Why Are Japanese Pipes So Expensive?

[bpftc]

HA! Touche, Cosmic.

 

[jvnshr]

The question is, is there anything cheap in Japan? When I used to live in Korea, lots of Japanese girls were coming to Korea to stay for few months and do shopping as much as they can. So they were working in Japan for a year, saving the money, coming to Korea to buy clothes and cosmetics and boyfriends

 

[warren]

Absolutely correct. If you want to live, with a reasonable standard of living, you better have a bunch of moneys coming in monthly.

 

[sablebrush52]

Japanese pipes are so expensive because enough people are willing to pay a lot of money for them. Simple.

 

[warren]

sable's right. If you want to live well and make pipes you'd better make a few pipes people will pay big bucks for. Or, a bunch of inexpensive pipes lots of people will pay for.

 

[mso489]

The Japanese pipes I don't understand are the ones in fairly traditional shapes with ebony finishes and flowers painted on the bowls. Is that supposed to be for male smokers, to suggest their more sensitive side, or for women, or what? I've just had difficulty picturing the cultural or social setting where those would work. Is this a part of Japanese culture I don't know?

 

[warren]

Japanese tastes are indeed very different from ours.
Get a first class ticket and a big, fistful of cash and visit Japan. It is a fascinating place with a culture very unlike any Western culture.

 

[jparker]

Just the labor costs of having a warehouse full of ninjas artfully carving pipes with samurai swords and shurikens is through the roof. I honestly don't see how they can afford to keep the doors open.

 

[edgreen]

I have one of the Tsuge Camellia's and find it a beautiful example of Japanese lacquering along with several boxes I have that a relative passed down from his trip to Japan in the 1920's. It could be one of the ugliest pipes on the planet, though, and I would still smoke it because it smokes damn near perfectly. Three years and I can't remember one bad smoke. Plus it was a gift right at the beginning of my collecting from my wife.