I got carried away

[BanjoBob]

I was running low on pipes, so I looked on eBay.
I selected the "pipes" category,
added "lot" to the search,
selected "Buy-it-now"
then put "newly listed" hoping to find someone that had just listed
a quantity of pipes for a good price.
I found a guy selling 6 pipes and he had another auction for 5 pipes.
I bought them both, delivered for $58.50.
Then I looked at "ending soonest" and put a bid on a lot 8 pipes.
I put a maximum bid of $50 including shipping.
I won that momentarily for $47 delivered.
Then I looked at individual pipes and saw a Viprati Billiard unsmoked
in the box for an opening bid of $35. It's beautiful and hand made.
That one is for ME!!!
It was ending in under a minute and had no bids so I put a $35 bid and won that.
Then I found a lot of 42 good looking pipes that had lots of bids. but was only at $222 so I pondered it and put a bid that would make them $320 including shipping.
I wanted them badly. (but only $320 badly)
LOTS of name brands, even had a Dunhill, Orlik, Charatons etc.
In the last few seconds I was outbid by two others and it sold for $324.
I was disappointed.
Then I looked to see if any NEW listings had come on and found a guy selling
125 pipes.
The pics were poor, and the description was terrible so I wrote to the seller.
He got back to me early the next morning and I decided to snap them up.
But some other Bastio beat me to them for $520 delivered.
I figured I could have turned them into $3000 easily and probably gotten some good smokers out of it.
To soothe my fractured self, I looked for the one thing that would make me feel better ... a new pipe.
I looked at the newly listed pipes and there it was.
A Brebbia that a guy bought and said he only smoked it 5 times.
It was sorta a little tomato looking 1/4 bent, in excellent condition, and had a buy-it-now of $25 plus $3 shipping.
It's on it's way now.
That's 21 pipes coming to me, and hopefully 4 or 5 will earn a place in my big rack.
I have 30 empty spaces, but don't worry about me, I'll keep looking.
My rack will be full before you can say ... uh ... well say something that will take as long as it will take to fill my rack!
Recently I bought 2 beautiful pipes.
I spent $308 for them.
One was a Castello Collection Great Line 1972 era that was mint but smoked, and the other was a Genod Freehand that weighed 3 1/2 ounces. It was unsmoked.
I tried the Castello and it drew moisture, I hate that.
So I sold it to a guy in China, the Genod I knew was big, but it was unsmoked, if I smoked it and didn't like it ... it's value would go way down.
I finally decided to offer it for sale.
It's on it's way to France now.
eBay and PayPal fees came to $46 so I ended up making $3 on the two pipes.
Pretty good for me, I think my average is to get around 30% return on my pipes.
Until yesterday I've never bought anything just to re-sell, except tobacco pouches,
and even those I usually just break even.
David/BanjoBob

[raftergtex]

Wow, what a day. That's a method for finding good pipes I had not considered. Buy in bulk for good prices and resell the losers for a profit. Sounds like a winning scheme. My own pipe obsession took a different turn, but I recognize the symptoms.

[BanjoBob]

I wish I had your talent for making a pipe, but I has me doubts.
I've seen some chunks w/ a bit attached that might make it a lot easier,
I've considered that, but I'll bet those would end up having poor grain,
and I'd be lost at figuring out how to texture a pipe to hide the ugly parts.
I see some on eBay for sale that someone has tried to turn into a pipe and
they obviously didn't try very hard because they ended up with a mis-shapen blob that they think is worth $40. They must have ran out of sandpaper.
My only ability so far is in buffing the wood and the bit to make it look like
something worth having and heating the tenons to make them fit right.
The first time I tried buffing I did it in my Den, and didn't realize the new double
8" pads would sling so many fibers all over the room.
By the time I got done I was covered in lint and my whole room looked like it was covered in cobwebs, a scene right out of the Addams Family.
Wives can be very fussy about things like that, now I'm only allowed to buff on the back porch and that's a major operation since my buffer weighs almost 200 pounds.
I have to go through the kitchen and set it down ever couple of feet.
Now my Wife is telling me I owe her a new kitchen floor ... one WITHOUT dents in the vinyl flooring.
I'm looking for some wheels for the buffer.
David/BanjoBob

[BanjoBob]

If anyone is interested,
all but the Brebbia have left me feedback for buying their auctions.
It can be found here.
David

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=banjobob48&ftab=AllFeedback

[raftergtex]

If you are really interested in making a pipe, I would skip the predrilled blocks. Drilling is actually pretty easy. I started out just using a cheap drill press and most turned out okay. It is the shaping that is difficult. Same with the premade stems. They suck, so you end up doing so much work on them that you might as well start with a piece of ebonite. Of course, it all depends on your ability with tools. I understand about the wife. I lost about 2 months this year because of the heat in Texas but I was forbidden to move things inside. She has seen what briar dust does to my workshop.

