Look to the Stars Lee Star Grade Ad

[Briar Lee]

Lee advertisements are scarce.

The above is often reproduced, and a few others.

Only the very earliest 1946 ads show a $3.50 One Star.

Every one I’ve ever seen implies there were none at dealers.

Apparently it was a mail order only operation.

To catch a customer, the customer had to see that little advertisement, put a 3 cent stamp on an envelope, and there had to be a mail clerk to open the request and send a brochure, and then maybe came an order.

Lee had to wholesale a bunch of Gold Coasts to stay afloat.

He sold the highest priced regularly cataloged pipe in the world at $25, but for $5 you got the same shape, if you chose. There were many shapes and sizes to choose. More money bought better grain, but really not that much more, A $5 Two Star was a beautiful pipe.

Most Lee Star Grades found today were $10 Three Stars, sold sight unseen.

I’d appreciate any more newspaper ads or brochures anyone might post.

 

[didimauw]

Cool ad! Boy It must have been rough, being a young man interested in pipe smoking, having to wait that long for even a response!

I love the internet.

 

[Briar Lee]

Cool ad! Boy It must have been rough, being a young man interested in pipe smoking, having to wait that long for even a response!

I love the internet.

I’ve read somewhere, that during the Great Depression Prince Albert still spent a million Depression dollars a year on advertising. Kaywoodie couldn’t have been far behind.

The one and only real, significant advantage this upstart, unknown, brand new Pipes by Lee company had in 1946 was Lee probably had the largest supply of unpicked over briar blocks on earth.

After five years of war Kaywoodie had to be scraping the bottom of their briar stocks.

To sell one Lee Star Grade, the customer had to first notice a tiny little advertisement in some magazine or newspaper.

Kaywwoodie ads are a dime a dozen today on eBay. Lee ads almost unknown.

Then the customer had to think, I want to look at the world’s most expensive pipes.

He could walk down the street and buy a Kaywoodie from $3.50 to $10!

But he licked a stamp anyway.

I wish I could see the girls in Lee’s office in 1946.

Answering the mail requests, filling the orders, probably all a bunch of Pretty Miss Norma Jeans.

Common sense tells us a lot of the wives, sisters and sweethearts sent off ten dollars so their men would look good with a gold star pipe.

Why?

Women today in my office go ga ga over those gold stars on the same kind of pipe their grandfather used to smoke, back in the day.

 

[Parsimonious Piper]

I’ll scan and post my Lee catalog later today.

 

[cshubhra]

I think the people who bought the Lees from the catalog were the grandparents or great grandparents of people who are now purchasing NFTs