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Haebar

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I want to buy a block meerschaum pipe and was wondering what online stores you have had good experiences with? I'd prefer to buy one in person, but don't have any stores nearby that have a good selection of meerschaum pipes. I've looked at Royal Meerschaum, Meerschaum Market, and Meerschaum Store so far.
 
Haebar. I have had good luck with Meershaum Market but you do have to be diligent in researching pipes. Their prices seem a bit erratic but with some cautious research and careful reading of the descriptions you can find some nice pipes at a reasonable price.
 
Haebar. I have had good luck with Meershaum Market but you do have to be diligent in researching pipes. Their prices seem a bit erratic but with some cautious research and careful reading of the descriptions you can find some nice pipes at a reasonable price.
Thanks @Ranger107 that is the site I have been considering; they seem to have good prices and a good selection. Looking for a bent Rhodesian or apple fairly large. Don't want to get stuck with a tiny one.
 
Meershaum Market does a good job with their descriptions. I check for bowl ID, OD, bowl depth, etc. I have gotten stuck by other sites like Royal Meershaum with a smaller than desired pipe. And I believe Meershaum Market does categorize their pipes by size.
 
Haebar, I'll relay my take on the meerschaum shopping experience, but others opinions may differ.

Starting with Meerschaum Market, as Ranger says their prices are erratic and of no indication of the quality of the pipe. If you handle one of their $150 vs $250 pipes, you may find no appreciable difference in quality, weight, size, or any parameter. In fact, I had actually returned a couple $150 pipes which mysteriously BECAME $250 pipes when I saw them relisted on the site! Further, their in-house brand SRV is priced comparably to some of the big name meerschaum makers but is basically only comparable in craftsmanship to garden variety AKBs which can generally be found for much cheaper on SmokingPipes.
I have ordered a total of 8 SRV pipes.. and sent back all 8. There wasn't anything glaringly wrong with most of them, but the overall attention to detail, craftsmanship, and stem shaping left a lot to be desired for the price. In a word, underwhelming.

AKB, the in house brand for SmokingPipes is generally a solid low- medium budget choice. You get what you pay for, but it's a good value. You often will not know the particular artisan who crafted the piece, their stems are not the greatest (very rare to get a stem that doesn't have at least a slight twist in it), and the buttons on the stems are usually too big to be comfortable. But, that said, they're a solid choice for the $100-$200 range and I've been happy with at least half of the AKBs I've bought. However, with a budget over $200, you're probably better off buying from a big name crafter.

In terms of big name meer crafters that I'm aware of, Altinay and Altinok are highly reputable and universally lauded for quality of the block, the craftsmanship, and the functionality. You will know exactly who made your pipe, you can speak to them personally, and you get numerous high quality photos from multiple angles. Since there's no need to rest meerschaums between smokes, you really only need 1 that you're happy with, which is all the more reason to treat yourself to a nice one if you have the budget for it. From my experience, one high quality meer of any given price is vastly more fulfilling to own than two meers at half the price! In hindsight, I sorely wish I had 2x less meers that were 2x more expensive.

I have an Altinay pipe due to arrive in 3 days, and I'll give you my feedback on what that's like.

By the way, I spoke with Said Altinay a couple days ago, and he mentioned that the price of raw meerschaum has gone up an astounding 420% in the last 1.5 years. He didn't mention why, but I imagine it has to do with both recent turmoil in Turkey as well as increasing scarcity of the mineral. Said is raising his prices something like 25% across the board for new incoming pipes, which is a ton, but is also justifiable. Buy as many meerschaum pipes as you can while you can! Before they're $1000 a pop.
 
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Haebar, I'll relay my take on the meerschaum shopping experience, but others opinions may differ.

Starting with Meerschaum Market, as Ranger says their prices are erratic and of no indication of the quality of the pipe. If you handle one of their $150 vs $250 pipes, you may find no appreciable difference in quality, weight, size, or any parameter. In fact, I had actually returned a couple $150 pipes which mysteriously BECAME $250 pipes when I saw them relisted on the site! Further, their in-house brand SRV is priced comparably to some of the big name meerschaum makers but is basically only comparable in craftsmanship to garden variety AKBs which can generally be found for much cheaper on SmokingPipes.
I have ordered a total of 8 SRV pipes.. and sent back all 8. There wasn't anything glaringly wrong with most of them, but the overall attention to detail, craftsmanship, and stem shaping left a lot to be desired for the price. In a word, underwhelming.

