Where Do You Search for Pipes?

[Johnkelly55]

Lots of points being made. Here is what I will add, I hope it will help!
eBay has helped add to my collection. Some of my best pipes have been added that way. But, there are times I have lost on a bid because someone put in a dollar or two more in that last minute OR I have paid too much for the pipe. So, if it helps, I am leaning much more toward ‘buy it now’ pipes.
Important point- what is it’s condition? All sellers will say they are clean or cleaned. Not true. I just won a Carleton that was “cleaned” and restored. I just finished cleaning it- it was filthy. So, read the sellers‘ reviews.
Also, learn and discern what you want. It is good to know what u are looking for before you go into it..
And, one more site- Just the last month, I picked up two pipes at Etsy. One was a terrific bargain.
It just arrived and I am stunned…
(makes up for getting burned with that Carleton!)

 

[smokeymo]

why?
There are unsmoked pipes out there going back ages.
I bought this one ,a 1892 meerschaum pipe unsmoked recently.View attachment 94333

It's real easy for a pipemaker to counterfeit a pipe. Especially if you are buying vintage, unsmoked pipes that are a hundred years old. Figured we might be able to put 2 and 2 together there. Like I said.. I'm very wary of pipemakers who have all of the sudden stumbled upon an old goldmine of unused pipes. Do you get the original box? There is no receipt or proof of date because the pipe has never been sold. Just saying, seems shady.

 

[paulfg]

It's real easy for a pipemaker to counterfeit a pipe. Especially if you are buying vintage, unsmoked pipes that are a hundred years old. Figured we might be able to put 2 and 2 together there. Like I said.. I'm very wary of pipemakers who have all of the sudden stumbled upon an old goldmine of unused pipes. Do you get the original box? There is no receipt or proof of date because the pipe has never been sold. Just saying, seems shady.

Undoubtably you could buy a fake but with due dilligence there are are still many pipes that are genuine.
take my meer for instance,would a carver in turkey carve a bowl to fit an old case and add hallmarked silver and an unsmoked bone tenon and a broken Amber stem send it to the Uk and then sell it for a similar price to a modern meer.

I bought 2 Lane era Charatan pipes with boxes,pipe sock and papers ,complete with oxidised stems a while back,would someone go to that trouble for a middle of the road priced pipe when you could fake a high end pipe for more return.

Stock really does sometimes sit in a shop for decades and when the shop closes it comes to market.
Of course each to there own

 

[smokeymo]

Undoubtably you could buy a fake but with due dilligence there are are still many pipes that are genuine.
take my meer for instance,would a carver in turkey carve a bowl to fit an old case and add hallmarked silver and an unsmoked bone tenon and a broken Amber stem send it to the Uk and then sell it for a similar price to a modern meer.

I bought 2 Lane era Charatan pipes with boxes,pipe sock and papers ,complete with oxidised stems a while back,would someone go to that trouble for a middle of the road priced pipe when you could fake a high end pipe for more return.

Stock really does sometimes sit in a shop for decades and when the shop closes it comes to market.
Of course each to there own

Like I said, there's nothing wrong with buying them. I am just hesitant to do so. For the most part, a 50+ year old pipe in unsmoked condition will go for a lot more than its new counterpart. If it isn't, that to me is a red flag. Because it SHOULD. That unsmoked meer that is 130 years old should go for 10x what a new one cost. If it didn't, there is something fishy going on.
It always reminds me of that Antique Roadshow program. When people are getting their stuff evaluated and they believe it is way older than it actually is and is only worth a fraction of what they thought haha. If a deal seems too good to be true, it usually is.

 

[sablebrush52]

It's real easy for a pipemaker to counterfeit a pipe. Especially if you are buying vintage, unsmoked pipes that are a hundred years old. Figured we might be able to put 2 and 2 together there. Like I said.. I'm very wary of pipemakers who have all of the sudden stumbled upon an old goldmine of unused pipes. Do you get the original box? There is no receipt or proof of date because the pipe has never been sold. Just saying, seems shady.

No, it isn't, at least to an experienced collector who knows what 100 year old unsmoked pipes look like.

If you're looking for the finest museum quality vintage pieces, get to know people in the piping community, which entails going to shows and joining groups. The best stuff rarely makes it to eBay, and never from a serious collector. They'd rather die than do that.

There have been a couple of notable exceptions, like the pipes from the Fabris collection, at its peak probably the finest collection of vintage Britwood ever assembled. Any one of those pieces would have formed the crown jewel for anyone's collection.

I've never been aggressive about collecting. I do everything on a strict budget, so I won't get into stratospheric amounts for a particularly rare piece. I've been able to attain some very fine pipes for about 1/4 to 1/2 what they normally get, which takes patience.

Some of the pipes have come from other collectors who reached out from different parts of the globe. Others came from dealers who asked my help in doing a bit of research and sold me pipes at dealers' cost. Some came from eBay years ago when it was relatively easy to find bargains compared to today. Others came from garage sales, other auction houses, etc. Never saw anything worth buying from an antique stores.

The retail pipe scene in L.A. has really dried up.

eBay is hardly the only place to find pipe collections up for auction. Start researching auction houses in the US and abroad.

