For the umpteenth time I've learned my lesson: two ebay purchases came in this week. The first was a Willmer Extra Grain A sold by Steve Fallon (pipestud). As pictured and as described; no surprises. If there's something that might be an issue to someone who's been around pipes for a while, he tends to mention it (rim darkening and so on). The second was a Custombilt bought from another vendor I didn't know, but who had good feedback and who seemed to be more than someone just throwing up a grainy picture of something he'd found in grandpa's attic. Disappointed with what I received, I compared the pipe to the ad. I had to admit that the pipe wasn't really misrepresented, because not much had actually been represented at all-- it just said it was a custombilt and had a couple of well-formatted photos that looked pretty good, Since I'd kind of wanted an old Custombilt in the cabinet I seem to have mentally filled in the blanks with what I wanted to see. Well, if you put a 500 watt light at a 90 degree angle to the shank and squint really hard you might just make out the "Cus" of this way over-restored bit of briar. Looks like sandpaper might even have been taken to the top to remove some scorches. Smokes ok. Not really what I wanted for my one smokable exemplar of a brand. meh. I'll be looking for another and if I find one offered by someone I don't know, I'll sure be asking about what isn't said in the ad that matters to me. In this case: Is the nomenclature crisp? This time I really will.
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