BriarBid.com
- Thread starter Kyle Weiss
- Start date
Help Support Brothers of Briar:
I've noticed that, in many cases, a desirable estate pipe bought in a consignment market, will fetch a price that is a surprisingly high percentage of the "new pipe" price (This is, of course, when the pipe brand is still active and the model still exists.) There is right now a well-known pipe purveyor that is offering two versions of the same Pete, one in the Estate Section, the other in New Pipes -- The new one is like five dollars more than the old one.
Usually the explanation offered for the price of old pipes is "better briar / workmanship." Well, possibly, in some cases. But it seems to me that the simpler, more consistently plausible answer comes from Intro to Economics -- demand for used pipes runs ahead of supply so the effect is higher prices and lack of a reliable supply of product.
The estate pipesellers who are attached to B&M, traditional pipe shops often practice barter -- they'll trade tobacco or whatever for pipes to sell. I suppose they have to do this to get inventory.
Personally, I have way more -- waay, waaaay more -- pipes than I need, but I don't sell the excess for purely sentimental reasons. My first-ever Dr. Grabow may be a poor thing, but it's my first-ever pipe.
Anyway, to run one of these businesses, you need sustainable sources for inventory and that, friends, is not an easy problem to overcome.
And the eBay experience may have carried a curse. Buyers arrive looking for bargains and, as we've read, simply pass if a bargain isn't available. Many retail stores have gone belly up, because they trained customers to wait for the sale.
Imagine yourself on Shark Tank explaining to Kevin O'Leary where your used pipe inventory will come from. "Let me tell you a story," he'd begin . . .
I'm kinda speculating here, because it seems to me that there's a lot of air under pipe prices. To be sure, other opinions may differ.
Usually the explanation offered for the price of old pipes is "better briar / workmanship." Well, possibly, in some cases. But it seems to me that the simpler, more consistently plausible answer comes from Intro to Economics -- demand for used pipes runs ahead of supply so the effect is higher prices and lack of a reliable supply of product.
The estate pipesellers who are attached to B&M, traditional pipe shops often practice barter -- they'll trade tobacco or whatever for pipes to sell. I suppose they have to do this to get inventory.
Personally, I have way more -- waay, waaaay more -- pipes than I need, but I don't sell the excess for purely sentimental reasons. My first-ever Dr. Grabow may be a poor thing, but it's my first-ever pipe.
Anyway, to run one of these businesses, you need sustainable sources for inventory and that, friends, is not an easy problem to overcome.
And the eBay experience may have carried a curse. Buyers arrive looking for bargains and, as we've read, simply pass if a bargain isn't available. Many retail stores have gone belly up, because they trained customers to wait for the sale.
Imagine yourself on Shark Tank explaining to Kevin O'Leary where your used pipe inventory will come from. "Let me tell you a story," he'd begin . . .
I'm kinda speculating here, because it seems to me that there's a lot of air under pipe prices. To be sure, other opinions may differ.
RAlden
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Aside from any other reason, the software glitches spelled doom for briarbid. Not too long after going live (a few months maybe?) the entire system crashed. Every live listing was lost, every listing that had ended was deleted or came back online in screwy ways with missing info.
It was already cumbersome to add listings and awkward to check out. With the crash, the handful of devoted sellers seem to have lost all interest. It went from having 200+ listings on average to having 5 or 6. It didn't survive much longer, there wasn't much point in even checking it.
Too bad.
With some actual advertising, and better programming it could have grown.
It was already cumbersome to add listings and awkward to check out. With the crash, the handful of devoted sellers seem to have lost all interest. It went from having 200+ listings on average to having 5 or 6. It didn't survive much longer, there wasn't much point in even checking it.
Too bad.
With some actual advertising, and better programming it could have grown.
Briar Spirit
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http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/briarbidcom-to-closesonpuff":pbxd2rvm said:
