$6500.00 Chonowitsch

[saltedplug]

Sold today on smokingpipes. In fact I think they had one or two more of his pipes on the site a few days ago. Somebody out there who smokes the pipe has a disgusting amount of money. My hat's off to you for your worldly success, but I think that such a price so far exceeds the utility of the item and is so far beyond any reasonable standard of value as to be laughable, or more properly, sick.
$6500.00 is ten $600.00 pipes, half a year's rent, and over a year's supply of groceries.
Everyone should do what they want and smoke the pipes and tobaccos they favor, but to me such prices are ridiculous, and the people who pay them moreso.

 

[swb118]

At a certain point, don't creations like this cease to be simple delivery devices and become works of art? Who knows, maybe some wealthy individual sent forth a minion with the instructions to "but the most expensive pipe they have!". Shame he wasn't looking at Pulvers Briars and a couple of $10,000 pipes Marty has.

 

[zack24]

Meeh..I love wealthy people- if I win the huuuge lottery tonight I pledge to buy 30 pipes for $100k...and post pictures!..:and if you had $100k to spend on pipes- what 30 pipes would you buy? (Makes for a nice 30 day rotation)

 

[leatherman]

I think it says something about life, when a $15 dollar cob pipe smokes as well, if not better, than such a pipe. What's the old saying? Money can't buy happiness...

 

[brian64]

It's inflation.
The high-end luxury goods and collectibles market is where inflation is the most evident...simply because that's where all the disposable income is.
The middle-class has been pretty much bled dry.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Al Pascia has a $10,000 Dunhill, and saw a Nordh go for over $40,000 a few years ago. I used to regularly spend between $400 and $700 on pipes, but have settled into an obsession with estate yacht pieces. Expense depends on pocket depth.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Phhht, $6500 is like, just a couple of pairs of shoes, maybe a month's groceries, a car payment... You poor people just whine, whine, whine... ::

 

[georged]

AAAAAAaaaaaaaand... here we go again. :roll:
This "subject" hasn't a single drop of blood left in it.

 

[sablebrush52]

Oh, the discount Chonowitsch finally sold. Yeah, it's tough times out there.
Seriously though, we have this discussion periodically about ultra high end pipes and ultra high end prices. It's important to have one's priorities straight. For example, $6500 would provide a lot of food and medication to at risk kids, but what would be the fun in that? There are a lot of at risk kids, no shortage, and if those croak out for a lack of funds because of the Chonowitsch, there will always be more needing help next week. But there just aren't that many discount Chonowitsch pipes, there just aren't.
It's not that the $6500 Chonowitsch smokes THAT much better than a Dr Grabow, but it's cool to have that kind of money to drop on a pipe. And the pipe might not even ever get smoked. After all, that would ruin the investment value. Just put it on a shelf with some flattering lighting. In a few years it can be sold for even more.

 

[thomasw]

Man, it is hard work trying to put together my Jess Chonowitsch 7-day pipe rotation! When these 6500 dollar pipes last a day or two, maybe three; his bargain basement 3000 dollar cheapo-creations last at best a refresh or two on SP.com! Oh the Chonowitsch conundrum ... it's at times like this when I think 'what would Peck do?'

 

[brian64]

$6500 is like, just a couple of pairs of shoes, maybe a month's groceries, a car payment

Even less than that for people who can afford it...$6500 is nothing...barely pocket change. And it only makes sense to exchange 6500 federal reserve notes for something tangible that has collector value.

 

[jvnshr]

Money can't buy happiness...

Money can't buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it. David Lee Roth
For more info, please contact Zack.

 

[wyfbane]

Well, in the overall scheme of things, a $6500 pipe is still way less pretentious than a $175,000 car. And not too many people are out there protesting those.

 

[pipestud]

Somebody out there who smokes the pipe has a disgusting amount of money.

- saltedplug
Ain't no such thing in my book. And I freely admit that I wish that I had so much money that saltedplug would call it disgusting. :wink:

 

[saltedplug]

