Prices of meerschaums - are they at times arbitrary? Yes

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WarneOut

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When doing some shopping for meerschaums a few weeks ago, I ordered a few pipes from a well known and popular meerschaum pipe purveyor, with the intention of keeping the one I liked most.

When looking at meerschaum pipes, something that I've always found somewhat perplexing is that within a given set of specs (e.g. 6" length, 45g, standard shape), from the same carver or manufacturer, the price for one pipe may be $150 and another may be $240 with no obviously justifiable differences. It seems almost like they pull a number out of thin air to create their list price. As it turns out.. some sellers do!

After I received the pipes, I just didn't feel like I really loved any of them, and because of the generous return policy, I decided to send them all back.

To my bemusement, when I checked the website again later, I noticed that the very same pipes I had just returned had been relisted at dramatically inflated prices compared to what I had just paid a few weeks before!

When I say dramatically, it is without exaggeration. Here's some examples of what I paid for these 3 pipes, and what the prices were relisted as 2 weeks later.

Srv Premium Calabash 9mm: I paid $250, now listed at $295
Srv Premium Cobra: I paid $155, now listed at $245
Srv Premium Self Sitter: I paid $165, now listed at $265

That is insane! I did not initially buy any of these at a discount or on sale. I felt they were barely worth the price that I originally paid, much less as much as an astounding $100 extra for no conceivable reason. Consider this a PSA, to be sure that what you're buying is worth the price, because retailers can just make up a number to convince less informed people that they're buying something of a higher quality, when in truth they just want to arbitrarily extract extra money from the consumer. Seems like a pretty dubious way to conduct business to me. I now know where I will not be shopping in the future lol
 
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That is insane. Curious who you bought them from? Even on Meershaum Market, from whom I have purchased several, I see one pipe listed at $165, and another almost identical at $265. I only pay what I think it's worth.
 
That is insane. Curious who you bought them from? Even on Meershaum Market, from whom I have purchased several, I see one pipe listed at $165, and another almost identical at $265. I only pay what I think it's worth.
Since you mentioned it.. it actually WAS Meerschaum Market. Feels deflating to find out that a business would have so little respect for the value of their customers money.

To your point, the most important thing is always to only pay what you think something is worth, and then you'll never get ripped off. But in a market like this where buying and selling pipes secondhand is commonplace, it would feel really lousy to find out that something's true value is way less than you paid for it, because you'll recoup that much less of your money when you try to sell it.
 
I keep thinking I need a meershaum, which would only be my second one and not since the first year of smoking a pipe, but...and then stories like this one, making me uncertain of the entire transaction...eh, I've lived without another one for this long. This seems like one of the few good remaining reasons to go to a pipe show, so you can hold it in hand before pulling out the wallet.
 
I keep thinking I need a meershaum, which would only be my second one and not since the first year of smoking a pipe, but...and then stories like this one, making me uncertain of the entire transaction...eh, I've lived without another one for this long. This seems like one of the few good remaining reasons to go to a pipe show, so you can hold it in hand before pulling out the wallet.
A good meerschaum is so worth it though.. I was just on a briar buying spree for a couple months, but recently have preferred smoking my meer over any of the briars. Go figure. The main thing when ordering online is just to make sure the return policy is good, and if so you have nothing to lose (except a postage fee). I have broken this rule a couple times to get a good deal ordering overseas, and have paid the price a couple times lol.

I agree that buying in-person is by far the best way to do it, if you're able.
 
I've been window shopping at Meerschaum Market for weeks now after Ranger107 mentioned them in one of his posts. Looking for a nice apple or bent Rhodesian and haven't been able to decide on one. Just curious, but what was it about the ones that you returned that you didn't care for?
 
I've been window shopping at Meerschaum Market for weeks now after Ranger107 mentioned them in one of his posts. Looking for a nice apple or bent Rhodesian and haven't been able to decide on one. Just curious, but what was it about the ones that you returned that you didn't care for?
There was a bit of wonkiness with the shape of 2 of the stems, and on one of them the bowl was off center in the stummel (creating one wide side and one narrow side) and seemed to have a minor airflow problem.

I've learned the hard way after several expensive mistakes to not buy a pipe unless it really speaks to me and makes me excited to use it. When I add up the cost of all the pipes I don't really want to reach for, and realize how many premium pipes I could have bought for the same amount of money, it breaks my heart.

For that reason I can be a bit picky, but that doesn't mean that the Srv pipes at Meerschaum market are bad. Mostly they're pretty good, but again mostly they're overpriced.

I would compare the quality of Srvs roughly to black stemmed (briar tenon) AKBs. And a comparable AKB is generally cheaper. Some of the higher priced Srvs encroach into the pricing territory of Altinoks and Altinays, which would almost certainly be a better value for money.
 
Ah Meers, gotta' love'em!! Bought my first one in September 1970 at the Ramstein, West Germany Base Exchange. A Hayim Payek bent with turbaned man's head! For various reasons, I've never smoked it in 53 years!!!! Still sitting in its box on a shelf behind me! However, I have 25+ in my collection (some again unsmoked!!). During my military flying days, I spent a goodly amount of time in Turkey; where I picked up numerous Meers. Some in shops; others I bought in Eskisehir near the mines (the Turkish Air Force has a base there!! How convenient!!). The only Meers I've bought online were a gourd calabash w/meer bowl and an amber stem plus an unsmoked Andreas Bauer apple (which for some reason got little action; I stole it for less than $60!!).
I am rather taken aback by Meer prices at any and all of the various online sites. I don't pay much attention to any of them; hence, I cannot in any way compare quality, price, etc. of any of them!!! FWIW...FTRPLT
 
Ah Meers, gotta' love'em!! Bought my first one in September 1970 at the Ramstein, West Germany Base Exchange. A Hayim Payek bent with turbaned man's head! For various reasons, I've never smoked it in 53 years!!!! Still sitting in its box on a shelf behind me! However, I have 25+ in my collection (some again unsmoked!!). During my military flying days, I spent a goodly amount of time in Turkey; where I picked up numerous Meers. Some in shops; others I bought in Eskisehir near the mines (the Turkish Air Force has a base there!! How convenient!!). The only Meers I've bought online were a gourd calabash w/meer bowl and an amber stem plus an unsmoked Andreas Bauer apple (which for some reason got little action; I stole it for less than $60!!).
I am rather taken aback by Meer prices at any and all of the various online sites. I don't pay much attention to any of them; hence, I cannot in any way compare quality, price, etc. of any of them!!! FWIW...FTRPLT
Very cool; sounds like you've got a lot of interesting stories waiting to be told. And 25 meers is quite a nice collection.

I hope one day to have a good excuse to go to Turkey, so that I can bring back a suitcase full of meers, and (perhaps?) finally feel like I have "enough" pipes!
 
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