In the thread Spade Bits, I was prompted to think about the how's, when's, and why's of beginning the process of selling one's work.
If you have already "gone pro," what advice would you have for the guys that are thinking about it?
For those of you that are thinking about it, what questions do you have?
Tyler
Going Pro
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Tyler
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Going Pro
Tyler Lane Pipes
http://www.tylerlanepipes.com
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I cast my vote for turning pro soon. Soon might be several months
down the road. I'm working on getting the quality to where I want it
even though my wife feels my work is great I haven't got to the level
I really want just yet but each pipe is turning out better than the
one before.
I guess the question I'm most concerned about is what to charge
for my pipes. I see some work that I feel is underpriced on the web
and some I feel just the other way. I think if you charge too little you
could become a slave to putting out a lot of pipes and possibly not put
that little extra creative flare to the work, charge too much and
not sell the numbers you may like or need to justify to the wife.
So what does a rookie charge for the work?
Robert
down the road. I'm working on getting the quality to where I want it
even though my wife feels my work is great I haven't got to the level
I really want just yet but each pipe is turning out better than the
one before.
I guess the question I'm most concerned about is what to charge
for my pipes. I see some work that I feel is underpriced on the web
and some I feel just the other way. I think if you charge too little you
could become a slave to putting out a lot of pipes and possibly not put
that little extra creative flare to the work, charge too much and
not sell the numbers you may like or need to justify to the wife.
So what does a rookie charge for the work?
Robert
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Tyler
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Well it didn't take long for THE question to come out! 
I'll give the best answer I have: I don't know.
I can offer some pointers though, and I look forward to hearing the thoughts of others.
I do think there is a little more forgiveness in this area than one might suspect. If your prices are slightly too high, or too low, you can adjust without causing any sort of offense among folks that have already purchased your pipes. The nature of each piece being unique and carrying its own price is the best reason I can think of to explain this forgiveness. That said, you do not want to be grossly incorrect in your pricing. Don't expect to adjust your prices wildly and have any sort of loyalty to your work. Everyone will be afraid that today's $250 pipe is tomorrow's $75 pipe.
Perhaps the most important piece of advice I can give regarding prices is make GREAT pipes. If you do that, the pricing issue is not near as difficult.
Another factor to consider is how to get started. To sell your pipes, you need to get pipes into the hands of people that will talk about your pipes. Are you going to do this by starting with under-valued pipes? That is one option, but then you run the risk of losing your fan base as your prices go up. Are you going to give away pipes to vocal members of the pipe community? That is another option, but you run the risk that they won't like the pipe, and you also need more money to stay afloat as you are getting started since there is no income from the pipes. Do you have a local club that can see your work and talk about it to others? Can you go to shows to have your worked looked over by dozens, if not hundreds, of people? How are you going to get your pipes talked about? Your stategy here will affect how much you can charge for your pipes. Of course, you NEVER want to charge more than they are worth, but you often cannot get as much as they are worth, at least from a quality of construction and aesthetic standpoint, until your work is known. So getting your work known is as much a part of the strategy as the pricing.
Another obvious move, but hard to pull off, is to have someone evaluate your pipes for pricing. Obviously this should be someone who's opinion you value, and who is willing to be honest with you. It is difficult to tell a starry-eyed maker that his pipes should be priced much lower than he hopes. It will take a special person to do that, and someone who knows his stuff. Be careful also, of a bias in the pricing because the person owns some of your pipes and he has a vested interest in their value. Of course, most folks would not intentionally over state the value to you, but it is hard to not be persuaded by their vested interest. To relate a story about finding someone that will tell you the truth about your pipes, I asked Tom Eltang to look my pipes over at last years Chicago show. He had never seen my work before (and was not looking at it at the time) but he asked me a very wise question before he looked at the pipes. He asked me, "Do you want me to be polite, or tell the truth?" The truth, of course, is the key to successfully improving your pipe making and pricing your work appropriately! I asked for the truth, and had a wonderful time with him as he reviewed my pipes and made comments.