[raftergtex]

Just in case, this is the best place to buy just a few blocks:

pipemakers emporium

And this is the best briar available, direct from the cutter, but its only cost effective for bulk purchases:

Mimmo

[BanjoBob]

I've been buying tools for my wood shop for years.
I have a brand new floor model Delta drill press, 12" Jorgenson wood vice,
a Delta Variable speed wood lathe, Table saw, miter saw, etc. everything except a band saw.
I've tried several times to arrange the shop, but it turned into an exercise of just moving piles.
One day the mailman came by when I was trying to clean my shop.
He saw all the stuff outside and asked me if I was having a garage sale.
I said ... Uh, Yeah!
He took home 2 truck loads of crap I didn't want that included 23 things that had a
gasoline motor on it, and I got $350.00 and an antique Buffalo wall mounted mechanical drill press.
I'll mount that just for some atmosphere.
If I hadn't taken the Buffalo, he would have given me $80 more.
After that clean out, it's STILL full.
My next step will be eBay, Craig's List, then the dump.
I sometimes watch "Hoarders" to motivate me.
David/BanjoBob

[BanjoBob]

I did it again.
I saw this newly listed and thought it will either be a good smoker,
or I should be able to get my money back,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/260919550517?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

[riff raff]

That is a great looking feehand, I wasn't familiar with Edwards, but that sure looks inviting!

[BanjoBob]

It's a bit on the smallish side.
From the pictures I expected it to be much larger.
Since it was used, I tried smoking it to see how well it did.
It's a nice smoker. With all that briar it predictably didn't get hot,
and it didn't form moisture in the shank/bit.
I'm starting to think the bowls that are a little shallower agree with me.
I've recently had several that had 1 1/4" or less deep bowls that were smoked completely.
The 1 1/2" or deeper bowls always have more dottle that I end up dumping.
It is beautifully made w/ a nice plateau top, but I've just never been very fond of
the lighter colored pipes, so I'll put it on eBay and see how it does.
I gave it a light buffing but it seems the lighter colors don't make the grain show up very well, that's a shame because it does have straight vertical grain all the way around, being that light doesn't let the bottom show off it's grain very well.
I'm thinking it might bring $49.95 + the usual $2.70 or so shipping.
eBay is weird, I've had pipes that were easily worth double or triple what I listed them for and have to re-list several times before they'd sell, yet pipes like this Edwards will probably sell quickly. (it's sorta flashy)
I just sold an original old W.O. Larsen Copenhagen that was easily worth $150 and it took me 3 months to get $85 for it. That pipe lost me $15.00.
I sold two Mario Grandi's for a friend. They were $75 each new delivered.
I got $80 for one and $90 for the other plus shipping and they were both used.
David

[riff raff]

Ebay is a fickle mistress indeed!

[Max1a]

I sell and buy alot of stuff on Ebay. When it comes to pipes, beware of the shill bidders. I ask you this, a notable seller of pipes on Ebay lists a TAO or S. Bang or similar high dollar pipe starting at .99 cents with no reserve, he winds up a week later with a $500-600 sale. No one in their right mind would bid that much for a pipe sight unseen (or otherwise, in my humble opinion) My friends, that DOES NOT happen unless he has buddies around the country "shilling" up the bids. There have been people caught doing that before on Ebay...caught red-handed!! Nothing happened to them. Just saying...beware!

[BanjoBob]

My Boy decided he wanted an Amiga 2000 computer a few years ago.
It was at $75 and he wanted to make sure he won it, so he put a top bid of $2000.00.
There were 65 bids by one guy why on his last bid outbid my boy.
Then the bidder cancelled his bid and let my boy have it for $2000.00
I was irritated when my boy then paid the $2000.00.
He should have claimed foul and started the whole thing over from scratch,
but it was too late.
David