Interesting Completed Ebay Auctions - British Pipes

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Papamique

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 11, 2020
790
3,959
The bidding is interesting. This one had a lot of attention. There were a number of snipers at the end who added an additional $225 to the price in the last 2 seconds. The winner has a fair number of bid retractions, so this pipe may show up again for sale.
How can you see who won it and what their bid history is? I only see some sort of eBay code for the bidder :( It would be nice to learn how to do this.
 
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sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,765
45,331
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Do you mean sort of like a "Reserve"...?
No, like a bid retraction. Like an "oops! Ha Ha! Didn't mean it". Like an "I must have accidentally hit the bid button and entered an amount".
Bid retractions aren't reserves. And the winning bidder has way too many of them to be mistakes, which is what eBay claims to be necessary for you to be allowed to be granted a retraction.
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,765
45,331
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
How can you see who won it and what their bid history is? I only see some sort of eBay code for the bidder :( It would be nice to learn how to do this.
Simple. View the bidding history, then click on the avatar of the bidder whose bidding history you want to see. It won't give you his ID, just his activity. Bid retractions are part of the activity that is listed. You'd be surprised at how many bidders have hundreds and thousands of bid retractions that eBay has allowed. It allows a bidder to bid up and up and up, and then bail, claiming they made a mistake.
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,765
45,331
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
You can't see the person, only this. On the phone app, I can't view the bidder history, but on my laptop, I can.
View attachment 36382
Correct. Smartphone apps are less featured than desktop apps. When I view the winning bidder's history for the Barling set, this pipes up:

Screen Shot 2020-07-15 at 7.14.47 AM.png
119 bid retractions in the past 6 months. Either this bidder is an idiot, or he/she is gaming the system, understanding that eBay could care less.
 

jguss

Lifer
Jul 7, 2013
2,476
6,448
Retractions should be like edits on this forum: time limited. Something like 120 seconds to retract a bid after it’s made, and none allowed in the last five minutes of the auction. In any case if unlimited retractions are in practice allowed then sellers ought to be able to ban bids from buyers with more than a certain number.

I’ll call Jamie Iannone this afternoon and get this sorted out.
 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,725
27,326
Carmel Valley, CA
Simple. View the bidding history, then click on the avatar of the bidder whose bidding history you want to see. It won't give you his ID, just his activity. Bid retractions are part of the activity that is listed. You'd be surprised at how many bidders have hundreds and thousands of bid retractions that eBay has allowed. It allows a bidder to bid up and up and up, and then bail, claiming they made a mistake.
That wouldn't possibly the seller coming in under another name and doing it, could it??? :) Sometimes, eBay just sucks.
 
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Papamique

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 11, 2020
790
3,959
Correct. Smartphone apps are less featured than desktop apps. When I view the winning bidder's history for the Barling set, this pipes up:

View attachment 36383
119 bid retractions in the past 6 months. Either this bidder is an idiot, or he/she is gaming the system, understanding that eBay could care less.

Thank you. I learned a lot.
 

guylesss

Can't Leave
May 13, 2020
322
1,155
Brooklyn, NY
Here's another interesting auction:
While the price is not extraordinary, the bidding is rather interesting. Early in the auction the winning bidder put in a bid and walked away. When looking at his bidding history he's issued 119 bid retractions in the last 6 months. You have to wonder why eBay hasn't shut him off. They make a big deal about bid retractions in their guidelines, but clearly couldn't possibly care less.
Golly. No kidding, "interesting"--there's also the "0-feedback" underbidder who added $150 to the winning bid.

I really miss a great deal about Ebay as once it was--including full bidder identities, which especially in an area of focused collectors' interest, like, say, pre-war British pipes, allowed you to infer a great deal of terrifically useful information. This including the arrival of shills and every other kind of dubious bidder. I could go on. . . .
 

guylesss

Can't Leave
May 13, 2020
322
1,155
Brooklyn, NY
Holy grail :

2 X Dunhill patent DR R h in original case :

While I am definitely inclined to defer to more expert opinion abundantly available here (both of seasoned collectors who've nursed pipes back from the brink sparing no expense, and the gifted craftsmen to whom we turn, to perform such miraculous resurrections). But the grudging late addition of a patent number ending in "/34" (without clear photos of nomenclature on either pipe) would suggest the set is not that old. And I'd think missing photos a serious warning sign.

At least to my eye, both pipes seem to have had brutally harsh lives, smoked unusually carelessly, suggesting the long string of adjectives in Thomas Hobbes' famous dictum: "poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

I'm sure there must be someone--definitely not me--for whom $900 delivered to the US, before the cost of restoration, is chump change. But even if these began life as top-of-the-line Dunhill straight grains, I'm not going to kick myself about missing a bargain here. Though I assume reasonable minds might differ on this last point.

