Who is Doug Valitchka?

[ssjones]

A good reminder from Greeneyes that "pipepedia", much like Wikipedia, is likely not 100% factual.
I suppose even back in the day, Britannica even made mistakes.
Pipe lore - take it all with a grain of salt.

 

[condorlover1]

I've dealt with Doug several times and purchased his pipes many times over the years. I think what has happened is that Doug draws from Pipedia to help enhance his listings, though on occasion I've had cause to question his certainty regarding the identity of certain pipes. Sethile, who runs Pipedia, populates several of the pages with photos from Doug's sales from eBay, and bases this on Doug's eBay descriptions. It's a little precarious in the sense that Doug draws from Pipedia and Pipedia draws from Doug but I'm not sure how much deeper than that the fact checking goes, and many of the pipes are really from Doug's sales and not from a historically curated collection per se.

Case in point: Doug sold a "Champion" pipe as a "Ben Wade" sub-brand. I emailed Doug to let him know that the there was no evidence that this pipe was a "Ben Wade Champion," as it was described in a 1930s Leeds-era Ben Wade catalog as a lower-quality briar with a silveroid band, and we have no hard evidence that Ben Wade manufactured its sub-brands in London (this is an area of active research). He didn't respond, nor did he apparently feel the need to update the eBay listing. The pipe sold. Then Sethile updated the "Ben Wade" Pipedia page to include the eBay photos of the "Champion" under the heading "What appears to be a Ben Wad Champion, courtesy Doug Valitchka."

I leave it to you to decide how factual or historically accurate this might be. I personally wouldn't have updated the Pipedia page with potentially misleading information based, ostensibly, on a single "Who Made That Pipe" entry (which does not provide dates or city of manufacture), but this happens all the time. In any case, my opinion is that it's always best to rely on multiple primary sources of evidence. If you ask me whether that's a "real" Ben Wade Champion, I'd tell you, based on primary evidence: maybe but we have absolutely no hard proof, and I can tell you conclusively that this is not a 1930s Ben Wade Champion.

Furthermore there are entries for an English-make "Champion" manufactured by Ben Wade, as well as "John Pollock", "Costwold Dist.," "Hall & Fitzgerald," and "Sam McLardy." On the surface any of these, without deeper digging, may also have manufactured the pipe. Why not? The evidence goes no deeper than Wilczak & Colwell.

John Pollock of Stott Street Manchester made clay pipes and the business was run by the son Gordon Pollock until he retired. I don't believe Pollocks ever made or sold briar pipes and I doubt Pollocks would warrant more than a brief mention but then who knows these days!

 

[The Clay King]

John Pollock of Stott Street Manchester made clay pipes and the business was run by the son Gordon Pollock until he retired. I don't believe Pollocks ever made or sold briar pipes and I doubt Pollocks would warrant more than a brief mention but then who knows these days!
@condorlover1 I've got several Pollock pipes; a shame that Wilson's of Sharrow (in Sheffield) no longer make clays or I'd probably be their biggest customer. I'm unsure if they still have the moulds but would like to find out!

 

[greeneyes]

Of note: Doug has a second eBay account where he sells his pipe "seconds." The name escapes me, but he did confirm as much to me when I asked him.

In a business where pipe sellers build a name for themselves, and a beautiful piece of driftwood can boost pipe prices manifold, it can be a good idea to sell the premiums through the storefront, and the odd-and-ends out the rear of the store.

 

[sablebrush52]

I've dealt with Doug several times and purchased his pipes many times over the years. I think what has happened is that Doug draws from Pipedia to help enhance his listings, though on occasion I've had cause to question his certainty regarding the identity of certain pipes. Sethile, who runs Pipedia, populates several of the pages with photos from Doug's sales from eBay, and bases this on Doug's eBay descriptions. It's a little precarious in the sense that Doug draws from Pipedia and Pipedia draws from Doug but I'm not sure how much deeper than that the fact checking goes, and many of the pipes are really from Doug's sales and not from a historically curated collection per se.

