What Do You Think of Pipa Croci?

[captainsousie]

I have the chance to get an unsmoked Pipa Croci "Quality Street" pipe for under $100. I am really trying not to buy pipes (not succeeding as you can see from my other thread) even though I have sold enough recently to afford it. It's a beautiful bent with lots of straight grain but I can't find much about them. Just a few old threads come up and that's it.
Does anybody have one? Would the price be worth it? Any help/advice would be appreciated.

 

[dread]

I have one and I like it a lot, also a quality street. The pipe is beautiful and smokes well. My only critique would be that I would prefer the draft hole be a little bit larger as it is on the narrow side for me.

 

[escioe]

The few that I've seen, and the one that I've owned, all of them had nice wood and pretty shoddy fit and finish.

 

[pitchfork]

Good question. As far as I can gather, they made a big splash on the pipe scene back in the 80s(?), and prices were very hight for the better grained models, but they seem to have fallen out of favor. I don't even know if they are still being made or not. I started smoking in 2011, but some of the veteran pipesters would have a more info I would imagine.

 

[captainsousie]

Thanks for the replies. Still not sure if I should pop for this one. The shape, stemwork and grain are stunning to my eyes but without much knowledge of them, heck I can't find enough info to know if this is a good price for it, I'm hesitating.