Of Pipe Buying,Collecting & Learning (Long)

[Dock]

I'll really never forget going to my pipe club for the first time in the Spring of 2003. Up until then I had never seen great pipes save those in the pages of P&T magazine. There were about 15 members there that night and almost all were smoking the big boy's toys. There were Ashtons and Dunhills, Radice's and Ferndowns, Ascortis and Autographs. I set there smoking my $40.00 Stanwell in utter awe of what I was seeing. It was all a little intimidating too. These guys had pipes more expensive than the car I drove there! That night my world changed. I began buying highgrades like a madman. At one time I had more than 20 Ardors! I was blowing $350.00 of my $400.00 a week paycheck on pipes and stocking my growing tobacco cellar. I was very broke and very happy to be so.

I went on like this for days, weeks, months and years buying pipes on e-bay and from online shops. I topped out at a collection of about 350 or so by 2007. Thing was, my big collection had no real direction. I was just buying anything that caught my eye and was making some very expensive mistakes with impulse buys at shows. Also, because I had so many pipes many weren't getting smoked but meerly collecting dust in their racks.

Around this time Neill Roan joined my pipes forum and my world was to change yet again. Neill was routinely posting pics of some amazing wood there everyday. His pipes had a certain organic quality that really appealed to me though many of the makers names were still quite foreign. They had far more personality than the big freehands and clunky old heavyweights that I currently owned. It was right then and there that I made the decision to sell off the vast majority of my collection in favor of a much smaller one with better quality pieces represented. I think I kept less than 10 from my original collection.

It was a BIG task and an unprofitable one to boot. I lost my ass on more than one occasion and the ones that I did good on just wasn't enough to even things out. All were sold either on E-Bay or through my forum's classified section. My g'friend and I worked 5 nights a week on it writing the listings and taking lots and LOTS of pictures. It was a real nightmare folks! We celebrated it's completion with diner out at our favorite restaurant. We were just plain giddy that it was all over. I promised her that she'd never have to do it again.

Now when I buy pipes I do alot more thinking before I just pull the trigger. I think long and hard about just how a pipe will fit into my little collection. I REALLY contemplate it's weight and size. From past experience I know that if a pipe is too heavy or too big it will just sit in it's rack. No matter how gorgeous it is I want to be able to really use and enjoy it. This means clenching it between my teeth while watching a movie or listening to a ballgame. Something I couldn't do with one of my magnums. While I still can't totally eliminate mistakes (no one can. It's part of the hobby and it happens to everyone) I have cut down on them considerably by exersising a little more patience and restraint.

I now also recognize my own ignorance at times. I remind myself that I've only been at this a short time and don't know it all! I'm still learning and will continue to for a very long time (hopefully) When I talk to someone or read what they've written about a specific pipe realted topic I'm always reminded of my own particular knowledge gaps. It's humbling sometimes to be honest. I still read as much as I can and listen to the suggestions and tips of those who have come before me. I'm still defining my own place among collectors who have been at this for decades. I will likely never know just how I'm really viewed by them. One thing is for sure though, I've done alot of talking (some out of my ass :lol: )for faaaaar too long now. I think I'm just gonna sit back, listen and learn for a while!

 

[Centurian 803]

Hope that doesn't mean you'll stop posting. I for one enjoy your insights and I am learning from your experience. We each follow the one ahead of us and someone is following us.

 

[Sasquatch]

Pssst

Hey buddy -



wanna buy a pipe?

LOL


Interesting post. I think we've all made mistakes, and certainly one's collection changes direction from time to time. I do find the compulsion to buy new pipes is very strong, and even making pipes, I still find myself drifting on to e-bay "just to have a look". I'm sure PAD has bankrupted more than one collector.

The forums (various) have been a godsend to me for pipe and tobacco and technique related issues, not to mention all the people I've come into contact with whom I wouldn't otherwise know anything about.

Luckily for me, Centurian 803 has no self control so my family will be able to afford a little meat this month, and Tiny Tim might not die after all.

 

[mark]

I think finding a direction to head your collection in is the hardest part. I recently wiped out most of my pipes in the same effort.

 

[Trout Bum]

Very interesting; thanks for posting!

 

[Slow Puffs]

At my age, my thoughts wander to the question:

"If I had the chance to do it all over again, where would I start?'

I'm pretty much in the position to say, I don't need more. It's a good position to be in.

My costliest pipes are 6 dunnies that I bought new locally in a fit of madness. Thankfully, they are all smokable and regular part of my rotation. But there are reserved for tobbacy's that I consider A+. I likely have 50 more pipes or so. And I smoke them without much thought, save my Brighams are for latakia blends and a number of others are dedicated to certain blends.

The only pipe purchase that might tempt me is a birth date pipe.

Other than that, I enjoy the conservations, the people and the posts.

"If I had to do it all over again?" I'd do exactly what Dock is doing. But he's a youngster and I'm an old man

 

[Pipey McPiperson]

I feel a little bit like I'm looking into a crystal ball! I'm in the very beginning stages of the addiction, but am already spending about $100 a week on random stuff, mostly baccy. Its already been penciled into my weekly schedule. I try and spend at least an hour or so every Wednesday at the local B&M. After reading your cautionary tale it makes me want to think twice before buying that new pipe just because it looks neat or its huge. Thanks for the post, now instead of a devil on my left shoulder and an angel on my right, I got a lil' Dock on my shoulder.

Keep up the good work!!! :cheers:


-Drew

 

[puros_bran]

Puffs did they have pipes that far back? Briar or Rock?


Pipey my advice to anyone right now new and old alike, but tobacco.. If you can avoid falling into PAD do so, stock your cellar.. The pipes will come..