 

[hauntedmyst]

As an accomplished cat burglar, I used to just keep an eye on the Pipes: Show Us Your (fill in the blank) Pipes forum and when I saw one someone bought that I liked, I put it on my list to steal when I'd be traveling. Pipe smokers have surprisingly little security measures around their pipes and it was going quite well. Unfortunately, an accident sidelined me for about 6 months and resulted in some considerable weight gain. I decided to stop after a swing through Alabama when cosmicfolklore found me wedged in one of his windows, unable to get in or out. Rather than call the cops, he sat outside in a lawn chair with a pipe and drank beer while he shot my ass with a BB gun for 2 hours until my blood, sweat and tears lubed up the window frame enough for me to fall out and make my get away. Now I just check eBay. The incident wasn't without it's silver lining. When I got back home, I lost the weight and the plastic surgeons did an amazing job reconstructing my ass and now I model Calvin Klein underwear.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

When I am looking for pipes, I start behind the couch. That is usually where they are. Damn cat! Then if I have exhausted the house, I will realize that I was actually smoking the pipe I was looking for.

 

[OzPiper]

For the most part, a 50+ year old pipe in unsmoked condition will go for a lot more than its new counterpart.

Not always so. Just because something is old does not mean it necessarily is more valuable. Prices fluctuate as objects come into and go out of fashion.
Someone might risk counterfeiting a Bo Nordh, but for a pipe costing $200 ? Not worth the time nor effort.
I don't buy "museum" pieces. All of my pipes are meant to be smoked, so I am not in the market for pieces worth counterfeiting.
I am aware of instances where pipes have been stamped with a sought after marque(s), but I think those are quite limited incidences.

 

[chopper]

It's real easy for a pipemaker to counterfeit a pipe. Especially if you are buying vintage, unsmoked pipes that are a hundred years old. Figured we might be able to put 2 and 2 together there. Like I said.. I'm very wary of pipemakers who have all of the sudden stumbled upon an old goldmine of unused pipes. Do you get the original box? There is no receipt or proof of date because the pipe has never been sold. Just saying, seems shady.

"Counterfeit a pipe"? For what purpose?
You've got a mighty suspicious nature Mo.

Sorry but I can't help but feel that your comment "stumbled upon a goldmine of unused pipes" was directed at my previous post.
For the record; if only all ebay vendors conducted themselves in the same manner as Marcus.

Here's just one example of a 90-100yo pipe I won from this "goldmine" [forget what it cost but I'm a bargain hunter so probably paid around $20 to $25]
Nothing fancy but it's a fine smoker;



For those who might be interested in purchasing a NOS antique pipe from this German "goldmine", due to postal issues due to Covid, operations were moved to the U.S. and set-up a website www.markenpipes.com [they've also opened a new ebay 'shop'] Highly recommended.
[No connection other than being a very satisfied customer]

 

[chopper]

@PiperHope , talking about bargains, I just found pics of the two Lorenzo VIP Plateaus that I scored on ebay for $30usd.
That auction generated little interest I suspect because of the really crappy pics that do not do these fine pipes any justice.

Since Lorenzo is a good brand I figured they should be good smokers [at the time my only interest was building a rotation] and they were Plateaus no less.
When I opened my order I could not believe my luck, they both look way better than the pics indicate [for one thing, they're actually a deep maroon/red in colour]

The p-lip is an excellent smoker, the other I gifted to our member Jay [for selflessly helping a guy out]

 

[smokeymo]

"Counterfeit a pipe"? For what purpose?
You've got a mighty suspicious nature Mo.

Sorry but I can't help but feel that your comment "stumbled upon a goldmine of unused pipes" was directed at my previous post.
For the record; if only all ebay vendors conducted themselves in the same manner as Marcus.

Here's just one example of a 90-100yo pipe I won from this "goldmine" [forget what it cost but I'm a bargain hunter so probably paid around $20 to $25]
Nothing fancy but it's a fine smoker;

View attachment 94403

For those who might be interested in purchasing a NOS antique pipe from this German "goldmine", due to postal issues due to Covid, operations were moved to the U.S. and set-up a website www.markenpipes.com [they've also opened a new ebay 'shop'] Highly recommended.
[No connection other than being a very satisfied customer]

My post wasn't meant to single you out. You aren't the only person who has stumbled upon someone that has goldmine of unsmoked pipes.

As for "why counterfeit a pipe?" I feel like the reason would be fairly obvious. There are pipes that are no longer in production that are very valuable. A Blue Riband just recently sold on ebay for ~$600. And that is smoked. I'd imagine an unsmoked one would run almost a grand. For a relatively small piece of briar. So, I think that answers why someone would counterfeit an older pipe.

I'm not saying it happens often. I'm not saying that this German fella is doing it. I'm just saying I am wary of that situation. Especially for the brands and models that I purchase.

If you're only paying $25 for them then I would imagine you are correct in that no one would go through that much trouble to counterfeit one.

 

[hauntedmyst]

Not always so. Just because something is old does not mean it necessarily is more valuable.

This is so true. Which would you demand a higher ransom for - an 18 year old Britney Spears or a 42 year old Britney Spears? Wait, that's a bad example. I'd pay the same amount on the condition she doesn't sing.

 

[Bax Burley]

In the U.S., I have bought from Pipes and Cigars, Smoking Pipes, Tobacco Pipes, Paul's Pipe Shop, and Greywoodie. P&C is the closest to me, I usually check them first, but I've had success with all of these places. (Paul's Pipe Shop has speedy shipping, too.) I've never bought an Estate pipe or a used pipe. I will only buy new. New old stock, though, well that's the best.

 

[Johnkelly55]

I’ve bought quite a few estates in my time - and I have found that when a seller tells u they have completely restored them, well, u learn who to trust. I was talking about one I bought on eBay that was restored and clean and wasn’t. Finally, I got it cleaned up enough- salt treatment, lots of pipe cleaners, and finally a great smoke yesterday.
So, I will buy an estate again. But, definitely, pay more and go to the larger more reputable dealers
That is just me…
John K