Garage/estate Pipe Finds.

[Searock Fan]

Title edited for caps, brevity and emphasis. -jpm. Original title:
What pipes and smoking items have you found at garage and estate sales?

PS If I've gone too far and re-wording is wrong, PM me and I will change.


I, for one, would be interested in knowing if any one is having luck finding pipes at garage and estate sales. I'll start the ball rolling. When my wife retired about 7 years ago we started going out Saturay morning "garage sailing". Since then I've found and bought 3 racks, all 8 pipes type and one has a glass humidore in the center. Don't remeber the exact cost but they were cheap... about $5 each. I've also bought 2 nice cigar humidores that would retail for about $75 to $100 each and paid $10 each. As to pipes I've only seen a few and they were not worth the powder it would take to blow them up. How have you done?

 

[verporchting]

Not one solitary thing. Ever.

 

[ashdigger]

The only thing I’ve ever found were people who thought a beat up toaster was worth four times it’s value, and they were upset I didn’t haggle them down to the $2 it was worth. They wanted $45.

 

[username]

I found a pipe rack at a estate sale once came with a couple of grabows I ended up flipping on ebay for just a bit more then the cost of the whole lot. It wasnt that much and they were pretty grarly I didnt even bother cleaning them just sold them as project pipes.

 

[Searock Fan]

The only thing I’ve ever found were people who thought a beat up toaster was worth four times it’s value, and they were upset I didn’t haggle them down to the $2 it was worth. They wanted $45.

This is a little off topic, but I know what you mean. We went to a sale yesterday and I spotted quite a few items that you could buy at the dollar stores and they wanted 5 to 10 dollars for them.

 

[Servant King]

I see houses for sale all over the place that are worth a few tens of thousands of dollars. Yet, without fail, the people selling them (or trying to, albeit haphazardly) think they're worth several times that much.

I suppose human greed (and therefore, imagination) is rampant, whether at the micro or macro level. Go figure.

 

[trudger]

Amazing how estate sales are scrounged out and resold on auction sites. If you have ever been to the early morning line up you have seen the aggression. Not the family garage sale type but the pro clean out sales where everything goes.

 

[OzPiper]

I spent over an hour recently while on holiday at a country town wandering through a huge barn full of "antique and bric a bric" stalls. I came across one rather ordinary looking pipe bowl minus its stem.
Didn't bother asking to have a look.

 

[mikethompson]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who hasn't found anything at a garage sale or thrift store.

EBay and etsy have been relatively good to me.

 

[scloyd]

I've never found any pipe related items at a garage sale, but I've been pretty lucky at antique shops. In the past 3-4 years, I've purchased at least a dozen pipes, a pipe rack and a full tin of BBB Sweet Cloud (1960's).

 

[Chasing Embers]

Mostly Danish Wades, Medicos, Webers, and Kriswills, for under $10. Forum member fishnbanjo (RIP) got a Dunhill from a yard sale for $1.

 

[verporchting]

While estate sales and garage sales haven’t been fruitful I have had crazy luck at junk shops or little antique flea market type stores in out of the way places. Some of the things I’ve found just amazed me. Now I don’t even bother with garage sales.

 

[Hillcrest]

About 30 years ago I found a walnut smoking stand at a tag sale which i bought for about $15-20. It is in bad shape and needs refinishing as the top was peeling. I cleaned it up but someday will do a proper job, The copper lined humidor and humidifier (?) is still intact. I bough it because my grandfather had a similar one which went to a relative and I imagine thrown out but succeeding generations. (EEEEW Smoking !).

The picture below is shown only for shape --- mine is no where near as nice ... yet ! Mine doesn't have corner decorations or marble or inlay --- just plain. But plain walnut is actually quite elegant.

 

[Latakia Dave]

I’ve found a few deals on pipe stands and a tobacco cutter and a few pipes at yard sales , but I have better luck at antique shops with pipes.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Best luck was at a barn sale, where I found a fully bent Bertram for a few bucks. Seen a number of pipes at our local "antique" shop maze (an old sardine packing plant with dozens of tiny "shops" selling some antiques and lots of junque.

 

[Donb1972]

Nothing lately. But years ago, I found one of my beloved Jima's, unsmoked as far as I could tell, in a box of 5 dollars each toys! I'm not sure exactly why someone thought it was a toy ~ but I didn't kick up a fuss about it!

 

[anantaandroscoggin]

Only at one yard sale, ever. They had two hardwoods and one cob, all falling apart and a bit beyond even minimally fixin' up enough to smoke while shoveling sxxt.

 

[reloader]

I've never come across any at a yard/garage sale. Found a rack at a thrift store for $2. No pipes at any of the antique store in my area or at any estate sales.

 

[mso489]

Searock, I suspect that tobacco pipes and related items at yard/garage sales relate strongly to local demographics. Older folks who have been in residence for a long long time are promising. Also, smoking demographics matter; some areas lean more toward cigarettes, and a few toward cigars, rather than pipes.

My area in central North Carolina was always more inclined toward cigarette smoking, it seems, and in my area, the population has churned in a lot of people from other areas who have culled their possessions. I rarely find any pipes, pipe stands, tools or accessories, and if I do, they are not of good quality or in good shape. It is slim pickings.

I am near the state fairgrounds that in the long off season conducts an ongoing flea market, but the same deficit of pipes and related items prevails.

On a trip in New York State I found more, nothing choice, but an obvious presence. Someone on Forums long ago recommended leaving your name at antique shops to call you if they got in any pipes or racks. This might up the asking price, knowing the items are desirable, but might not be a bad idea.

 

[kcghost]

Never participated.