Possible Gold Mine?

[Panhandle Piper]

Hello pipe community! I am heading out in two hours to write house insurance for a widow woman that lost her husband 4 years ago. When taking the information from her over the phone, I asked if there were any specialty items she would like covered that would go above the normal unscheduled personal property. Occasionally I will get jewelry, artwork, furs, etc. She said that her husband had been a collector... not smoker... of pipes for the 52 years leading up to his passing. She said there are "hundreds" and she is looking to move them . My question to this community is what makers should I be looking for while walking around her house? While I am an avid pipe smoker, 3 to 4 bowls a day, I am not well versed in what might be valuable and or/collectable. Any help you all could pass along would be appreciated!

 

[BingBong]

As a collector rather than smoker, her late husband must surely have catalogued his collection and kept the pipes in some rational order? If she wants to move them on, she needs a trustworthy and knowledgeable broker to eyeball the catalogue, in the first instance.

 

[Pooh-Bah]

As someone whose value-knowledge is largely derived from browsing this forum:
1- Dunhill
2- If it looks stupid and it's old, it was probably carved by a magical Danish elf and might be worth something
3- Anything stamped from a theme park

 

[Briarcutter]

You could look them over, ask what she's looking to get and make her an offer for the whole bunch at once. It's a lot of work smelling a hundred or so pipes especially if you are not in the pipe world. Or you could see what she has, pick what you like and then offer to put her in contact with someone like pipe stud. I'd hate to see her get low balled by someone. Look for Dunhill, Barling,SasIeni just to name a few.

 

[fireground_piper]

As a collector rather than smoker, her late husband must surely have catalogued his collection and kept the pipes in some rational order? If she wants to move them on, she needs a trustworthy and knowledgeable broker to eyeball the catalogue, in the first instance.

Definitely this. On the other hand, part of me would love to see a random "Pipes by Lee" full catalog collection, unsmoked show up or something random like that.

 

[Servant King]

Thought this was a thread about gold, since it hit $3k this morning for the first time. So I have nothing to add, other than to second what @Pooh-Bah said.

 

[georged]

The bad news is that the majority of what the world calls pipe "collectors" are actually just accumulators, and what they have a thousand of isn't worth the effort or expense to sell.

The potential good news is that a serious collector who zeroed in on a brand or concept that is highly regarded by other collectors around the world, could easily be worth north of $100K.

I stongly recommend you contact someone who knows his stuff about such things, has been in the field for decades, and on the 1 to 10 honesty and trustworthiness scale scores a 20. His name is Steve Fallon.

(Not necessarily as any sort of "deal" up front, but simply for an appraisal.)

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[elvishrunes]

Vintage high end meers can be very valuable and cool, but you also may want to inform her. And look for stuff you want to smoke…

 

[Searock Fan]

For what its worth.... Don't discuss the value of individual pipes and it you like them make an offer for the entire lot, not individual ones.

 

[dd57chevy]

It's probably too late to add this , but a bunch of pics would be nice .
You might consider selling them here , either singularly or in lots ............

 

[sablebrush52]

This is not a simple question. If you are looking primarily to add you your collection, as opposed to advising your client on how to best monetize her husband's collection, ask her if her husband made an inventory of the pipes, check out the various names, and look at different sites to see what prices these pipes get.

If you want to help her dispose of her collection, contact Taurus Auctions, located in New Jersey IIRC, who auction off pipe collections. She will do better than selling them off through a dealer. This assumes that the collection is composed of high end pipes.

There are hundreds of makers of pipes that are collectible and it comes down to what collectors specialize in collecting.

Top Britwood names are Dunhill, Barling, Comoy, Sasieni, Charatan, GBD, Leeds era Ben Wades, etc
There are dozens of American artisan carvers whose pipes can go for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars.
There are dozens of Danish carvers whose pipes go for hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars.
There are dozens of Japanese carvers whose pipes go for hundreds or thousands of dollars.
There are dozens of Russian and eastern European carvers whose pipe go for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars.

And it's quite possible that the collection is mostly modestly priced pipes like Kaywoodie, Grabow, Lee, etc.

It comes down to what your intent is.

 

[ofafeather]

I stongly recommend you contact someone who knows his stuff about such things, has been in the field for decades, and on the 1 to 10 honesty and trustworthiness scale scores a 20. His name is Steve Fallon.

I second this.

 

[Sig]

This is an impossible task without seeing them, or getting the brands.
There are thousands of lowly looking pipes worth thousands.
Some Bo Nordh pipes go for tens of thousands. There are some very plain looking pipes carved by Sixten Ivarsson that sell for thousands.....seriously lowly looking Billiards and such. There are old drugstore pipes like Kaywoodie which, in a complete collection of a popular line, can be worth a lot.
Seeing that he was a collector but not a smoker, he probably has a fantastic collection.
Take pictures, write down names and do your homework. You could make many thousands of dollars, while the widow makes out great also.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

If you are there to write insurance then you owe her an honest opinion about how she goes about figuring out what her pipes are worth for insurance purposes, IMO. And yep, Steve Fallon.

 

[Briarcutter]

It's a lot of work smelling

Ha ha, just caught this, should have been "selling"

 

[ofafeather]

Ha ha, just caught this, should have been "selling"

This happened to me three times today in posts that I looked at after. I finally turned off my autocorrect today.

 

[NookersTheCat]

Imo you're just her insurance agent, it's not like you have a fiduciary responsibility to get her the most money. Now to be clear, I'm not saying screw her over. But you also shouldn't feel bad about getting some good deals for yourself first, especially if you help get her in touch with a professional dealer who will make sure she gets treated fairly on the lion's share of the collection.

When it comes down to it these things (like most collectibles/antiques out there) are highly fluid and individually subjective.
Sure you can hold out to find that perfect person who's looking to pay top dollar for THEIR perfect pipe... but the reason people happily take less than half that from pickers and antique shops is so they don't have to go through that process 250 individual times over the course of years if not decades.

 

[anotherbob]

any type of collection can be capricious in value. What do I mean? Often little details that mean nothing to most mean the world to a collector. I remember when my grandma passed we sold here hummels and one of them was worth a lot of money for such bricka brack because the color of the lads shorts was the right one. It was rarer then the other color. We might give some good suggestions but a real expert would have to really go over the lot to give you a solid answer. The other thing is what's a no name can suddenly become worth much more and the big item can be forgotten over time.

 

[sablebrush52]

The other thing is what's a no name can suddenly become worth much more and the big item can be forgotten over time.

If pipes weren't already such a niche item, I'd say that the same rules apply as do to most collectibles. For example, furniture styles can really go in and out of fashion.

In the late 90's Arts and Crafts furniture became a hot item. Really fine Dirk Van Erp mica shade lamps could easily go for $30,000 and up, way up. Stickley pieces could get a good five figures for a bookcase. Move forward a decade and prices were way down on all but the rarest pieces. Art Nouveau, mid century modern, etc, etc all had their day in the sun, only to be replaced by something else. 18th century Chippendale, on the other hand, generally keeps sailing on.

If pipe smoking goes the way of the dodo, or enough in that direction, those expensive Danish artisan pipes are going to drop, a lot, or wind up as curios, or doorstops. I've seen Britwood go through some swings in the last decade. But then again, buying pipes as an investment was always an absurdity.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

Always keep in mind that God shows extra care to widows...