How many is too many?

I don't think 86 is too many; I happen to have EXACTLY the same number myself. Except that I just ordered 2 more an hour ago from smokingpipes.com. I've bought a few estates, but buy mostly new and all on line. I live in Sydney, Australia and there are no pipe shops of consequence here. With a collection of about a dozen different tobaccos, it gives me a heck of a range of colours and flavours to choose from, according to mood. If you're going to have an addiction, better it should be pipe collecting than any number of others I can think of.

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I can answer your question quite simply...no such thing as too many!

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That's very interesting, I've only been smoking pipes a short while but I found myself with the same feelings. In my humble opinion and in my limited exposure to pipe fellow pipe smokers I've found that pipe collecting is quite a popular hobby, albeit an expensive one. While I own a Dunhill, it is the only pipe that I've spent several hundred dollars on. I believe it to be a work of art AND a great smoking pipe.

However,I'm the type of pipe smoker that's more focused on good affordable smoking pipes than works of art. Also, I'm patiently working on my smoking technique and tobacco selections. After all, what's the point of owning all these great pipes if you can't smoke them properly. I guess you could just collect them but like I fine musical instrument I believe they're meant to be "played".

You sound like you're into restoring old pipes, which is another great facet of this hobby. A while back I found myself bidding on every pipe on ebay, I think I was more excited about winning the auctions than the actual pipes themselves! So I had to dial back the bidding for a while.

In the end, you're not crazy, just passionate about pipes. As long as you're not going broke and not buying junk( there are bad pipes on ebay too) then there's no problem. Lastly, here's a little fact that I stumbled upon on this very website. There are guys out there with a handful of cobs and $20 worth of good tobacco that are having just as much fun as we are. Peace-Mike

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I must agree with an earlier post - there is no such thing as too many. I have approx 150 pipes (see perhaps you can have too many.... to count that is). William Conrad who played the Private detective in the TV show "Cannon" in the 70's is supposed to have had over 1000 pipes in his collection when he left us for further adventures in pipe smoking in the unknown realm after life as we know it. He lived in California so I do not think your 86 will offset the rotation if his did not. But keep collecting and lets see what will happen besides your having great difficulty each time you try to decide which pipe to smoke next.

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