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What? ANOTHER PIPE?!? How did that happen!?! What kind of pipe collector are you?
C'mon! Fess up! Share it with the "Brethren of the Briar". We get it. And, it's therapeutic to talk about it.
We will laugh with you, not at you. Honest.
Okay, we might laugh at you, but only because it hits so close to home.
If there's an interesting, embarrassing, or funny anecdote in your pipe collecting, we want to hear it. I'll go first.
What do we have here? Just three smallish, average looking used pipes ...bought in a frenzy of temporary insanity ...at an online auction site my wife refers to as evil-bay ...when I only intended to get one ...in fair condition ...to restore to smoking condition ...for about a third of what I spent on the cheapest one.
In my defense, I recently discovered the Pipedia Dunhill Dating Guide and thought it would be neat to have a "Birth-year Briar", and a DUNHILL, no less!
Now I have three.
But who, ME? ...a collector? Nah!!!
Since I picked a pipe back up in the late 90’s, my goal was to have my own private tobacco store that I could wander into and grab anything that caught my eye and my own private pipe museum. I don’t feel either of those things are ever complete, they are always growing and changing. For me that will likely stop only when I’m gone.Â
Thinking about it further, your opening post made me think about acquiring pipes. I think it’s more like getting new friends. Sure, some can be in a bit of rough shape, but I’m the kind of guy who will help a friend get back on his feet.Â
Plus with these friends, they may cost a bit in the beginning, but they won’t borrow money or tools from you and not return them, if you ignore for a while, they won’t hold a grudge and they are happy to be there to make you happy. Heck, even if one of them caught the eye of your wife or partner, it would be a good thing. I can’t understand how anyone would think more pipes could be a bad thing.Â
(I’m a big fan of rationalization)
Collecting anything is a sign of curiosity. Curious people are more fun and tend to be good people. Curious people often ask themselves questions whose answers in some cases are beneficial for everyone. Einstein said that to be a good scientist you had to be very curious and ask yourself many questions.
I’m averaging more than one new pipe per month. Yikes! 😬 12 months of smoking a pipe, with 17 pipes (not including a couple of spare clay pipes).
I have what I need to enjoy pipe smoking until my dying day. But, I’ll definitely be buying more! I can take it easy now, though, and only buy pipes that look really special to me in some way. Edit: not that I haven’t been doing that so far. It’s just that I have been guilty of a bit of compulsiveness with a few of my pipes
I am not much for collecting for the sake of just having. I like for all of my things to have a purpose. For pipes, that means I don't have any pipes that I don't smoke. I want my pipes to be functional first, beautiful second and after that I worry about cost (my wife disagrees with that order). My ideal pipe collection would include a pipe for every conceavable tobacco that I may ever smoke, duplicates for the ones I smoke the most, some spares, travel pipes, dress pipes, golfing pipes, some special occation pipes.....ok nevermind, sign me up for Ted's museum/shop plan.
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