I've Decided

 I spent some time on the Smoking Pipes website yesterday looking at just Dunhill pipes.  If there is just one brand I could afford, it would be exclusively Duhiill's. There are pipes that are just as good.  But a Dunhill for me is the Lexus of pipes.  There are more expensive pipes by designers, but the Dunhill is THE pipe to own.  Smoking Pipes, as of yesterday, has 259 Dunhill pipes in stock.  They range in price from about $400 to about $5200.

I've decided no pipe is worth much over a grand.  I simply wouldn't smoke a pipe or even own one much over a grand.  I just can't see it.  At a grand, I'd smoke it on a regular basis.  After that anything over a grand is simply a collector's item.  I would treat it as such.  But a grand for a smoking pipe is the most I'd pay for any pipe unless a pipe were an investment; and in that case it just simply wouldn't be smoked.  I'm not into pipes as investments.  

A typical Dunhill is between about $700 and $800.  That sounds like a lot money for a pipe.  But I'm just saying that if price were no object.  The best and nicest looking Dunhill is about $1100.  I'd smoke it regularly.  Anything much over that and I would not.  At one time I said I would.  But in my thinking the best pipe I would want isn't more than this. 

Many photos depict Santa smoking a corn cob pipe, because he's so practical.  Santa wouldn't own a Dunhill.  There just is no way!  My wife and I were watching an old Match Game show where Charles Nelson Reilly smoked a pipe on set.  Once in a great while he'd smoke a cigar.  In one episode my wife pointed out his pipe he was smoking and asked if I could identify it.  He could afford all the Dunhill pipes he wanted.  I got a glimpse of it and just said it had to be a Dunhill.  It just looked too good to be anything else.

At what price point are the best enjoyable pipes found?  In today's money that would be about $150.  After that it becomes more the pipe than the smoking experience, but here I'm just writing as if money were no object.  Even a hundred dollar pipe is expensive to me.  So, I'm just saying if I were dreaming about what I'd do if money were no object.  I'd just build a collection around Dunhill pipes and not spend much more than a grand on ANY pipe and I'd smoke them regularly.

Any pipe costing more than this simply becomes a collector's item and would not be smoked.  At one time I would have thought otherwise.  But I just can't see paying more than about a grand for ANY pipe.  I've given this a lot of thought.  I just don't want to own a pipe I wouldn't smoke.  Pipes just aren't good investments.  People are the best investments of all.  I'd take that money and spend it on someone who needs it.  If I don't have to have it, then I don't need it, except for the red Speedo.  Today I'm smoking my Peterson Sherlock Holmes by the pool at my son's house with Some Christmas Spice tobacco.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave