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Pipeoff

Part of the Furniture Now
Jun 22, 2021
928
1,556
Western New York
I am interested that the last two small groups of pipes I sent in trade for store credit never appeared on line, though I was granted a modest return on both. I puzzled over what outlet they use to turn these back to cash. I guess they either sell them as basket pipes in the B&M store they have, or send them overseas where they may bring a little more. The new pipe inventory on Savinelli used to be vast. I haven't checked it lately. It used to run maybe 20 pages.
I traded in 3 Sav autos never listed may have been offered to EU market. They do not sell same at thier retail store . My
 
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Pipeoff

Part of the Furniture Now
Jun 22, 2021
928
1,556
Western New York
Maybe we need a thread devoted to yard and estate sales??? It might be interesting to see what pipes and other stuff is being found.
Maybe we need a thread devoted to yard and estate sales??? It might be interesting to see what pipes and other stuff is being found. puffy
Make sure tell the granny selling her stuff that it is her civic duty to include any profit over the threshold along with the tax on the SSI check !
 

AJL67

Lifer
May 26, 2022
5,495
28,134
Florida - Space Coast
Bumping an old thread but belongs here and no point starting a new thread.

Sent some pipes into their estate department July 3rd and as of today 3 weeks later they have no idea when they will get to my pipes, i was told to try back in a couple weeks and they MIGHT be able to give me a better estimate. Seems they are down a person (so maybe that only leaves one person in that department) and they are extremely backed up, duh right.

From all of this I would guess that they Fresh and Estate pipes sections will be shrinking once again as they try to go through their backlog of estimates and getting those pipes ready for sale.
 
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AroEnglish

Rehabilitant
Jan 7, 2020
5,150
15,139
#62
Bumping an old thread but belongs here and no point starting a new thread.

Sent some pipes into their estate department July 3rd and as of today 3 weeks later they have no idea when they will get to my pipes, i was told to try back in a couple weeks and they MIGHT be able to give me a better estimate. Seems they are down a person (so maybe that only leaves one person in that department) and they are extremely backed up, duh right.

From all of this I would guess that they Fresh and Estate pipes sections will be shrinking once again as they try to go through their backlog of estimates and getting those pipes ready for sale.
Thanks for the heads up.

I’ve been thinking about trying SP’s estate offer but I’ll hold off until the backlog clears.
 
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Merton

Lifer
Jul 8, 2020
1,038
2,783
Boston, Massachusetts
Bumping an old thread but belongs here and no point starting a new thread.

Sent some pipes into their estate department July 3rd and as of today 3 weeks later they have no idea when they will get to my pipes, i was told to try back in a couple weeks and they MIGHT be able to give me a better estimate. Seems they are down a person (so maybe that only leaves one person in that department) and they are extremely backed up, duh right.

From all of this I would guess that they Fresh and Estate pipes sections will be shrinking once again as they try to go through their backlog of estimates and getting those pipes ready for sale.
I have had the same experience. I was a bit disappointed that I had to ask for an update to get the information. Never happened before.
 

irishearl

Lifer
Aug 2, 2016
2,255
4,037
Kansas
Only once did I ever try to trade in some pipes which were some decent, higher grade Petes. Well used but in what I thought was good condition. After quite the wait they told me they wouldn't give me a plugged nickel for them but I could donate them to them so they'd have some pipes to learn their restoring skills on. Said no thanks and just send them back to me.
 

swilford

Starting to Get Obsessed
May 30, 2010
209
747
Longs, SC
corporate.laudisi.com
Bumping an old thread but belongs here and no point starting a new thread.

Sent some pipes into their estate department July 3rd and as of today 3 weeks later they have no idea when they will get to my pipes, i was told to try back in a couple weeks and they MIGHT be able to give me a better estimate. Seems they are down a person (so maybe that only leaves one person in that department) and they are extremely backed up, duh right.

From all of this I would guess that they Fresh and Estate pipes sections will be shrinking once again as they try to go through their backlog of estimates and getting those pipes ready for sale.

The rest of the thread doesn't make a lot of sense--there are just shy of 10,000 new pipes and about 700 estate pipes on the site as of now--but I did want to jump in on the estate department being terribly backed up this July. We'd like to see more estates on the site at any one time, but estates have been selling quickly lately and as we've been adding more, we've also been selling more (which is definitely better than the alternative!).

