A New Series: The Novice's Guide on How to Buy Estate Pipes

Introduction

Over the next several weeks, I will be posting a detailed and in-depth guide to buying estate pipes. This series has been extensively researched. I’ve interviewed a range of buyers and sellers in order to develop as useful and informative guide as possible.

Over the next several years, I believe we’re going to witness a transformation of the estate pipe sales category. I would go further in that I believe that the changes are already well under way. Prices are rising. Estate sellers are scrambling to purchase inventory; there is a lot of competition among sellers because estate pipe selling is strategically supply-constrained. The seller with the best inventory flourishes. What this means is that originating sellers (collectors and smokers) are positioned to recover more money when they sell, so long as demand continues.

This transformation is embedded in a larger social trend; it is now and has been for some time a cool thing to shop in thrift stores. This is, to no small extent, due to the marketplace’s realization that many items made years ago are far better quality than what can be bought new now. As a value, thrift is fashionable. The affluent as well as the budget-conscious are shopping in discount and low-cost venues.

Of course, the buyers who will do well are those with a good eye and with savvy. It isn’t easy to successfully navigate the estate market.

The Romance of Estate Pipes

I love estate pipes. Many of my favorite smoking pipes were owned and smoked by someone else before they came into my collection. There is something special about enjoying a beautiful object that was made and used over thirty, fifty, or a hundred years ago.

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Trendwatching: There will increasingly be great pipes and good buys in the British-made estate market.

For decades, quite a few of the pipe hobby’s most serious collectors have focused on collecting British-made pipes by Dunhill, GBD, Sasieni, Comoy, Parker, BBB, and – one of my favorites – Barling. Like my own father, many of these collectors were from “The Greatest Generation” – those who survived the Second World War.

Sadly, these men are reaching or have reached the end of their days, and their collections are being dismantled and sold in the estate market. Some of these collections are extraordinary; others are full of pipes that have been smoked extensively.

If you pay attention to the estate market, you have undoubtedly noticed that there are significantly more British-made pipes for sale. I predict that the supply will continue to increase, and disproportionately to the number of buyers out there.

We are already seeing the biggest implication of this demographic shift: significantly lower prices for fine British collectibles. I’ve seen what many would consider fairly rare pipes selling for prices that were unthinkable five years ago.

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