This said, it definitely instructive to see this sort thing, and especially before (to quote a wonderful phrase of Jon Guss applied to Barling pipes) the lipstick's been applied to the pig, and they've been, as it were (please, Jon, forgive the pun) gussied up.
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,765
45,331
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
While I am definitely inclined to defer to more expert opinion abundantly available here (both of seasoned collectors who've nursed pipes back from the brink sparing no expense, and the gifted craftsmen to whom we turn, to perform such miraculous resurrections). But the grudging late addition of a patent number ending in "/34" (without clear photos of nomenclature on either pipe) would suggest the set is not that old. And I'd think missing photos a serious warning sign.

At least to my eye, both pipes seem to have had brutally harsh lives, smoked unusually carelessly, suggesting the long string of adjectives in Thomas Hobbes' famous dictum: "poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

I'm sure there must be someone--definitely not me--for whom $900 delivered to the US, before the cost of restoration, is chump change. But even if these began life as top-of-the-line Dunhill straight grains, I'm not going to kick myself about missing a bargain here. Though I assume reasonable minds might differ on this last point.

This said, it definitely instructive to see this sort thing, and especially before (to quote a wonderful phrase of Jon Guss applied to Barling pipes) the lipstick's been applied to the pig, and they've been, as it were (please, Jon, forgive the pun) gussied up.
Add to that $150 each to make style correct replacement stems with the white spot. Cosmetics, like topping, another couple of hundred bucks, then put it up on eBay, proclaiming as one unscrupulous eBay dealer did, that the pipe "Somehow survived in this pristine condition", and sell them to some schnook who pays $2400 for the set. Not a bad scam.
 
Dec 10, 2013
2,397
3,030
Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Why so cynical :)

I've seen Dunhill pipes in far worse condition and I brought them back to former glory without being historically incorrect.

The lady who sold them posted pictures of the pipes; they clearly showed the DR R h ( horizontally stamped )
patent nrs. and all .

Rare as hen's teeth in original case .

The stems are original and do not look that bad, only some oxidation.
 
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sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,765
45,331
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Why so cynical :)

I've seen Dunhill pipes in far worse condition and I brought them back to former glory without being historically incorrect.

The lady who sold them posted pictures of the pipes; they clearly showed the DR R h ( horizontally stamped )
patent nrs. and all .

Rare as hen's teeth in original case .

The stems are original and do not look that bad, only some oxidation.
The stems look like chew toys. Those will need to be replaced. The button on one of them appears to be almost completely gnawed away. One of the pipes has some significant knife damage on it's inner rim. On the plus side, they don't appear to have been smoked hot. I'm not seeing the telltale signs of nearly incinerated briar.
 
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ssjones

Moderator
Staff member
May 11, 2011
18,426
11,327
Maryland
postimg.cc
This one looks well bought, a 409 in Blue Riband. I would have guessed over $300. I considered a $199 bid in the closing seconds, before i could confirm, it was eclipsed. So, a Blue Riband still eludes me.


Screenshot_2020-08-03 COMOY'S BLUE RIBAND 409 PIPE 3 PART INLAID LOGO eBay.png
 

guylesss

Can't Leave
May 13, 2020
322
1,155
Brooklyn, NY
King George VI passed away in his sleep on february 6 1952 .
Not my fault. I wasn't there.
. . . and on that sad day of national mourning, did assemble with heavy heart the employees of Dunhill Duke Street SW, laboring together for a single purpose late into that dark night. Gathering by the yard, their costly store of gossamer white silk ventage linings and piling high the cardboard boxes to make the pyre they would set alight in homage to the late King they had all so faithfully served and loved. . . .

At least from what I've seen of other London retailers' practices, who badged their products with royal warrants (Floris, Swaine, Adeney, Brigg, and Fortnum & Mason, for example), it could take several years before name or personal pronoun were reluctantly changed. (Although some more swiftly than others might insert the word "Late" during some transition period, say, between Victoria and Edward, or Edward and George V).

But yes, duly noted. And an actual area of interesting, weedy, nerdy questions about pipe packaging both deluxe and ordinary--if anyone knows for sure. Loring--as always--speculates with insight about changes to Dunhill's tobacco tin labels ("when the King passed away in 1953 Dunhill continued to display the warrant but removed the direct reference to the deceased monarch. . . a few years later the tin label was revised again to read "By Appointment . . . to The Late King George VI." This form continued in use through the early '60s.") . . .
 
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