Case in point: Doug sold a "Champion" pipe as a "Ben Wade" sub-brand. I emailed Doug to let him know that the there was no evidence that this pipe was a "Ben Wade Champion," as it was described in a 1930s Leeds-era Ben Wade catalog as a lower-quality briar with a silveroid band, and we have no hard evidence that Ben Wade manufactured its sub-brands in London (this is an area of active research). He didn't respond, nor did he apparently feel the need to update the eBay listing. The pipe sold. Then Sethile updated the "Ben Wade" Pipedia page to include the eBay photos of the "Champion" under the heading "What appears to be a Ben Wad Champion, courtesy Doug Valitchka."

I leave it to you to decide how factual or historically accurate this might be. I personally wouldn't have updated the Pipedia page with potentially misleading information based, ostensibly, on a single "Who Made That Pipe" entry (which does not provide dates or city of manufacture), but this happens all the time. In any case, my opinion is that it's always best to rely on multiple primary sources of evidence. If you ask me whether that's a "real" Ben Wade Champion, I'd tell you, based on primary evidence: maybe but we have absolutely no hard proof, and I can tell you conclusively that this is not a 1930s Ben Wade Champion.

Furthermore there are entries for an English-make "Champion" manufactured by Ben Wade, as well as "John Pollock", "Costwold Dist.," "Hall & Fitzgerald," and "Sam McLardy." On the surface any of these, without deeper digging, may also have manufactured the pipe. Why not? The evidence goes no deeper than Wilczak & Colwell.

Who Made That Pipe can be a useful tool from time to time, but not by neophytes, because its many listings are sometimes haphazardly assigned, such as mixing up model names with manufacturing names. If one has some general knowledge of pipe history once can more often spot the many fuck ups.

The issue with some eBay sellers is that they will latch onto a story that they think will make their offerings more desirable and have no interest in whether it's correct or not. I've seen a number of Alfred Dreyfus pipes listed as "early rare Dunhill" pipes because of the AD makers mark stamp. Nevermind that the stamps are not identical in design. There are quite a few owners of Dreyfus' pipe who paid an inflated amount for the privilege, thinking they were buying a rare Dunhill.

 

[snagstangl]

Holysmoke was made by Claude Stuart who worked for Mincer at Custom-bilt. Then continued making pipes after Custom-bilt folded. I think Valitchka also sold a few Whitehall pipes as made by Ben Wade when all I have seen have been drugstore quality.

 

[greeneyes]

Who Made That Pipe can be a useful tool from time to time, but not by neophytes, because its many listings are sometimes haphazardly assigned, such as mixing up model names with manufacturing names. If one has some general knowledge of pipe history once can more often spot the many fuck ups.

The issue with some eBay sellers is that they will latch onto a story that they think will make their offerings more desirable and have no interest in whether it's correct or not. I've seen a number of Alfred Dreyfus pipes listed as "early rare Dunhill" pipes because of the AD makers mark stamp. Nevermind that the stamps are not identical in design. There are quite a few owners of Dreyfus' pipe who paid an inflated amount for the privilege, thinking they were buying a rare Dunhill.

Absolutely. A further example is the Whitehall pipe. The Pipedia entry shows an American Whitehall (surprise! another Valitchka photo!), while mistakenly attributing it to Ben Wade and Civic. There is no American entry for Whitehall in "Who Made That Pipe." The Pipephil entry correctly identifies the American Whitehall as American in manufacture.

I'm at work at the moment but I seem to have fallen down a rabbit-hole. A lawsuit by Orlik against HELME PRODUCTS INC. and Whitehall Products, Inc [HERE]. Apparently Mastercraft imported Orlik pipes at some point? Lots of interesting information to sift through when I'm off the clock.

