Who offers the best trade-in value?
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pascal, welcome aboard. Your question requires more information from you. Certain lines of pipes will trade better with specific dealers. If I were trading high end artisan pipes or Dunhills or other high-end factory pipes, I'd shop around quite a bit for the highest price. People seem to do pretty well selling pipes on Forums, but you have to have some seniority to do that; check out the rules. I have only ever traded pipes to smokingpipes.com for customer credit toward purchase of one of their pipes, and I feel they have been fair, but they are very astute in evaluating pipes, so unless you have something pretty classy, the return will be modest. With four or five medium level pipes I had nice fraction of the price of a new pipe I wanted more. So I was satisfied; I culled the herd. I think Iwan Ries,Cup O Joes, Pipes and Cigars, and 4noggins will all give you an offer, but check with them first. The other alternative is to sell on ebay, but this requires some work to learn the system and deal straight with potential buyers, and it is essentially an auction, so you can do well or not so well, depending on the market for your item at the moment. Selling pipes is work, so you have to invest time and effort and not expect too much your first time out. Let us know how you do.
I like smokingpipes. They don't necessarily get the best of the brands I'm looking for, but they have a fair trade in value and I'm not usually looking for the highest of the high. I'm not interested in selling on ebay any more but if I wasn't looking for store credit and just wanted cash I'd use coopersark, have always had good results with him.
Hi Pascal,
Welcome to the forum. One thing to keep in mind is that you are going to get less from a retailer, even less from a B&M retailer. The way most shops that deal in trade-in / estates is to determine how much they can get for it when they sell it and then make an offer for about 1/2 of that. For example, say you have a Dunhill that is in great shape. The retailer will look at it and try to determine how much that pipe would sell for if brand new. Once he determines that price, say 1000.00 for example, he will then cut that price in half. Figuring that he can get at least 500.00 for the pipe. From there he will offer the seller approximately half of that price. (maybe a little more, but not much) So from a pipe that would go for 1000.00 new, you may get an offer of 250.00 to 350.00. There are exceptions, one would be if the pipe is extremely rare and the retailer knows that there is a big demand for that particular piece. Some retailers will offer more in store credit, so that Dunhill may get you 350.00 in cash or 400.00 in store credit. I'm not knocking any retailer, I think that the folks over at Smokingpipes are nothing but top notch and will give you a fair price, and fantastic customer service. Just pointing out how most businesses handle estates.
One other thing that you may want to consider, (if you don't get the price that you are looking for from the evaluation), is to try sending the pipes out for consignment. I would recommend that you contact pipestud as he has a booming business handling estate pipe sales. He would be the go to person that could explain how that process would work.
Welcome to the forum. One thing to keep in mind is that you are going to get less from a retailer, even less from a B&M retailer. The way most shops that deal in trade-in / estates is to determine how much they can get for it when they sell it and then make an offer for about 1/2 of that. For example, say you have a Dunhill that is in great shape. The retailer will look at it and try to determine how much that pipe would sell for if brand new. Once he determines that price, say 1000.00 for example, he will then cut that price in half. Figuring that he can get at least 500.00 for the pipe. From there he will offer the seller approximately half of that price. (maybe a little more, but not much) So from a pipe that would go for 1000.00 new, you may get an offer of 250.00 to 350.00. There are exceptions, one would be if the pipe is extremely rare and the retailer knows that there is a big demand for that particular piece. Some retailers will offer more in store credit, so that Dunhill may get you 350.00 in cash or 400.00 in store credit. I'm not knocking any retailer, I think that the folks over at Smokingpipes are nothing but top notch and will give you a fair price, and fantastic customer service. Just pointing out how most businesses handle estates.
One other thing that you may want to consider, (if you don't get the price that you are looking for from the evaluation), is to try sending the pipes out for consignment. I would recommend that you contact pipestud as he has a booming business handling estate pipe sales. He would be the go to person that could explain how that process would work.
graydawn,
To the op, I hope you were not offended by my little quip, we are a fun bunch here. To answer your question, if you told me the types of pipes you are looking to trade, I could point you in the right direction. For certain pipes say like a S. Bang or a Jess Chonowitsch, the guy who consistently brings in the highest prices on Ebay is a seller known as Treasurepipes. For less expensive pipes, Pipestud is a very good source. I have sold many a high line pipe in my days from the likes of Former, Balleby, Barbi and others and I always used Coopersark on ebay and he got me top dollar everytime. This was before I got friendly with pipestud( sorry steve, I feel like I cheated on you), he is well known for embellishing on his descriptions and he takes some great pics. I personally would not use a retailer if I wanted top dollar. See it really depends on what types of pipes you are talking because some will not even look at your pipes unless they are of a certain value.
raevans formula is pretty close to what retailers do. 1000.00 retail, cost means it was 500.00, used means it is 250.00 and then if condition is not really good, they will drop the price again. Also they will take into account the supply and demand for a particular brand, if it is a Peterson or a Savinelli, it will bring in less because there are so many out there. I wish you luck in getting top dollar for your pipes.
Only if the price is right and only on the third Sunday of the odd months.
To the op, I hope you were not offended by my little quip, we are a fun bunch here. To answer your question, if you told me the types of pipes you are looking to trade, I could point you in the right direction. For certain pipes say like a S. Bang or a Jess Chonowitsch, the guy who consistently brings in the highest prices on Ebay is a seller known as Treasurepipes. For less expensive pipes, Pipestud is a very good source. I have sold many a high line pipe in my days from the likes of Former, Balleby, Barbi and others and I always used Coopersark on ebay and he got me top dollar everytime. This was before I got friendly with pipestud( sorry steve, I feel like I cheated on you), he is well known for embellishing on his descriptions and he takes some great pics. I personally would not use a retailer if I wanted top dollar. See it really depends on what types of pipes you are talking because some will not even look at your pipes unless they are of a certain value.
raevans formula is pretty close to what retailers do. 1000.00 retail, cost means it was 500.00, used means it is 250.00 and then if condition is not really good, they will drop the price again. Also they will take into account the supply and demand for a particular brand, if it is a Peterson or a Savinelli, it will bring in less because there are so many out there. I wish you luck in getting top dollar for your pipes.
If you don't mind, Harris, I would like to clarify your comment above. Folks, I assure you that I've never gotten friendly with cgrmaster in anything other than a professional manner. If anyone was thinking that he meant FRIENDLY in ANOTHER WAY, well frankly, he's just not my type. :wink:
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