The last thing I will mention is to look at as many pipes as you can get your hands on. Look at high-grades and mid-grade and low-grades and try to discern one from another based on the qualities of the pipes. Try to understand why the price being asked is being asked. While a very non-exact excercise, if you can be honest with yourself, you can get a feel for where your pipes fall out in the spectrum. Then you can price accordingly. I will warn though, be sure that the pipes you are basing things on are priced somewhere in the category of "normal". I made the mistake of doing this with the pipes that are in my local shop. I have since come to learn that they are over priced compared to the prices I can get for the same maker elsewhere. As such, I had a skewed perspective on pricing until I realised the anomalies of my local shop.
I hope this helps!
Tyler
I'll give the best answer I have: I don't know.
I can offer some pointers though, and I look forward to hearing the thoughts of others.
I do think there is a little more forgiveness in this area than one might suspect. If your prices are slightly too high, or too low, you can adjust without causing any sort of offense among folks that have already purchased your pipes. The nature of each piece being unique and carrying its own price is the best reason I can think of to explain this forgiveness. That said, you do not want to be grossly incorrect in your pricing. Don't expect to adjust your prices wildly and have any sort of loyalty to your work. Everyone will be afraid that today's $250 pipe is tomorrow's $75 pipe.
Perhaps the most important piece of advice I can give regarding prices is make GREAT pipes. If you do that, the pricing issue is not near as difficult.
Another factor to consider is how to get started. To sell your pipes, you need to get pipes into the hands of people that will talk about your pipes. Are you going to do this by starting with under-valued pipes? That is one option, but then you run the risk of losing your fan base as your prices go up. Are you going to give away pipes to vocal members of the pipe community? That is another option, but you run the risk that they won't like the pipe, and you also need more money to stay afloat as you are getting started since there is no income from the pipes. Do you have a local club that can see your work and talk about it to others? Can you go to shows to have your worked looked over by dozens, if not hundreds, of people? How are you going to get your pipes talked about? Your stategy here will affect how much you can charge for your pipes. Of course, you NEVER want to charge more than they are worth, but you often cannot get as much as they are worth, at least from a quality of construction and aesthetic standpoint, until your work is known. So getting your work known is as much a part of the strategy as the pricing.
Another obvious move, but hard to pull off, is to have someone evaluate your pipes for pricing. Obviously this should be someone who's opinion you value, and who is willing to be honest with you. It is difficult to tell a starry-eyed maker that his pipes should be priced much lower than he hopes. It will take a special person to do that, and someone who knows his stuff. Be careful also, of a bias in the pricing because the person owns some of your pipes and he has a vested interest in their value. Of course, most folks would not intentionally over state the value to you, but it is hard to not be persuaded by their vested interest. To relate a story about finding someone that will tell you the truth about your pipes, I asked Tom Eltang to look my pipes over at last years Chicago show. He had never seen my work before (and was not looking at it at the time) but he asked me a very wise question before he looked at the pipes. He asked me, "Do you want me to be polite, or tell the truth?" The truth, of course, is the key to successfully improving your pipe making and pricing your work appropriately! I asked for the truth, and had a wonderful time with him as he reviewed my pipes and made comments.
The last thing I will mention is to look at as many pipes as you can get your hands on. Look at high-grades and mid-grade and low-grades and try to discern one from another based on the qualities of the pipes. Try to understand why the price being asked is being asked. While a very non-exact excercise, if you can be honest with yourself, you can get a feel for where your pipes fall out in the spectrum. Then you can price accordingly. I will warn though, be sure that the pipes you are basing things on are priced somewhere in the category of "normal". I made the mistake of doing this with the pipes that are in my local shop. I have since come to learn that they are over priced compared to the prices I can get for the same maker elsewhere. As such, I had a skewed perspective on pricing until I realised the anomalies of my local shop.
