Why are estate pipes ok?

[The Benedictine]

I'm not understanding what you just posted. Are you saying that at one time estates averaged about 25% of the price of a new pipe, and that now they are 50%?

Prices on estates vary a great deal depending on how large a market of collectors there are for them. Even adjusting for inflation, some estate pipes go for more than they fetched when they were first sold.

In general, 50% to 60% is today's average pricing on pipes that aren't unicorns. But even now, some obscure pipes go for far less.

As markets mature, levels appear. Take the "vintage" tobacco market. Certain star brands or blends can go for multiples of their original release price. Every $16 dollar tin of McClelland 40th Anniversary blend I bought, now sells for $100 or more. But 15 years ago it was just old tobacco and I could, and did, buy tins of A & C Petersen Escudo for $15 to $20 a tin, as well as other old blends, and those now sell for $120 to $140 a tin.

If your argument is that estates weren't a large market until fairly recently, you're mistaken, full stop. I was buying them 30 to 40 years ago, and tobacconists had cases devoted to estates in their shops. That's not the sign of a fringe market.

He's just bullshitting. I don't think he knows that much about the market. Sorry if I'm blunt but I'm drinking.

 

[Alejo R.]

It existed sure, but what I'm saying is that you could get an estate (making up percentages here) for 25% new and now it's 50%.

Nah. It takes patience and knowledge. I've never paid 50% of the new value for an Estate Pipe. Many prices I've paid have been ridiculous.

 

[xrundog]

You can’t really measure estate prices vs. new except maybe pipes sold in the last 10 years. The estate market covers the last 150
Years with people sometimes narrowing focus on certain eras, brands or models.
If I get a used recent artisan pipe I like, in good shape at 2/3 new I’m pretty happy.

 

[anotherbob]

Freud was a coke fuled fraud.

Yeah he was on coke but fraud? He was revolutionary at his time, yeah a lot of his stuff is b.s. but seems to be genuine and laid a ground work for further better understanding. And also a product of his time as well. My favorite example is his thoughts on certain envies, envies that make sense when you see all the other factors that come along with membership especially in his day and age.

 

[anotherbob]

Like cheese and wine, I prefer the ones with a little culture.

I've never understood the fixation some men have with virgins. No one wants to be a doctors first patient. I've always assumed from observation the main draw is not being compared to anyone else.

 

[OzPiper]

I've never understood the fixation some men have with virgins

“Every man wants to be a woman’s first. Every woman wants to be a man’s last”

Can’t remember who said that but it came from a book of quotes

 

[Waning Embers]

Every man wants to be a woman’s first

Oh hell no. They get obsessed and clingy as hell with their first.

 

[paulfg]

new york where I lived and the internet. Estate pipes sold, sure, but they where not at the percentage of a new pipe sale they are now. I distinctly remember estates being much cheaper than they are now on smoking pipes for example.

My memory could be wrong of course.

and your pay was much less too

 

[anotherbob]

Oh hell no. They get obsessed and clingy as hell with their first.

and ask too many basic questions.

 

[anotherbob]

“Every man wants to be a woman’s first. Every woman wants to be a man’s last”

Can’t remember who said that but it came from a book of quotes

even more so with spiders.

 

[xrundog]

“Every man wants to be a woman’s first. Every woman wants to be a man’s last”

Can’t remember who said that but it came from a book of quotes

I can imagine Groucho saying it.

 

[trouttimes]

I smoke estates for years because I liked the pipe. I figured as hot as I smoked them, nothing was going to live. Clean them? I don’t even clean my new pipes. Living on a ranch, drinking well water, eating sandwiches with normal “ranch” dirty hands I’m immune to most anything you want to throw my way. I guess you never preg checked a cow or delivered a calf and then washed up and ate breakfast. And by the way, i married a non virgin redhead from Texas. I live on the edge all the time. Bring on the used pipes.

 

[andrew]

Pretty much all my pipes are estates bought for under 20$ cad. The bang for your buck plus the fact you're getting an expensive pipe for dollars makes it more than worthwhile for me. I give them pretty much a bit of a cleaning with alcohol soaked pipe cleaners and q-tips, but definitely not a deep clean. I also buy used straight razors and use those for the same reason. Better quality materials, better craftsmanship, its a win win. The fact someone else smoked it doesn't even run through my mind.

 

[Peter Turbo]

Serious question and something I've never understood about the pipe community. And I understand the whole "90% of everything is crap" idea behind estate pipes being more reliable.

That said, when I purchase something I'm going to be regularly placing in my mouth, someone else having already regularly placed it in their mouth immediately ends that deal.

I'm sure a good toothbrush can be rebristled and sold for 70% of the original price, but who in their right mind would buy such a thing?

That said, I just never understood it, but many pipe smokers much wiser and more experienced than me certainly have a different opinion, so just curious why estate pipes are popular.

do you eat at restaurants?

 

[Papamique]

Stoopidbaits, thank you for posing the question. Great (although scantly disguised) question, great replies, and a very entertaining read.

Stoopidbaits : I found the answer in your name. Well played sir.

 

[judcole]

This may have been mentioned - I have not been following this thread closely - but there is the "Unsmoked estates" market. Thinking about that this morning as I smoke a Comoy's 1981 Christmas pipe I acquired as an unsmoked estate.

 

[bluegrassbrian]

Yeah he was on coke but fraud? He was revolutionary at his time, yeah a lot of his stuff is b.s. but seems to be genuine and laid a ground work for further better understanding. And also a product of his time as well. My favorite example is his thoughts on certain envies, envies that make sense when you see all the other factors that come along with membership especially in his day and age.

I wish I could be a cocaine fueled fraud.
In the last 6-7 years though, it’s come down to cocaine or McClelland. Gotta have one, can’t have both.

 

[UB 40]

I can imagine Groucho saying it.

Oscar Wilde: 'Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.'​

 

[UB 40]

Have bought some new cobs. In cleaning and restoring old briars i came to making my own pipes. With every old gem came the times, style and aura of the previous owner, sometimes with a ghost. I dont worry about Germs. They’re on every door handle. Smoked each pipe with respect to the ancestors, slowly they turned out to be mine.

 

[Sobrbiker]

It seems that these days, every guy with some micromesh pads, mineral oil, and a buffer is a pipe restorer.
Just like so many guys with a sander and a drill press are artisan pipe makers.
I’ll pay decent money for an estate or NOS I really like, but the number of nice pipes with the stems overbuffed and other crimes just saddens me.