We've had an unusually large number of batches--like 30-40/week--coming in for the past few weeks and we've been falling behind. It's a temporary problem and we're working hard to catch up.

We'll get back to you with a better timeline much sooner than two weeks from now.

Sykes
 

AroEnglish

Rehabilitant
Jan 7, 2020
5,150
15,139
#62
After quite the wait they told me they wouldn't give me a plugged nickel for them but I could donate them to them so they'd have some pipes to learn their restoring skills on.
A fair but odd ask regarding donating pipes. How long ago was this?
 

swilford

Starting to Get Obsessed
May 30, 2010
209
747
Longs, SC
corporate.laudisi.com
A fair but odd ask regarding donating pipes. How long ago was this?
I think this is a little mangled in the retelling. Obviously I wasn't on the call between the poster and the CS agent, but when we reject pipes for condition (mostly damaged stems or deep charring) or value (Dr. Grabow in mediocre condition), people don't want them back about half the time. We offer to return them (on our dime) or we'll keep them. We don't sell these pipes, of course. They get used for a few things, but mostly training materials. Less frequently, but more interestingly, we once spray painted a few hundred broken pipes and they now hang from the ceiling in a hallway of our main building.

But, no, we're not soliciting donations of broken pipes. We offer to send them back or give a general idea of what they're likely to be used for if we don't think we can or should sell them.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,610
I haven't noticed a downturn lately, although the estate market has shown fewer pipes over time, probably because of quicker turnover.

Major brands still show hundreds or thousands of pipes on SP. I think some of the older artisans are slowing down, understandably, but new people seem to be entering the business.
 

mateusbrown

Might Stick Around
Apr 24, 2022
89
273
Georgia, USA
Thanks for mentioning this painting! I have never seen it before, and I just learned a new word, "wain," for wagon, which is super-cool because it is another piece of the puzzle I'm putting together in my head studying Afrikaans and Dutch. You see, "wa" is Afrikaans for wagon, and the plural is "waens," and this is from the Dutch "wagen." Then you get other fun things like "strydwaens" (battle-wagons) to mean a chariot. Ran across this somewhere in the Old Testament.

It is true, too, you used to find cooler stuff from the 50s and 60s at estate sales, but I guess most of them whose houses were stocked with wares back then have all mostly died off.
You always used to get faux bone handled cutlery sets, cups and saucers and full tea sets, copies of famous pictures like the “Haywain” and heavy brown furniture. In amongst all this there used to be ashtrays, pipes, tobacco jars and pipe racks
 
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LeafErikson

Lifer
Dec 7, 2021
2,172
19,044
Oregon
Bumping an old thread but belongs here and no point starting a new thread.

Sent some pipes into their estate department July 3rd and as of today 3 weeks later they have no idea when they will get to my pipes, i was told to try back in a couple weeks and they MIGHT be able to give me a better estimate. Seems they are down a person (so maybe that only leaves one person in that department) and they are extremely backed up, duh right.

From all of this I would guess that they Fresh and Estate pipes sections will be shrinking once again as they try to go through their backlog of estimates and getting those pipes ready for sale.
Darn I was gonna send a couple of pipes off to SP but I might just try and sell them here then.
 
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shaneireland

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 14, 2014
135
924
Conway, SC
www.smokingpipes.com
Bumping an old thread but belongs here and no point starting a new thread.

Sent some pipes into their estate department July 3rd and as of today 3 weeks later they have no idea when they will get to my pipes, i was told to try back in a couple weeks and they MIGHT be able to give me a better estimate. Seems they are down a person (so maybe that only leaves one person in that department) and they are extremely backed up, duh right.

From all of this I would guess that they Fresh and Estate pipes sections will be shrinking once again as they try to go through their backlog of estimates and getting those pipes ready for sale.
Thanks you upfront for your patience and for bringing this to our attention. I apologize for the delay and that you weren't given a firm update on the status of your batch.

