Pre-owned pipes; What should I be looking for?

[Musical Viking]

Apologies if this is a dumb question or has been asked before, but I was in an antiques shop yesterday and they had a few old pipes there. An old Peterson caught my attention, price tag of £50. I didn’t ask to get it out of the cabinet for a look as I wanted to ask this question here first, but from the initial look I can see that the outside of the bowl seems fine, the collar (not sure if it’s silver or nickel or whatever) is a bit tarnished but could be restored, and the stem is used but not gnawed beyond belief.

I think £50 is potentially a little bit steep, but as the store owner is also a pipe smoker (d’oh!) and probably knows more than me I need to know what else I should be looking for when I go back to inspect it and maybe make a reasonable offer based on what I see. If the owner wasn’t a piper and was reasonably ignorant to what he’s got there I’d probably have been a bit cheeky and tried to blag a bit, but he seems to know his stuff so I need to go armed!

Thanks in advance!

[Mr Beardsley]

Make sure that the chamber is in good condition. No cracks or screwy marks. Check the band, if it's silver it will say sterling and have a hallmark which will allow you to date the pipe. Be friendly and maybe you can talk him down or make a deal if you buy multiple

[Piping Abe]

With Estates you have to find what matters to you. Chew marks on the stem? Oxidation? Does it pass a pipe cleaner (Bring your own)?

Thats all up to you as to what matters. Obviously if the shank is really gunked up, you knownit was never taken care of.

[Ruffinogold]

For 50 bucks it should be in really good shape , imho .

In general , if a brand new pipe is 100 bucks , Id spend half or maybe a touch more for the same pipe / model thats used in really good shape . If the same model is in fair shape .... less than half for sure . like 35 bucks . Poor shape .... 20 bucks or less

There was an unwritten rule back in the day , kind of . A brand new 100 dollar pipe at a retailer cost the retailer 50 bucks . So , used pipes in really good condition were looked at as starting at 50 bucks and maybe a little more if it were in really really good clean shape . Condition going backwards would take the price of 50 and go lower as the condition got worse

All thats changed now , so disregard it as valid info , its more " historical " at this point

[Musical Viking]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the advice. I’ll let you know what happens.

[Musical Viking]

Make sure that the chamber is in good condition. No cracks or screwy marks. Check the band, if it's silver it will say sterling and have a hallmark which will allow you to date the pipe. Be friendly and maybe you can talk him down or make a deal if you buy multiple

You shouldn’t tempt me to buy multiple - I’m hoping to get a pic of something pretty spectacular he also had to share here, the price tag is 2 months’ rent!

[Mr Beardsley]

Make sure that the chamber is in good condition. No cracks or screwy marks. Check the band, if it's silver it will say sterling and have a hallmark which will allow you to date the pipe. Be friendly and maybe you can talk him down or make a deal if you buy multiple

You shouldn’t tempt me to buy multiple - I’m hoping to get a pic of something pretty spectacular he also had to share here, the price tag is 2 months’ rent!

Bet he'd throw in the Pete if you bought it!

[Mr Beardsley]

With Estates you have to find what matters to you. Chew marks on the stem? Oxidation? Does it pass a pipe cleaner (Bring your own)?

Thats all up to you as to what matters. Obviously if the shank is really gunked up, you knownit was never taken care of.

Here's my view on that. If I see a pipe that's in decent cosmetic condition but has a boatload of cake and the shank / stem is all fouled up I'm even more interested. It screams good smoker

[Piping Abe]

With Estates you have to find what matters to you. Chew marks on the stem? Oxidation? Does it pass a pipe cleaner (Bring your own)?

Thats all up to you as to what matters. Obviously if the shank is really gunked up, you knownit was never taken care of.

Here's my view on that. If I see a pipe that's in decent cosmetic condition but has a boatload of cake and the shank / stem is all fouled up I'm even more interested. It screams good smoker

I can see why. But some people dont care how dirty it gets and will keep smoking. I don’t believe the smoke would be enjoyable at a certain point. Its all what people are willing to do (clean-up) for the price they pay.

Side note: Theres a lot of money to be made buying estates and just refurbing the stems. A lot of good pipes go cheap cause the stem has bite marks and is oxidized.

[Mr Beardsley]

With Estates you have to find what matters to you. Chew marks on the stem? Oxidation? Does it pass a pipe cleaner (Bring your own)?

Thats all up to you as to what matters. Obviously if the shank is really gunked up, you knownit was never taken care of.

Here's my view on that. If I see a pipe that's in decent cosmetic condition but has a boatload of cake and the shank / stem is all fouled up I'm even more interested. It screams good smoker

I can see why. But some people dont care how dirty it gets and will keep smoking. I don’t believe the smoke would be enjoyable at a certain point. Its all what people are willing to do (clean-up) for the price they pay.

Side note: Theres a lot of money to be made buying estates and just refurbing the stems. A lot of good pipes go cheap cause the stem has bite marks and is oxidized.

Yup. Little effort and you can buy low sell high