Sorry Dunhill, I don’t get you…

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MikeDub

Starting to Get Obsessed
Sep 26, 2022
261
781
SoCal
I've never understood this line of thinking. My main passion is fly fishing, and I have rods that are upwards of $1000. I also fish 200+ days per year. By the time you get to 10 years on owning a $1000 fly rod, the cost per day on the water is so negligible they are all low in cost at that point.

Same with pipes - the one's I like I smoke so often that even a $500+ pipe, 10 years on, is low cost in the long run. The one's I don't care for get sold shortly after acquiring them for roughly what I paid for them, which is something that Dunhill pipes are known for. I don't personally care for them, but I get the reasons that other people do.
 

Don_Muertos

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 1, 2023
103
232
Nicaragua
I've never understood this line of thinking. My main passion is fly fishing, and I have rods that are upwards of $1000. I also fish 200+ days per year. By the time you get to 10 years on owning a $1000 fly rod, the cost per day on the water is so negligible they are all low in cost at that point.

Same with pipes - the one's I like I smoke so often that even a $500+ pipe, 10 years on, is low cost in the long run. The one's I don't care for get sold shortly after acquiring them for roughly what I paid for them, which is something that Dunhill pipes are known for. I don't personally care for them, but I get the reasons that other people do.
I get 5-10 years out of a $10 pipe. I could set up a trust for my the next 6-16 generations of my progeny to have a pipe for $500, at that rate.
 
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mingc

Lifer
Jun 20, 2019
4,231
12,549
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
That's is not an address for Dunhill (Upper case "dee") White Spots. That address is for "dunhill" (lower case "dee"), a purveyor of luxury goods, totally unaffiliated the with "White Spot" manufacturer. The "White Spots" are manufactured by relatives of Alfred, a couple of generations removed, still owners of the "Dunhill" (Upper-case "dee") marque.
The Dunhill White Spot pipe factory and the Dunhill luxury goods entity are today owned by Richemont, a Swiss company formed by a South African billionaire, the late Anton Rupert, and now run by his son Johann. The pipe factory at Walthamstow in London is also where Dunhill makes its leather goods. They are not unaffiliated. Who owns what with Dunhill - https://groups.google.com/g/alt.smokers.pipes/c/ZovPB4HkQj4/m/prAMSQelIiEJ
 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
12,284
18,265
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
Well, they are indeed Dunhills". Just only, for want of a better word, not "Alfred Dunhills. There's a connection to the originals, a distant connection. I certainly, many others do also I suspect, differentiate between the two marques.

Overpriced? Not to every buyer certainly. If I personally came across the "Alfred" which I've lusted after, I would likely pay the asking price. Sadly, I doubt I'll ever find such in a shop. Ecommerce? Only with an iron clad, no questions asked, return guarantee. A guarantee which allowed me to smoke few bowels before the return.
 

trouttimes

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
6,027
24,387
Lake Martin, AL
Don’t like Dunhill? Fine, don’t buy one. I can’t for the life of me wrap my head around Danish style Freeform pipes but don’t bash those who do. I spend my money the way I see fit and often it is an older Dunhill’s, classic cane fly rods, custom made shotguns. Don’t be a hater. I’m not better than anyone and you are not better. We just make different choices based on our desires. I like my old Dunhill and they are worth what I pay for them to me. I don’t care if you stay with your cobs. You smoke what you like and I’ll smoke what I like.
 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
12,284
18,265
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
I find no reference to ownership of the company "Dunhill" on Richemont's homepage. I have very little faith in anything printed on "google." I only use it for some searching. I'd need to see claim of ownership by Richemont itself and the confusion between "Dunhill" and "dunhill" is so widespread. At the time of the "dunhill" acquisicion Richemont had no interest in the pipe brand. Tobacco and related products, pipes, cigars, etc. doesn't seem to fit their Richemont's business model. I follow Richemont closely as possible, it is privately owned, so information regarding the internal machinations is scarce. Richemont is an endlessly interesting privately held company, after all. Their business model is fascinating!

Still, could have happened. I've simply never come across anything, Richemont generated, related to the Richemont acquisition of "Dunhill", the manufacturer of "White Spot". But, my efforts to uncover more of Richemont my be feeble indeed.
 
