Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous Pipe Smoker

[Zeno Marx]

First, I want to be clear that this is not mean to be negative, judgemental, or disparaging. I'm genuinely curious about where these pipes go, the rooms and displays where they then exist, and the lifestyles of those who buy them.

On the most recent Briar Blues update, a Poul (Danish) instantly sold for $2500. There are also a couple Ivarssons still for sale around that price range. As we know, that isn't even close to the high end of that spectrum. I've been around pipes for a while. It's nothing new to see a multi-thousand dollar Danish pipe. Or some rare Dunhill selling for thousands. Heck, JT Cooke pipes at $800 sell within minutes of email updates.

It got me thinking about the people and financial situations that enable such buying. Well, I don't really care about the financial situations so much, but I'd be the first to watch an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous dedicated to pipe smokers/collectors. A lot of these pipes never get smoked. I don't care about that at all either, but it does add another element to the situation. Buy and then display? Buy and leave in a jewelry or watch drawer in a cabinet? Buy and smoke no differently than the guy who smokes a 1LB of 1Q a week, who just burnt out his only pipe, and nonchalantly grabbed a new one from the bucket at his local tobacco shop as he grabbed another pound of tobacco?

I guess it is the voyeur in me. I don't envy this kind of thing, but I'm admittedly curious about it all. What happens to those $3K pipes, and who are the people who buy them? What's the rest of their life like?

 

[daveinlax]

 A lot of these pipes never get smoked.  I don't care about that at all either, but it does add another element to the situation.  Buy and then display?  Buy and leave in a jewelry or watch drawer in a cabinet?  

2500.00 is couch change to a lot of guys in this hobby.
I've bought a few pipes from a collection that has been sitting in boxes for decades. The owner was a very wealthy compulsive pipe buyer who had/has hundreds of high and medium high grade pipes but smokes a small rotation. :shock:

 

[lestrout]

Yo Zeno - there is that 1% crowd...?

hp
les

 

[user 2027]

.

 

[D.L.Ruth]

My most expensive pipe I paid about 120 for (it was on sale lol), and that is pretty high end for me. Im currently saving up for a one of Peterson Christmas pipes, yes I need to actually save up money for a100 dollar pipe lol.

 

[Zeno Marx]

D.L.Ruth and GeoffC, both of your situations are within the norm. I'm talking fringe here. The 1%? The 3%? I don't know. Pipe smoking has always attracted people with big wallets. I've known plenty of Dunhill collectors who would occasionally splurge on a +$1K pipe, and by occasionally, I mean it wasn't an anomaly. It's not even those guys who have me curious.

 

[user 2027]

.

 

[Zeno Marx]

You get to see them in their environment. That's pretty much what I'm after here. Where do they go to rest after they've been purchased? It's one thing to see a Lamborghini on the road, but it's quite another [to me] to see it sitting in the owner's garage, or wherever, however that might be set up. That place...that setup...is just as interesting to me as the pipe, the purchasing, and maybe even the purchaser.

I mean...a garage is a garage...unless there's something unique in it or about it. There's a reason Jay Leno had a show just about his garage. The cars came in and came out, but another character in the situation was the garage itself. And hey, I could be imagining something that doesn't even exist with these big Danish collectors. Maybe they lean them in the same Decatur pipe rack as everyone else. One of the Dunhill collectors I knew had more money than he could ever spend, but he lived like someone who made $50K/year. He was completely non-descript. He had a nice watch. He had a couple of nice cars. That's it. He was milk otherwise.

I'm not really wondering about money here, but more about eccentricities that could possibly be influenced by the money.

 

[user 2027]

.