AKB, the in house brand for SmokingPipes is generally a solid low- medium budget choice. You get what you pay for, but it's a good value. You often will not know the particular artisan who crafted the piece, their stems are not the greatest (very rare to get a stem that doesn't have at least a slight twist in it), and the buttons on the stems are usually too big to be comfortable. But, that said, they're a solid choice for the $100-$200 range and I've been happy with at least half of the AKBs I've bought. However, with a budget over $200, you're probably better off buying from a big name crafter.

In terms of big name meer crafters that I'm aware of, Altinay and Altinok are highly reputable and universally lauded for quality of the block, the craftsmanship, and the functionality. You will know exactly who made your pipe, you can speak to them personally, and you get numerous high quality photos from multiple angles. Since there's no need to rest meerschaums between smokes, you really only need 1 that you're happy with, which is all the more reason to treat yourself to a nice one if you have the budget for it. From my experience, one high quality meer of any given price is vastly more fulfilling to own than two meers at half the price! In hindsight, I sorely wish I had 2x less meers that were 2x more expensive.

I have an Altinay pipe due to arrive in 3 days, and I'll give you my feedback on what that's like.

By the way, I spoke with Said Altinay a couple days ago, and he mentioned that the price of raw meerschaum has gone up an astounding 420% in the last 1.5 years. He didn't mention why, but I imagine it has to do with both recent turmoil in Turkey as well as increasing scarcity of the mineral. Said is raising his prices something like 25% across the board for new incoming pipes, which is a ton, but is also justifiable. Buy as many meerschaum pipes as you can while you can! Before they're $1000 a pop.
Thanks, @WarneOut ! This information is priceless! I really appreciate it.
 
Thanks, @WarneOut ! This information is priceless! I really appreciate it.
My pleasure, I wish I had known half of what I know now when I first started shopping around lol. I could have had a significantly nicer collection of pipes for the same cost as what I currently have. The most important thing I've learned is, with meers, quality over quantity is absolute. You can only smoke one at a time anyway! And of course if you want your meers to color nicely, the fewer the better.
 
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Baki's website is a bit of a mess at the moment. Sultan is reworking his due to problems in Turkey!! I regret mentioning them!! FTRPLT
 
I bought my Baki just at the beginning of COVID-19 on aliexpress. Store seems empty now. Don't see anywhere he is selling online now. Makes me wonder what is going on . . .

His pipe is so good that I have not bought another meer for fear it will never measure up.

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I will add that Altinay is really raising their prices as of a few weeks ago. I just checked their most recent listings, and I was a bit surprised by the increase. Might not be able to collect as many of these as I would like
 
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Probably 10th edit: had an issue with Altinay customer service but they patched up the situation in an acceptable manner. Back in my good books, and highly recommended lol.
 
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Probably 10th edit: had an issue with Altinay customer service but they patched up the situation in an acceptable manner. Back in my good books, and highly recommended lol.
Hey @WarneOut, At your suggestion, I ordered an Altinay estate meerschaum from Pipes2Smoke.com in Canada. It is lattice apple and it's unsmoked. Can't wait to get it.
 
Hey @WarneOut, At your suggestion, I ordered an Altinay estate meerschaum from Pipes2Smoke.com in Canada. It is lattice apple and it's unsmoked. Can't wait to get it.
Nice! Looking forward to hearing how that works out for you.

I actually had a long conversation with Said Altinay a couple days ago; he's a very knowledgeable guy, and overall a good human being in general.

When you see the amount of expertise that goes into every one of his pieces, compared to anything you'd find from AKB or a similar ilk, it actually seems like his prices should be even higher than they are. I thought I liked the other meers I had before getting my first Altinay, but I just didn't know how well a meer could actually be made. I'm extremely particular about well shaped stems, and the Altinays for me have the most consistently well shaped stems out of any pipe I've experienced, meerschaum or briar.

I've heard similar effusive praise for Bakis, but it seems new pipes from him can't really be found on the market today.

Edit: sorry for the redundancy, I should read my previous posts when I come back to a thread lol.
 
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