How to Sell a Large Lot of Pipes

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jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
741
389
Seattle
Title edited for caps and brevity

A friend of a friend buys at estate sales, mostly furniture, and resells. He'll say, "I'll take everything in this room, everything in this room..." etc. so large lots of furniture getshipped to him. In the base of a hutch (and he has no idea which sale it was from) was a large plastic suitcase, which contained about two-thirds of a hunting rifle in pieces, an old gun sight still in the package, a single radio tube, and a whole mess of pipes-- what an odd combination. Could I look them over? Yes, happily!

There were twenty-six Kirstens and several bowls, and those are already spoken-for. Aside from two of the Kirstens & a spare bowl (which, being a Kirsten lover, I bought straight away, along with another Shalom Alpha), here's the rest. I'm still poking around to see what they sell for. I need to ask a friend if I can use his Worthpoint account to see what these go for. Is the ol' 'Bay my best bet, or should I list them here, or is there another place? Either way, I won't go the route of the many sellers (on the former, auctions) who list them as a lot. "Great for collectors!" No, collectors usually want specific pipes. Advice greatly appreciated.

I took some notes on these, just stamped nomenclature. The one only marked "Israel" can only be Shalom and looks like their 'freehands,' but I haven't seen this screw-on shank section before. The zeppelin-style pipe is marked "Syringe," a bizarre name for it (though, I suppose, kind of fitting) and its two halves fit only loosely; the male part has ridges, and someone wrapped them with black thread, I suppose to add grip, but if it worked then, it ain't working now. The calabash insert is quite small, and I'll bet it's pressed meer since a wet finger barely sticks to the unwaxed portion. All of these except for the calabash insert have been well-smoked, but none have excessive cake.

wHGcMif.jpg


My friend got back to me later; he'd taken one out to look at it, and forgot to put it back. I had no idea Pierre Cardin marketed pipes, and the shank-side curve seems to be an attempt to imitate their "P" logo. That & the top of the shank (all rounded) and the front & underside (flat) are black and rusticated. Underside has a smooth panel with the Pierre Cardin signature and "Paris." I understand these were made in St. Claude, but I've no idea who did so. He thought because it said "Paris" it was probably worth a lot. I suspect it isn't. It is unusual-looking, though.

D3X7jSa.jpg
 
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jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
741
389
Seattle
I’ll give you my address for the Stanwell…
Any idea what I should ask for it? The owner wants these sold, they're just giving me as long as it takes and they trust me to figure out reasonable prices-- a nice change from the expected "no lowballs, I know what I have!"
 

jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
741
389
Seattle
All of these have at least a tiny sliver of cake (none won't take my index finger-- unfortunately, my finger's size isn't well-known like Marty Pulvers' thumb) and over half have some faint tooth marks and/or a bit of rim-darkening, so Pipestud won't take them.

Pardon me. The one at top left has "H" and what may be a mostly-worn-off "M" on its heel. Nothing else. It's very hefty, and has thick walls. It's unsmoked. I wondered if it might be a homemade pipe.
 
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jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
741
389
Seattle
If I wanted to sell on the ol' 'Bay (or here) is there a good way to find realistic values? I know very well the 'Bay occasionally has very high or low sale prices for other items I collect about which I do know typical collecting values.
 

Sobrbiker

Lifer
Jan 7, 2023
2,366
28,914
Casa Grande, AZ
If I wanted to sell on the ol' 'Bay (or here) is there a good way to find realistic values? I know very well the 'Bay occasionally has very high or low sale prices for other items I collect about which I do know typical collecting values.
Can one still search “ended” auctions on fleabay?
That helps separate what things are actually selling for rather than what sellers want.
 

jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
741
389
Seattle
Can one still search “ended” auctions on fleabay?
That helps separate what things are actually selling for rather than what sellers want.
You can do that, but if nothing like what you have has sold recently, or there's only one... I've been slowly going through them. As said, I may ask a friend who has a WorthPoint account if I can use it for a day or two and see a lot more closed auctions.

The one briar I kept from the lot, the 'Bay had zero for sale or sold, and WorthPoint had but three of them.
 

HawkeyeLinus

Lifer
Oct 16, 2020
5,604
41,079
Iowa
Give the Stanwell to @Sobrbiker and sell the lot at a straight auction or list them separately as auctions and take what you get, IMO. If the owner thinks he or she can do better it’s their problem to solve. Can’t imagine expectations are all that high and guessing the time that will be invested in a lot of research will be not worth the return. Move ‘em!