Does anyone else plan their collection?

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tarheel7734

tarheel7734

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Thinking about and for the most part I have my purchases and collection of pipes planned out over the next few years. I talk with 4 different British carvers and pretty much every detail and when I get the pipes are planned. Unless iit is something that I find extraordinary or simply a deal I can't refuse, I don't vary from the list.

So does anyone plan out their collection ? I only have 5 pipes on hand and one on the way and all but the Dunhill 5102 were planned.
 
Lord, no. But more power to ya' if you can do it. I fear it's too late for me to change, and I shall remain in the grip of the dreaded PAD, susceptible to spontaneous outbreaks, mindless as a rabid bat in heat. For example, I just ordered a meerschaum, and I don't even like the damn things. So what's your secret, or way of looking at things? Surely you can't be relying on...what's the word...rationality? That's so, like, yesterday, dude!  ;)
 
Richard Burley":3eb6j5mq said:
Lord, no. But more power to ya' if you can do it. I fear it's too late for me to change, and I shall remain in the grip of the dreaded PAD, susceptible to spontaneous outbreaks, mindless as a rabid bat in heat. For example, I just ordered a meerschaum, and I don't even like the damn things. So what's your secret, or way of looking at things? Surely you can't be relying on...what's the word...rationality? That's so, like, yesterday, dude!  ;)
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Lack of money so each pipe has to be in exactly what I want. Once iI get the ones I really want then maybe I will be more open to pad.
 
It's probably half and half for me. I don't buy a lot of pipes (I used to before I was a missionary), so there is some planning. Most the pipes I have though I've seen, liked, and bought. I don't really commission pipes, if that is what you're asking. I must admit there are particular makers I desire pipes from, so I keep an eye on their work and buy when I see something that catches it.

For example, the last 5 pipes I acquired were from makers I had been wanting a pipe from:Jan Pietenpauw, Steve Morrisette, Scottie Piersel, Nate King (morta, specifically), and Jesse Jones. The Piersel was a convenient coincidence with last year's POY, the Morrisette I came across for a price I couldn't refuse, the Pietenpauw (a pipe I've desired for at least 3 years) was a happenstance meeting of Jan himself in South Africa, the Nate King morta came from a friend who had one and had never smoked it (Nate has since stated he will never use morta again), and the Jesse Jones was a recent acquisition of a favorite shape of mine. They were not planned to the t, so to say, but they were makers I was after.

Some others I desire are a Paolo Becker (RIP), Chris Askwith, and David Iafisco (have one in mind, but it's too pricey).
 
tarheel7734":5ynk123x said:
Thinking about and for the most part I have my purchases and collection of pipes planned out over the next few years. I talk with 4 different British carvers and pretty much every detail and when I get the pipes are planned. Unless iit is something that I find extraordinary or simply a deal I can't refuse, I don't vary from the list.

So does anyone plan out their collection ? I only have 5 pipes on hand and one on the way and all but the Dunhill 5102 were planned.
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Pfft..not even. :lol!:
 
My collection is really only about a year old, barring the pipes I inherited from my dad. I started out buying estate lots of old pipes to refurbish, kept the "good" ones and sold off others. I find I'm starting to get a bit pickier in the estate pipes I buy, aiming to restore better makes and grades rather than no-name basket pipes - unless I come across something unusual or otherwise interesting.

In the case of my Brigham pipes, which now number 17, I'm taking a more academic approach now, specifically looking to fill gaps in the collection - a new shape, a higher-end pipe, etc. Come to think of it, a 7-day set of the same pipe shape in all 7 grades would be kinda cool..... :D
 
Nope. I'm not a big fan of long term planning. My pipe smoking mentors smoked the classic styles, usually a well known brand, sometimes carved by Wilke or Ehrlich. So as time passed, my preference was to classic style with some distinctive though subtle individual twist -- a billiard with a longish diamond shank, a Dublin with a domed top, a Bulldog with really, really nice blast . . . But I've been indifferent to pipes that that seem to me too artsy or too self consciously designed. I don't hate 'Em, they just don't make me go, "Woo! Gotta have." So I guess I follow the familiar reactive See, Like, Buy pattern. I don't plan an acquisition, because there's always some spin on a classic design I'll like out there when a PAD attack comes on.
 
Well when I got back into pipe smoking in Dec of 2014 after a 4 year break I decided to work on a 7 day set of British Bent Bulldogs. I was going to focus on Dunhill 5108, Ashton, Ferndown, and Upshall. Unfortunately the 5108s are no longer made and I can't get an Upshall made like I want, so I had to look at other makers and discovered Chris Askwith and Ian Walker and built a relationship with them as well as Les Wood. With this I have decided to work on a 7 day set of bent bulldogs in a group 5 size as well as bent billiards in a group 5. The t will take me many years to complete these sets as funds are pretty tight and even direct from the artist, they are dnot cheap.I currently have 2 Ferndown bulldogs with one on the way, one Askwith bulldog, and one Northern Briars bulldog. For Christmas I got a Dunhi Shell 5102 and my first bent billiard for my collection.

