As a pipe maker, this conversation is dangerous to wade into. I do not want to be misunderstood and develop some sort of negative reputation. Never the less, I am going to make a comment.
The discussion on Pipe Makers Forum (PMF) was not about losing sales to other pipe makers. It was about a means to protect customers and the craft. Words could have been better chosen, no doubt, but the heart of the conversation was benevolent. That's not how everyone here reads it, and that's the nature of such conversations. You might also not agree that the customer or craft needs protection. Many have extrapolated from a discussion describing the need to protect customers as a statement that pipe makers think customers are stupid. That just isn't fair, and is not what is meant at all.
If you'll indulge me, let me try to explain. Let me start by pointing out that many of the people in the PMF thread make a living making pipes. (For the record, I do not make a living by anything tobacco pipe related.) This isn't a casual conversation for them. This is feed-their-family serious. With that in mind, think about how you make your living. You are an expert at that subject, relative to the rest of the population. Let's say you are a welder. You've done what it takes to become a pipeline welder. You have the training and experience to pass all necessary tests. Your work gets inspect by trained inspectors every day. Your welds get X-rayed for internal flaws that might compromise an otherwise aesthetically fine weld. Everything you do is scrutinized. Now, let's say your brother-in-law takes up welding as a side thing. (Maybe you even taught him a few welding basics to get him started.) And he starts by making fences for people. Good for him, no big deal. You see his work, and it's crappy as can be. Most people aren't fluent enough in the nuances of welding to see exactly what you see, but it's very elementary work. It's not excellent, it's sloppy. The fence isn't square, and the welds are messy. It holds the fence together and has decent paint though, so he continues. After his first fence, a neighbor sees the fence and hires him for theirs. Good for him. In casual conversation you find out he's charging $120/hr. WTH, you think, as a tested and certified welder in a life-critical application, you get $80/hr.. Now, of course, you could switch to welding fences for $120/hr, but you'd feel like you were screwing people. It would be unethical to you, and you feel bad for people who don't realize that for $80/hr that could get a lot better job for less money.
So you're probably not a welder, but think of what you do. Have you seen people buy what you do for a lot more than they need to for the quality they are getting and it bother you? If people only saw what you see, they could save a lot of money But they don't see, not like you do, because they just don't have the experience you do in the field.
That's what's going on. Like it or not, think it's arrogant or not, some pipe makers are worried that customers are getting screwed, and that bothers them. To make it more bothersome, they fear getting screwed will turn people away from pipes. That thins the pool of the pipe makers' livelihood, and that's disturbing.
Something important to note, the price disparity I used in my example is often not accurate. Lots of those concerned pipe makers sell their stuff for a lot more than the "turds" get. It's not a $120/hr -v- $80/hr issue. Rather, to extend my metaphor a bit, the concerned welder might make $200/hr, but it still bothers them to see someone charge $120/hr for shoddy work, again, because they care about the customer and the craft.
Now, if you go scrutinize that thread on PMF, you can probably find a comment or two by some guys that is, or sounds like sour grapes. Not everyone over there agrees, and so I can't possibly represent what everyone is thinking, but I do think my comments are fair to the spirit of what most pipe makers I know think about this conversation.
I also want to note that I personally hold no grudge against hobby-ist Instagram sales wizards. Heck, I'm basically one of them. They are free as can be to do what they do ( maybe I should say what we instead of they). The hope is not to stop anyone from selling their wares, rather it is to figure out how to help the collector get exactly what they deserve for their money.
I say all this in hopes that you will not write off a group of guys that are passionate about pipes, do some of the best work in the world, and want their customers to always get a square deal.
Having said all that, I will quickly mention that I belive the process of buying a pipe is about buying an experience as much as it is a pipe, but that is a topic for a different thread. It does, though, have bearing on this conversation, and speaks to why lesser-crafted pipes might be "worth" more than an objective quality standard might suggest.
So much for me saying I don't want to defend anything, I guess.
Thanks for indulging me.
