Tobacco Pipe Futures

[mso489]

Nearly all pipe owners have fantasized about making money on their pipes though re-sale. There's a joke about boats being holes in the water into which you pour money, and pipes might be said to be briar woodpecker holes into which you pack money and burn it. What is the future (or are the futures) of used pipes for sale? They could be like snuff boxes; now that few use snuff, the snuff boxes once used by the rich and crafted with great artistry now sell for high prices simply to look at. I'm not sure anyone is going to be marveling at Dr. Grabows behind museum glass, but Beckers maybe? I hope no one is planning to retire on resale of pipes.

 

[scloyd]

I hope no one is planning to retire on resale of pipes.

Not at all...it's the Beanie Babies that are going to aid in people's retirement. nana

Being already retired, my pipes are for my enjoyment and they're not going to be worth much when I go. I like to think that my kids will keep a couple as keepsakes.

 

[blues4goose]

As I slowly switch my main hobby from cigars to pipes, I've been thinking about this question a lot. It's certainly more enjoyable to keep rare pipes with the intention of profiting from them someday than it is with cigars. I've started to sell off some of my most treasured cigars. I have a ton that I just can't bring myself to smoke because I could never get another one, and I've been thinking, I could sell all these super rare cigars that all I can do is look at and buy a really nice artisan pipe, that I can smoke and enjoy as often as I like, and still resell further down the road.
But the snuff boxes is an interesting comparison. When pipes are just about as niche as snuff is now, the market for high-end artisan pipes might do well, but mid-range and lower will probably garner little to no interest among pretty much anyone. Of course, I see this as too far out to really apply to my tobacco investment intentions, and for me it's more of a rainy-day fund than a retirement plan.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

According to Brian over the years on the radioshow, it is nearly impossible to make money on gambling that a pipe or particular brand. Even if you paid $100 for it in 1980, and if you get $120 for it in 2020, the rate of inflation wouldn't have kept up with the 20% increase in the dollar amount.

But, like with lottery level chances, it might be possible to make money on a pipe, but your chances of getting struck by lightning are better.

And, if something kills pipesmoking altogether, like killing online sales, they won't be worth spit.

 

[trouttimes]

I pick my pipes only with an eye to how they smoke. If it doesn't smoke well, it goes and a new one takes its place. Some are "high end" , some are not. Some are old and some are newer but all must smoke well for me. After I'm gone, well I just don't care.

 

[unadoptedlamp]

I don't think the vast majority of pipes are worth much of anything as an investment. Even my Dunhill's, Eltang's, and pipes like this. I see them as a loss (if I think about them at all in monetary value), but that's fine with me.

Even the very high end pipes of $3,000 - $7,000+ or whatever crazy numbers are out there. What is the upside to those prices? I very much doubt it is at all lucrative.

I think people do it for the enjoyment, rather than the return. Hell, I even think tobacco is a bad "investment," despite all of the hand wringing over what the FDA might do.
You have to deal with spoilage, changing markets, possible legislation, storage, shipping, and on and on. Bad investment! Pipe smoking all around is a bad investment, in my opinion.

Better to just enjoy it and not expect any money to come your way, I say.

 

[mso489]

Agree all around. So far as I'm concerned, my pipes are at the end of their monetary value with me. If I or anyone else ever gets any monetary benefit out of them after this, that would be a big surprise. A nice bowl of blend after a busy day is the reward.

 

[sandollars]

I buy pipes that move me. I keep them for how they smoke. The cost and potential future value are tertiary.

Take Banjo's collection for example:

I bought a S. Bang off Banjo's estate and paid cents on the dollar of what he surely paid for it. If I ever sell it, maybe I will get my money back, maybe not. That isn't why I bought it. I bought it because I wanted it.

I invest in income producing opportunities, not things. I buy things. If I sell them and get my money back, that's a bonus but not the motivation for the purchase.

Tell your wife that it's a good investment so she will relent, but don't buy into your own Bullsh*t. It's just a sweet pipe and you really want it...

