Another stratosphere pipe.

[Puff Daddy]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bo-Nordh-Cross-Grain-Chestnut-Pipe-Outstanding-COOPERSARK-NO-RESERVE-/390626243291?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5af32372db

 

[Ocelot55]

Meh, at 5k right now that's a steal!  

Any wagers as to how high it will go?

 

[docwatson]

I have no idea where this will end money wise, but you can rest assured that Coopersark will smile all the way to the bank again. LOL
At the prices collectors pay for Bo pipes I bet that very few smoke them, thinking that they buying a pipe that will someday appreciate in value. Only time will tell.

 

[Anonymous]

Just read this morning that one sold for 12K. Evidently this one is a steal. Jump on it PD.

 

[Anonymous]

F

In his prime, he would carve thirty to fifty pipes a year. His attention to detail, from the selection of the finest aged briar, ebonite, and other natural materials available in the world, to the unbelievable amount of time he had spent crafting each pipe was simply, second to none. Do the arithmetic and you will find that it took Bo about one hundred hours to turn these finest of raw materials into a treasured work of art.

Now, if he got two weeks off for vacation, 50 pipes a year would mean a one-hundred hour work week. I am sure Coopersark wouldn't exaggerate. Maybe doing the arithmetic should be remedial math in Coopersark's case.

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

From the showcase picture, the pipe looks like solid birdseye. Of course as I continued to look I saw pictures of the crossgrain. Clearly way more birdseye than an Occhio Di Pernice, and a Nordh to boot, 5K is about right?

But then again I paid $40 for my cat whose coat is far prettier than the pipe's, and she has manners and is a wonderful companion. I'd take her anyday.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

At first glance, I thought it looked like an unbalanced, weird, expensive for-the-name monstrosity. It's still a monstrosity, but there's an organic curve to it that's just right.

The sh!t people spend their excess money on. :roll: :lol: Whatever makes 'em happy, I guess. <img class="emojione" alt="?" title=":shrug:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/emojione/assets/png/1f937.png?v=2.2.7"/>

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

So imagine a guy with a 100 pipe collection, each 5K. That's 50K. That's money!

 

[Dutch]

So imagine a guy with a 100 pipe collection, each 5K. That's 50K. That's money!

Alfredo, I'm not well versed in square roots, but even I know that 100 $5000.00 pipes equal half a million dollars, not including shipping. :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Nice correction. In his defense, he was probably thinking cheap, common, $500 pipes.

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

No defense. Got my zeros wrong. Even more impressive!

 

[AJ]

But then again I paid $40 for my cat whose coat is far prettier than the pipe's, and she has manners and is a wonderful companion. I'd take her anyday.

Finally! An extraordinary display of common sense.:cheers: :bounce: :cheers: 

AJ

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

Where would you store such pipes? Can't just throw 5K pipes in a rack. You'd almost have to have something custom made with thin drawers, as I can't imagine not getting a box and sleeve and not storing the pipes in anything but that. But I guess if your collection is worth a half million you wouldn't sweat the small stuff.

 

[Rad Davis]

I don't thinks that it's a great example of a Bo Nordh. I've seen some really pretty Bo Nordh pipes, but this one just isn't very pretty.

I'm sure it'll bring a high price though.  

Rad

 

[Anonymous]

All you guys are missing the real perk.

You'll earn $100.00 in eBay Bucks.

 

[somedumbjerk]

Where would you store such pipes? Can't just throw 5K pipes in a rack. You'd almost have to have something custom made with thin drawers, as I can't imagine not getting a box and sleeve and not storing the pipes in anything but that. But I guess if your collection is worth a half million you wouldn't sweat the small stuff.

so this guy died in my neighborhood that was a pipe collector. someone went and looked at the pipes he left. something along the lines of 20 bo nords, 40 eltangs, 200 dunhills, and 75 Jess Chonowitsch pipes are the highlights...

and they all sat in big pipe cabinets. oh did i mention all the nords are unsmoked?

 

[Anonymous]

Set out wanting to understand pipe values, keep at it long enough, and you end up with an insight into human nature.

People are forever trying to create the appearance of rationality in why one pipe sells for so much more than another one. But in the end, the assumption that pipe values must have some rational basis is an article of faith -- an assumption that has to be discarded as unfounded in experience. Pipe prices are irrational because people are irrational.

Start with what Herman Lane knew (and Alfred Dunhill before him) : people love to spend money. It makes them happy. And the more money they've spent on something, the happier it makes them. Spending money is intoxicating. The connexion of splurging with joy is direct and unmediated. Reason only enters into the picture afterward as an attempt to rationalise it.

In 1986, the average cost of a new car was $9,255.00. The average yearly income was $22,400.00  

In 1986, Herman Lane offered the world a Charatan pipe he stamped "Crown Achievement" for $10,000.00

He sold it.

There will always be somebody gullible ?  Look around at the prices people are paying for Bo Nordhs. And Chonowichs. And Ivarssons. And rare Dunhills. And high end Castellos. The "crazy" end of the market is impervious to recession. Any time one well-heeled collector dies or has to bail out, his treasures are snapped up by his peers and the posh pipes market marches on without missing a beat.

When you tell people who have spent their lives analysing every question into variables they can play with (as they've been taught to) that the key variable in pipe values is an intangible, inexpressible in rational terms, it annoys them. But there it is.

Buying pipes follows an ages-old human script. Whether it's bushmen planning an antelope hunt, criminals planning to rob a bank or BoBs stalking pipes, there is planning the exploit, the execution and -- widely overlooked in plain sight -- what criminologist Stanton Samenow called "The Celebration After the Crime." As members of a War Party did returning from a successful exploit, the drama is reenacted for the village at large, the way local TV stations recap the highlights of baseball games the home team has won.

(And does anybody really need more than maybe 20 pipes anyway ? We're all Bozos on this bus).

There is no fundamental difference between acquiring a Bo Nordh and a Family era Barling or a hard-to-find Peterson or even on a No Name for less than its design, briar and workmanship warrant as "a smoker." Joy is joy.

And they lived happily ever after ?  Here's where it gets interesting. Ideally, that new (to you) nicest example of the biggest Name you could afford turns out to be a thrill and a delight in use. When it does, the world is a beautiful place, is it not ?  But when that first Dunhill turns out to be disappointing, does the guy who bought it swear off chasing "better" pipes and go back to accumulating Stanwells with his lesson learned ? Or does the pursuit of happiness take him to Castello ?  Or to Rad Davis ?  Or does he have somebody competent fix its mis-drilling and keep accumulating Duhills because they are, after all, Dunhills ?

What I think is really happening is this : We project our desire and intent into something like a pipe. Fixate them on it. Then we buy it to get that mannah we projected into it back again. Or, if we fail, suffer the agony of it being un-recoverable.

Now this is the REALLY crazy part -- and the final nail in the coffin of rationality : understanding the above has no effect on it.  After years of philosophically contenting myself with timed, tuned & re-stemmed (possibly an oxymoron but a reality nonetheless) "high-end blue collars," finding retirement a tad more comfortable than I had feared, there is a brand new Sasquatch here now, and a Lane-era Charatan Selected "Extra Large (i.e., normal size) Made by Hand" billiard in the mail. I has met the enemy, and he is me too.

It's an illness . . .

:face:

 

[Ocelot55]

A lot of good stuff in that one Yak! :mrgreen: 

 

[Fatman]

Very well written Yak.

 

[user 2031]

All you guys are missing the real perk.

You'll earn $100.00 in eBay Bucks.

What's the exchange rate of ebay bucks to real bucks?

About the same as unicorns to leprechauns... lol

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