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mingc

Lifer
Jun 20, 2019
4,231
12,549
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
I find no reference to ownership of the company "Dunhill" on Richemont's homepage. I have very little faith in anything printed on "google." I only use it for some searching. I'd need to see claim of ownership by Richemont itself and the confusion between "Dunhill" and "dunhill" is so widespread. At the time of the "dunhill" acquisicion Richemont had no interest in the pipe brand. Tobacco and related products, pipes, cigars, etc. doesn't seem to fit their Richemont's business model. I follow Richemont closely as possible, it is privately owned, so information regarding the internal machinations is scarce. Richemont is an endlessly interesting privately held company, after all. Their business model is fascinating!

Still, could have happened. I've simply never come across anything, Richemont generated, related to the Richemont acquisition of "Dunhill", the manufacturer of "White Spot". But, my efforts to uncover more of Richemont my be feeble indeed.
Compagnie Financière Richemont S.A., the Swiss company, is a public company. The reports are out there. They may not be in English. Here's a UK government page that shows that Alfred Dunhill Ltd. is more than 75% owned by a Richemont Holdings (UK) Limited: ALFRED DUNHILL LIMITED persons with significant control - Find and update company information - GOV.UK - https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00191031/persons-with-significant-control. There are almost certainly multiple layers of ownership over Dunhill, not all of which are publicly traded companies. (My favorite find on the UK companies website is the Dunhill tobacco trademark entity that indicates that it made something like £13 million in 2019 (I'm too lazy to recreate that search)).

By the way, the link also leads to the info that Richard Dunhill, 3rd Dunhill generation I believe, resigned as director in 2006. The pipes have always been factory made. I don't think anyone claims that the original Alfred Dunhill carved pipes himself or that any of his successor family members did. Rather than associating any change with the pivot to the "White Spot" trademark, which is actually a venerable one, it may be more logical to to say that an era ended when Richard left the business.
 
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Auxsender

Lifer
Jul 17, 2022
1,104
5,686
Nashville
I don't get briar. Nothing that's that nice is sold in such volume on eBay. If it was really that good people wouldn't be buying a new one every time they turn around, trying to find "the right smoke." It's a generally useless wood to carpenters that was well marketed to uptight Europeans. Wood is simply non-archival, therefore holds no value in perpetuity placing any value beyond tensile/compressive strength or aesthetic is asinine.
Right but people don’t buy wooden products for the wood itself. The value isn’t in the wood itself but what the wood was formed to be. A piece of mahogany isn’t worth much unless it was made into a Les Paul guitar in 1958, then it’s worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a guitar collector. Perhaps you view guitar collecting as asinine which is entirely your prerogative.
 
Aug 1, 2012
4,881
5,686
USA
Right but people don’t buy wooden products for the wood itself. The value isn’t in the wood itself but what the wood was formed to be. A piece of mahogany isn’t worth much unless it was made into a Les Paul guitar in 1958, then it’s worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a guitar collector. Perhaps you view guitar collecting as asinine which is entirely your prerogative.
Apparently you haven't heard of a grain hound. A person who appreciates grain above all else. I'm one who loves good grain regardless of work or functionality. It's an issue with guitars and basses and pipes.
 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
44,837
116,677
The human species is divided into types: smart, vibrant, good looking, successful, articulate, desirable-to-the-opposite-sex ones; and dim, dull, ugly, failure-prone, language-challenged, can't-get-laid-on-their-best-day ones.

The second type are the Dunhill non-getters.
So you buy Dunhills in an attempt to fit in?🤔
 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
12,284
18,265
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
I was wrong, Richemont is indeed publically traded these days, closely held by one individual.

Richemont Group spun off many of its properties. It totally divested itself of anything related to tobacco products a decade or so ago. Johan Rupert, the majority stock holder, by a wide margin, sits in control and exercises that control through various hand picked boards. I haven't noticed any tobacco related acquisitions as of late.

Rupert reminds me of the one or two of the "Robber Barons" who existed back in the 1800's although, he doesn't worm his way into politics. Or ... does he? I really don't know. Alfred Dunhill Limited, luxury goods not tobacco, is "significantly held by Rochemont Holdings.

But, we're waaaay of topic. Rochement is simply too arcane a subject to be of interest to most. You and I excepted.
 
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