I hope this helps!
Tyler
Last edited by Tyler on Tue Mar 30, 2004 12:16 am, edited 3 times in total.
Tyler Lane Pipes
http://www.tylerlanepipes.com
http://www.tylerlanepipes.com
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KurtHuhn
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I decided to go "pro" about 6 months ago. Up until then (for about 2 years previous) I had been making pipes for myself, friends, and family. I got feedback from them, some of whom had been smoking pipes for decades and had taste that I respected. At that point I offered up my pipes for sale to aqcuaintences (not a small number of people, us IT guys get around). A few months after that, after getting even more feedback, I decided to go pro.
Now, here's the thing. People tend to think that, just because you've gone pro and started selling pipes to the general public, you know all there is to know about pipemaking. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's a process that takes several years, in my opinion, to even get close. I also don't think one ever stops learning. Like any profession or trade, new techniques/technologies/whatever are always coming along, and secrets are revealed as you manage to work your way in with the oher makers.
I've been asked recently why I offer my pipes at such low prices. My response is always the same. While I feel that my pipes are of excellent quality and will serve their owner through decades of use, I'm simply not comfortable charging prices on par with those of the more visible and respected makers. I think I'd find that smokers would be wholly unwilling to pay such prices for a relative newcomer as well. I may be wrong, but that's my feeling.
Advice for folks thinking of going pro? As Tyler mentioned, do your research. Look at all kinds of pipes - really *look* at them. Go to tobacco shops and look at what they have for sale. You might not find a Bo Nordh there, but chances are you'll find Savinelli, Peterson, Nording, Sasieni, and others. See what these pipes have to offer, how they're made, how they feel. Read Pipes and Tobacco, the NASPC newsletter, websites of pipe collectors like Greg Pease, and read sites like this.
As far as pricing. That's a tough question. One of my customers recently told me that there's a glass ceiling at around $100. A lot of people can afford $100 pipes, very few folks are willing to part with more - even for excellent pipes. At that price, your margins are very low, but perhaps you can make up for it in volume - as long as each pipe you make is a great pipe.
A piece of advice I gave to random not too long ago, and Tyler mentioned above, is to fix your price to the market, and *keep* it there. don't go raising and lowering your prices on a weekly basis because they're not selling quickly. You have to be patient - getting people to buy your pipes is a lengthy process. Most pipe buyers like to see that you've been around for a while - and that you're visble and not going anywhere soon. Stability. If you constantly change the price of your pipes, people see this as instability.
Another thing I feel the need to mention, is to stick with the generally accepted before going off and changing things radically. An example of this is shapes. Guess what I sell the most of? Catalog shapes. Apples, billiards, bulldogs, churchwardens, etc. The freehands are great looking, but the catalog shapes are what people can stick in a pocket on their way out the door. For this reason they're more popular. People also aren't afraid to lose a billiard, whereas a unique freehand is irreplaceable. Not that you shouldn't make freehands, by all means do so, but new makers that can sell *only* freehands are rare indeed.
Now, here's the thing. People tend to think that, just because you've gone pro and started selling pipes to the general public, you know all there is to know about pipemaking. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's a process that takes several years, in my opinion, to even get close. I also don't think one ever stops learning. Like any profession or trade, new techniques/technologies/whatever are always coming along, and secrets are revealed as you manage to work your way in with the oher makers.
I've been asked recently why I offer my pipes at such low prices. My response is always the same. While I feel that my pipes are of excellent quality and will serve their owner through decades of use, I'm simply not comfortable charging prices on par with those of the more visible and respected makers. I think I'd find that smokers would be wholly unwilling to pay such prices for a relative newcomer as well. I may be wrong, but that's my feeling.
