Parker - $300+ - Really?

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PipeIT

Lifer
Nov 14, 2020
4,457
26,769
Hawaii
@PipeIT

Would you believe I have an unsmoked $900 pipe that I never intend to smoke?

I’m not sure I understand the reasoning of the question, but I would believe it, sure, you have a lot of nice pipes. :)

I’ve also seen, you have pipes at fantastic deals too.

P.S. Is that the Preben?
 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,438
109,343
I’m not sure I understand the reasoning of the question, but I would believe it, sure, you have a lot of nice pipes. :)
I was just making a comparison. It came in the original box, signed sock, and unsmoked. Rarities like that often go for a fortune.
 
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PipeIT

Lifer
Nov 14, 2020
4,457
26,769
Hawaii
That pipe is certainly worth that. It will almost certainly go higher, likely much higher.

If you are into Parker pipes, as in collect Parker pipes, this would be hard to resist.

Think about it, how many complete, new in box, with box, examples like this can exist?

I see the price/worth here as a collectors value.

I don’t collect pipes, I smoke them, so from a Collection Value, I simply see it as an older unsmoked pipe.

And we all know, price doesn’t always equate to a good smoker, and just because people have said these have smoked as nice as old Dunhills, doesn’t mean this one will.

It could turn out to be a dud.

I’d pay $150 to smoke it, they probably only sold for $5. A 80+ year old $5 pipe, now an amazing expensive smoker, not necessarily.

It could crack too, if someone wasn’t careful that smokes it.
 

craig61a

Lifer
Apr 29, 2017
5,819
48,270
Minnesota USA
With oldie collectors, pretty much the only thing that matters is condition.

Brand, shape, and so forth is secondary. They want the Time Machine Experience.

Two of them is all it takes to drive a pipe's price to a level that NON oldie collectors think is too high.

Different strokes...
Condition is key... whether it's old pipes, old rifles, or old golf clubs...
 

bullet08

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
8,942
37,946
RTP, NC. USA
Price is what a person is willing to pay for on an auction. I paid a stupid amount of money on a slipjoint. Now it's going for $900 on an auction. Other one, paid original price by luck, and it's also going for $900. Was rather surprised.
 
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sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,767
45,332
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
What do you suppose an unsmoked 1935 Dunhill, complete with original box and sock would go for? $2000? $4000? What's so amazing about $300 for a Parker?

Yes it was set up to handle what Dunhill referred to as its "failings". What exactly does that mean? Does it mean that the wood was bad? Ofcourse not. Maybe the block didn't have the kind of figure that met Dunhill's metric. The pipe shaped from that block at the Parker facility might have turned out to be an exceptional piece.

We know that Parker made pipes from wood that weren't Dunhill leavings. They bought wood on the open market as well. We know that some of those failings, when fully shaped, went back to Dunhill because the process of removing the "offending" wood revealed a pipe of top notch quality. They didn't just make "seconds".

Of all the top makers, only two were known to control their briar from the ground to the counter, Barling, and for a while, Comoy. Everyone else bought from brokers, including Dunhill.

The rules for "collectors" are different from the mass market. Depending on their focus of interest they are pursuing the best available examples, and unsmoked vintage pipes are a rarity amongst rarities. People who love Parkers, and there are a lot of them, are going to pay for something that might become a centerpiece of a collection.

All things considered, $300, or even twice that, for an unsmoked Parker from the 1930's, in a complete set up, isn't much of a stretch.
 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,280
66
Sarasota Florida
I personally think that if someone is a Parker pipe collector and they have come a cross this fine specimen, they would be willing to shell out big bucks. Maybe they were looking at this one for a number of years and then bang is it available. You just might go balls to the walls to get it.

efit: my first post on this thread was wrong and it was bad advice, I apologize.