The joys and dangers of Ebay pipes

[JPS]

Has this one been discussed already? It just popped up, perhaps not for the first time.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/38754393689...ndition=4%7C10

Somebody wanting over $2,000 for a set of catalin-mounted Hardie pipes, which generally go for around $600-700.

They don't seem to realise that people don't purchase a set of pipes to get the case. Or a moth-eaten plaid and kilt.

Judging by the configuration of those pipes, I'd say there's a lot this seller doesn't realize.

[OC Richard]

There's a strange thing currently happening with Ebay pipes.

There are a half-dozen sets of Border pipes and smallpipes, by some of the most-sought-after makers, currently for sale.

Here's a Ray Sloan Border pipe https://www.ebay.com/itm/28616306433...ndition=4%7C10

Here's a Garvie (Nigel Richard) Border pipe https://www.ebay.com/itm/12696783555...ndition=4%7C10

Here's a Nate Banton set listed as "Border pipes", two chanters (in A, and D). The D chanter certainly looks like a D Smallpipe chanter, and the A chanter might be a Smallpipe chanter as well, with a High B key. https://www.ebay.com/itm/17692850886...ndition=4%7C10

Not to mention multiple sets by less-sought-after current makers like Fred Morrison/McCallum

https://www.ebay.com/itm/25685371604...ndition=4%7C10

https://www.ebay.com/itm/12691551731...ndition=4%7C10

[OC Richard]

And now another maker to add to the roll-call of great makers seen simultaneously on Ebay, probably for the first time ever.

Ian Kinnear

https://www.ebay.com/itm/18706415849...ndition=4%7C10

Of the makers above Nigel Richard is no longer with us and Ray Sloan has closed his books.

[OC Richard]

Wow Scottish-made Highland pipes for $675.

David Booth.

The imitation ivory is that brittle stuff and there are numerous chips and cracks in it.

But the wood is said to be good.

(We have a few pipers around here with very nice David Naill pipes where half the imitation ivory is broken off. The pipes play great.)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/23604236556...ndition=4%7C10

[OC Richard]

To add to the sudden flood of Border pipes on Ebay, a set by Jon Swayne.

It's in the key of G, which is a very common key for Central French and Low Countries bagpipes.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/26720682988...ndition=4%7C10

And another gorgeous Jon Swayne set with a Julian Goodacre chanter

https://www.ebay.com/itm/18709561402...ndition=4%7C10

[OC Richard]

Look to be a set by Dunbar, probably polypenco, well under $600

https://www.ebay.com/itm/33591027667...ndition=4%7C10

[OC Richard]

Currently under $500 but 10 bids in and four days to go, a set of McCallum pipes.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/39651220490...ndition=4%7C10

My concern is that we don't know when they were made.

The fact that a chunk of a mount chipped off suggests that they were made when McCallum was using that brittle resin stuff that so many makers used (and some still use). More recently McCallum switched to the slightly darker-coloured extremely tough stuff that Dunbar has been using for a long time.

The concern is that I don't care for the pre-2011 McCallums. I owned one. The Bass was very unstable. I got rid of it.

In 2011 McCallum revised all their drone specs, following Willie McCallum's 1890 Hendersons. The original McCallums were kinda-sorta-semi-based on Stuart McCallum's "WWI" Lawries. I've owned Lawries from before and after WWI and their basses were extremely stable.