When I weigh in with ebay sellers, I look for an anime character as their logo.
Keep in mind @Kottan , your pipe was $1. This was a premium $3 pipe.
Keep in mind @Kottan , your pipe was $1. This was a premium $3 pipe.
Chronicling an AliExpress Pipe and Purchase for Science
- Thread starter mikethompson
- Start date
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I think that's the Chinese version of "Well bless your heart"...
Dammit Mike!! You’re going to cause a run on these pipes and prices will start to go up. Next thing you know, they’ll run out of these pipes. Then they’ll get really hard to find! And, then i’ll know who to blame.
Mike,
If you (contrary to expectation) should be disapointed by your premium purchase, I can offer you my second Chinese handemade briar pipe for a fair price. It has the same features as the one before but another shape. Unsmoked, of course.
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Among the half dozen Chinese pipes I've bought they're extremely good at drilling and shaping, they just don't have access to high quality Briar (for that matter it sounds like almost no-one has access to high quality Briar).
The real problem with Chinese pipes though is that good Italian or British made pipes aren't expensive to begin with.
Both my Lorenzo Titano and Blakemar King's Imperial are some of the cheapest pipes I own, and that in a shape where the equivalent product from any well known brand (like the Peterson House pipes) usually costs 5x more.
(I just placed another order with Blakemar, I still don't quite fathom how they can afford to sell pipes so cheap).
It's not too difficult to find well established Pipemakers selling pipes on low margins, so even if the Chinese can cut the price in half, the starting price for the genuine article is so low the savings with Chinese labour are inconsequential.
You own TWO? Surely that is too much luxury for one man, no?
I'm curious as to the drilling on it to be honest. How careful are they with a $3 pipe?
@frozenchurchwarden
I saw a video report from the international trade fair 'Inter Tabac' in 2017. Among the well established brands there was also a Chinese newcomer with pretty fine pipes. The commentator said, the Chinese pipemakers would learn quickly and that in few years they would enhance their quality level much more.
The problem I can imagine is, that because of the lower manufacturing costs in China a European pipe label let's say 'Butz Choquin' could transfer parts of their production to China, what would cause some unpleasing consequences.
@ mikethompson
I can't disagree but at least once in my life I wanted to get a feeling of luxury.
I saw a video report from the international trade fair 'Inter Tabac' in 2017. Among the well established brands there was also a Chinese newcomer with pretty fine pipes. The commentator said, the Chinese pipemakers would learn quickly and that in few years they would enhance their quality level much more.
The problem I can imagine is, that because of the lower manufacturing costs in China a European pipe label let's say 'Butz Choquin' could transfer parts of their production to China, what would cause some unpleasing consequences.
@ mikethompson
I can't disagree but at least once in my life I wanted to get a feeling of luxury.
Imagine when pipes are stamped "Made in France with International Components"
Yeah, that would be correct but who would buy such honestly declared pipes?
Since the shut down of the Stanwell factory in 2009 the pipes are completely produced in Italy. Before this date the pipes were stamped ' Made in Denmark', now the stamping reads 'Danish Design', Italy is not mentioned and they are still sold as Stanwells.
After Dunhill sold the Charatan brand to James B. Russell, in 1988 the entire production of the pipes was moved to France probably to the BC factory. The markings and the logo on the stems were altered again. (Before that the old Charatan-logo was already discontinued by Dunhill in 1981). The two standard lines
'Charatan's Make
'London England'
were changed to
' CHARATAN '
'of London' (smaler scriptfont) s. below
Some of the Russell-era Charatans are stamped with 'France'.
However the customers buy or bought them as good old (british) Charatans ignoring the long gone craftsmanship of this brand.
9
Update!
Guess who is eligible for a discount on their next purchase?
Guess who is eligible for a discount on their next purchase?
No one even notices that, that is Brian Levine behind Napoleon, ha ha.Damn, look at you!!!
I don't care about the pipe at this point, I am just blown away by Human Customer Service. When was the last time anyone prepared you an exquisite batch of goods? I'm impressed.
What impressed me was that it was prepared especially for me and no one else.
Buy them while you can. These pipes are never going to be as cheap as they are now...
I will add this today: if you are looking for a pipe from AliExpress, do not be in a hurry to get it.
I placed my recent order on 9/5/20 and received it in Maryland on 9/18/20. I thought that was pretty fast. But my previous order was placed on April 30th and received on July 2nd. Most of the order time was spent traveling thru China in each case.
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