Anyone buy from this guy?

[PipesByDesign]

http://myworld.ebay.com/alexander-zavvos/

Grecian briar it appears.

Wonder about quality, of course.

Thanks.

[archaggelosmichail]

Hello, Alexander has the older briar wood possible, in large quantity.But he have only ebauchons in good prices, plateaux is way out of my budget.
His pipes here in Greece are considered the best-smokers, because of his briar.
I don't know if he only uses that cured briar for his pipes and sell the new one.Contact him so you can ask, but in ebay item description say that they began air curing for them from 1985
I brought 12 straight ebauchons last week, but I haven't get there to get them yet.

Michail

[PipesByDesign]

As far as pits or cracks or any flaws? Decent grain?

[archaggelosmichail]

I will pick them up in the next 4-5 days, so I will tell you then.
From the photos he sent me I saw 3 of 12 to have straight grain, I couldn't understand the others because of dust.
54 dollars for 12 ebauchons is a really good price.

[Sasquatch]

70.00 USD for a single X grade plateaux?


Thanks anyway!

That buys Mimmo's best wood, PME's best wood, Jaume Hom's best wood....

The ebauchon prices look all right, but of course, "all right" depends very much on how many a guy throws out.

[TRS]

70.00 USD for a single X grade plateaux?


Thanks anyway!

That buys Mimmo's best wood, PME's best wood, Jaume Hom's best wood....

The ebauchon prices look all right, but of course, "all right" depends very much on how many a guy throws out.

He had one up a week ago or so that was $140 for a plateaux. I sh*t you not. I kept looking at it over and over thinking "He must have accidentally left the quantity out of the description....."

[Archer]

Does it really cost $49 for shipping this stuff...all his auctions have that as flat rate. If you go and look at some of his feedback history, you can see where some guys have bought from him and the ship rate was $19 from the same locale...maybe somebody has figured out how to use shipping to make some extra money on ebay...?? Im just sayin...

I would gladly pay $85 for 25 ebauchons, but not with $49 shipping.

[Sasquatch]

I think shipping a box of wood out of Europe probably does cost something like 50 bucks.

[TRS]

Yeah, I sometimes ship vinyl lp records to Europe and it can get to $30 or $40; I'd imagine a big box of wood blocks would be more. The $19 shipping charge looks like it's for the boxes of 5 or 6 blocks....

[Sasquatch]

Well, he's dropped his prices by 89% so I'm gonna throw a few bids down and see if this stuff's any good. If it's not, I'll sell it to eMarkle at a profit.

[Archer]

Sas...

I would pay $19 shipping for 5-6 blocks...$19 bid+ship= still a good deal,quality unseen...

*edit*
Just now looked again...Sas youre right, every thing's changed,the quantities, the ship,the price...much better choices now!!

[Sasquatch]

Well, I'll give him a try at these prices - not going to order $4,000.00 worth of blocks yet, but I'll try 3. I don't give a crap about a dollar or two if the briar's good. I know what I pay through Mimmo or PME, so that'll be my limit here. Some of it looks pretty nice, some of it looks pretty plain. For 50 or 100 bucks... I'll try it just cuz it's fun to do so.

[PipesByDesign]

Just dropped a chunk of change on Mimmo, otherwise I'd give it a go. Would love to hear a report on this stuff when you get a chance...

[caskwith]

Ill be interested to hear reports but won't be chancing it myself, not least because I just put in a large order with Mimmo to last me over the holiday season.

[archaggelosmichail]

I made 2 pipes out of his ebauchons the past week.They are the best smokers I've ever made.

1)I can feel wood when I'm touching them, I can't descripte it.I can smell wood they don't , this "grass" feeling.
2)They are lightweight and smoking really cool.
3)The ebauchons had a fow sandpits, I'm going to try his plateaux now

It's the best briar I've ever work with.

[Sasquatch]

I won some of this briar on ebay, haven't seen it yet, but got a shipping confirmation, which is nice.

I sent Alexander an email and asked about buying some plateaux, and got a very friendly and very detailed response from him outlining various options.

There are two ends to being a vendor (being a vendor to ME anyhow). 1 is the product itself, and 2 is service. So far this guy's great on service. If the briar turns out to be nice, we'll have a winner on our hands. I will post details on the blocks as soon as I see them and cut them.

[Archer]

Just got a 50 block shipment in from him. Got a steal of a deal. Nice mix of small, med, and large pieces, mixed for bents and straights. They all (on the outside) look good with no pitting, sand pockets, etc. A couple have some of the outer burl on them as well. I sanded a few on the sides to check the graining and so far they are showing at least some nice birdseye.

Just FYI. I will update when I get into them.

[archaggelosmichail]

I've made 8 pipes out of his briar.
It's the best briar I've ever smoke with.I'm going to get another 50 ebauchons and try to convince Alexander for a good price for plateaux.

[Sasquatch]

Light brown spotting on the blocks is tunnels and hardened pooh left behind by some kind of borer.


Bad luck? Maybe.


Bad briar? Certainly.

I will be contacting the seller and asking about.... options.

[Alden]

Interesting. Thats his higher grades too right ?
I still havent cut any of the blocks I have.