What's Your Strangest Pipe Selling/Buying Story?

[mikethompson]

I've listed some pipes for sale locally and have had some interesting emails back and forth. I've sold things online before, its just par for the course.

But I did buy a box of about 15 or so pipes once, and the seller shipped it all before I paid him. I thought that was a little strange in this day and age.

Anyone else have some stories?

 

[didimauw]

The strangest things I've done involve buying some dead guys pipes he's sucked on previously. Haha

 

[Chasing Embers]

I once offered eBay seller peterpipes $60 for a Savinelli 904 Fiammata and he messaged me back and said all he wanted was $26.

 

[brian64]

I once offered eBay seller peterpipes $60 for a Savinelli 904 Fiammata and he messaged me back and said all he wanted was $26.

Ok, that does seem a bit strange. Did he have a price listed on it to begin with?

And he wanted $26? Not $25, not $30, but $26.

You should have insisted on $27.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Ok, that does seem a bit strange. Did he have a price listed on it to begin with?

And he wanted $26? Not $25, not $30, but $26.

You should have insisted on $27.

Nope, it was an auction with no reserve and I threw what I thought was a fair price at it.

 

[mso489]

I've had a carver sell me a pipe at a staggering discount, and I've gone back for a pipe at a shop after three or four weeks and found it there waiting for me, but nothing that really registers as "strange," per se. I did buy a pipe at a shop that I didn't realize had a twin bore stem, but it's turned out just fine.

 

[peregrinus]

It was perhaps more annoying than strange, but I once sold a very nice Dunhill Shell 5203 (group 5, saddle bit, billiard) with near perfect nomenclature on eBay. A few days after the buyer received the pipe I received an e-mail from him requesting a refund for misrepresenting the pipe in the listing. After some back and forth he admitted it was a Dunhill and it was a very clean pipe but it wasn’t a group 5. I pointed out the clearly legible shape number 5203 made it a group 5 and it had been the folks at Dunhill that had decided the bowl size. He wrote back that his buddy was a bit of a Dunhill expert and had looked the pipe over and decided it was not a group 5. “So, okay,” I wrote back, “return the pipe I’ll refund you”.
“No, he wrote back, I really like it and want to keep it, just refund my money.”
I declined this offer and decided to stay away from eBay for awhile until my faith in humanity could be restored.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Bruce Weaver surprised me after he retired by just sending me pipes out of the blue.

 

[alexj52]

It was perhaps more annoying than strange, but I once sold a very nice Dunhill Shell 5203 (group 5, saddle bit, billiard) with near perfect nomenclature on eBay. A few days after the buyer received the pipe I received an e-mail from him requesting a refund for misrepresenting the pipe in the listing. After some back and forth he admitted it was a Dunhill and it was a very clean pipe but it wasn’t a group 5. I pointed out the clearly legible shape number 5203 made it a group 5 and it had been the folks at Dunhill that had decided the bowl size. He wrote back that his buddy was a bit of a Dunhill expert and had looked the pipe over and decided it was not a group 5. “So, okay,” I wrote back, “return the pipe I’ll refund you”.
“No, he wrote back, I really like it and want to keep it, just refund my money.”
I declined this offer and decided to stay away from eBay for awhile until my faith in humanity could be restored.

The things anonymity can do...

 

[hauntedmyst]

I'm not sure if this counts but back when I was working at the Updown Tobacco Shop in Chicago, Chris Farley lived next door above the Mexican restaurant. He was performing at Second CIty (right before he went to SNL). Almost like clock work very Saturday and Sunday morning at about 11, he would come down hungover and stand in front of the shop for about 30 minutes. We'd chat for a few minutes most weekends. Even hangover he was always pleasant.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I was at the New Orleans pipe show, walking about with a pipe that had an 18k gold drip band that I had made, with a nice sapphire. It was an antique bulldog that I had customized for myself. This guy who was obviously throwing money at everything like a big shot walks up and offers to buy my pipe. I said, "No, no, this band was made with the gold from my late grandmother's wedding ring."
He said, "everything has a price..." and he was piling up $100 bills. So, I looked at my wife, and said, "Sure, $3000."
I should also add that this guy had been walking around the hotel in his robe when not at the show, so he may have had a screw loose... maybe a few. Someone told me that he was famous in some pipe club circle that came up with some of the club blend tobaccos or something like that.
But, he roared, "$3000!!! what an asshole thing to ask!!" and he walked off cussing me out with spit. slobber, and vile oozing from his nasty face.

