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HawkeyeLinus

Lifer
Oct 16, 2020
5,814
42,063
Iowa
I just had my third bowl in a pipe I really thought I’d like when it caught my eye. It smokes great, looks great …… but it just doesn’t balance/clench well as I’ve found a lot of longer straight pipes don’t for me. It’s out of here Monday! A few others I just found over time I didn’t reach for and no other redeeming qualities so ….. gone.
 

verporchting

Lifer
Dec 30, 2018
3,002
9,274
There have been pipes that for no reason that I’m able to articulate just don’t click with me. After some indeterminate period of time it suddenly becomes obvious and I send them packing.

Recently I let go of pipes that literally sat unsmoked for over a year and there was nothing at all wrong with them but I just never reached for them anymore, so off they went.

Just seems to happen that way.
 

SBC

Lifer
Oct 6, 2021
1,608
7,594
NE Wisconsin
nice grain and nice branding are not reasons to keep a pipe I don't reach for
There have been pipes that for no reason that I’m able to articulate just don’t click with me.
there was nothing at all wrong with them but I just never reached for them anymore

This is a real thing. I prefer to have pipes that I feel attached to, for whatever reason. Sometimes, for no reason that I could articulate -- by no fault of the pipe -- I don't wind up attached to it. Over the course of time it becomes clear that I just don't reach for it. I may reach again and again for an uglier, less valuable pipe (also for no reason that I could articulate).

The same pipe that doesn't click for you may click for somebody else. I say give it a chance with the next guy.

I once had two prince shapes side by side. One was a somewhat collectable BBB with really nice grain and a sterling band. The other was an unbranded plain jane - no clue of the make. I kept smoking the no-name, and eventually it seemed redundant to have the other prince sitting beside it, even if it was the "better" pipe. I sold it.
 

MikeDub

Starting to Get Obsessed
Sep 26, 2022
261
781
SoCal
I'm culling the herd at the moment. I always reach for the same pipes and many weren't getting smoked at all. Strangely, I also found the mental space the unsmoked pipes were occupying to be annoying, as I kept trying to justify smoking them when I really wanted to smoke one of my regulars. So off they go...
 

Zeno Marx

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 10, 2022
271
1,376
I recently picked up a pipe at a reasonable price in a vein I've wanted for a long time. I underestimated its size, though the pipe I've wanted for a long time was always a large pipe. In other words, I knew it was a large pipe, but then when it was in front of me, it was just too large. I used to prefer pipes like this, and I still struggle with being drawn to large pipes. From the moment I started cleaning it up and getting it ready to smoke, I've been negative towards it. I stopped halfway through the process and was already thinking about where/how/when to sell it. It could prove me wrong, but it's not a great way to begin a relationship.

I'd sell a lot more pipes, and more often, if I wasn't so lazy and a procrastinator. I usually know right away whether it should be moved along to someone else. So, to answer your question: a lot of time...too much time...until it really bugs me and my space one day that I can no longer take it.
 

Zeno Marx

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 10, 2022
271
1,376
This is a point worth exploring more too: Does procrastinating ever prevent you from selling pipes that later you were glad you didn't sell right away ?
I'll have to think about that. Music can be that way for me. I can not be ready for something, yet know there is something there for me, which nags at me to re-visit and re-visit and re-visit, resulting in me finally liking something. For instance, I thought Keiji Haino was pretty much terrible for years and years, so I never understood the high praise. Many years later, after trying and trying, every few years, it finally clicked, and now I find him to be one of the greatest artists I've ever heard. I could offer other examples like that, but you get the gist. Sometimes, it just isn't the right time, the right headspace, and so on. I can't remember that ever happening with a pipe though.

Back when most of my new-to-me pipes were through trading, nothing laid stagnant for long. Many years ago, when I sold off 95% of my collection, and then came back to smoking, I've only really regretted selling a couple of those. I still look for them on the boards and on ebay (actually ran into one, too). Since coming back, I've only sold a handful of pipes, and none of those have proven to be a regret. I have found it easy, and definitive, to flip the switch on a pipe. Once I've come to the conclusion it needs to go, I no longer see it as a pipe, or as my pipe, but as a nuisance (or something negative) taking up my space; and being more of a minimalist than a hoarder, I tend to feel that a godsend and don't look back.
 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
12,281
18,261
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
If a new pipe doesn't give me a satisfactory pipe after a few bowls, into the trash it goes. I'd never sell or donate a pipe. Two reasons; 1) Why saddle another with a poor smoking pipe and 2) I'm not in the mail-order business. I don't want to be bothered packaging pipes and going to the PB to mail them. Neither do I want the bother of cashing checks and the like. Excepting one, a gift from my wife, I do not retain pipes I've quit smoking. Smoking tools I don't/won't use ... into the trash with 'em. I simply don't want to add to the clutter.
 
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