Where Do Your Pipes Come From?

Mine is split pretty evenly from local BM, online shops and eBay with a couple artisan pipes thrown in for good measure.
I think I have been lucky on eBay so far, good to great prices on higher end pipes (Sasieni a Pre WWII 8 dot, Dunhill Birthyear 1966 Bruyere , Savinelli Punto Oro 3 and 4 digit and de Luxe Milano's again 3 and 4 digit)

One of my 6 Savinellis. I would be ashamed to tell what I paid for this one. Nonetheless, it was quite a bargain! And the pouch came with it!

Really a hodgepodge....

Ebay, Smokingpipes, Auctions, antique stores, local B&M, Turkish carvers.

Most of my pipes come from eBay because I like old pipes, and I like restoring them. 

Above is a picture test to see if I got it right.

Most of my pipes were purchased on Ebay. I have also purchased pipes from my local tobacconist, antique stores, and occasionally flea markets.

My dad left behind a full rack of 8 + a couple of extras. I couldn't stand seeing them gather dust in the garage, which is part of the reason I started smoking pipes. Starting with so many great pipes (mostly Comoy's from the 50s-70, I guess) has meant I've not (yet) succumbed to PAD!

All over, but mostly eBay.

Some I bought both new and used from various B&M's back when LA still had some glorious pipe shops. A number of them came from eBay, and others were commissioned, or bought at pipe shows, or bought through private meetings held at the dead of night at checkpoint Charlie.

Mine as most of you all come from everywhere, the most famous or infamous one I traded for, belonged to a Former CIA Army man who bought it in Italy a Grenci, from the Carver, came back to the States, went nuts, killed and carved his wife up, threw her in the Dumpster. I watch myself when smoking this one, any dark thoughts and I'll pitch it in the Fire. It's a beauty though.

I actually know of a guy that had a similar story, in the early days of the internet forums on an amateur radio site, someone titled the thread about "What is your most killer deal you ever got on a radio?"


He said that he had responded to a newspaper ad where a guy said his ham radios were priced to sell...this guy couldn't believe the prices and bought everything.

Later on in the day, the seller killed his wife and then himself, the guy that bought the radios posted the article where it mentioned him buying radio gear earlier from the guy.

I have in the herd about twenty-five pipes made by the late John Calich, a Canadian pipe maker who's been gone for I guess over a decade now; time does indeed fly. Most of them I got when I would visit him at his home/workshop, but once in awhile, a store would have one I couldn't resist. He was a skilled, unpretentious, generous, and friendly man who learned his craft long before there was an internet. I know he worked very hard to be as successful as he was; I wonder what he would make of the current pipe making scene?

I acquired most of my other pipes from local shops and from my father (an ex-pipe smoker) picking up good wood from antique shops and markets. Pre-internet, man, the deals! You could get buckets of Dunhill pipes for nothing; I vividly recall him opening a box with two dozen Dunhill billiards that he picked up for a hundred bucks. Of course, pre-internet, we thought we were pretty clever restoring them and getting twenty-five or thirty dollars apiece for them.

I've picked up pipes from ebay and various other online sources, but I had only middling luck: there's nothing like holding a pipe in my hands before I make up my mind.

Online retailers, Etsy, Ebay and Artisan pipes from another forum. Also a couple used ones from the same forum. Oh yeah and Instgram