Anyone Have Experience With Buying Pipes At Estate Sales?

[fluffie666]

Wow! Congrats on those finds! Very nice choices. I have been going to estate sales for the past few years looking for this and that. Pipes are always on my list. What you found at this particular sale is a great haul. The pipes look like they've been taken care of fairly well. This is rare. Sav's and GBD's that are in any kind of decent condition are even more rare estate sale finds. Dunhill pipes, Charatan, Sasieni and the like are even more elusive finds because a quick eBay search for pipes will tell anyone pricing theses things what the high dollar pipes are. In my experience, the high dollar pipes are removed from the collections and probably sold somewhere else.

You've reached the pinnacle of estate sale pipe finds with that haul. There are two things to do after a haul like that. Clean up what you have and then go to more sales to push the envelope. There has to be a Dunny out there somewhere. You've just entered a deeper niche. I'm right there with you. Happy hunting!

 

[drydock]

A few years ago I was browsing through a Habitat for Humanity shop. For anyone unfamiliar, it's a second hand shop for home goods and building supplies--everything is donated & then resold for a reasonable price. I saw an interesting looking table saw that had been dropped off on their dock & asked to see it. The sales associate took me back there--and as I was looking, I noticed a box with an amber colored glass tobacco jar, you know the ones--we all recognize them immediately when we see them. So I peeked inside & it was full of old pipes, a couple racks. I asked if they were selling them & for how much? The sales person said Habitat usually threw away (!) smoking equipment, but said I could have the box for $5.00. I paid immediately, table saw forgotten!
No amazing finds, nothing special. Except, I knew I'd just rescued some old man's entire smoking life in pipes from a dumpster. All the pipes had been well kept, cake in good condition, a few favorite pipes were pretty heavily used. But you could tell these had been a working man's pride. I have seldom been so delighted by a find as that.

 

[rx2man]

I live 20 min away from where the estate sale was but not paying attention. Nice score.

 

[rx2man]

I live 20 min away from where the estate sale was but not paying attention. Nice score.

 

[paddypiper]

Looks like a good day at an estate sale to me.

 

[mso489]

It's a lucky thing to have the sale and the time to go browse. Around here it is seldom worthwhile, so I tend to pass them by. I probably miss a few pipes, but I would have to screen six or eight yard (etc.) sales to find any. Peoples' old childrens' furniture and dept. store crockery doesn't interest me. It's kind of a downer. I'm not sure why central N.C. is such a non-pipe zone. I guess because it was such a cigarette capital, so that's what people smoked. The Midwest and Northeast seem to have more.