 

[Harlock999]

Thanks, I can really relate to your experience. I'm just starting to get a feel for developing more of a focused direction for the collection. At this point I actually feel more like a collector than a smoker, 70% to 30%, if I had to describe the ratio, but, as I gain more experience as a smoker, I definitely find my acquisition mind set changing.

 

[bruins]

that's a hell of a girlfriend you got there danish! better keep that one. thanks for the post. i like it when the long time collectors/smokers pass down some big picture info to us guys just starting out.

sas, is tinny tim in trouble? i like tinny tim.

 

[Roqsan]

350 pipes, way out of my league - sounds sort of fun though!

Agree with you about over large pipes - This is my most screwball over large pipe purchase (so far) which I bought for some reason about 10 years ago. Not sure what I was thinking :shock::



It's a huge Ser Jacopo Della Gemma Fiammata, maxima maxima maxima. I could never actually smoke this beast. In any case the chamber is so large that it would swallow most of a tin of tobacco in a single smoke. I'll probably sell it on eBay some time, just need to get a better camera with a flash, since my iPhone pictures make everything look dark and dingy.

 

[Handsome Dynamite]

How could you never sell that Roq? It's beautiful, calling to be filled with tobacco.

 

[Harlock999]

Another classic.
Bumped.

 

[Tim_Haggerty]

I once had a professor of architectural history who also evaluated American furniture for a first-rate auction house in New York City. He once said that everyone -- even the pros on "Antiques Roadshow" -- make their share of mistakes and buy the wrong stuff occasionally (and expensively) for their collectors.

He said that you should think of these mistakes as tuition payments. The only way you're going to know what you won't like and what you prefer is probably through trial and error; over time everyone's pipe rack starts to naturally show patterns and preferences, from heavy rotation pipes to the ones gathering dust in the back. A style or size of pipe goes in and out of favor, just like tobacco tastes change. Some guys smoke Dunhill billiard or Peterson systems exclusively, but I have more fun trying out stuff. Oddly, even pipes that didn't fit well in my jaw can have second lives if I give them a chance.

It's great that we live in a community whereby people trade, sell and buy from each other and not just from dealers; we may never get to the equilibrium of everyone exactly the right group of pipes but it's sure fun trying to get there.

 

[Harlock999]

you should think of these mistakes as tuition payments. The only way you're going to know what you won't like and what you prefer is probably through trial and error; over time everyone's pipe rack starts to naturally show patterns and preferences

Well said!

 

[Airborne]

I started smoking pipes in 1966 and by 1997 when I stopped, I had about a 60 pipe collection. I sold them all except three. Last April, I started pipe smoking again and kicked myself in the kazoo for having sold all those pipes. Since April, I’ve made a concerted effort to increase my collection. It’s now ballooned to twenty-four pipes (twenty-one acquired in about a four month period). However, my buying habits have changed completely from my past collecting days. When I buy a pipe now - no matter how beautiful it is and how much I think that I just can’t live without it, it’s got to be different from any of the other pipes I have. For me, it’s no longer owning fifteen straight billiards. If I buy a second billiard, it’s got to be really different from the first one. Really different. Now the pipes I do have are all unique, quite different from each other. I find it much easier to smoke all of them rather than trying to decide which of the fifteen billiards I’ll smoke today while the others collect dust. Also, with twenty-four pipes, I’ve reached a point of satisfaction (not saturation!). I can see myself continuing to increase the collection with maybe one, two or three pipes a year.

Thanks for your interesting essay.

 

[jacko]

Very interesting introspection! After buying three Dunhills, one Ashton, one Radice, four Ropps and a Moretti this past week I told myself I'm done. I unsubscribed from the smokingpipes news letter and stopped logging onto eBay...

I think my collection is around 60 at this point, nothing super fancy, some estate Castellos and an Ardor. I went from wanting the biggest pipes I could find, to only bents, now I'm only interested in the smaller group 1 or 2's. Fortunately for me I have never really understood the allure of a straight grain, my favorites are rustication and blasts which has kept the prices down. I'm at the point where I want to reduce the collection however knowing that the majority of the pipes are irreplaceable outside of a few Perterson's makes it very difficult because I know that I'll look by and ask myself why I though selling them was a good idea.

I suspect anyone who has a clear direction in regards to their collection has spent many (many) thousands and made countless mistakes getting there. Tastes will always change and pipes are so very unique so I can only imagine this hobby will be a life long battle of willpower.

 

[TreverT]

I think we all kind of go through multiple collections in life, as it were. When I started, I had the usual collection of whatever I could find in basket pipes, junk store finds, estate cheapos, etc. Then I got my first middle grade pipe and loved it, and that kicked off a long stretch of buying every pipe I could find in the handmade, middle-price-range until I had pipes coming out my ears. That led to higher grade pipes, and then I had the interesting enforced reflection of moving overseas to France. When we moved, we made the rule that we could only take one of every three items that we owned, due to the cost of shipping. I knew I'd be getting rid of a lot of the pipes, and it was enlightening to see which ones I chose to keep when this thinning was enforced. From that point on, I had a better idea of what I really liked, and settled into my current state of only buying a new pipe every so often, but being sure I'll love it long-term when I do.

 

[riff raff]

Interesting story and lessons learned. I've only been smoking a pipe for six months, and have already made a foolish mistake or two on pipe purchases. My disposable income for pipe limits my madness. I have begun to enjoy buying old estate pipes, refurbishing and reselling, than helps pad my funding and I've been able to aquire a nice pipe or two that way.

I'm not at all familiar with Neill Roan pipes, did you save any of his? If so, please post a picture.