Advice for folks thinking of going pro? As Tyler mentioned, do your research. Look at all kinds of pipes - really *look* at them. Go to tobacco shops and look at what they have for sale. You might not find a Bo Nordh there, but chances are you'll find Savinelli, Peterson, Nording, Sasieni, and others. See what these pipes have to offer, how they're made, how they feel. Read Pipes and Tobacco, the NASPC newsletter, websites of pipe collectors like Greg Pease, and read sites like this.
As far as pricing. That's a tough question. One of my customers recently told me that there's a glass ceiling at around $100. A lot of people can afford $100 pipes, very few folks are willing to part with more - even for excellent pipes. At that price, your margins are very low, but perhaps you can make up for it in volume - as long as each pipe you make is a great pipe.
A piece of advice I gave to random not too long ago, and Tyler mentioned above, is to fix your price to the market, and *keep* it there. don't go raising and lowering your prices on a weekly basis because they're not selling quickly. You have to be patient - getting people to buy your pipes is a lengthy process. Most pipe buyers like to see that you've been around for a while - and that you're visble and not going anywhere soon. Stability. If you constantly change the price of your pipes, people see this as instability.
Another thing I feel the need to mention, is to stick with the generally accepted before going off and changing things radically. An example of this is shapes. Guess what I sell the most of? Catalog shapes. Apples, billiards, bulldogs, churchwardens, etc. The freehands are great looking, but the catalog shapes are what people can stick in a pocket on their way out the door. For this reason they're more popular. People also aren't afraid to lose a billiard, whereas a unique freehand is irreplaceable. Not that you shouldn't make freehands, by all means do so, but new makers that can sell *only* freehands are rare indeed.
I'm already selling my pipes, but I think I hardly classify as 'pro'. I'm forced to sell them since I don't have any budget left to buy briar, left alone tools or machinery (luckily my father owns a workshop.)
As for prices, my price is 100 dollars. I'll charge less if the pipe have some flaws, or I'll increase the price if I think the pipe deserves so.
Anyways, I've finished only four pipes. The first is mine, and of the remaining I've already sold two. It's good stuff seeing a customer really excited with your work
As for prices, my price is 100 dollars. I'll charge less if the pipe have some flaws, or I'll increase the price if I think the pipe deserves so.
Anyways, I've finished only four pipes. The first is mine, and of the remaining I've already sold two. It's good stuff seeing a customer really excited with your work
This is a question to which I have given a lot of thought. Yes, I would like to go pro someday, but for now, I am content just trying out things and improving my quality little by little. I say little by little as last year I made six pipes, three of which started out as kits. This year, by the end of March, I have completed two, so I am still on the same pace. I do expect my production to increase now that I can do stems at home - the Taig came in a couple of weeks ago - but not by leaps and bounds.
So, even if I want to go pro, I may not have the time to make enough pipes to be taken seriously when I do start selling them. I still have to make a living at my day job. It would be nice to be able to do this full time, but I guess my ultimate goal is to make and sell enough pipes to support my hobby, pay for my trips to shows, and have a good reputation built up by the time I retire and am able to make pipes full time at that point. This is a relatively long term goal.
Even if I never sell a pipe, making them is still something I plan on continuing, as the process of creating them is a terrific stress reliever for me. My wife tells me that my attitude and mood is much improved when I am making a pipe, and she has been very supportive of this endeavor.
Thanks for the great advice in these posts!
So, even if I want to go pro, I may not have the time to make enough pipes to be taken seriously when I do start selling them. I still have to make a living at my day job. It would be nice to be able to do this full time, but I guess my ultimate goal is to make and sell enough pipes to support my hobby, pay for my trips to shows, and have a good reputation built up by the time I retire and am able to make pipes full time at that point. This is a relatively long term goal.
Even if I never sell a pipe, making them is still something I plan on continuing, as the process of creating them is a terrific stress reliever for me. My wife tells me that my attitude and mood is much improved when I am making a pipe, and she has been very supportive of this endeavor.
Thanks for the great advice in these posts!
