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Hillcrest

Lifer
Dec 3, 2021
3,797
19,287
Connecticut, USA
Collectable, vintage, European. Those are some spicy keywords on their own. You jam all three of them together at once, you're guaranteed to make a sale!
My favorite is the overuse of 'rare' --- applied to an item of which there are several million ... and it indicates its rare to the seller who just stepped out of the cave for the first time ! Should I sell my pipes in that manner they will all be rare ...as in I have them and you don't so they are rare to you and this is your one opportunity to acquire them ! :ROFLMAO:
 

runscott

Lifer
Jun 3, 2020
1,293
2,840
Washington State
My favorite is the overuse of 'rare' --- applied to an item of which there are several million ... and it indicates its rare to the seller who just stepped out of the cave for the first time ! Should I sell my pipes in that manner they will all be rare ...as in I have them and you don't so they are rare to you and this is your one opportunity to acquire them ! :ROFLMAO:

I think 'rare', 'unique' and 'mint' are just spam keywords for most sellers. EIther that or 90% of ebay sellers don't know that 'mint' means better, in most cases, than how the pipe looked on the store shelf.
 

runscott

Lifer
Jun 3, 2020
1,293
2,840
Washington State
Wow, an amazing buy you got there. The seller will go down in the Hall of Ignorance amongst pipe sellers.

I have a friend who sells vintage clothing, including old hats, in his shop. He pays $10 or so for a hat, sells it to me for $50, then I sell it for $100. Everyone made money, including the person who sold it in the garage or estate sale.

I once made the mistake of telling him that I had sold one of his hats for $100. It caused him some angst, and he was no longer happy with his spot in the hat food chain. Now he envies my 'spot', not realizing that it includes twenty years of expertise and my customers, and far fewer sales. Conversely, I have no interest in running a vintage clothing store, even though people would walk in regularly with great, cheap items to sell me.
 

peteguy

Lifer
Jan 19, 2012
1,531
916
WOW - It always amazes me that these auctions still slide by. I never even saw this. ARGH@!
 

peteguy

Lifer
Jan 19, 2012
1,531
916
My favorite is the overuse of 'rare' --- applied to an item of which there are several million ... and it indicates its rare to the seller who just stepped out of the cave for the first time ! Should I sell my pipes in that manner they will all be rare ...as in I have them and you don't so they are rare to you and this is your one opportunity to acquire them ! :ROFLMAO:
I agree that these terms are overused. I also see the other side. Sometimes when you put in the work and the pipe looks amazing you need a descriptive term. It seems that a lot of sellers just adopt the norm for this and call it rare, near mint, mint, unique. But in the sellers eyes it very well could be one of those descriptive terms. If anyone can instruct me on how to alert buyers that this pipe i have is worth the purchase and it nicer than the other 500 listed, please enlighten us all. :)
 
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Hillcrest

Lifer
Dec 3, 2021
3,797
19,287
Connecticut, USA
rare, near mint, mint, unique
All of my pipes are rare, near mint, mint, unique, and ...unobtainable ! Just ask me ! :ROFLMAO:
Seriously, I only have 16 pipes and of those 4 are hand carved, 5 more are unobtainable in that they are no longer made and are in excellent occasionally smoked condition, 2 are first editions of popular pipes, 2 are unsmoked, which leaves about 7 in rotation that are great pipes but easily replaceable. Of the nine, the "used/sold" ebay price is more than I paid for them new 30-40 yrs ago.
So I can't complain. As for selling when an add says "Please read " I generally do because it indicates the seller wants buyers to know something. I got a NOS Sav from the 60s that way ... it was a display item from a shop with sunlight oxidation but unsmoked. Maybe try Please read if you sell. Good luck.
 
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