Sykes already covered the issues & circumstance, but I did want to clarify that we're already "all hands on deck" to get caught up on the oldest batches currently in-house and that I'll personally make your batch a priority. I've sent you a PM with details and unless yours is one of the largest batches, I can guarantee that I'll have it done by tomorrow. It's difficult for us to stick to expected turnaround on evaluations when the spikes in pipes coming through the door are impossible to predict, but we're usually able to address these spikes quickly. This was a perfect storm of increased volume and staff being out of the office/out sick, etc. We really appreciate everyone's patience.

The good news is that we have an amazing selection of pipes that will be making their way to the website over the coming weeks--some seriously cool stuff has shown up recently and we can't wait to share them with everyone.
 

AJL67

Lifer
May 26, 2022
5,495
28,134
Florida - Space Coast
The rest of the thread doesn't make a lot of sense--there are just shy of 10,000 new pipes and about 700 estate pipes on the site as of now--but I did want to jump in on the estate department being terribly backed up this July. We'd like to see more estates on the site at any one time, but estates have been selling quickly lately and as we've been adding more, we've also been selling more (which is definitely better than the alternative!).

We've had an unusually large number of batches--like 30-40/week--coming in for the past few weeks and we've been falling behind. It's a temporary problem and we're working hard to catch up.

We'll get back to you with a better timeline much sooner than two weeks from now.

Sykes
Thank you for the reply, I understand you are busy and all of that, in reality it was more of a just be prepared if you are looking to sell pipes for immediate funds as there is a bit of a backlog.

And yes obviously I spoke out of turn without knowing anything about your supply, was just thinking about less pipes in the turn around. Apologies for an poor inference on my end, I really do appreciate y'all being active in the forums and adding your insight and obvious first hand knowledge to these discussions!
 

shaneireland

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 14, 2014
135
924
Conway, SC
www.smokingpipes.com
Thank you for the reply, I understand you are busy and all of that, in reality it was more of a just be prepared if you are looking to sell pipes for immediate funds as there is a bit of a backlog.

And yes obviously I spoke out of turn without knowing anything about your supply, was just thinking about less pipes in the turn around. Apologies for an poor inference on my end, I really do appreciate y'all being active in the forums and adding your insight and obvious first hand knowledge to these discussions!
No need to apologize at all!

Estates are simultaneously the coolest/most fun/most challenging part of our business. You can't just order them like all of the rest of our inventory, there's usually urgency when people do send them to us (trade credit!) and it's always a surprise what we get, and how much of it we get. I honestly love doing evaluations (we all do, it's sort of a requirement when doing this sort of work), but even the best of us can only move so quickly. Everything we get is evaluated and restored the same way, doesn't matter if it's $100 or a $1,000.

Anyhow, we're always working on efficiencies and I'm confident that the current backlog will be in a much better place over the next few days.

Anyone considering sending us stuff currently should do so with confidence--worst case scenario, tell our staff that "Shane said he owes me one" if we're not getting to your batch within the standard two-week turnaround (and please give us more patience if you're sending dozens or hundreds of pipes in a single batch). In most cases we'll be able to speed things up.
 

AroEnglish

Rehabilitant
Jan 7, 2020
5,150
15,139
#62
No need to apologize at all!

Estates are simultaneously the coolest/most fun/most challenging part of our business. You can't just order them like all of the rest of our inventory, there's usually urgency when people do send them to us (trade credit!) and it's always a surprise what we get, and how much of it we get. I honestly love doing evaluations (we all do, it's sort of a requirement when doing this sort of work), but even the best of us can only move so quickly. Everything we get is evaluated and restored the same way, doesn't matter if it's $100 or a $1,000.

Anyhow, we're always working on efficiencies and I'm confident that the current backlog will be in a much better place over the next few days.

Anyone considering sending us stuff currently should do so with confidence--worst case scenario, tell our staff that "Shane said he owes me one" if we're not getting to your batch within the standard two-week turnaround (and please give us more patience if you're sending dozens or hundreds of pipes in a single batch). In most cases we'll be able to speed things up.
Shane, while we got you on here please have Truett and yourself update the SPC merch for us guys under 40. Do a collaboration with Rogue Territory or Iron Heart.
 

kcghost

Lifer
May 6, 2011
15,141
25,685
77
Olathe, Kansas
I don't see how 10,000 new pipes translates as a pipe shortage. Having only 700 estate pipe creates a problem for some. The estate marker is really hot right now (just like used cars) so they get them in, but they go right out as well as others.
 
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