 

[rmbittner]

Absolutely. A further example is the Whitehall pipe. The Pipedia entry shows an American Whitehall (surprise! another Valitchka photo!), while mistakenly attributing it to Ben Wade and Civic. There is no American entry for Whitehall in "Who Made That Pipe." The Pipephil entry correctly identifies the American Whitehall as American in manufacture.

I'm at work at the moment but I seem to have fallen down a rabbit-hole. A lawsuit by Orlik against HELME PRODUCTS INC. and Whitehall Products, Inc [HERE]. Apparently Mastercraft imported Orlik pipes at some point? Lots of interesting information to sift through when I'm off the clock.

Wikipedia encourages the community to edit/correct and provide additional sources for its pages. Does Pipedia not work the same?

 

[milk]

Holysmoke was made by Claude Stuart who worked for Mincer at Custom-bilt. Then continued making pipes after Custom-bilt folded. I think Valitchka also sold a few Whitehall pipes as made by Ben Wade when all I have seen have been drugstore quality.

Thanks for that. Ok. Right. I’m really a neophyte so I’m surprised I knew this or fount it out. Maybe I just didn’t read him carefully; I don’t want to accuse anyone. Anyway, thanks. Those are weird interesting pipes, BTW.

 

[docwatson]

He has been a long time seller on fleabay for many years and a continual seller with weekly listings. Seems to have some nice older pieces that sell for reasonable prices. Never met him or seen him at any pipe shows around the USA of which I frequent many. Seems to be a very reputable seller IMO with the exception of one pipe that he bought from me on the Bay....it was smoked and advertised as such. He resold it after buying it from me as UNsmoked and got a lot more $$ for it than I did. That didn't set well with me but it is what it is. LOL

 

[greeneyes]

Wikipedia encourages the community to edit/correct and provide additional sources for its pages. Does Pipedia not work the same?

Yes, Pipedia does encourage user participation and edits! I've been slow to make my contributions because I have some very urgent deadlines at work that take precedent. That having been said, I would like to draw a distinction between furnishing "iffy" or questionable information to what ostensibly is a reference site in the first place, and the need (by someone else) to counter that information with fact and/or primary sources.

 

[towhee89]

I've dealt with Doug several times and purchased his pipes many times over the years. I think what has happened is that Doug draws from Pipedia to help enhance his listings, though on occasion I've had cause to question his certainty regarding the identity of certain pipes. Sethile, who runs Pipedia, populates several of the pages with photos from Doug's sales from eBay, and bases this on Doug's eBay descriptions. It's a little precarious in the sense that Doug draws from Pipedia and Pipedia draws from Doug but I'm not sure how much deeper than that the fact checking goes, and many of the pipes are really from Doug's sales and not from a historically curated collection per se.

Case in point: Doug sold a "Champion" pipe as a "Ben Wade" sub-brand. I emailed Doug to let him know that the there was no evidence that this pipe was a "Ben Wade Champion," as it was described in a 1930s Leeds-era Ben Wade catalog as a lower-quality briar with a silveroid band, and we have no hard evidence that Ben Wade manufactured its sub-brands in London (this is an area of active research). He didn't respond, nor did he apparently feel the need to update the eBay listing. The pipe sold. Then Sethile updated the "Ben Wade" Pipedia page to include the eBay photos of the "Champion" under the heading "What appears to be a Ben Wad Champion, courtesy Doug Valitchka."

I leave it to you to decide how factual or historically accurate this might be. I personally wouldn't have updated the Pipedia page with potentially misleading information based, ostensibly, on a single "Who Made That Pipe" entry (which does not provide dates or city of manufacture), but this happens all the time. In any case, my opinion is that it's always best to rely on multiple primary sources of evidence. If you ask me whether that's a "real" Ben Wade Champion, I'd tell you, based on primary evidence: maybe but we have absolutely no hard proof, and I can tell you conclusively that this is not a 1930s Ben Wade Champion.

