Your Best Cheap Pipe; Here's Mine; Let's See Yours!

[gord]

Putting a price limit of $30 bucks. The type you'd buy for a newbie friend.

I got a couple of friends started on this beauty, which costs $20 bucks on Amazon. Made by Muxiang, and it is made of ebony. Smokes Great. Could be plain hardwood but I do think it's ebony. Reason? In my callow youth we had no highschool orchestra, so I slummed in the school band on clarinet. Took lessons, and banged up my Buffet Bb frequently. It was genuine ebony and I saw enough of this wood to get to recognize it when it got back from the repair shop. (it was old and used, and a lot of the stain was worn off, especially on the barrel, which I frequently brutalized.) I could be wrong so let's avoid the ecological ethics here, if possible.

We now fondly coll it Uncle Henry Miller, after the famed pipe smoking neighbourhood grouch in the old Dennis the Menace comic strip. If you remember this, man are you dated lol.

I still have mine, and often give it a whirl. Best $20 bucks you'll ever spend.

Let's see your favourite clandestine el cheapo!

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[warren]

Under 50? Any of my cobs I suppose.

 

[gord]

Under 50? Any of my cobs I suppose.

Yup, we all have a cob or two, and they smoke great! Mine cost me seven bucks and if you lose it fighting a big fish, well, that's the way the rookie stumbles. Who cares, especially if you land the lunker. Got anything besides cobs that might qualify?

 

[SmokingInTheWind]

Thirty dollars will buy you two Missouri Meerschaum Legends, a bent and a straight, a pipe tool and some pipe cleaners. That is a good starter kit. Just add tobacco. I still smoke the cobs I started out with. I don't smoke expensive pipes, but my least expensive pipe, not a cob, was $60. So, I have nothing to offer besides cobs.

 

[BingBong]

The one I'm smoking in my profile pic, a Sarome Cambridge which is very probably out of the old Rossi factory in its new guise under Savinelli - is Molina based in the same place? Anyway, £28 at the time, still very much used, still the best for integrated flavours.

 

[warren]

Under 50? Any of my cobs I suppose.

Got anything besides cobs that might qualify?

Gifted pipes which cost me nothing. That's not in the spirit of your question though.

 

[didimauw]

This would have to be close to the 30 dollar price point. My first pipe. Bent Dr Grabow Lark. Came from pipesandcigars as a kit labeled "The Dr. Is in". Came with a few pouches of tobacco, cleaners, tool and a pouch I believe.

I owe my pipe career to this pipe. Really wish I still had it.

 

[bullet08]

 

[RPK]

OLD DOMINION ~ SHENANDOAH

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[InWithBothFeet]

The cheapest pipe I have was $50.. I didn't like the cob I bought. I gave it away.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

Unless they're excluded it'll always be a cob.

 

[Epip Oc'Cabot]

Hmm. Maybe I am not allowed to play this round, but….

As all my pipes at least 30 years old or older, they were all less than $50 and most were less than $30 when o got them back when. If I were to count them, I probably have somewhere around 100.

 

[Epip Oc'Cabot]

Well, I probably have to modify the above a bit…. I have a few newer ones than 30 years old, but they were ones I inherited from my father-in-law. A couple of those are less than 30 years old…. but they were free to me.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

I bought this from didimauw as part of a lot of pipes with a stand, when I first started smoking pipes.

I think it was 6 pipes and a stand for 70 bucks, so I paid a little over 10 dollars for this one.

It's one of my favorite pipes, smokes perfectly everytime. Good thing he didn't smoke it very much, or for a year.

 

[OzPiper]

Just to show that it is possible to find “bargains” on EBay

A French straight prince.
Unfortunately stampings too buffed out to read.
Lovely contrast grain on both sides



A Vieux Corrieu (Cogolin) nosewarmer



A Franken-clay, complete with a case



And a “fishtail” Sasieni - mislabelled as “Lasieni” by the vendor

 

[makhorkasmoker]

For a non-cob, the closest I can get is this Dr. Grabow Savoy. It was about 10 dollars over your limit, but a great smoker

 

[Sig]

Excluding gifts, estates and cobs....
About 10 years ago I found a box of old pipes while looking in our local very small, mom and pop cigar shop.
All "new old stock" from a local news shop that closed in the late 1980s.
I asked if they were for sale, Bill says "everything's for sale".
The box was behind a rack, completely out of view.
I asked how much, he said what will ya give me?
There were 10 pipes, I said $50, he said, "there really is a sucker born every minute."
Honestly, the best $50 I've spent on pipes. With such names as "El Maestro" and "LaStrada"....I wasn't expecting much....I was wrong.
All very well made, with great wood.
I gave a few away, but 5 of them are in my rotation. My rotation has 8 pipes currently out of over 100 pipes...that tells you how much I like the cigar store haul.
No pictures right now, I'm not near them. But I post them often in the "daily smoke" thread.

 

[Sobrbiker]

AND mini meer-block meer, ~$20 plus shipping (with fitted case), what’s not to like?!
If you can catch when they have .75” wide chambers in stock, they make great little pipes.

 

[LotusEater]

Just to show that it is possible to find “bargains” on EBay

A French straight prince.
Unfortunately stampings too buffed out to read.
Lovely contrast grain on both sides

View attachment 336054

A Vieux Corrieu (Cogolin) nosewarmer

View attachment 336055

A Franken-clay, complete with a case

View attachment 336056

And a “fishtail” Sasieni - mislabelled as “Lasieni” by the vendor

View attachment 336057

I love the Franken-clay!

 

[gord]

Yes, I was expecting a lot of "cob" replies but they are perfectly wonderful to give to newbies as a gift. Maybe the best, in fact - I sure enjoy mine, and they need almost no breaking in, a real bonus for newbies.

So are used pipes that you don't really like. The fact that it is from you is very special to first time pipers.
I've done this more than once! The bonus here is that they are also (or should be) broken in. They don't need to know about this process until they're hooked. Then they have to suffer, just like us!!