking and although I hadn't abandoned the pipe, it wasn't an everyday thing any longer so I sold off a mess of my pipes. The burnout with cigars set in and then I only had a handful of select keeper pipes and a small stash of sealed tins and jars.

Nowadays I am more immersed in the pursuit of tobaccos, not in a hoarding kind of way but more of an expanding my horizons approach. There are so many great tobaccos out there and even a young person would have an epic journey trying to sample all that's out there and available to us right now. I could easily do with just a few quality pipes, the ones that are like old friends and use all my spare coin to procure new tobaccos.

My mind likes the tobacco, the varieties and nuances of blends. My heart belongs to the pipes -- the shapes, the different sizes and materials, the art. So it is sort of alternating current. I seem to spend more time shopping for pipes, but when smoking I am focussed on the tobacco. If I had to choose, I think I'd opt for a few favorite blends and keep my too-many pipes.