A Note from the Frugal Aesthete

Brothers of Briar

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A

Anonymous

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You snooze, you lose, Bros.
You snoozed. You lost.
Check this out :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Assorted-Tobacco-Bowls-Lot-of-2-/161067889153?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item258064f201

One was a Savinelli Oscar. The other one was a (sit down for this) Lane-era Charatan Special 420. Both smooth billiards and both in nice shape.

$15.50 -- the opening bid took them.

Have somebody in the business fit them with opened-up, molded stems and you'd have two pipes for maybe $60 (total) that would blow the doors off any one pipe you could hope to buy new for $125.00

Sweat equity. It works.

Now go forth and whine no more about what you can afford. The system is not set up to give you what you want on a silver platter for cheap with an insurance policy. But opportunities are out there awaiting you.

:face:
 
You did well by this one, and presumably the shipping is better. The pictures are pretty detailed - the tenon/shank picture is a good one to have on a used pipe.
 
I agree heartily with this - there's many a bargain still to be found and many diamonds in the rough.

Always remember - it's not a competition; this is strictly an exihibition!
 
If that one was yours Yakster, you got a helluva deal!
Click to expand...
Referencing http://www.ebay.com/itm/BEAUTIFUL-LANE-ERA-CHARATANS-SPECIAL-EXTRA-LARGE-HAND-MADE-PIPE-X-C-NICE-PIPE-/200943668992?pt=LH_Default

Just what it was (objectively) worth, IMO. From what I've seen in various fields, re-sellers want to make about 50%. Otherwise it's not worth the cost of buying, re-conditioning & selling involved. Be $5.00 over that figure, and dealers are no longer competing with you -- only people who want them to smoke. As $125 for this one would be about fair top price (ignoring -- IMO -- the greed trippers preying on the gullible), there you have it. (It pays to shop around. It can keep you from paying for adjectives instead of pipes).

Smoker demand is where sex appeal (pretty briar) & photographic skill loom large. This one lacking either, it was an ideal offering for what it is -- a nice handmade Charatan Selected (until Lane started multiplying grades, the next-to-top) from right around 1965 (the point at which he decreed the color change on better Charatans from French Red, which reminded people of Dunhill Bruyeres, to the Dunhill Root-like tan they used thereafter ; the block letter Made by Hand dates from ca. 1965 through the mid-70s, so there's a pretty good year fix on it).

The grain isn't "pretty" because of the way the block was oriented. But old school Brits judged briar quality first and foremost by density and uniformity (which is why you see so many dead-plain Dunhills) -- which this one has in spades. That's why they passed that particular block to a carver, I suppose, instead of cranking a "shape" pipe out of it.

The 420 shape (later, when an extra "4" = extra large, 4420) it more or less follows is, IMO, about ideal in combining a narrow bore (13/16") with thick walls in a billiard format. Definitely a flake pipe worth saving one's lunch money for.

IMO  8) 

:face:
 
Nice win Yak - congratulations!:cheers: :cheers:

Fraternally

Jers
 
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