I have recently started making pipes, purchased a lathe, belt sander and other tools needed for this type of work. In the near future I plan on getting a website and trying to sell a few of them.
I posted some pictures of a volcano pipe I finished a couple of weeks ago on this website and Pipes.Org. I wasn't trying to sell it and didn't offer it for sale but someone at Pipes.Org liked it and asked if I would sell it to him. I think it is a nice looking pipe but it just doesn't meet my standards of pipes I would offer for sale.
I would love to make some money on it but I'm worried about selling a sub standard pipe and getting a not so good review of my first one.
Should I sell it to him and explain the situation, if so how much ? Or should I just keep it ?
Thanks Bill
Sell A Pipe That Doesn't Meet Your Standards ?
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LexKY_Pipe
- Posts: 875
- Joined: Thu Nov 23, 2006 8:00 pm
- Location: Lexington, Kentucky USA
I think that if you sell the fella your pipe with the understanding that you are a pipemaker in progress, then you are not undermining your future work. We could all wait until we achieved some standard of excellence, but then some folk wouldn't enjoy the benefits of our labors. The guy wants to enjoy a smoke with your pipe. Offer it to him at a very fair price and know that someone else is enjoying the fruits of your labors.
I do think some of us are trying to jump on the "get a website and start selling pipes" band wagon, as though that were the end all. Nothing wrong with that I guess, but I want to be careful not to allow the tail to be wagging the dog. I got into this for the enjoyment of making pipes. Not for the hassle of maintaining a website business out of the gate. Okay, I'm pontificating now with the editorial. Sorry.
Sell the guy the pipe. :thumb:
I do think some of us are trying to jump on the "get a website and start selling pipes" band wagon, as though that were the end all. Nothing wrong with that I guess, but I want to be careful not to allow the tail to be wagging the dog. I got into this for the enjoyment of making pipes. Not for the hassle of maintaining a website business out of the gate. Okay, I'm pontificating now with the editorial. Sorry.
Sell the guy the pipe. :thumb:
I'm kinda with Craig on this one. I'd like to sell a pipe or two if only to get some money to buy some more materials, but I don't see myself running an internet business - I don't have the time to commit to it. I am in a relatively new neighborhood. When I was working this weekend in the garage (door open), one of my new neighbors stopped by to introduce himself. One of our other neighbors had told him that I tinker with making pipes in the garage and he wanted to check it out. He's a cigar smoker who is thinking about trying a pipe. He wanted to buy the volcano I was working on (in your volcano thread on the gallery board). Problem is I am like you. It was only my 5th pipe, and I am just starting. I wouldn't even know what to charge for it, though...
Graig, I just replied to your post you made on this pipe in the Gallery forum.
I enjoy making pipes just about as much as I do smoking them. I have made pipes and gave them to frinds. I think I'm just about to the point to where I would feel confident in selling one of my pipes and knowing the person buying it would appreciate the efforts I put in making it.
As for websites, I have built quite a few. One for my wedding photography, my wife's travel agency and our daughters yoga business and not to mention all our frinds that just had to have one of their own.
Bill
I enjoy making pipes just about as much as I do smoking them. I have made pipes and gave them to frinds. I think I'm just about to the point to where I would feel confident in selling one of my pipes and knowing the person buying it would appreciate the efforts I put in making it.
As for websites, I have built quite a few. One for my wedding photography, my wife's travel agency and our daughters yoga business and not to mention all our frinds that just had to have one of their own.
Bill
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Mrpickwick
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Thu Nov 23, 2006 8:00 pm
- Location: Niigata City Japan
- Contact:
Selling your 1st pipes
I'm also with Craig on this as I started pipe carving 4 years ago with a Tsuge kit and I made a really rough bent apple ( but I still love to smoke it sometimes ). When I first started making pipes it was only for myself but soon some people asked if I would make them something so I did. At first I just gave them away but as I have learned more about making pipes and now use better quality brair I don't give pipes away anymore and from last year I started selling a few of my pipes ( I felt that what I was making was now worth something ). Now I have steady orders and several people own two or three of my pipes and love smoking them. If people get a good quality pipe for a resonable price I'm sure they would be more than happy. Also having people smoking your pipes is great as they can give you some feedback on your work 
Happy pipe making
Don
Speden Pipes
Niigata Japan
Happy pipe making
Don
Speden Pipes
Niigata Japan
WBill,
My advise is going to be contingent upon what your future plans are within pipemaking. You either aspire to make "higher" quality pipes than you are capable of now and you are hoping to sell these future pipe. Or, you aspire to make "higher" quality pipes than you are capable of now and you don't plan to try to get a good reputation as a pipemaker so that you can sell some of these "hobby pipes".
If don't care about your future reputation and are making pipes simply for the pleasure of it then sell the guy your pipe and make a few bones on the deal. Take that money and buy some more blocks and pursue your hobby for the sheer pleasure of it.
