Meerschaum Collection Advise Please

[cfinnell]

Hello. Please forgive my "outsider" intrusion on your forum. I cannot think of a better place to get advice.

I am not a smoker, and have acquired about 50 Meerschaum pipes from a deceased relation. These are vintage unsmoked, purchased in Turkey in the 60's or 70's. I am uncertain if I should try to sell in the USA or if taking them to London this summer, on a trip already planned would be best. There is only one pipe shop in my town, with no interest. I much prefer to unload in one heap, not breaking up the collection. Any advice is very welcome.

 

[mso489]

I'd start by talking to the people at smokingpipes.com in their estate pipe department. I'm not suggesting you sell them to them with a first offer. I think they handle a lot of estate pipes and could give you useful information. They might make an offer, and be open to negotiation, but mainly, it is a place to start with some professional credibility. I don't think selling the pipes in the UK is an especially good idea right now with the Euro in the tank. I think you will do as well in the U.S., but you could ask others. I agree that you should work at selling the lot, unless you desire to make a part time job out of selling pipes yourself, which would involve a lot of learning in order to do it well.

 

[framitz]

Only thing to add is euro is not used in England. Shel

 

[andrew]

I would definitely contact Steve Fallon aka Pipestud who's a sponser on this forum. He'll sell them for you on consignment, this way you'll get what you should for them. These could be some extremely valuable pipes and I would not advise you to sell them in one lot. http://www.pipestud.com/ Meershaums can get into the 1000's of dollars each. I wouldn't bother taking them overseas as you'll probably just end up getting lowballed.

 

[gloucesterman]

+1 on Pipestud. His reputation speaks for itself.

 

[monty55]

If we had some names of some of the artisans who made these pipes it would help. Not every meer is created equal. Some, created by certain artisans are worth more.. and some from that period are worth even MORE. I would suggest getting the entire collection of pipes appraised first to see what you have, and find out the potential. I think that would be the smart move to start with before selling it outright to someone. If you take them all to London, what's going to stop you from taking the first offer or second? What is your price? You don't know what they are worth, so get them appraised. It can be done for a modest fee, and perhaps that appraiser may also know people, who specialize in collecting collections of meers like yours... which would in the long run give you the best price for the collection as a whole.
That said, you would in fact get more money selling them individually on ebay no doubt.

 

[jerry]

Can you post pictures?