Are Pipe Brochures Valuable?

[Dixie Piper]

I see people trying to sell old pipe brochures for various brands for $90-$150 online. I find this shocking.

Have any of you actually paid these sums?

Are they flippers waiting on one us to be in a " Brewster's Millions" type of situation?

 

[jguss]

I see people trying to sell old pipe brochures for various brands for $90-$150 online. I find this shocking.

Have any of you actually paid these sums?

Like all such things it depends on the buyer’s desire and pocketbook.

Speaking just for me for an early hitherto unknown catalog that fills an important gap in knowledge about a major brand, sure; I’d pay up big bucks in a heartbeat. For something that tells me nothing new I’d be uninterested at almost any price.

Again speaking for only myself I’m largely uninterested in ephemera per se. I collect information, not artifacts. A quality scan would suit me just as well (and I’ve paid a lot for those on occasion too!).

 

[warren]

. I find this shocking.

Why? There are collectors for such. Certainly none of my business how people spend their discretionary funds.

 

[Waning Embers]

Somebody's going to buy them.

 

[sablebrush52]

I see people trying to sell old pipe brochures for various brands for $90-$150 online. I find this shocking.

Have any of you actually paid these sums?

Are they flippers waiting on one us to be in a " Brewster's Millions" type of situation?

In 2013, a complete copy of a WW1 era Barling catalog showed up on eBay, to this day, the only complete copy known to exist. It survived because it had been in the company’s archives.

There had been fragments, one of which Loring published in his collection of 20 early catalogs.

I bid on it and lost, because I didn’t hit the seller’s reserve. BTW, I offered a hell of a lot more than a measly $150 for it.

Fortunately, I had established a rapport with the seller, telling her of my intention to preserve the catalog and to publish it so that so that the information would be made available to anyone interested, rather than it disappearing into a private collection. She offered to sell it to me for the reserve price even though she already had a higher offer after the end of the auction.

I bought the catalog and then paid several hundred dollars to have it professionally conserved.

During the conservation process the catalog was separated into its separate leaves, and I borrowed it to make high resolution scans of the leaves on a high end scanner that I had bought for the purpose, after which I returned the leaves to the conservationist.

During the next month I spent 150 hours meticulously restoring the leaves in preparation for publishing a facsimile. In all, I spent about $1500 on the project and sold enough copies to break even, if I didn’t count the hours I spent restoring the pages.

I was also part of a group that pooled funds to purchase other vintage catalogs, which I scanned and restored, sending copies of the restored catalogs to the other members of the group.

Catalogs are important sources of information on the history of various pipe manufacturers, providing solid historical documentation instead of made up “facts”. They are invaluable for the purpose.

My goal has always been to make information available to the public, rather than to hide it away in a drawer. It’s not about owning the material. It’s about sharing the material.

That makes the expense worthwhile.

 

[stoopidbaits]

It was on this forum that I found out there is big money to be made on used saxophone mouthpieces.

Nothing surprises me anymore.

 

[stoopidbaits]

In 2013, a complete copy of a WW1 era Barling catalog showed up on eBay, to this day, the only complete copy known to exist. It survived because it had been in the company’s archives.

There had been fragments, one of which Loring published in his collection of 20 early catalogs.

I bid on it and lost, because I didn’t hit the seller’s reserve. BTW, I offered a hell of a lot more than a measly $150 for it.

Fortunately, I had established a rapport with the seller, telling her of my intention to preserve the catalog and to publish it so that so that the information would be made available to anyone interested, rather than it disappearing into a private collection. She offered to sell it to me for the reserve price even though she already had a higher offer after the end of the auction.

I bought the catalog and then paid several hundred dollars to have it professionally conserved.

During the conservation process the catalog was separated into its separate leaves, and I borrowed it to make high resolution scans of the leaves on a high end scanner that I had bought for the purpose, after which I returned the leaves to the conservationist.

During the next month I spent 150 hours meticulously restoring the leaves in preparation for publishing a facsimile. In all, I spent about $1500 on the project and sold enough copies to break even, if I didn’t count the hours I spent restoring the pages.

I was also part of a group that pooled funds to purchase other vintage catalogs, which I scanned and restored, sending copies of the restored catalogs to the other members of the group.

Catalogs are important sources of information on the history of various pipe manufacturers, providing solid historical documentation instead of made up “facts”. They are invaluable for the purpose.

My goal has always been to make information available to the public, rather than to hide it away in a drawer. It’s not about owning the material. It’s about sharing the material.

That makes the expense worthwhile.

Dude, that's awesome!