North American Society of Pipe Collectors
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Kevin Godbee - Sep 9, 2011
- 2 min read
By Bill Unger
Founded in 1993, The North American Society of Pipe Collectors (NASPC) has since grown to over 1,000 members in almost every state of the Union, Canada, and many countries overseas. I am Bill Unger, NASPC’s treasurer and editor of its newsletter, The Pipe Collector (TPC).
TPC offers members interesting and readable articles on any and all aspects of pipes and tobaccos. I am particularly interested in offering as many new people as possible the opportunity to see their names in print and to be read. All TPC submissions-technical articles, personal essays, profiles, fiction, tobacco reviews, what have you-are written by the members. These are not just “posts” like you find on many pipe websites or chat forums. These are real articles, whether long or short, that you can sink your teeth into.
Few venues today offer carefully edited thoughtful content. TPC is a good read! It is professionally designed and professionally printed in black and white. Color pictures are too expensive for printing, but they are available in the pdf version. The August, 2011, issue of TPC was 56 pages, a new record.
Members of NASPC receive a subscription to The Pipe Collector. It’s available in print form to U.S. members for $18 annually, to Canadian members for $22, and everywhere else in the world for $35. A truly superb deal is the $10 annual membership – available anywhere. You receive an emailed pdf of every issue of The Pipe Collector! You can pay for your membership by check to NASPC (PO Box 9642, Columbus OH 43209) or by PayPal (bill@naspc.org).
We use "pipe collector" in both our name and our newsletter. However, we are really about pipe smoking in all its aspects, including collecting in the traditional sense. At one point in our past, we coined, as a bit of a joke, the slogan "If you have one pipe, you’re a pipe smoker. If you have two pipes, you’re a collector." Our purpose was to appeal to anyone with a pipe.
As an association (not a club-we don’t have meetings), NASPC is involved in the following activities. One, we produce a swap/sell show (125 tables max) in Columbus, OH at the end of August each year. Two, we print the bi-monthly TPC for our members. Three, we offer a pipe of the year to members only. It’s always a terrific bargain. Each issue of TPC contains a page listing B&M and internet businesses that offer discounts to NASPC members. Recently, we also established The NASPC Press. Our first offering was a volume containing Marc Dion’s collected essays from TPC and his fiction from Pipes & Tobaccos magazine.
I am an editor by profession, and I spend as much time as needed working with writers and making sure that all submissions are grammatical and contain no embarrassing errors.
NASPC dues are very reasonable for the value received. Because postage is a real killer, especially attractive for Canadians and anyone overseas is the $10-a-year membership, for which you receive TPC in an email pdf version.
Visit our website at www.naspc.org to see a membership form, information about the pipe of the year, and more. I invite you to "Like" us on Facebook and to communicate with us and other pipe smokers and collectors. Tell us what you think and discuss what you might contribute to the pages of TPC. I do invite you all to join us.
I will send a TPC back issue, either paper or pdf version, to anyone who requests one. Email me at naspc@wowway.com.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Thank you for posting this article. I’m absolutely going to supporting these guys. And for $18 a year to get a monthly issue of The Pipe Collector who wouldn’t sign up for this? I look forward to my first issue!
Signing up for these guys 🙂
Joining the NASPC was the smartest move I made as a budding collector–the discounts I’ve received have paid for it many times over.
I just sent off for a copy of a back issue of TPC. We’ll see…
sounds good and i am thinking that when i have some spare cash i too will sign up
I’ve been subscribed for several years and TPC has been one of my favorite reads.
The Pipe Collector is the ticket. Wouldn’t be without it.
Just joined NASPC a few minutes ago, so as of this writing, (10:40 pm, October 19,) I’m the newest member. It looks like it provides a wealth of info, and I’m looking forward to enjoying my membership
Just signed up — what a deal!