Al, knowing your guidelines of acceptance, you have me, for one, "Jonesin'" to see this beauty. If you get a chance, could you please post a picture?
Luxury Estates or Excellent New Pipes?
- Thread starter bersekero
- Start date
The conical chamber of a Dublin concentrates the flavors as the bowl is smoked. This is better for some tobaccos than others.
Au contraire. If a Dublin lacks a conical chamber, it is by definition, NOT a Dublin. The conical chamber defines a Dublin more than the exterior shape. My Ben Wade Giant is an example of a "not a Dublin." (I still call it a Dublin anyways).
I did finally receive my Nørding World Record Pipe. Turns out it wasn't lightly smoked. It's unsmoked, and I have no idea what to do with it now. I was so looking forward to smoking it, too, but that was before I knew half the value of the pipe would disappear if I did.
More and more people trying to turn it into secondary income, jacking up the market price more and more. They negatively affect the market because they don't run auctions and let the entire market set prices. They use Buy It Now and artificially mess with the market. It wouldn't matter if it happened once or twice, but the MO of these sellers, which is growing in number, keep at it until a pipe sells for an exorbitant amount. They sell pipes for $250 that commonly sell at auction for 50% or less than that. It's not long until people start to associate worth with that jacked price, and even the auctions start to escalate in final bid values. The irony is that I would assume these are working class people who are turning our hobby into an even more expensive one, negatively affecting their peers and ultimately turning it into an even richer man's hobby. If it sounds like I'm pissed off, then I'm expressing myself well.
Buyers set the price, not sellers. If someone is pricing things too high, buyers have the option not to buy. Sellers then can either pound sand, or lower their price.
I can be a sombitch on occasion. I've offered a fair market price directly to the seller, had it refused, and when it doesn't sell and the seller approaches me, I'll set a lower price. Should have accepted my first offer.
Yeah, but did you pop the cherry on a pipe that was made in numbers between more than 3 and less than 20, and is almost 25 years old?
It belongs in a museum.
There are a lot of new people in pipes. They lack the history and context of pipe values. And then there is China (and this is not an anti-China stance). It only takes a small number of times, or a short period, of exorbitant pricing to affect the market. If I was more of a jerk, I'd give ebay user names. They might only have 20 pipes that they've had to relist 20 times to sell 3 of them at their absurd prices, but as the market searches "sold" items and sees the prices of those 3 pipes, they get a distorted view of the general market. And then other new sellers and buyers think, "Well, if they can sell for $250, I'm not auctioning them and only getting $110." That chasm between the exorbitant and the common shrinks and shrinks. They get closer and closer to one another. That's a small set of people, both buyers and sellers, resetting the market. I've been watching a particular brand, which is my favorite, go through this in the past 12-18 months. The prices were pretty much steadfast for years, and then these new sellers come in with their inflated Buy It Nows, and the rest of the field adjusts upward towards those.
Still a self inflicted wound.
Before I get into something, I do research. I know just how dumb I am.
Hardly anyone is making enough money buying and selling pipes to call it a second income. And no one who has spoken publicly has made pipes an "investment" with decent returns.
And, yes, there are real market forces at play, just not of the tsunami class.
And, yes, there are real market forces at play, just not of the tsunami class.
You should check out Foundation by Musico pipes. Artisan pipes for the price of a high end Peterson. Excellent pipes worth well above the price, and they do simple and elegant quite well.
That's always the trade off when the pipe is a collectible. That first match can be very expensive.
