Speaking from the point of someone that buys mid to high grade estate pipes, it has been my misfortune on occasion to buy a pipe or two that looked o.k. in the listing, the pictures may have been a little fuzzy, but when it arrived in the mail I was sadly disappointed to find a pipe that had been damaged by a Seller in their pre-sale readying process. Two quick examples of this are: a over reamed bowl and during buffing removing the wood itself. At times in listings both of these are hard to see in some Seller’s pictures and many Seller’s list pipes as you are buying what you see, and no returns. While you can understand a Seller doing this as they don’t wish to receive a $5,000 pipe back because of buyer’s remorse. What happens if you receive the pipe and it has been over reamed at the bottom of the bowl turning that pipe you valued at as a $7,500 great deal collector’s item into nothing more than a good smoker? Well, that’s the point of this little guide, to lessen the likelihood of this happening in the future to anyone.

While there are some Seller’s that add dollars of value to their pipes by rejuvenating them, they will tell you there is allot more to this process than meets the eye. Some of these folk that get regular compliments in their feedback on doing it have been restoring pipes for over twenty years. In other words these people are Professionals at it and it has been their job the same way that whatever you do for a living is your job. Understand? This isn’t a hobby to them that they started last month on a lark. It took them time to learn their craft. They know what to do for each and every problem they run into with a pipe and there are many. Do You?

My point is that if you don’t know what you are doing to that fine old pipe be it a $10 Dr. Grabow or $10,000 Bo Nordh you can make it worth a whole lot less by messing with it and messing it up! It is worth more a little dirty and needing a shine than it is with the bowl out of round or reamed wider than it should be, etc. A collector isn’t interested in someone restoring a pipe for them in the first place! They are interested in the pipe!

Coopersark, Robert Cooper, does as fine a job getting a pipe in shape before selling it as anyone offering pipes on Ebay and I have purchased several pipes from him myself. He is pretty meticulous in his work as his shows. The first thing I do after getting one of carefully restored high end pipes in the mail is head to my shop and put the finishing touches on it to suit myself. Get my point? While Mr. Cooper is a professional at what he does and one of the best, I am sure that most buyers are like myself after paying top dollar for the high end treasures he offers. Each of us have to put our personal touchs on them to make them ours.

The thing that we all hate to see is a truly rare fine old pipe that would have been a fine addition to our collections ruined by someone trying to do a job they just didn’t have the skills to do. Please, if you don’t know exactly what you are doing leave it alone!