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Tyler
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Kirk,
Please e-mail me off-board and explain the difficulties you had. There shouldn't be any lag between creating a user name and receiving the e-mail that activates it. It ought to be essentially instantaneous. If it was not, I need to find out why.
Thanks, and welcome to the forum!
Tyler
Please e-mail me off-board and explain the difficulties you had. There shouldn't be any lag between creating a user name and receiving the e-mail that activates it. It ought to be essentially instantaneous. If it was not, I need to find out why.
Thanks, and welcome to the forum!
Tyler
Tyler Lane Pipes
http://www.tylerlanepipes.com
http://www.tylerlanepipes.com
To me the hardest part about deciding to go sell pipes is determining a starting price. Basicaly I plan to use the Chicago Show this year as a testing ground on where my prices should be, see how they do at the pre-show and spend considerable time consulting with collectors that I feel I can trust to give me some insight on what price range they believe they should be in.
Anyone else have any more thoughts on what they find to be the most difficult part of going pro?
Anyone else have any more thoughts on what they find to be the most difficult part of going pro?
John
www.crosbypipes.com
www.crosbypipes.com
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KurtHuhn
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For me, the most difficult part is advertising. I know *where*, I know *how*, I even do a fair job of writing ad copy. I just really hate doing it. Heck, I can barely find time to update my site.
It's also difficult for me to find time to display at shows. That would be a *great* place for me to get word out, but, honestly, with the exception of the NASPC show in Columbus, I simply can't take the time to do it. And even at that, I can only do that show this year because I live 30 minutes from there.
That reminds me, I need to figure out how t get an ad in The Collector and Pipes and Tobacco. *sigh*
It's also difficult for me to find time to display at shows. That would be a *great* place for me to get word out, but, honestly, with the exception of the NASPC show in Columbus, I simply can't take the time to do it. And even at that, I can only do that show this year because I live 30 minutes from there.
That reminds me, I need to figure out how t get an ad in The Collector and Pipes and Tobacco. *sigh*
I know what you mean about finding time for shows. I am fortunate enough to live near chicago and have family 30 min. from the show where I can stay without having to get a room.
I have thought about ads in magazines but am not conviced the investment is worth it. Most, if not all, of my marketing is done just by simply being a part of BB like this one and others. That may change after the Chicago show as I intend to spend most of my time, not buying or selling pipes, but instead meeting important collectors, carvers and media people.
I have thought about ads in magazines but am not conviced the investment is worth it. Most, if not all, of my marketing is done just by simply being a part of BB like this one and others. That may change after the Chicago show as I intend to spend most of my time, not buying or selling pipes, but instead meeting important collectors, carvers and media people.
John
www.crosbypipes.com
www.crosbypipes.com
Re: Going Pro
Some thoughts:Tyler wrote: If you have already "gone pro," what advice would you have for the guys that are thinking about it?
Tyler
Do not under any circumstances go full-time until you have been making and selling pipes part-time for at least a couple of years. Too many guys look at pipemaking as some sort of escape from other boring jobs and jump in too quickly, only to sink fast. It takes some time to determine if you can be consistently good at it, sell at the prices you need for your invested work, and if demand will hold (people have a tendency to buy in big rushes from the newest pipemaker on the block, "just to try one", and then stop buying). You also need to know if you have the drive and the dedication to still be making pipes in your weekend time after a couple of years, because if you're too lazy or you lose interest, you don't want to discover this fact AFTER you've quit your primary income job.
Listen to your buyers during this part-time stage and see what they have to tell you. Some will expect far more work than is possible for your pricing but try to meet their expectations when possible. Listen to the advice of others and apply it where you can, and want to. Take great pains to build good relationships in the pipe community, both with established collectors and with your fellow pipemakers, because these are your support network and (like it or not) eventually you will need to rely on their support for income, advice, tools, etc. When you decide it's time you tried to further enhance your finishes, buy some new equipment, customize some special tools, or whatever, it is amazingly helpful to have pipemaking friends you can ask questions of.