 

[kurtbob]

I treat pipes just like the vehicles I buy. I take care of both fanatically from a mechanical aspect and not so much on the appearance. Both pipe and vehicle are driven till the wheels fall off or I die first. No resale of either is anticipated at time of purchase

 

[alaskanpiper]

I have never viewed them as an investment, more of a tool that will likely depreciate in value. Obviously there are exceptions to that rule, but what the future holds for those, to me, isn't worth worrying about. Better to just assume they will all lessen in value, and be pleasantly surprised if they don't. I don't buy them with any intention of resale, but I will admit it crosses my mind when evaluating the price just in case the shit ever hits the fan and I have to scramble.

Thankfully, at this point in my life, the poop and the fan have managed to maintain separation in recent years. Although no matter how well things go it always seems like I can faintly smell a big hairy turd lurking somewhere around some dark corner of life's many unknown alleys, so it's not all hookers and blow just yet.

 

[olkofri]

Not planning on selling mine. I don't like estates; and I also don't like recommending or offering to others stuff I wouldn't buy myself.

 

[anantaandroscoggin]

Got to admit that my Dad was hit by lightning on two separate occasions during his younger years.
And remember the heights of stupidity a bad gambler reaches when he refers to all his losses as his "investment" that's gonna pay off one day.

 

[oldmansmoking]

Yes I was hit by lightning in 1977
Love my pipes and expect some to make what I paid on EBay
One pipe I bought in a market for £8.50 a Peterson Irish Harp silver mount, now retails new at £99.99 on a tobacco on line shop.
I have bought some new but most frugally, so expect a reasonable resale.

 

[sandollars]

Yes I was hit by lightning in 1977
Love my pipes and expect some to make what I paid on EBay
One pipe I bought in a market for £8.50 a Peterson Irish Harp silver mount, now retails new at £99.99 on a tobacco on line shop.
I have bought some new but most frugally, so expect a reasonable resale.

This is one of my favorite TV watching pipes.. I've got a straight and a bent. Love them both.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Nearly all pipe owners have fantasized about making money on their pipes though re-sale.

 

[Spa32]

I buy pipes that move me. I keep them for how they smoke. The cost and potential future value are tertiary.

Take Banjo's collection for example:

I bought a S. Bang off Banjo's estate and paid cents on the dollar of what he surely paid for it. If I ever sell it, maybe I will get my money back, maybe not. That isn't why I bought it. I bought it because I wanted it.

I invest in income producing opportunities, not things. I buy things. If I sell them and get my money back, that's a bonus but not the motivation for the purchase.

Tell your wife that it's a good investment so she will relent, but don't buy into your own Bullsh*t. It's just a sweet pipe and you really want it...

Exactly!

 

[Spa32]

I've never expected to get any money back from any pipes that I've purchased. I buy them to smoke. When I'm gone they will most likely go to my son. I don't care what he does with them, but hopefully he gets some money for them and they go to a good home.

 

[olkofri]

"Bury me with my pipes!"

 

[sandollars]

I've never expected to get any money back from any pipes that I've purchased. I buy them to smoke. When I'm gone they will most likely go to my son. I don't care what he does with them, but hopefully he gets some money for them and they go to a good home.

Well, I must admit have made a few preparations...

I DO have a spreadsheet listing all my pipes, Brand, Date purchased, Description, Price paid and valuation, partly for insurance and partly for my kids so when I die they don't put a Dunhill Root Briar Dead Root ** on the garage sale table for 50 cents.....

Stupid kids.....

 

[Spa32]

Well, I must admit have made a few preparations...

I DO have a spreadsheet listing all my pipes, Brand, Date purchased, Description, Price paid and valuation, partly for insurance and partly for my kids so when I die they don't put a Dunhill Root Briar Dead Root ** on the garage sale table for 50 cents.....

Stupid kids.....

The spreadsheet is a great idea! I'm not quite there yet. I've saved all of my pipe receipts with their boxes so my son will know what they cost. Hopefully he doesn't do the rummage sale thing.