Rationalizing Spending A Lot On A Pipe?

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tmcg81

Lifer
May 8, 2020
1,031
16,113
NJ
This is something I think about all the time. I'm not a cheap person. But there's something about spending a lot of money on something like a pipe that stops me from doing it. I love all the artisan pipes I see on the forum. I'd love to have a Jack Howell bent apple or bent brandy. But spending a significant amount of money on any sort of "hobby" seems wild to me at times.

I play bass, and have done so for 25+ years. I have more than a couple guitars. I have two that are pretty expensive. I follow a lot of guitar stuff online and see guitars being sold for thousands of dollars to people that have dozens of guitars that all cost thousands of dollars. And many of them aren't professional musicians, just people that play as a hobby or collect guitars. It blows my mind. Anyway. This was a long way of saying I'll inevitably spend a ton of money on a pipe in the next few years.
 

greysmoke

Can't Leave
Apr 28, 2011
378
1,779
South Coatesville, PA
www.greysmoke.com
Possible scenarios, all of which I've done at one time or another:

1) I've just come into a lot of "extra" money. Someone died and left me money (very unlikely) or I've received an annual bonus payout.

2) I can scratch together the money somehow, and I've got a special occasion to commemorate -- something of lifelong significance. Starting a new job. Surviving major surgery. Birth of a child. Be creative.

3) I've made a bunch of extra cash by selling off a lot of less desired pipes, thinning out my collection. What better way to mark the occasion than to reward myself with a really desirable pipe? I'm just swapping several OK pipes for one great one.
 

jguss

Lifer
Jul 7, 2013
2,647
7,168
I

If they could truly afford it would they have made a post about rationalizing the purchase? I think not.

I completely disagree. Rationalization of expenditures is as much about what we subliminally feel we shouldn’t do as it is about what we can’t afford to do. Those are two different causes of hesitation. Puritan guilt affects more than Puritans.
 
Jan 30, 2020
2,203
7,308
New Jersey
I could re-buy my whole pipe collection for less than a mortgage payment. Must have cheap tastes...
Sometimes an item just presents itself that you didn't think you knew you wanted until you accidentally opened up a page and saw it.

There's no real logic behind it. It doesn't do anything a $20 basket pipe can't do. Sometimes you just see something you want that is more expensive than the bulk of the heard and the price is what the price is. It's all a luxury at the end of the day and it's just a matter of making peace with that.
 
Aug 11, 2022
2,630
20,707
Cedar Rapids, IA
Sometimes an item just presents itself that you didn't think you knew you wanted until you accidentally opened up a page and saw it.

There's no real logic behind it. It doesn't do anything a $20 basket pipe can't do. Sometimes you just see something you want that is more expensive than the bulk of the heard and the price is what the price is. It's all a luxury at the end of the day and it's just a matter of making peace with that.

For sure, and I'm not out to judge anyone!

I just remembered, and should have mentioned, that we have a 15-year mortgage. That definitely skews how much a payment would buy! puffy
 
Jan 30, 2020
2,203
7,308
New Jersey
For sure, and I'm not out to judge anyone!

I just remembered, and should have mentioned, that we have a 15-year mortgage. That definitely skews how much a payment would buy! puffy
yeah, it doesn't really make any sense. I wasn't even looking for a pipe (cheap or expensive) and recently procured an expensive-ish one.

For the context of this thread, it was roughly the price of 1 mortgage payment but it's also a small mortgage payment (I live a small life, no kids). The literal questions I asked myself was "Am I fine with setting this amount of money on fire? Yes? OK. Wife is fine with it? Yes? OK. I can live with that".
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,610
Don't get me wrong, I savor my (to me) several higher end pipes. But I have some great smokes out of nearly all of my pipes, including cobs, basket pipes, and econo-pipes of various kinds.

The fundamentals of a chamber and an airway properly drilled bring out the best in blends, no matter how much the pipe cost.

I still marvel at the quality of a Tsuge "tasting pipe," which I thought would have a small chamber and just adequate quality, at about thirty dollars. Instead the chamber is large-medium, the fit and finish is entirely Tsuge quality, and the delicate blast finish is kind of fetching, like pattern-woven fabric, nice.
 
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