Estate Pipe Purchase Refusal

[bigpond]

If alcohol is good enough for the ER, it's good enough to sanitize a pipe. A sanitized estate pipe will absolutely be the cleanest thing you put in your mouth all day. Have confidence my friend. Really, there is nothing that will harm you about a properly cleaned estate pipe, provided you do the cleaning. I always clean estate pipes with alcohol regardless of the vendor.

Pipe smoking started off with guys, long before the invention of toothbrushes or dentistry, passing a pipe around as a sign of friendship.

Actually, we have evidence of the Egyptians using toothpaste 7,000 years ago, which precedes our first record of a smoking pipe by 2,000 years.
PS: passing the peace pipe? Dude, that is such a micro-aggression.

 

[sablebrush52]

I am always amused by stated health concerns from people engaged a cancer causing activity that they can choose not to do. Germophobia, like politics, is irrational, but real to those involved.
I didn't marry virgins.
I drive used cars.
My furniture is mostly 100 to 200 years old.
I buy pipes that I like, old, new, and commissioned.
Do what works for you.

 

[aldecaker]

It's not a germ thing. I am certainly not doubting the sanitation aspect, and most of us here have a basic handle on germ theory. No health concerns whatsoever. Some of us just think it's gross, that's all.
To me, it's kind of like watching Andrew Zimmern eat eyeballs on Bizarre Foods. Do I think an eyeball will hurt me? No. Do I think I'll catch a disease from eating an eyeball? No. Do I think an eyeball will poison me? No. Do I think eating an eyeball is a whole f**kload of disgusting? Yep. Again, more eyeballs left for the connoisseurs. So, you're welcome.

 

[pappymac]

Warren said: "I don't buy used pipes simply because I do not want someone's discarded pipe."
I say that not all estate pipes are simply discarded. Many estate pipes find their way to the marketplace because the owner may have passed, quit smoking or were stolen. There are a number of reasons for pipes to be put up for sale that has nothing to do with them being discarded because the pipes are in someway inferior.

 

[snagstangl]

I wish I had the repulsion. Then I wouldn't have as many sitting around to "clean up" for resale. I have been thinking about how often I need to clean my own stems. I have been leaving a couple pipes in the car for a couple weeks, smoking them off and on, empty the ashes run a cleaner and repeat when I drive somewhere. My own mouth bacteria is probably going crazy on them. Guess it is time to alcohol the stems and rubbers again. I have gotten, perhaps a coupl dozen estates unsmoked off ebay in the past 4 years. Half of those I didn't know were that way until I got them, because of blind bidding on a pipe with one or crappy pictures and free shipping. So listed as an estate doesn't have to mean smoked, just owned by someone else. I agree with pappy.

 

[michaelmirza]

I'll buy an estate if I trust the person sanitizing and cleaning it. Shae Hemingway, VintagePipes on Etsy, is a master pipe restorer who gets his pipes to better-than-new condition before selling. You just gotta know your seller.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I am always amused by stated health concerns from people engaged a cancer causing activity that they can choose not to do. Germophobia, like politics, is irrational, but real to those involved.

While not cancerous, I have been at times amused at seeing (TV or movies) a Dr. carefully wiping the arm of a man before and after injecting him with a lethal dose for his execution. YMMV.

 

[demetrakopoulos]

I've found Etsy to be a great source for really nice estate pipes.

 

[warren]

Someone has decided to discard the used pipe. An heir, a maid, the smoker himself possibly. Perhaps "disposed of" might be a better understood term. Nor did I mention inferior.
So I'll revise: I do not buy used pipes simply because I do not want a pipe which is being disposed of by the owner, an heir or friend of the previous, deceased or living, owner, a maid or a thief even if that pipe, after being cleaned might be superior in every way to any pipe currently in my rotation.
My apologies to all, particularly anyone who took great umbrage, for any misunderstanding my earlier poor choice of words may have caused.

 

[davet]

Why grab on to subway railing or stairwell handrail that's never been cleaned when there is no reason to?

So you don't fall, it's a safety thing. The only time I seriously avoided handrails or railings was inside a nuclear reactor, radioactive dust, you're receiving it anyways but why add to it unnecessarily.

 

[brudnod]

I like to restore old pipes, sometimes really ugly suckers. But I also like to restore old bamboo fly rods and did a stint at restoring old Meyers System wooden flutes from the 19th century. There is something rather liberating about rejuvenating/revitalizing (making look like new or at their very best), reinforce (repair to usefulness), rescue (from the absolute dregs) or even just refresh (to your own specific definition of acceptable) a pipe for the collector or the smoker. By the time I have the pipe to where I want it, it is clean and certainly sanitized to prevent just about anything except a bit of ghosting.
As a physician in [neonatal] intensive care, the data is quite convincing that alcohol based hand sanitizers prevent disease for the patient, the provider and the rest of the population with which one comes in contact.
And although I make a descent living, I rarely spend hundreds, let alone thousands, on pipes, new or old. I can save a bunch on a solid estate pipe that might cost many fold as much as new. There are better ways to spend my money... IMHO

 

[brudnod]

Ah Cosmic reminded me (as Al would attest), I LOVE my 1971 MGB-GT which I did NOT buy new!