Another hugely crucial factor is time - you have to be able to make money. As a self-employed artisan with all the taxes and insurance needed, you realistically need to make a minimum of $25-$30 per workshop working hour in order to make a minimal living. This is because you will spend a lot of time OUT of the workshop not producing anything sellable, but working nonetheless (just typing this is "pipe time" that I'm not directly using to make something that is income-producing, and one has to be careful about this). To live at all comfortably, you'll need to make $50 every hour you are in the workshop. These numbers may sound high but if you price your work at $10 an hour because that's typical salaried wage, you will go under fast - a decent hourly wage for a worker getting guaranteed payments for 8 hours a day is another universe from what you need to make in the on-again, off-again, hot-selling, slow-selling, NO selling world of being a self-employed artisan.
(On a related note regarding starting out - while you're working part-time, try to pay your bills with your pipe income. If you can't manage this for at least 4-6 months straight, you will probably not be able to make a living even as a full-timer because your part-time income is the best *guaranteed* income you can count on each month. IOW, if you can bring in $1200 a month from working on the weekends, do not make the mistake of assuming that income will balloon equally with your increased working time... you might already be making the maximim demand and further production may just sit unsold. If that $1200 isn't enough to live on, don't gamble)
One final note - it is crucial to be honest with yourself and be able to critically appraise the quality of your own work. You need the character to be able to see, and accept, that your work may not be professional quality. I've seen a lot of guys get a lot of early "slap on the back"-type praise from their buddies, then go pro only to find that they really don't have the talent and the ongoing demand just isn't there. In my experience with the hundreds of amateur pipemakers I've talked with over the years, very very few have the real combination of skill, talent, originality, artistry, personality, and business sense to make a living in pipemaking and make pipes that will hold their value over the years (especially after the initial "Hey look at this new guy" buzz fades). Money sense and a good understanding of sales, marketing, diplomacy, and all the boring crap that goes with running a business are ESSENTIAL. Again, if you can't hack the idea of spending hours studying your monthly income records and calculating your real wages and figuring your taxes and chasing down decent insurance plans, don't do it. It's not all sitting in the workshop having fun, or going to pipe shows and playing.
If all this sounds harsh, well... I have seen, and continue to see, new pipemakers crash and burn because of the most obvious mistakes and the most obvious underestimations. The two most common problems are A) guys without sufficient real talent trying to jump too far in, and B) guys trying to jump in too fast or too deep or both. The guys lacking talent are the heartbreaking ones because most people can see that they are, on a professional level, not very good and never likely to BE any good, but all their friends have told them their garage-made pipes are "really cool" and so they've decided to try to make a living at it. (As an aside, the inspiration and the ability to turn briar into beautiful pipes seems to be either there or not. In my experience with amateur pipemakers, it's been obvious if they had potential after their first 4 or 5 pipes... it is fairly easy to spot the guys who can "see" and who can't early on) No one wants to hurt their feelings so no one tells them the hard truth, and they jump right into the business... and a year down the road they are starving and wondering why no one is buying their work. Jumping in too fast is really common too - I've seen this happen repeatedly with guys who start making pipes and JUST LOVE IT and two weeks later they are buying $5,000 worth of lathes and tools because they are "totally sure they are going to be really serious about this and love it forever" and then the same thing happens... a year later they have lost interest because the boring work has intruded on the fantasy, and they're stuck with a pile of machinery and mounting bills.
I guess my advice can be summed up as.. go slow, go easy, learn, keep an open mind, ask questions, listen, be honest and harsh in your self-evaluations, and ALWAYS keep an eye on the bottom line.
