Do You Have A Set Criteria For Choosing A Pipe?

[Parsimonious Piper]

5'9" is pretty short nowadays.. I'm 6 feet tall and feel pretty average in height.

Per the CDC, average American male height is 5’9”.

As for the OP, I buy almost only Pipe by Lee pipes from the 1940s-50s (or their seconds, Briarlee and Gold Coast). I have a couple dozen, so I’m mostly interested in finding shapes I don’t already have. I do sometimes buy duplicates, most of which I clean up and pass on to my perennially broke millennial progeny.

Oh, and cobs. I love ‘em and have a basket of Missouri Meerschaums that grows whenever they have the bigger bags of seconds available.

 

[cigrmaster]

I would be considered fairly tall at 6'4". It was great for watching over people at concerts and for jamming a basketball. Chick also dug the tall guys

 

[lawdawg]

I think we all develop our preferences and criteria over time, and some of us are more picky than others. My criteria are basic: medium sized bowls (taller narrower bowls for Virginia, slightly wider shorter bowls for latakia blends) and that the pipe easily passes a cleaner. Don't really care about vulcanite vs. acrylic. I appreciate both for what they offer. I also like both straight and bent pipes and different shapes, though I pretty much only buy classic shapes. I'd be open to buying the right artisan pipe if I saw one I really liked, and I sometimes do but just haven't bought one yet.