Some of those cobs actually come with a hole all the way through the bottom before you smoke them, poor quality indeed. Never get Chinese cobs, they simply do not have access to the strong, wood-like cobs that Missouri Meerschaum uses to make their cobs and it is always a nice thing to get American made these days...
Briarblues does have a point, but we are also talking about Chinese cobs here and I have never heard of high quality Chinese cobs produced by a Chinese carver in a bin at a retailer, that would be a new one to me.
I guess the real question is is it briar, cob, or some other material making up the pipe, maybe you'll be lucky and it's the one shop that sells high grade Chinese pipes, I've never heard of it, but if Mike says it's true...