Les Wood and I have a list of pipes we will work on over the next few years as does Chris Askwith when I can afford them. Had something lined up with Jimmy Craig and Ian Walker but they might have fallen in the cracks. Maybe being broke I will appreciate the journey and focused of a specific collection. It stops me from just buying pipes and gives my collection structure.
 
Planning a c"collection" huh? Since I don't "collect" pipes, rather acquire and smoke 'm I'd have to say no. :twisted:  Since most of the 100+ pipes I have were acquired in the late '60s thru '70s, pre-internet. I got most at the B&Ms I frequented. And since I paid cash for all of them, I never got one till I could pay for it. I Had grown fond of certain shapes and makers, mostly factory made at that time, and began getting examples of those. Guess that's about the most "planning" I did in my 40+ year pipe acquisition period! I wasn't then nor am now a big fan of "freehands' or many of the Danish styled pipes as well as so much of what is produced by what are called "ARTISON" makers today don't appeal to me today either. Give me a Guibleo 'd Oro or Punto Oro classic smooth or blasted Pot or Bulldog or Apple over just about ANY Artison pipe !! :twisted: :twisted:
 
tarheel7734":dc6z68ee said:
Well when I got back into pipe smoking in Dec of 2014 after a 4 year break I decided to work on a 7 day set of British Bent Bulldogs. I was going to focus on Dunhill 5108, Ashton, Ferndown, and Upshall. Unfortunately the 5108s are no longer made and I can't get an Upshall made like I want, so I had to look at other makers and discovered Chris Askwith and Ian Walker and built a relationship with them as well as Les Wood. With this I have decided to work on a 7 day set of bent bulldogs in a group 5 size as well as bent billiards in a group 5. The t will take me many years to complete these sets as funds are pretty tight and even direct from the artist, they are dnot cheap.I currently have 2 Ferndown bulldogs with one on the way, one Askwith bulldog, and one Northern Briars bulldog. For Christmas I got a Dunhi Shell 5102 and my first bent billiard for my collection. Les Wood and I have a list of pipes we will work on over the next few years as does Chris Askwith when I can afford them. Had something lined up with Jimmy Craig and Ian Walker but they might have fallen in the cracks. Maybe being broke I will appreciate the journey and focused of a specific collection. It stops me from just buying pipes and gives my collection structure.
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Ah. Thank you, that's a different perspective on the matter. I Guess it's possible to find one's Arcadia pipes as well as tobacco. (Not for me, but others have said so.) Personally, I enjoy seeing a bit of variety in in my racks. I once decided that Pete 408s were my perfect briar and acquired four of them over a few years. I had the intention of filling a rack with 408s. Then, I found I got tired of having 408s recur so quickly in my rotation. "Oh, you again," was my greeting as I took the pipe from the rack. I ended up selling one of the 408s, of the rest keeping one at a time active, and rotating all of them through active status along with my other pipes. The thing that slows my new pipe purchases is the realization as I'm about to press "place order" is "Say, you already own at least one of those." Since I've been a piper for 50 years, the differentiation serves as a reminder of my pipes' histories, which can be a nice thing as the years pass. On Christmas, I smoke the Bewlay Emerald Apple my missus put in my stocking on our first Christmas together. Structure is good. So is a bit of variety. To each his / her own.
 
I'd say I am about 50/50 as well. I rarely buy new pipes, and if I do they're by plan. I have stumbled upon some great estate deals and as long as the pipes are a certain shape and I can afford the purchase, I'll usually pick it up. I mostly smoke Bulldogs, pots, princes and various billiard family shapes, straight or quarter bent. That said, I have my preferred attributes that dictate what I will and will not purchase, but aside from that I try to keep an open mind and wallet. My next pipe is a commission that I am on a waiting for, totally planned.
 
No plan at all for me. Most are manufacture blunders, the rest are estates.
 
Every time I think I have a direction nailed down, my tastes and my needs change. When I started I wanted a variety of shapes, finishes, and styles. Now I gravitate toward straight group 1-3 classic shapes at around 1 ounce or so. Only one thing hasn't changed: I am a sucker for nice silver work.
 
Nope. Can't imagine it. Wouldn't want to imagine it. Plenty of rules in life. No need to make additional guidelines. Pipes are works of creativity and nature, so they'll surprise you at any moment. And whims and freedom.
 
Nope, no plan. There were no "plans" for buying pipes back in the 60's when I started smoking one. Just buy something I like/strikes my fancy!!! With 160+, many unsmoked, my PAD days are pretty much over anyway. The pipe-buying options available today are really impressive to an ol' codger like me!! :cheers: FTRPLT
 
I should make the caveat to my previous post. While I don't plan any pipe buying, I do have a short list of shapes+makers that I would someday like to have. I feel some makers have nailed the quintessential version of a shape, or finish, so I do desire to have those at some point. That has everything to do with opportunity + price + the pipe. There's no plan or strategy to it. And I'm a patient fella. I can wait years and years for the right situation.
 
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