The joys and dangers of Ebay pipes

[12stones]

An absolutely fascinating thread! I'm no piper and have no knowledge of pipes, but this has sent me down a YouTube rabbit hole that allowed me to watch some amazing craftsman make some beautiful pipes. A couple hours well spent.

[imrichmond]

About aluminium, I had a Dunbar set full engraved aluminium and you could see those gleaming in the sun all across the field! People would come up and ask "how did you get the silver so bright?" and I would show them the aluminium and let them hold the pipes to see how lightweight they were. People would ask "how often do you have to polish them?" and I would say "never".

The aluminum alloy that makers like Dunbar are using is really great. It engraves well, is light and, as stated above, never needs polishing. I had a set of pipes with engraved aluminum alloy ferrules, slides and drone caps for several years. I sold it to one of my students about 3 years ago when I decided I no longer wanted to keep 4 sets of pipes going. They are lovely looking pipes.

The shiniest pipes I have ever seen was a set of brand new pipes that Alex Robertson of Highland House in Woodstock, Ontario, had for sale for at least 2 or 3 years in the mid 1970s. He had them for a long time because there were a couple of problems with them. In the first place, they had full metal mounts: ferrules, slides, projecting mounts and drone caps, which made them very heavy. The main problem, though, was that all the metal had been chromed and so had a brilliant, shiny finish. The shine was enhanced by the fact that the metal was not engraved. When you entered Alex's shop, which was in the basement of his house and very well lit, you felt like throwing up a hand to protect your eyes from the glare thrown off by those pipes, which were always on display. I'm not sure if the pipes came that way from the maker or if Alex had the metal parts chromed at a local automotive body shop. He tried 2 or 3 times to persuade me to buy them, touting the fact that they would never need polishing, but I demurred. I'm not sure he ever did sell them; I certainly never saw them around the highland games in southwestern Ontario. And those were pipes that would certainly have stood out in any massed band! Indeed, on a sunny day, you could probably have seen that glare from the international space station!

[OC Richard]

Not sure I'm into the chrome-plated mounts, either the look or the weight.

Here are Dunbars in full plain aluminium.



There's a cool beyond-piping sort of thing to that look: orchestral brass and silver instruments are usually plain gleaming metal, and I think the full-plain-metal look would seem the most "right" to orchestral players.

[OC Richard]

I said I'd grab the popcorn on this set and I didn't have long to wait.

It originally was put up for an extremely low opening bid and no reserved price.

Somebody must have clued in the seller to what the pipes were potentially worth, because the seller pulled them down and relisted them for exponentially more.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/27493406063...IAAOSwBDRhM6n0

I can't remember what it was originally listed for, but I think it was one-tenth the current opening bid

[WalesLax]

I said I'd grab the popcorn on this set and I didn't have long to wait.

It originally was put up for an extremely low opening bid and no reserved price.

Somebody must have clued in the seller to what the pipes were potentially worth, because the seller pulled them down and relisted them for exponentially more.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/27493406063...IAAOSwBDRhM6n0

I can't remember what it was originally listed for, but I think it was one-tenth the current opening bid

That same set has been on Bagpipe Central for ~8-9 months at a higher price, so I would imagine the seller knows what they have, but likely was unhappy that others on eBay weren’t quickly bidding it up to where he thinks they should sell, so he “nudged” them with a higher minimum bid.

https://bagpipecentral.com/advert/gillanders-mcleod/

Not that they aren’t a good set of pipes, but the price seems high to me considering the age, nickel (not silver), and imitation (not ivory), all added to the fact that we know nothing about the condition, how they were played, stored, etc. They could be fantastic, but at that price and with those questions, I would want to be able to see and touch them in person first.

I would also say that, for my money, at that price, I’d likely err on the side of a quality new set of pipes, but then again, while I know that Gillanders & Macleod are quality pipes, I don’t personally put a premium on them.

Rob

[OC Richard]

Thanks for the info, I'm not on Bagpipe Central and I didn't know the history of these pipes.

It's odd that he put them up so cheaply initially on Ebay.

When I've seen that in the past it's been clueless non-pipers listing pipes at prices far too high, or low, then immediately pulling them down and relisting them for more normal prices.

There's been a number of times I've seen apparently clueless sellers do things like list 1980s Hardie plain sets for several thousand dollars, when as we know such sets often sell for around $500 on Ebay.

You're spot on with Gillanders and McLeod pipes, they don't seem to be highly sought-after by pipers nowadays.

[OC Richard]

For those who had thought about getting into smallpipes but were put off by the prices here's a Dunbar smallpipe for a very low opening bid.

Who can say how high the bidding might eventually go.

I didn't know Dunbar made smallpipes. I've been on their site many times but never looked at anything other than their fullsize pipes.

These are the setup I prefer and play myself, mouthblown, with drones in separate stocks. The Victorian makers called these "miniature Highland pipes, or chamber pipes".

They have one of those old L&M "elkhide" (chrome-tanned cowhide) bags that last forever and never need seasoning.

I'm guessing they're in the key of B-flat.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dunbar-Bagp...p2056016.l4276