If one of you guys should be this guy. You don't have to admit it. I did enjoy your antics at the show. But, if everything has a price, you can't get pissed off when you don't like the price. puf

 

[lawdawg]

On my second (and last) visit to a local B&M several years ago, I was with my wife (girlfriend at the time) and we were the only customers in the shop. The owner kept making graphic jokes about some prominent sports coach's recent sex scandal. When I only responded with a minimal chuckle and then disengaged to signal my lack of desire to discuss his topic of choice, he kept looking to my wife for a reaction to his obviously hilarious jokes.

His jokes would've been alright locker room banter if it was just men around, but it felt kind of bizarre in mixed company. My wife is kind of shy, and I know it made her uncomfortable. I'm not the type to get offended or put off by much of anything, but this whole interaction just felt very weird and uncomfortable. If we had known the guy, maybe it wouldn't have been as weird. I think he was probably nice enough, but just wasn't very well-calibrated at all socially. It was like a guy had a complete lack of social skills, but was trying to engage in witty banter, and it was pretty painful. Since then, I've read of other people experiencing similar awkward interactions at the shop.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It was like a guy had a complete lack of social skills, but was trying to engage in witty banter, and it was pretty painful.

This wasn't the Gatlinburlier was it? I have felt like I have stepped into the Twighlight Zone every time I have visited there... like Alan Funt was just about to step out from around the corner.

 

[lawdawg]

This wasn't the Gatlinburlier was it? I have felt like I have stepped into the Twighlight Zone every time I have visited there... like Alan Funt was just about to step out from around the corner.

It was somewhere else, but "Twilight Zone" is a pretty accurate description. I walked out of there with a very "WTF just happened?!" feeling.

 

[mso489]

cosmic, it was easily worth $3K to not sell your pipe to that disturbed gentleman. Personality disorders don't get treated in most cases.

 

[Picas]

I once saw an old W.D.C. branded lidded pipe without a stem at a flea market and tought about buying it and making a churchwarden stem for it. I offered the guy 10 euros and he told me to heck off.
I returned to the flea market 2 months after that and offered him 10 euros again for the pipe, the same bad tempered guy who refused the offer now, not only he accepted the deal, but he also thanked me for buying from him and showed me the rest of the pipes, cigar and cigarette mouthpieces and tampers he had on sale.

 

[pipestud]

Pipe buying/selling stories? Where to begin? Click here to see some doozies - Pipestud's Crazy emails

 

[laniromee]

I'm good friends with the couple who owns the B&M close to my house. One day they got hold of the estate of a collector and wanted me to have one of his pipes, a kkkk "Castello" grade cherrywood. They asked so little money for it that I had to refuse as I felt they could get a much much better price for it - and you know, B&Ms are a dying breed, more so here in my country.

So I offered them more money for that pipe and they refused, instead proposing yet another discount on their initial price. I was almost mad and insisted on a higher sum, but they kept lowering the price until it was so absurdly cheap I had to take the pipe from them. It was the strangest haggle I've ever took part of.

 

[bluegrassbrian]

On my second (and last) visit to a local B&M several years ago, I was with my wife (girlfriend at the time) and we were the only customers in the shop. The owner kept making graphic jokes about some prominent sports coach's recent sex scandal. When I only responded with a minimal chuckle and then disengaged to signal my lack of desire to discuss his topic of choice, he kept looking to my wife for a reaction to his obviously hilarious jokes.

His jokes would've been alright locker room banter if it was just men around, but it felt kind of bizarre in mixed company. My wife is kind of shy, and I know it made her uncomfortable. I'm not the type to get offended or put off by much of anything, but this whole interaction just felt very weird and uncomfortable. If we had known the guy, maybe it wouldn't have been as weird. I think he was probably nice enough, but just wasn't very well-calibrated at all socially. It was like a guy had a complete lack of social skills, but was trying to engage in witty banter, and it was pretty painful. Since then, I've read of other people experiencing similar awkward interactions at the shop.

Sounds an awful lot like Gayle at Kremers (Louisville).