Perhaps it's also related to PAD. For example, this evening I was looking over the latest newsletter from Smokingpipes.com, and Ted Swearingen had written about their latest acquisitions. He specifically singled out Sebastian Beo, stating that it was great value for a low price, and that he had just acquired his first one. I looked at the pipes, and my eye was immediately drawn to a beautiful acorn, (already removed from the site, but its twin can be found under sku 002-494-0131.) It was love at first sight, and before I knew it, I had entered the ordering information and in a few days I'll have my pipe. Now, that's not an estate pipe, but I've done that before, too. For example, a short while ago I happened to be browsing eBay, and saw a bunch of estates for sale--about 8 of them, for a reasonable price. They included GBDs, a Comoy, and --here's what attracted my attention to them: there were a couple of Diebels in the lot. Now Fred Diebel introduced me to pipe smoking over 50 years ago, at his shop on Wornall Road in Kansas City's Plaza shopping district. He sent me pipes and tobacco while I was in Vietnam, and I've often thought fondly of him. In fact, I'm planning a blog about him. At any rate, knowing something about Diebel pipes, I bought the lot, and when they arrived, they were in about as rough condition as the photo on eBay had indicated. But that's ok--the price was absurdly low, I had a pretty good idea what I would be getting. As soon as I get them organized, I'll be shipping them off to Walker Briar Works for repair, cleaning, disinfecting, etc., etc. and I should get at least 2 or 3 good smokers out of the batch.
So, Kamikaze, that answers your question in part. Don't be afraid of an estate pipe. Just remember that its a euphemism for "used," but that sounds too grotty. A used pipe can be sanitized, cleaned, polished, and treated so that it'll smoke just like new. You needn't worry about catching any strange diseases. And the reputable dealers, Smokingpipes.com, to name one commercial enterprise, will clean and treat any estate pipe so that you know it will be in optimal smoking condition. Many of the individuals on this forum will do the same.
The bottom line--if a particular pipe is whispering your name ever so softly, and you can afford it, then go for it. You'll love the pipe, and it will give you years of smoking pleasure.
best
Eric
