Why accumulating pre 54 Marxman pipes is so addictive:
Let’s say it’s 1939 and Marx walks into his factory in downtown New York City.
There are bags upon bags of old Algerian briar in the upper floors.
He has a good stock of vulcanite.
He uses umber for stain and lots and lots of putty. He has a good stock of both.
There’s a bunch of machinery, the front office girls, and the workers all on the payroll along with the rent or mortgage payment and utilities and advertisements.
His overhead was enormous, being where his factory is located, but it was also more or less fixed. The primary product was $5 grade pipes, but his workers were turning those bags of briar and vulcanite into money, all day every week day.
At some point in the month Marx paid all his expenses. He’d cracked the nut, amd for the rest of the month it was pure profit for him.
This old, nearly black, $5 A size Jumbo cost Marx about the same to make as this 400, except no gold band.
They are both dynamite smokers, and once a customer got a taste for ancient Algerian briar he was hooked.
The key to his success was buying only the best smoking grade of Algerian briar.
That briar was why when his competitors sold genuine briar pipes for fifty cents Marx sold most of his at five dollars,,,,:in the Depression.
We today can buy those old blackened A size pipes for nearly nothing and they smoke on par with a 400, only less briar.
But every one, came from the same bags.