 

[bungee]

Today I got my first estate pipe through the local eBay site.
I'm very happy with it and looking forward to restoring it and putting it to use.
I had some pre-smoked old pipes before, but they were my father's, so they don't count.
I really don't mind smoking an estate and derive a lot of pleasure from rejuvenating old things that would otherwise end up in a dumpster or unused.
Here's the pipe I got today.
Cheers,
J

 

[troutface]

I remember many years ago 60 Minutes went to the Soviet Union and in Moscow showed a water vending machine on the street. You put in your coin and it dispensed water into a glass. The Russians were shown drinking their water, then placing the glass back onto the shelf for the next customer. I'm no germophobe, but that freaked me out.

 

[ssjones]

While I have no aversion to an estate pipe, if someone grabbed a pipe from my case and put it in their mouth - that would freak me out. I've posted this before, but that would be akin to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7lR3YDzKCA

 

[jvnshr]

Then here we are today, "ick! eww! Let me go wash my hands." Germicides, anti-bacterials, discenfectants... you'd have thought that we would never have made it up unto the 21st century without sanitizing our environments.

Nope, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. The more we expose ourselves to germs the stronger we are as a species. It will be the germophobes that will die of the next plague. They will be the weakest. Then the rest of us will step in and take their pipes from their cold dead hands. And, then we will smoke them without washing them, because... "There can be only ONE!"

@cosmic, lol, that was a good one.

JV what about unsmoked estate pipes?

@fitzy, for sure I can purchase them, however not online. I have to see with my own eyes and smell it before I buy. Well, in that case I can also be tricked.

Yep. Remember when you could drink from a stream without dying?

@stanlaurel, oh we still do that in my country. I don't find it gross.

Jvnshr thank you for not buying estates.

That makes one less person on this site I have to bid against on Ebay :nana:

@keith929, you are welcome

 

[jvnshr]

Probably a good idea to observe a few dozen other sanitation habits like washing your hands after using the restroom, as about half the population doesn't do (watch 'em not do it). Protection for sex, etc.etc.

Ok MSO, here is a little story. When we were kids there was some kind of rumor that Europeans and Americans are not washing their hands after using the restroom. We were always discussing it like a huge deal. Then I grew up, met some people from Western countries and they were truly not washing their hands after peeing. I asked once and was told that he was holding his own tool but not mine, so no need to wash. I was shocked. Of course, it was just coincidental, because later I met many Westerners who were washing their hands after using the restroom.

I don't buy used pipes simply because I do not want someone's discarded pipe. I would get no more satisfaction cleaning another person's pipe than I would from buying another person's old clothes and putting them through the laundry.

Thanks Warren, you gave me another reason

I am always amused by stated health concerns from people engaged a cancer causing activity that they can choose not to do. Germophobia, like politics, is irrational, but real to those involved.
I didn't marry virgins.
I drive used cars.
My furniture is mostly 100 to 200 years old.
I buy pipes that I like, old, new, and commissioned.
Do what works for you.

Sable, quite the opposite for me

It's not a germ thing. I am certainly not doubting the sanitation aspect, and most of us here have a basic handle on germ theory. No health concerns whatsoever. Some of us just think it's gross, that's all.

Thanks Sir, you just saved my life.

 

[fitzy]

Scarface it's called building up your immunity.
I'm curious if you touch door knobs or shopping cart handles?
Also do you eat any form of fermented foods? Saurkraut? Kimchi? Pickles? Yogurt? Kefir? Etc

 

[jvnshr]

@bungee, that is a nice pipe. Congrats.

I remember many years ago 60 Minutes went to the Soviet Union and in Moscow showed a water vending machine on the street. You put in your coin and it dispensed water into a glass. The Russians were shown drinking their water, then placing the glass back onto the shelf for the next customer. I'm no germophobe, but that freaked me out.

@troutface, I was born in USSR, I remember those machines and there were also ladies selling some soft drinks. Those machines were using a single glass as you stated, however you could wash it before using. Here it is:
http://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-1631893-stock-footage-russian-citizens-use-out-of-date-vending-machines-to-get-water.html

 

[hawke]

Do what works for you.

Yep, to each his own. Why should I ask a man to "Do like me, its fine"? If I couldn't enjoy it I wouldn't use it. jvnshr don't feel guilty Sir.
I wouldn't expect you to wear my dentures, nor would I want to wear yours, and I'm not gonna change my mind on that! Hahaha. I don't even want to touch my wife's and told her to put them in a jar I cant see thru instead of that glass one. :crazy:
AND ...I'm not gonna lick a ashtray today!