I've been looking at Ferraris and found one for sale in Dubai for $1.3 million. If I put myself in that car I can drive very fast with an engine of palpable muscle and can dust the competition at will. I can corner fast, speed and outrun the police. Now I love to smoke the pipe but the joy of driving recklessly, though I would probably kill myself, would far exceed any pipe experience; or so I think as I've never had the opportunity.
Yes, the pipe had gorgeous grain, but that which it cost in excess of the gorgeous wood-say $4500.00-cannot in any way have that value. I know my sensorium is barbaric, but my cobs smoke as well as the one Castello I own. To me all the hoopla about Former, Jess Chonowitsch and Ingo Garbe is made-up.
Do I enjoy smoking my more costly pipes more than my cobs? Certainly. I am aware that I am using a finely crafted instrument. But I don't let that perception create another perception that the pipe smokes better.
For me, then, the $4500.00 is spent on the myth of Chonowitsch's very highly inflated reputation, manufactured chiefly by the frenzy of the wealthy. How much can the very best be valued? What characteristics do his pipes have that can possibly command $4500.00? A pipe is two holes, one large for tobacco and one small for the draw, connected by an airway through which the smoke from the incinerated tobacco is drawn. The airway must be precise and the wood of sufficient cure with a stem that doesn't make your jaw ache. To me, anything beyond that is style, shape and finish. I've seen Michael Parker's pipes with fine grain under a glass finish, which if assigned a value of $1000.00 still does not account for $3500.00, and which Chonowitsch's pipe does not have.
Were I wealthy would I buy this pipe? Don't know, not wealthy and without that choice. But if I did I don't think it would be healthy as I would have to pretend spending that much on an item whose value has skyrocketed was a good thing. It would make my life to that extent less real and to that extent unhealthy.

 

[jazz]

Well, in the overall scheme of things, a $6500 pipe is still way less pretentious than a $175,000 car. And not too many people are out there protesting those.

This seems like a silly thing to say to me. A $175,000 car is a heavily developed, heavily evolved piece of very complex engineering that normally represents 100 years of trial and error. It takes a large number of man-hours and a large number of men to build one without even factoring the design phase. There are massive safety and testing costs along with other huge costs involved in getting the car to market.
A pipe is a piece of wood with a hole drilled through it often made by a man in a shed.
You get way more for your $6500 when spending $175,000 on a car than you do spending it on a piece of wood with a hole drilled in it.
I'm not the arbiter of these things but to my mind, a pipe with that price tag is far more pretentious than an Aston Martin and surely everyone wants one of those.
Frankly, I love pipes but I could never see myself spending that on a pipe even if I was a multi-millionaire but also, I really could not care less about what someone else spends their own cash on as long as affects me not.
Pretentious, not pretentious.....who cares? It's the free market.

 

[deathmetal]

@saltedplug:
For me, this issue boils down to the value of a certain amount of asceticism in life.
I am glad there are people wealthy enough to buy these things because we all benefit from the support it gives to industry, which can then more easily adapt luxury goods to become everyday goods. Cell phones, microwaves, cars, DVD players, flat screen televisions, and automated eugenics chambers were all the domain of the super-wealthy at one point, and now are everyday as soda cans.
At the same time, for me, I find there to be a certain distraction in such items. Sometimes a beater pipe, a beat-up room, a no-papers dog and a patch of nowhere country is better than being in a Bentley at the heart of London.

 

[swb118]

@saltedplug- amusingly enough i'd just read this when you started this thread yesterday
The Myth of Brand and Maker in Pipesmoking

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Ha ha, my old roommate from college is the go-to guy for wooden framed cars whenever you see them talking about them on TV, because he has a collection that goes back to the very first cars built. He has six Rolls Royces, and anyone who says any of those million dollar cars out performs a $10,000 car is an idiot. If you would like, I can post pictures of him with Jay Leno, from Mr. Leno consulting him on his next purchase. Or, one of the many car shows that he has interviewed with. So, drop the million dollar cars being fine performance sportscars BS. His mother also has the world largest collection of fire trucks and rail cars. He also has several helecoptors to play around with on his North Alabama estate. But, when he drops by my house, he rides a 1980 Honda CB900.
My dad’s old friend when I was a kid built and collected experimental airplanes. And, our neighbor when I was a kid was Hank Williams Jr, and he would blow through more than $6500 in ammunition on any given drunken weekend.
“Oh why don’t they do something more helpful for the world with their money?” And, who is to say they don’t?
I will reiterate that I am not of that financial caliber. Sure, I feel a little Gatsby-esque sometimes, being his friend. But, before his inheritance we both used to live on ramen noodles and thrift store clothes back in college. The only difference was that I worked as a landscaper to pay for college, and he waited tables.
When I visited him over Christmas, he had asked me if I wanted any of his dad’s old pipes. Ha ha, his dad who started this car collection only owned Dr. Grabows and smoked Borkum Riff. No thanks, they meant more to him and his family than to me. But, he did own a table full of diamond and gold handmade lighters.
It’s easy for poor people like us to set back and whine about what “we” would rather spend that kind of money on. I guess it makes us feel better to talk about how stupid rich people are. When I asked him how much money he has, he just tells me that he’s not quite 14k gold toilet rich.
The lions don’t bother themselves with the whining of the sheep.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I'm horrible with money and creature comforts. I'm debating a $13,000 amethyst skull for my 2018 Christmas present.