Happy Smoking,
Trever Talbert
www.talbertpipes.com
My Pipe Blog:
https://talbertpipes.com/category/pipeblog/
My Lizards & Pipes Web Comic:
https://talbertpipes.com/category/lizards/
Trever Talbert
www.talbertpipes.com
My Pipe Blog:
https://talbertpipes.com/category/pipeblog/
My Lizards & Pipes Web Comic:
https://talbertpipes.com/category/lizards/
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Tyler
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Trever,
Thanks for the comments! Personally, I cannot imagine what it must take to make a living from pipes. Having a father that has had his own business for 30+ years, I have a lot of appreciation for those that hang a shingle and make a go of it. I have done the math on how many pipes I would have to make at my current price structure to make a living (just scratching by), and I would be in the shop a LOT! Too much. That is why I have no current plans to go full time.
I think that what you have said has some interesting implications for folks that are currently part-time guys that have an eye toward full-time. That is price structuring. This is one of the more difficult aspects of selling pipes, and it has a lot of invisible and far-reaching issues. Future full-time pipe making is one of them. If you need to make $50 per shop hour, and you are currently charging $10, you are in trouble! You can't get there from here without time and improvement. If you just jump to those prices you are dead. Your current customers will abandon you, and you will be hard pressed to find new ones.
Your comments about the talent to make pipes either being there or not is also interesting. "Seeing it" is a good way to describe that. In particular, I wonder if that has anything to do with the lack of training here in the US? I'm just speculating, of course, but I wonder if more hands on comment and example would allow more folks to "see it" over time?
Thanks again for the advice.
Tyler
Thanks for the comments! Personally, I cannot imagine what it must take to make a living from pipes. Having a father that has had his own business for 30+ years, I have a lot of appreciation for those that hang a shingle and make a go of it. I have done the math on how many pipes I would have to make at my current price structure to make a living (just scratching by), and I would be in the shop a LOT! Too much. That is why I have no current plans to go full time.
I think that what you have said has some interesting implications for folks that are currently part-time guys that have an eye toward full-time. That is price structuring. This is one of the more difficult aspects of selling pipes, and it has a lot of invisible and far-reaching issues. Future full-time pipe making is one of them. If you need to make $50 per shop hour, and you are currently charging $10, you are in trouble! You can't get there from here without time and improvement. If you just jump to those prices you are dead. Your current customers will abandon you, and you will be hard pressed to find new ones.
Your comments about the talent to make pipes either being there or not is also interesting. "Seeing it" is a good way to describe that. In particular, I wonder if that has anything to do with the lack of training here in the US? I'm just speculating, of course, but I wonder if more hands on comment and example would allow more folks to "see it" over time?
Thanks again for the advice.
Tyler
Tyler Lane Pipes
http://www.tylerlanepipes.com
http://www.tylerlanepipes.com
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omar_colocci
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Hi guys!
I have only one thing to say to Trever: experince speaks for itself (or should I say "himself" is this case?
). Excellent down to earth advices!
I'm still about to try my first pipe and I am so excited I clearly understand the intensity of the intusiasm you talk about. Fortunatelly I don't intend to become a pro and if I someday sell any of my work it would be merely to help finance the hobby itself, specially because here in Brazil pipesmokers are too tied to "brand" (no matter how expensive or cheap) pipes and not used to independent artisans, simply because we there's none in Brazil and pipe culture is not that strong in here, not to mention that I love what I've been doing for living for the last 12 years.
I have only one thing to say to Trever: experince speaks for itself (or should I say "himself" is this case?
). Excellent down to earth advices!I'm still about to try my first pipe and I am so excited I clearly understand the intensity of the intusiasm you talk about. Fortunatelly I don't intend to become a pro and if I someday sell any of my work it would be merely to help finance the hobby itself, specially because here in Brazil pipesmokers are too tied to "brand" (no matter how expensive or cheap) pipes and not used to independent artisans, simply because we there's none in Brazil and pipe culture is not that strong in here, not to mention that I love what I've been doing for living for the last 12 years.
Regards,
Omar Colocci
Omar Colocci