Why Are Japanese Pipes So Expensive?

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brass

Lifer
Jun 4, 2014
1,840
7
United States
I'm slowly adding pipes to my collection. I mostly buy on aesthetics but have occasionally add pipes from different pipes of the world. I haven't purchased a Japanese made pipe yet. I like the styles (reminds me of Danish sensibilities) but the prices are high on average - several hundred or much more - and these are estate prices. Most are over $500.
I was wondering what gives? Not saying they are not worth it but only Tsuge has anything less than $300 that I've seen.

 
Because, they are vastly superior to us. :wink:
Nah, from my understanding is that the Chinese market is full of billionaires who are laying big money is many different areas of hobby and recreation. So, the Chinese pipe collectors are willing to pay very large sums for things they want. The Asian Pipemakers are clearly having to raise their prices to make it out of the East to here. And, if I remember Danish high end pipemakers were getting very out of hand because of this same market.

We poor and cheap Westerners just can't compete against a vast number of Commie billionaires.

 

brass

Lifer
Jun 4, 2014
1,840
7
United States
Well, I guess if they can demand those prices can't blame for not selling for less. Some of them are very attractive no more so than Danish or American artisan pipes selling for 75% less.

 
You mean SOME Danish and American pipemakers. Skip Elliot rarely makes a pipe below a thousand, and he sells them as fast as he can get a picture of it. Eltang, SBang... Very pricey and sell very fast. Really it is just the Danes that focus on mass production that we see their pipes being sold on an affordable level. The Americans... most of them hang out at the pipemakers website with their heads up their asses, worried more about pleasing each other than us. However, there are a few that I adore. But, I just don't see them reaching out to an international market, except for Skip, and maybe others that I just don't know about.

 

pipestud

Lifer
Dec 6, 2012
2,010
1,749
Robinson, TX.
I travel to a lot of different pipe shows around the country every year and most of the American pipe makers that I have met pretty much have been nothing short of wonderful people. I am always impressed by their attention to customers and they way they very diplomatically respond to even the goofiest questions (I'm sure I've asked a bunch of those).
And yes, there are many American pipe makers who have successful and receptive international markets. Lee Von Erck, Jeff Gracik, Brad Pohlman, Larry Roush and Michael Lindner immediately come to mind and several of those (maybe all of them), have actually had all expense paid trips to other countries to display their wares and sell them), such as Japan where Von Erck pipes are especially hot items.
As for the Japanese pipe makers; no question but that some of them are red hot all over the world right now, brass. Just hang in there. I'm rooting for you to nail a good one for your collection!

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,256
108,359
I have three Tsuge's. Two mizki dublins, and one bulldog. All bought new, none over $64, and they smoke great. Alot of the Japanese carvers that I have read about are well know craftsmen, and turn out very high quality pipes much like our beloved American artisans, and their pieces are just as highly sought after.

 

bigpond

Lifer
Oct 14, 2014
2,019
13
My impression is that there is a significant number of journeyman pipe makers in the US that create downward pressure on the price of artisan pipes. This is largely absent in the Japanese pipe scene, though there are several that do use Facebook and instagram as a primary sales tool. Looking at Japanese pipe shops, such as Keigai, will show the same familiar names as SPC. There are imo fewer folks carving, and in general they are very experienced, talented and worth every cent. I will say Kikuchi pipes love me cold, by and large.. We all have biases but mine place Japanese and German pipes way above the rest.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
When I first started buying too many pipes, smokingpipes.com carried many examples of factory made Tsuges for modest prices -- pots, brandies, others -- for about sixty bucks, along with the pricier ones from $100 to maybe $1,000. The inexpensive ones disappeared entirely about three years ago, so Tsuge just wasn't making money on them and went entirely up-market. I suspect even these little factory pipes now pick up exalted prices as estate pipes based on the current up-pricing, but mostly people don't seem to turn them over. I think the Japanese place everything from pipe making to classical musicians on rigorous hierarchical training regimes, so that by the time a pipe maker is a senior carver, he or she has jumped through every imaginable hoop and does, in fact, do work at an unusually high level. That puts them out of reach of my pipe budget -- too many other fine pipes that don't require such endless rigor in their manufacture.

 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
The Americans... most of them hang out at the pipemakers website with their heads up their asses, worried more about pleasing each other than us.
Interesting. Please elaborate. Please be specific.

 
Dec 24, 2012
7,195
456
I collect a few Japanese carvers and haven't noticed them to be that much different than other high grade pipes. In some cases you are paying for workmanship and finishing that you just can't get anywhere else. Satou's lacquer method and time-intensive use of tsuishu being but one example.
I don't love all modes of japanese styling, but they do often push my buttons.
Oh, and Kikuchi is the most attractive pipemaker I have ever seen. OK, I am smitten.

 

sallow

Lifer
Jun 30, 2013
1,531
3,771
My Tsuge Mizki was not expensive and smokes great. I wish I would have bought a sandblast to match.

tsuge-600x448.jpg


 

condorlover1

Lifer
Dec 22, 2013
7,995
26,613
New York
The Japanese pipes like everything else from Nip-Land are 1/10th the size of a regular pipe but performs five times better - a reverse form of miniaturization! :rofl:

 

moriarty

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 3, 2012
144
0
My feeling is that the pipe market is pretty global now, and pricing is quite consistent across the world because of this. The pipemakers in Japan who charge a certain price are comparable with the pipemakers everywhere else at that price range.
I think Bigpond made an interesting point about the large number of journeyman American pipemakers on the market. But even there I don't feel that average American pipes are cheaper than other similar quality pipes.
There are surely biases, and marketing and distribution have an effect. There are pipemakers outside America who might appear overpriced to American customers just because the names are not widely known to Americans. I'm sure, though, that if the Chinese market is affecting pipe prices, those Chinese customers are looking at pipes from all over the world and paying high prices for whichever pipemakers excite them, wherever the pipemaker resides. Again, distribution and marketing have an effect, but I'm sure buyers in China are aware of many American pipemakers. Doesn't smokingpipes.com even have a Chinese language version of their site?

 

moriarty

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 3, 2012
144
0
Oh, and I agree about Kikuchi-san's winsome looks. Actually I like her pipes too and they would be my favourites of the Tsuge Ikebana line. I bought a couple of her early Ikebana pipes and I really like them. I'd say, though, that the ones I've seen more recently don't grab me as much. But I don't know that the ones I see are representative of her current production and style. I know enough to feel that she is a very good pipemaker, based on the ones I have, and they're worth the money.

 

bpftc

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jan 21, 2016
147
1
As a woodworker I can appreciate the artistic skill that goes into making them. But, honestly, most of them look WAY too phallic to me. I'd be embarrassed to be seen with one of them hanging out of my mouth, lol.

 
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