I happen to have personally seen the Specimen 250 Dublin that went for $705, as it used to belong to another well known Ebay seller/collector who I've bought many pipes from. Even at the high bid I am almost certain there was little profit seen for the consignor/owner.
As I remember, the pipe is much deeper in color than is depicted on the Ebay photos with greater grain contrast.
Sometimes flash can "bleach" out areas of a pipe, making some sections look weaker than reality. If memory serves me correctly, the areas on the 250 dublin which appear on the Ebay pics to be bald spots with no grain, were actually very tight angel hair straight grain.
In addition, when a certain type of pipe brings a good price, sometimes another example of the same type will follow on Ebay within a week or two. I suspect this is what happened with the Specimen Straight Grain bulldog that shortly followed the closing bid on the 250 Dublin.
This can make a type of pipe appear more common than it really is. In reality Specimen Straight Grain is a rare pipe.
Given it's condition I was not surprised at the amount of the closing bid on the Dublin. However once again citing condition, I WAS surprised at the amount the Bulldog realized.
Getting back to the subject of Ebay photos, I once bought a pipe that looked light orange, and was in fact a chestnut brown when it arrived. Seller explained this was caused by the high intensity light he uses.
Accordingly, pics can be enhanced, colored , sharpened and what have you, so always make sure of a return guarantee.
You can be pleasantly surprised, or greatly disappointed.
Anyone else have a similar experience?
P.S. The most incredible Comoy I've ever seen come up on Ebay was a Blue Riband Extraordinaire 309 Canadian that was also stamped "Straight Grain". Anyone ever seen another Comoy with all those 3 stampings?