Furthermore there are entries for an English-make "Champion" manufactured by Ben Wade, as well as "John Pollock", "Costwold Dist.," "Hall & Fitzgerald," and "Sam McLardy." On the surface any of these, without deeper digging, may also have manufactured the pipe. Why not? The evidence goes no deeper than Wilczak & Colwell.

Great answer thanks. I noticed that burl the pipes were sitting on from the pipedia page looked exactly the same as the seller on ebay so I was googling him. Very interesting

 

[craiginthecorn]

I’ve dealt with Doug at least a few times, either regarding a purchase, or asking him a question. He’s an honest and reliable seller as demonstrated by nearly 10000 eBay ratings and a composite rating of 99.8%. Given the sheer volume of pipes that pass through his hands, that makes him a valuable resource of photos.

Regarding edits to Pipedia, Scott Thile is always grateful for any additions, corrections, and clarifications. He’s a gem of a fellow who richly deserved the Doctor of Pipes award he was presented with at the 2023 Chicago Pipe Show.

 

[milk]

I’ve dealt with Doug at least a few times, either regarding a purchase, or asking him a question. He’s an honest and reliable seller as demonstrated by nearly 10000 eBay ratings and a composite rating of 99.8%. Given the sheer volume of pipes that pass through his hands, that makes him a valuable resource of photos.

Regarding edits to Pipedia, Scott Thile is always grateful for any additions, corrections, and clarifications. He’s a gem of a fellow who richly deserved the Doctor of Pipes award he was presented with at the 2023 Chicago Pipe Show.

I’ve bought two pipes from him. He’s certainly very trustworthy as a seller. I wish I could attend a show.

 

[Sobrbiker]

I bought one of my favorite pipes from him, but the history/date he gave on the pipe upon inquiry was way different than what I learned from some Kaywoodie geeks on a Farcebook Kaywoodie page.

 

[towhee89]

I bought one of my favorite pipes from him, but the history/date he gave on the pipe upon inquiry was way different than what I learned from some Kaywoodie geeks on a Farcebook Kaywoodie page.

View attachment 265001

Very nice meerschaum lined? I picked up 2 Kaywoodie estates off recommendations from users of this forum and love them.

 

[craiginthecorn]

I bought one of my favorite pipes from him, but the history/date he gave on the pipe upon inquiry was way different than what I learned from some Kaywoodie geeks on a Farcebook Kaywoodie page.

View attachment 265001

In my communications with him about pipes that were in my own collection, Doug has been clear that he doesn't consider himself an expert about every pipe. I feel confident that he doesn't knowingly misrepresent anything he has for sale. That said, I'm sure that he does make mistakes in his listings from time to time. I've seen errors in Smokingpipes listings on occasion as well. Kaywoodie, in spite of its lengthy history, isn't as well documented as, say, Dunhill. I just bought a Kaywoodie from Blue Room Briars which they listed as over 100 years old. It may be, but in my research, it's also possible that it's a decade or so newer.

 

[orvet]

I have bought several pipes from Doug without any problems. I have been satisfied with the pipes and didn't find any what I would call intentional errors in his listings. I have been considerably more satisfied with pipes I purchased from him, more so then from many of the other eBay sellers.

 

[drrock]

Over the years I've purchased a number of pipes from Doug Valitchka.

I've always been satisfied with what he's sold me. The overall quality of the pipes I've received has been outstanding. The descriptions he's written when selling pipes on eBay have usually matched what I know about different pipe brands based on my own years & years of collecting estate pipes. There is such a myriad of pipe manufacturers & brands that I find it difficult to verify information on any given brand even given the power of the internet to help with information. I often refer to Who Made That Pipe? to help verify information about any given brand but that's not a perfect source either.

I've also sold some pipes to him on a couple of occasions. While pipes I've sold are generally in very good condition, I noticed that when he's resold those pipes they've been cleaned up & appear to be in even better condition.

