Old Estate Collection

[sablebrush52]

Agreed, $50k is completely unrealistic.
Get them to Pipestud, etc to sell on assigment. That's his best outcome financially. I'm not sure if time is a factor for him. (hope not!)

Agreed. The market for these pipes is small, and very picky. While well known names are more highly valued, though not as much as their 20th century counterparts, most, there are always exceptions, pipes like these can be found for anywhere from $60 to $160+ depending condition, and maker. And that's eBay. I've seen these go for far less on other auction sites, $10 to $40.
Anyway, I hope the seller's situation happily improves.

 

[jpberg]

Yes. Unfortunately, people will not pay for the hours invested in collecting and managing. They’re just going to pay for the pipes.

 

[georged]

An unfortunate (for Neal) dynamic is in play:

The only people who care about such specialized pipes are hardcore collectors...

...but much of the enjoyment and satisfaction from collecting is derived from DOING it. The ACT of collecting. The targeted hunting, finally filling empty slots, the restoration (if required), and so forth.

A "ready made" collection has had those joys wrung from it already.

 

[ashdigger]

I own a lot of cased pipes and cased sets.

The absolute joy is hunting and collecting.

I hope these pipes get sold, but to me it’s unfathomable they’ll be sold as a collection to be kept.

Purchased to be resold, possibly but only cheap enough to be flipped.