Is It A Cult Or A Conspiracy?

[sablebrush52]

There has been a recent spate of surprisingly high prices paid for vintage British factory pipes. Could this be, as some here have intimated, a conspiracy or possibly cult driven activity? Or could this be simple stupidity.
WTF

 

[Chasing Embers]

My vote is on stupidity. My high dollar only goes for handmades. :wink:

 

[mrenglish]

Could be Asian buyers. Not sure but they are buying up a lot of pipes and tobaccos.

 

[condorlover1]

It could be a 'ring' buying and selling between themselves with the aim of luring in the asian buyers. I saw something like this at the end of the 1980s boom in classic cars with E Type Jaguars being passed between dealers then sold to the idiot suckers for $700,000.00 and then the whole thing went 'tits up' when the bubble burst in 1989. I would assume that with pipes being smaller it would be relatively easy to 'mark' the market in a particular make of pipe especially with enough unsmoked examples to pass around between the players as you move the price up.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Read in the old farmers almanac, a few years back, that buying smoking paraphernalia was hot due to the decline in tobacco usage and possible skyrocketing of resale to potential collectors. Now I'm all about buying what you like, but even I have my limits.

 

[warren]

A conspiracy controlled by a cult! I could name the leader, but then I'd have to drink the Kool-Aid.

 

[pitchfork]

It could be a classic bubble. Pipes that sold a year or two ago for $2-300 are now selling for two or three or four times that. I suspect people with too much money and too little sense are getting all wound up by recent price signals. Didn't tresurpipes sell some top-shelf Barlings a while back with silver rims, caps, etc that went for "only" several hundred dollars? Lately we've seen Barlings with simple silver bands sell for well over $1,000. Just as long as they don't start bidding up BBBs -- which are HORRIBLE pipes, by the way.

 

[lochinvar]

It's a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, ensconced in a riddle, sitting beside a little white lie. Oh, and it's definitely aliens.
I've noticed the Barlings have steadily been on the rise. They were always a little too expensive to me (the shapes are kind of ehh and the ones I came across were always on the small side), but the prices here lately are straing into Cooke territory.

 

[dottiewarden]

I suppose it wouldn't hurt to put some pipes on the bay at outrageous prices just to see what happens.

 

[dmcmtk]

The price was in the ballpark until the last two bidders, what the thinking was placing those last two bids, can't say, but yes a little bit crazy. If those are "real" sales, and some people are willing, or foolish, to pay those kind of prices, well, I have some pipes to sell them!!!
Dave

 

[mcitinner1]

Stupidity! EF'n crazy! Disheartening!

 

[mso489]

Group psychology. It's a problem with ebay, which magnifies the group-think of auctions

in general. I don't doubt there are mind games and schemes woven into it from time to time,

but I think many or most of the sales are prompted by herd instinct. Warren Buffet made his

billions NOT following the crowd and being an old Puritanical stick-in-the-mud.

 

[woodsroad]

Is It A Cult Or A Conspiracy?

Sheesh, I thought that you were referring to Stonehaven and Penzance.

 

[sablebrush52]

Sheesh, I thought that you were referring to Stonehaven and Penzance.

Different idée fixe, but basically the same phenomenon.

 

[dmcmtk]

On a related note, Barling's, not ET, see here,
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/wheres-the-popcorn