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Aug 11, 2022
2,632
20,717
Cedar Rapids, IA
All these other things obviously would be recognized to have value I believe to the average person. Yes people will sell these other items for probley 1/10 of what they are worth out of convenience just to get rid of them.

If I was to die tomorrow my wife would have no idea whatsoever how much all my stuff from a variety of hobbies is worth. She knows all of it has value but probably wouodnt research anything to get a fair price for it. I know my pipes/cigars/tobacco would be the first thing she throws away. She cant stand the smell of it.

Since pipes/pipe smoking has been on a decline for years i would think they would be easily overlooked and dismissed.

Nah, any of our earthly belongings are at risk. When the grieving (or not) family wants old junk gone, there is a cost to valuing and selling it that may be worth more than their time. The only difference between an old car and an old pipe that no one in the family wants is that the latter is easier to physically throw away. ;)
 
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Bobby Bailey

Starting to Get Obsessed
Aug 8, 2021
203
349
69
Upper Southwest Arkansas, USA
Yeah, that may happen with some. My Son has an idea of what my collection is worth, no way he throws them away. I also think most people who thought there was value would forget their emotions and go for the money.
I too, have always told my children that when my time comes, use their heads as most of my stuff has value. They need to think before just labeling it "junk". Thankfully, they know how to find something's worth.
 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
44,909
117,163
I've thrown many into the trash and have told my kids to do the same with what's left when I'm gone. Just another unhealthy addiction that I don't wish to pass on to them.
 

huntertrw

Lifer
Jul 23, 2014
5,830
7,439
The Lower Forty of Hill Country
How many pipe/cigar/tobacco collections have been thrown straight into the garbage by non smokers when they are left to sort through someone's things 😳?

That is exactly what happened to my paternal grandfather's pipes and tobaccos after he passed. I would have given much to have had just one of his pipes as a tangible link to him in the long years since his death, but, alas, it was not to be...
 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,248
57,309
66
Sarasota Florida
All 4 of my kids saw me sell 10 grand worth of pipes in a fairly short period this year and they know I kept the best ones and the most valuable. My oldest daughter when she was last here made the other three move shit around and got things organized. I explained tins are worth more money and to do their due diligence as to what things are selling for. They know how to contact pipestud or to sell things by themselves on the pipe sites like this. It will be up to them to figure out and I don't worry one bit about it.
 

K.E. Powell

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 20, 2022
590
2,185
37
West Virginia
The marriage between sentimentality and consumerism is an ugly one, and at no time is that made more apparent than after the death of a loved one. I've seen otherwise decent people (to say nothing of the not-so-decent people) become greedy fools arguing over who gets to keep what artifact from the deceased. Pipes get passed around as heirlooms, and people who didn't give two tugs of a dead dog's dick about the deceased will crawl out from the woodwork like roaches to foment strife and lay claim to utterly useless baubles that they will put in a box and toss in their basement the very next day.

If one is serious about avoiding these things, then a sensible will is the only real way to avoid it, and that includes what happens to our pipes. Which reminds me, I really should get on that and make sure a will is done.

Personally, I don't care what happens to me and my possessions upon death. To quote Frank Reynolds, "When I'm dead, just throw me in the trash." But I don't want my family and friends to squabble or to struggle unnecessarily. Get a will.
 

chopper

Lifer
Aug 24, 2019
1,480
3,324
I thought the very same before I came here. Lots of used briar pipes for sale on eBay, going cheap. Perfect for me but I thought "Bah. Who wants some saliva soaked and nibbled off disgusting old pipe?"
Then I saw many people here happily buying and restoring them with simple tools but great results, and happily smoking them.

Even a rookie pipe smoker might dump them because he's just not that well informed.
"Saliva soaked" conjures up a disgusting image of some poor crippled old bloke, slumped in a chair drooling into a clenched pipe.
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Maybe it's because I don't clench a pipe but I don't salivate excessively when puffing on my pipe.
The day I start salivating into my pipe is the day I'd hope that some kind soul would take me out back and put me out of my misery.
 

chopper

Lifer
Aug 24, 2019
1,480
3,324
Only last week I was in the St Vinnies op-shop and made a point of telling the staff that old pipes are actually worth money and that I'd be happy to give them a rough valuation should they ever acquire any.
Told the manager of the Salvo op-shop the same last year.
They were surprised to hear that most estate briars are worth $10 at the least but if they snag a brand like Dunhill . . .
 
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georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
6,024
16,348
I drove by a giant goodwill store we have locally and was thinking about donations and estate sales and the frightening thought hit me. How many pipe/cigar/tobacco collections have been thrown straight into the garbage by non smokers when they are left to sort through someone's things 😳? I'm sure most non smokers just see a stinky dirty old pipe and think who in the world is gonna want that when they could buy a new one?



Until the mid/late 1980's non-historical pipes were considered "body contact personal items" like underwear, socks, or toothbrushes, and they were routinely disposed of.

The shift toward sanitizing and re-using them was largely the doing of a guy named Barry Levin, who bought them by the thousands for little money from (mostly) women whose husbands has recently died, turned the sound and worthy specimens over to Jimmy Cooke to be cleaned (the same JT Cooke who later became a highly respected pipe maker), took physical-print photos of them, and mailed those photos to a list of collectors.

He called them "Estate Pipes".

And the rest, as they say, is history. puffy
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
20,705
48,980
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
It happens. A couple of years before the Pandemic, a well known pipe collector and historian passed away and his widow contacted a collector I know to find out if he could help her sell off the collrection. He sold quite a few pipes at Chicago. But, there was a "slight" hitch. Seems before she called the collector for help she and a friend dumped his cellar down the trash chute. Various Sobranie blends, Sullivan and Powell, Garfinkle's, actual Dunhill, etc, etc. A good 5 figures of rare tobacco blends went down that chute.

I've left instructions in my will, but since I'll be dead, who knows if the rare pipes I own will wind up in a landfill. Shit happens.
 

Chaukisch

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 31, 2021
535
3,572
35
Northern Germany
Maybe it's because I don't clench a pipe but I don't salivate excessively when puffing on my pipe.
The day I start salivating into my pipe is the day I'd hope that some kind soul would take me out back and put me out of my misery.
It happened to me once while reading,, face down and soaked up in the story. Didn't take long until I soaked the pipe. It's not exactly the proudest moment I ever had but not all that bad either. Being taken out of the moment and having to fiddle with pipe cleaners was worse. Kinda like sipping pipe juice.
And of course it was just a cheap and flawed basket pipe, with a good piece this wouldn't have happened.
Then again, as the gentleman above me said, shit happens.
 
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Bob the bear

Can't Leave
Apr 2, 2022
399
678
44
Edinburgh UK
As I have no children I often ponder this problem of what to do with my few collections once I shuffle off this mortal coil, but I think as stated above. Does it matter we will be worm food. If possible they should go to someone who can use it. If not then I hope they get put out as donations for estate pipes.
 

chopper

Lifer
Aug 24, 2019
1,480
3,324
Until the mid/late 1980's non-historical pipes were considered "body contact personal items" like underwear, socks, or toothbrushes, and they were routinely disposed of.
Well it's not like I have not ever thought the same.
A few years ago while in hospital, I was outside with a couple of patients puffing on my pipe while they smoked cigarettes, when one of them suddenly said "I wouldn't mind having a puff on Elrics pipe" to which I replied "Would you also like to borrow my toothbrush?"
No more needed to be said.

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