I just bought another pipe from him - one I'd been looking for for over 10 years. Given how crazy the estate pipe market can be, I personally don't hesitate to bid on any of the pipes he sells.

 

[VAlitchka]

Out of curiosity I wanted to find what I might find be on here about my Ebay pipes, so I thought I'd do a better job of introducing myself.

I do live in Oregon now, and do an Ebay business selling pipes. I sell about 16 pipes a week, as that is about all I can consistently handle, since I refurbish them and do long descriptions, which takes more time.

I started collecting pipes in college, and in 1983 met a fellow who was a pipe collector, and he started telling me about the early brands, rivalries, and changes the companies had gone through, like Dunhill and Sasieni, Barling and Comoy's, and so on. I found all that info very interesting, as I had never really thought about pipe makers and their history. It turned out my new friend had about 150 pipes in his collection, which seemed crazy to me.

I ended up collecting estate pipes myself soon after, and ended up with about 150 pipes eventually myself. Most of my pipes were nothing to write home about. It was fun to go to antique malls and swap meets in search of pipes.

Around 1998 I went to one flea market and the guy had a bunch of Dunhill pipes I purchased for $2.75 a piece, OMG, what fun! I was curious about what they were worth, and more info, and in doing some internet searching I found a site called Ebay. They had some Dunhill pipes, and the prices varied a lot. I didn't realize some were early in the bidding, and those were cheaper than others, etc. Auctions! What an idea!

I opened my Ebay account in 1998, and eventually sold off some of the Dunhill pipes, and some of my other pipes, and wanted to add some fun info about the makers and so on, as I thought the history was interesting.

At the time I was a commercial photographer in Orange County, Ca, and was able to take nice photos of the pipes. I've sold pipes on Ebay off and on ever since. I really liked the site called The Kaywoodie Compendium, which sadly no longer exists. It was a great repository of information, and it helped me to gain respect for the brand, which I had formerly thought was all cheap pipes not worthy of consideration.

After the Kaywoodie Compendium site was gone, I had thoughts of trying to recreate it, and kept my auction photos of pipes I'd sell, just in case they might be of value later on. At some point, in searching the internet for more info on makers, I found the site called Pipedia. Wow, lots of info there, but not very many photos of makes on many of the pages.

I had made myself a Word Doc about many of the pipe companies, which was over 500 pages long, and was able to use some of the info I had gathered to add pages to Pipedia where no info existed. And yes, lots of stuff on the internet that I had found was not reliable, or true. Such is the internet, unfortunately. But mainly, I was able to send Scott Thile lots of photos, and ads, and such, to fill out many of the pages which showed no pipes, or photos of the makers, or catalogs or print ads. And Pipedia is able to be edited by users, photos added, corrections made, and so on. So if you can contribute there, it's good!

I certainly don't consider myself an expert on pipes, or have any exhaustive understanding on their history and makers, but I do like to try to figure the stuff out for my listings.

One fellow who had a big impact on why I list things the way I do was Tony Soderman, aka MrCan on Ebay. His writeups were pretty amazing, and always somewhat exhaustive in what he wrote, very LONG descriptions, with lots of exclamation points, all caps, bold lettering, and so on!!!!! And there are a lot of others who are very knowledgeable about pipes who I respect a great deal.

My goal in my listings is to show the pipes I sell with lots of clear photos, and honest descriptions. I emphasize the positives and mention the negatives, so people get what they expect, what I state they are, and hopefully no surprises or disappointments. I do, definitely make some mistakes at times, but not intentionally. And am happy to try to make things right if I do screw up, or miss something, or I don't edit my listing very well.

The reason nobody sees me at the big pipe shows is because I can't afford to travel to them, and only sell stuff on Ebay. Hopefully this might help with any curiosity about who that Doug Valitchka guy is. I would like to become more communicative on the site here, I just have normally been too busy to do so.
Regards - Doug