Has Anyone Noticed?

[cigrmaster]

Anyone notice how few estate pipes are being shown these day at Smokingpipes? It wasn't long ago we would have over 100 American estate pipes, probably around 50-60 Danish pipes? Loads of Italian and even a lot of miscellaneous pipes. Now we are lucky if we see 100 estate pipes at one time in all the categories.

It seems covid has hit SP hard and I have no idea why. Does anyone have any insight to this phenomena?

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

The prices on eBay are so high, I'd think more people would bypass SP and try to get more out of their Estates.

 

[mikethompson]

The prices on eBay are so high, I'd think more people would bypass SP and try to get more out of their Estates.

Agreed, I think people would rather go through the hassle of ebay and payments than just take what SP gives.

I have noticed there is a definite decline in the number of 'restoration candidates' in the cheaper price range.

 

[bluegrassbrian]

Hadn't noticed until just now.. wow. Looking like 2012 levels.

 

[cigrmaster]

I have been selling pipes for a month or two and I am really surprised at some of the numbers I am getting. I have done well and knock on wood I will continue to do well. For an example, I bought a pipe from Smoking Pipes for 120.00 maybe 2-3 years ago and it sold for over 400. That one shocked the piss out of me.

Ebay is just about how many you win compared to how many you loose. If you can keep your losses close to your costs, and then hit homerunds here and there you can do very well at ebay.

I have always used a third party person who will clean the pipes, take good pictures and knows his business. I used to use coopersark but he got sick. I now am using great estate as Chance is a really nice guy and he knows his business very well. His rate is competitive as well.

Are some of you thinking why am I not giving my pipesud as you guys go way back. The answer is simple, I buy pipes from pipestud. I have gotten tons of deals from Steve and I don't wan to jinx it.

 

[elpfeife]

@cigarmaster Your analysis is similar to that of many successful stock traders/investors. Many breakeven or loss transactions with a few major home runs. I am a retired CPA and that was what I observed among my clients. One fellow rarely had a recent investment do well, but he bought Apple in the 1980s and when he needed cash he turned to his Apple stockpile.

 

[bluegrassbrian]

I have been selling pipes for a month or two....

What are you unloading? Odds and ends or specific makes/models?

 

[lukasstrifeson]

Anyone notice how few estate pipes are being shown these day at Smokingpipes? It wasn't long ago we would have over 100 American estate pipes, probably around 50-60 Danish pipes? Loads of Italian and even a lot of miscellaneous pipes. Now we are lucky if we see 100 estate pipes at one time in all the categories.

It seems covid has hit SP hard and I have no idea why. Does anyone have any insight to this phenomena?

Not related; but, did you lose a letter in your username?

 

[bullet08]

It looks like pipe price in general has gone up. I guess lot more people are finding out estate pipes are just fine.

 

[mso489]

I sent SP a group of pipes about a year ago, and traded them for store credit. Just out of curiosity, I watched the estate pages to see when they showed up, and they never did. So I assume they were sold as basket pipes at the B&M store. One of them was priced new on their site at $140, which I admit was a lot more than I'd paid for it on sale. This leads me to further suspect that they just invest less in restoration and sanitizing and unload many of the lesser pipes at the store. Restoration is fairly labor intensive and it may just not be profitable enough. I see the majority of pipes are in the $300 plus category, on up into the the thousands, which reinforces this notion.

 

[Streeper541]

With more people staying home since the whole CoVid19 thing started more people are experimenting with pipe smoking as a hobby.

What you're seeing is a direct reflection of the new pipe smokers affect on the existing estate market. Of course there are other variables, but that I believe has the largest influence at the moment.

It should settle out again if/when society gets back to "normal."

 

[Rpink53]

I have been selling pipes for a month or two and I am really surprised at some of the numbers I am getting. I have done well and knock on wood I will continue to do well. For an example, I bought a pipe from Smoking Pipes for 120.00 maybe 2-3 years ago and it sold for over 400. That one shocked the piss out of me.

Ebay is just about how many you win compared to how many you loose. If you can keep your losses close to your costs, and then hit homerunds here and there you can do very well at ebay.

I have always used a third party person who will clean the pipes, take good pictures and knows his business. I used to use coopersark but he got sick. I now am using great estate as Chance is a really nice guy and he knows his business very well. His rate is competitive as well.

Are some of you thinking why am I not giving my pipesud as you guys go way back. The answer is simple, I buy pipes from pipestud. I have gotten tons of deals from Steve and I don't wan to jinx it.

I just bought a pipe from Chance and we communicated afterwards. Seems like a good guy and I was happy with my purchase. I’ll be buying from him again.

 

[bullet08]

With more people staying home since the whole CoVid19 thing started more people are experimenting with pipe smoking as a hobby.

What you're seeing is a direct reflection of the new pipe smokers affect on the existing estate market. Of course there are other variables, but that I believe has the largest influence at the moment.

It should settle out again if/when society gets back to "normal."

Problem is the things are extremely abnormal other than COVID, and good half of the country's in denial. Hope the issue will be resolved in 3 years.

 

[Searock Fan]

"Has anyone noticed" is the title of this thread. Well, I've noticed that my avatar was rather boring, so I've changed it. It's a detail of a painting by artist Jim Warren and a framed print of it has been hanging in my smoking room for about 40 years.

 

[Streeper541]

"Has anyone noticed" is the title of this thread. Well, I've noticed that my avatar was rather boring, so I've changed it. It's a detail of a painting by artist Jim Warren and a framed print of it has been hanging in my smoking room for about 40 years.

View attachment 117643

Lovely artwork. What is the piece titled?

 

[mso489]

Checked SP estates today, and yes, the numbers are really down, but the low-end pipes have made a comeback, along with the pipes in the hundreds and thousands of dollars, but fewer of everything.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Lately, I’ve noticed less bidder competition on ebay, keeping bidding reasonable. IDK, but for a few years now, people have been buying less pipes and focusing on tobaccos because of FDA threats.
Since I’ve recently just started paying attention to SP estates (I have enough tobaccos to last me several more lifetimes) I really haven’t seen 100’s of esates on there…. so maybe your memory goes back farther on there than me.
But, I’d think the rush to build a cellar has left the pipe market kind of flat. But, for those like us who built up a cellar early, we may be a smaller bunch than before the FDA crap.

 

[kcghost]

I don't see any link between covid and the availability of estate pipes.

 

[Terry Lennox]

I have noticed fewer unsmoked estates both on SP and Ebay. In particular mid-range new-old-stock pieces such as Stanwell. I remember about 10 years ago you could search Stanwell on Ebay and find dozens of either lightly smoked or NOS pieces. All the classic shapes and the free-hands and the pipes of the year. Now when a good unsmoked example is offered up they go fast.

 

[cigrmaster]

What are you unloading? Odds and ends or specific makes/models?

I have been unloading some American artisan pipes. A bunch of old British wood. This second wave of pipes are all artisan made pipes. I might even do a third culling but I have no pipes currently that are not great smokers, we shall see. My goal is to fill my 15 count pipe rack and to keep my 2 big group 6 pipes in a basket next to my cabinets.
So far I have my 36 count rack full and my 2 big group 6's in their basket next to my other pipes. I have 15 to go which should be fun, If things go my way, I can fill the 15 count rack with Jack Howell pipes. That would be cool. I already have a dozen of his pipes and I love how they smoke.