For the Money You Spent...

[JimInks]

... what pipe has provided the best bargain for you regarding quality and performance? Mine is a 1938 straight black grain relief Dunhill OX Shell bulldog with a silver band repair with a black vulcanite stem. I paid $50 for it in 2002.

As an honorable mention, I also bought a straight smooth Dr. Grabow pot for a $1.99 in 1979. Once I sanded off the wax coating, it became a decent smoker and has been my outdoor work and play pipe since then. Even though I have many pipes that smoke better, I must have smoked it thousands of times by now.

 

[AJ]

One if the best deals I ever got buying pipes is an old Churchill billiard that cost me less than $10.00 and is one of my favorite smokers. Not a fill or pit to be found and is much lighter than it looks. :cheers:

AJ

 

[monbla256]

For me, it would be two pipes, both Edward's, that I got back in the early '70s. First would be my 703-L Apple a nice cross grain, next would be my 720-L bent Bulldog, again a solid cross grain. Both cost me $18.98 plus tax back then. Both have smoked dry and sweet from the start and have gotten only better over the decades I've smoked 'em ! Can't beat oil cured Algerian briar !! :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Zeno Marx]

Caminetto Business tan poker with gold marble bit from the 70s and originally purchased from a Tinderbox. Only pipe I still have that is from the early beginning of my smoking journey. I think $35 in the late 80s second hand. With being a Caminetto nut, you'd think I'd know the shape #. Nope. I only have a couple to memory, and I don't own any of those shapes...I don't believe. I've posted a photo of it on here before, but I can't find the link in my bookmarks or the photo in my archives. This post is making me sound like a real dimwit. When you build this kind of relationship with something, the details get clouded with the rest of the mythos. Just a big, beautiful haze. At least, that's the way I tend to be with things. I'll edit with the photo when I finally find it.

EDIT: shape #134

 

[fishnbanjo]

The group 1 Dunhill Shell Briar from 1917 that actually has a real ivory spot, got it for $1 at a yard sale here in town.
banjo

 

[Falcon Puffer]

I would say: all of my Falcon pipes. :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Brewdude]

Great thread Jim. I'm gonna have to do some serious thinking before I run my mouth on this... :scratch:

Great to read the other posts so far!

:rabbit:



Cheers,

RR

 

[Corncobcon]

The best bargain in quality and performance, for me, is hard to say. But, I would say all the pipes I purchased in the 1970's and 1980's. Maybe it would
be my Dunhill Shell Briar #42032 billiard. My favorite pipe would be the one
I am smoking at the time!

 

[KevinM]

Hard to beat the $1 Dunhill Shell briar from ‘17. I still have And smoke a passel of Stanwell Apaches, billiards and bent bulldggies that I got at very fair prices back in the 70’s that are great pipes. Hmmm, one pipe, eh? Priceand quality. Maybe I’ll go with an Aldo Velani, billiard bowl, diamond shank, lumberman proportions. It had been languishing for months on Carol Burns site, the first pipe on her estate pipe section. Something about it kept calling me back. I think it cost $60 back in 2009 or thereabouts. I don’t think it had ever been smoked and really hit my sweet spot — traditional shape more or less, but something distinctive about it, too. Very pleasing smoker. I’m still waiting for my first $1 garage sale find.

 

[Idlefellow]

Probably my flea market pre-republic Peterson billiard.  Frankly I don't remember what I paid but less than five bucks...

 

[ak2000]

An estate Savinelli handmade dual finish bent billiard from smokingpipes.com. it was my first really good pipe and it's just about my favorite of all of my pipes still. If I remember correctly it was under $60

 

[Ozark Wizard]

My grandfather gave me an old bulldog for washing the Cadillac when I was around 13. I was so pissed he didn't give me the dollar promised by grandma. I had that pipe until 1996 when my house on the Tualatin River flooded and it disappeared. That was a bit ago. I had many adventures with that pipe.

Best value pipe though. I smoked the schnitzel out of that thing.

 

[hobie1dog]

Quiet Comrade- 25.00 and many enjoyable bowls later still use it to try new blends out at the local pipe meets.

 

[Richard Burley]

A Charatan second bent pot with diamond shank, bought out a basket on the counter of long-gone Manning's Newsroom in Syracuse next to the cash register. The basket had nothing but Charatan seconds in it, quite recognizable by their odd shapes. Wish I'd bought a few more, as the tobacconist suggested. I know it was a true second because I had the exact pipe in a "first." The only thing missing from the identical nomenclature was the Charatan's Make stamping and the CP logo on the stem. Shape 489, I think. Seventeen bucks American. I still have it. And smoke it. The "first" is gone with the wind somewhere.

 

[ak2000]

Actually my large Savinelli Estella is tied for best value and smoker, under $50 on eBay.