15 minutes of restoration on an eBay estate pipe

[Ropey]

What a difference 15 minutes of buffing, a little oil and a tiny bit of thought can do!

Got this "Arlington Supreme" Imported Briar pipe for $5 plus shipping on eBay a few days ago. Man there are some awful estate pipes there.

Every night for the past 2 weeks I've perused eBay's estate pipes section. This is the one I found that actually looked decent and wasn't overpriced.

I'm shocked nobody picked this one up. The seller's pics, while awful (as usual in the estate pipes category), showed no major gouges or chatter and the stem actually fit snugly. Which is more than can be said for 95% of the sub-$20 pipes there.

Here are a couple of his pics. Mine follow....

Ebay seller's pics





My quick snaps after 15 minutes of restoration





The seller's pics actually made the pipe look far worse than it is. Putting a dark pipe on a white background was his first mistake -- makes it look practically black.

Then he photographed it with strange, harsh lighting, making minor flaws look huge. I can hardly even see in real life the tiny flaws that look massive in his second pic.

And finally, he could have taken literally 5 minutes to buff it and oil or wax it slightly before photographing it.

With a few minutes of effort and a tiny amount of brain-power, the seller could have sold this for 4-times the amount he got for it, easily. It's really a beautiful pipe in person, and I'm looking forward to seeing what it looks like when I'm done with the restoration.

[Horsefeathers]

Wow, that's quite the transformation! Nice work. I'll have to start looking for decent estates on ebay.

[Ropey]

Wow, that's quite the transformation! Nice work. I'll have to start looking for decent estates on ebay.

Well, all I can say is be patient and don't get your hopes up. I consider this one to be a lottery win. Most of them are terrible unless you go up to into price ranges where you're likely better off just purchasing a new pipe.

[Alligator Gar]

You found a Van Gogh at a garage sale.

[Emperor Zurg]

You're screwed now.

Soon you will be buried up to your nose in estate pipes while spending every waking moment perusing eBay for yet another one. Your fingers will be worn down to stumps from all the scraping, buffing and polishing and your eyebrows will be missing from retorts gone wrong.

Have fun

[quo155]

That looks great...good job! A huge difference from seller's pics.

[commonsenseman]

Wow, that sucker really cleaned up nice! Congrats on a steal of a deal!

[Branzig]

You're screwed now.

Soon you will be buried up to your nose in estate pipes while spending every waking moment perusing eBay for yet another one. Your fingers will be worn down to stumps from all the scraping, buffing and polishing and your eyebrows will be missing from retorts gone wrong.

Have fun

Jeeeeeze...

You almost make it sound like that is a bad thing

[Gunther7912]

That looks great, nice find!

[cpmcdill]

Searching ebay for good smokers is like looking for pearls in a huge pile of rotten oysters, but it is possible with a combination of discernment and intuition. All of my best pipes were ebay finds I got cheap, and despite awful photos and descriptions I could tell there was potential. Clear away the gunk and there was real beauty beneath. Even some of the duds turned out okay (but with a lot of work), and I think out of three or four dozen I've only had one truly useless pipe due to a brittle shank.