If you are concerned about your future reputation and hope to develop a reputation as an excellent hobbiest/part time pipemaker then don't sell a pipe you judge to be an inferior pipe. Ultimately, you will be the one who determines the quality standard of your pipes (and hopefully your reputation will reflect this). In the future, you will constantly face the issue of selling a pipe that doesn't meet your standards inorder to make some cash. You will either choose not to do this or you will sell it; then, your reputation will develop around these choices.
If you never sell an inferior pipe then you will never sell an inferior pipe. If you do it once then you will do it again and again.
My advise is going to be contingent upon what your future plans are within pipemaking. You either aspire to make "higher" quality pipes than you are capable of now and you are hoping to sell these future pipe. Or, you aspire to make "higher" quality pipes than you are capable of now and you don't plan to try to get a good reputation as a pipemaker so that you can sell some of these "hobby pipes".
If don't care about your future reputation and are making pipes simply for the pleasure of it then sell the guy your pipe and make a few bones on the deal. Take that money and buy some more blocks and pursue your hobby for the sheer pleasure of it.
If you are concerned about your future reputation and hope to develop a reputation as an excellent hobbiest/part time pipemaker then don't sell a pipe you judge to be an inferior pipe. Ultimately, you will be the one who determines the quality standard of your pipes (and hopefully your reputation will reflect this). In the future, you will constantly face the issue of selling a pipe that doesn't meet your standards inorder to make some cash. You will either choose not to do this or you will sell it; then, your reputation will develop around these choices.
If you never sell an inferior pipe then you will never sell an inferior pipe. If you do it once then you will do it again and again.
There is a lot to consider here, and I will not rehash the excellent comments you have gotten so far, but I will relay my experience with trying to sell pipes that did not meet my standards for first quality.
When I first went "pro hobbiest" I had four pipes to offer at a show. Two were firsts and were graded as I grade now, and two were stamped as novice grade pipes, pipes that were engineered correctly, but were not shaped quite right. The two novice graded pipes sat on my table at the pipe show I attended, and almost no one picked them up to look at them. They were priced at what I thought was an attractive discount compared to my regular pricing (for instance, I had one smooth pipe with a hand cut stem for $125 - $75 off my minimum price for a smooth pipe). At that point I realized it was not worth the effort to try to sell a pipe that was not the best I could make, and that I would not feel comfortable stamping as a first.
If I were making a living at pipe making, I would probably have two different lines of pipes, with completely different stampings and identities. However, as this is a hobby for me, I do not currently offer a line of seconds. I either give my seconds to close friends or keep them for myself.
Personally, I think the grading and pricing is the hardest part of pipe making. I still think it is tough.
Good luck on your decision, and if I have any final words of advice, it would be that if the engineering on the pipe is not first rate, don't sell the pipe. Poor engineering may come back to haunt you, but a pipe that does not live up to your standards shape-wise may not be an issue for the buyer.
Again, good luck on your decision.
When I first went "pro hobbiest" I had four pipes to offer at a show. Two were firsts and were graded as I grade now, and two were stamped as novice grade pipes, pipes that were engineered correctly, but were not shaped quite right. The two novice graded pipes sat on my table at the pipe show I attended, and almost no one picked them up to look at them. They were priced at what I thought was an attractive discount compared to my regular pricing (for instance, I had one smooth pipe with a hand cut stem for $125 - $75 off my minimum price for a smooth pipe). At that point I realized it was not worth the effort to try to sell a pipe that was not the best I could make, and that I would not feel comfortable stamping as a first.
If I were making a living at pipe making, I would probably have two different lines of pipes, with completely different stampings and identities. However, as this is a hobby for me, I do not currently offer a line of seconds. I either give my seconds to close friends or keep them for myself.
Personally, I think the grading and pricing is the hardest part of pipe making. I still think it is tough.
Good luck on your decision, and if I have any final words of advice, it would be that if the engineering on the pipe is not first rate, don't sell the pipe. Poor engineering may come back to haunt you, but a pipe that does not live up to your standards shape-wise may not be an issue for the buyer.
Again, good luck on your decision.
FWIW, I think I gave away pipes for four or five years before offering them for sale, and I *still* cringe to think of some of the first pipes I sold only a year ago -- ones that I thought were pretty good at the time. If you value your future reputation as a pipemaker, don't sell your first few pipes. Or the next few. Over time and a number of pipes, your eye changes, your standards change, your skills change. I haven't seen the pipe, but even if it's comparable to other pipes offered for sale by established makers you have much more to gain by investing in goodwill and experience than the few bucks you might earn by selling an early pipe. If you give a pipe as a gift, the recipient will have nothing but good things to say about it. If you sell it, he will have every right to say whatever he wants. Now is the time to put down roots, not put out leaves.