I tend to ignore the auctions as I personally found myself in matches with other bidders and the price going way out of what I'd normally pay for it. Alternatively, I'd be tempted by soon to expire auctions with low bids on pipes I didn't really need or want, but felt "too good" to pass on.
So I stopped looking and instead I focused on a few key people who obviously worked with pipes and started negotiating with them for the price: something like "I'll buy all 5 of these, but let's talk about a discount"; I saved money on the sale, they got a nice lump sum.
Took a little elbow grease, but that's how I got most of my English estate collection; and since I bought from pros, I could smoke straight off the bat. I don't like to tinker around with pipes I actually smoke (as opposed to fun restoration projects).
The prices I see on some of the more "esteemed" brands are outrageous enough to amuse me though. It seems to me there's a lot of people who just slap a big price tag on a pipe just because they read somewhere it's "rare" or try to recoup losses after they realized what (and for how much) they bought.
So I stopped looking and instead I focused on a few key people who obviously worked with pipes and started negotiating with them for the price: something like "I'll buy all 5 of these, but let's talk about a discount"; I saved money on the sale, they got a nice lump sum.
Took a little elbow grease, but that's how I got most of my English estate collection; and since I bought from pros, I could smoke straight off the bat. I don't like to tinker around with pipes I actually smoke (as opposed to fun restoration projects).
The prices I see on some of the more "esteemed" brands are outrageous enough to amuse me though. It seems to me there's a lot of people who just slap a big price tag on a pipe just because they read somewhere it's "rare" or try to recoup losses after they realized what (and for how much) they bought.
