Gallagher Pipes for Sale ?

[Marcus Dun]

Can anyone explain why so many sets ( 4 or 5 in the past two weeks ) of Seth Gallagher pipes have been offered for sale ?
From what I have heard, I believe he makes really good instruments.
If I had one of his Seths ( pardon the pun ), I would be loath to sell it. Don't understand why so many have now suddenly appeared for sale.
Haven't seen many Wooff, Froment sets though.


Slán,

Marcus.

[misterpatrick]

I think it's simply because Seth was turning out a lot of instruments for awhile as he had (or does) have help in the shop. I don't think there is any reason why people are selling his sets other than perhaps as his waiting time used to be fairly short, people got sets and have now discovered that the pipes aren't for them. Or something like that.

[DarthWeasel]

Seth does have a lot of sets out there in the market. For a while he had 3 people working in his shop which alot of other maker's don't have. I think this same Gallagher bubble happened last year and the same question was asked. People probably got their credit card bills from christmas.

[Doc Jones]

Being in "the business" it's interesting to see these cycles.

I'll go spells where I get several flutes or whistles or pipes by some high-demand maker and then will go a long time before getting any more...there's no sense to it, just coincidence.

The same phenomenon occurs on the buyer side of things. I'll have something sitting here for the longest time and then the day after it sells four people will ask me for it...weird.

Doc

[wolvy]

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I can't help but think that some folks are trying to cash in to make ends meet since Wall Street isn't helping us out these days (or some of the other markets either, I guess). Yes, maybe the post-holiday season is crashing down a bit. But I'd have to hit skid row before I even think about selling me pipes. It took too long to get them and get them dialed in. : )

[PJ]

I think there are 2 or 3 factors to be considered:

1. Seth has produced a significant number of sets over the past few years - particularly due to his having a few people working in his workshop. He has a good reputation and his lead time recently increased to 4 years.
2. Christmas credit card bills (and other financial realities) motivating people who haven't touched their pipes in a while to accept finally that they're never going to learn to play or learn to play at the level they want.
3. We're on the tail end of a boom in interest in all things Irish, and people are just getting out, whether or not money is a consideration. Irish culture seems to be very cyclical with boom and bust years. Every generation seems to rediscover it and then forget it. You had the great interest in Traditional music during the late 1960 and early 1970 (Bothy Band, Planxty, etc) which petered out in the 1980s, only to come back again in the 1990s. It's waning again but give it 15 or 20 years and it'll be in vogue again (just in time for some of us to hit the magic 21 years of piping!!)

[MarcusR]

Don't understand why so many have now suddenly appeared for sale.
Haven't seen many Wooff, Froment sets though.
Marcus.

I guess that any beginner that ordered a set from a maker with a very long waiting list have had the time to become quite an accomplished piper and
would be more than ready to move on when the new pipes arrive.

Seth, being a maker with a good reputation, short waiting list and reasonable price, has likely attracted many beginners
and intermediate pipers with a higher percentage to give it all up.

/Marcus

[misterpatrick]

I say it's all good. More pipes being sold means more quality pipes to purchase without long waiting lists. I'd just like to see some more quality practice sets come to the used market.

[PJ]

Apart from the Gallagher practice set on eBay, there's another Gallagher practice set on D'Arcy's site:

http://www.uilleannobsession.com/classifieds.html#8

[rorybbellows]

Some of the answers are not very well thought out .
Is it only owners of Gallagher pipes that run up their credit card bill and is it only owners of Gallagher pipes that are tired of all things Irish . I think not !
The quality of Gallagher pipes are not in question,I think Doc Jones's answer is probably the correct one .


RORY

[billh]

Some of the answers are not very well thought out .
Is it only owners of Gallagher pipes that run up their credit card bill and is it only owners of Gallagher pipes that are tired of all things Irish . I think not !
The quality of Gallagher pipes are not in question,I think Doc Jones's answer is probably the correct one .


RORY

No doubt there's some "statistical clumping" going on as well, as Doc suggests, but you seem to be failing to recognize that Gallagher pipes represent a fairly large fraction of the total US pipemaking output of recent years - for reasons mentioned by Marcus and PJ. I also think Marcus has a point, many more learners and beginners may have bought Gallagher sets because of their relative availability (at least until recently), whereas those enduring the wait for some other makers' sets have been in it for the long haul. Sets bought by less experienced pipers will experience more turnover in general.

Bill

[irishpiper]

I also think Marcus has a point, many more learners and beginners may have bought Gallagher sets because of their relative availability (at least until recently), whereas those enduring the wait for some other makers' sets have been in it for the long haul. Sets bought by less experienced pipers will experience more turnover in general.

Bill

Then why are there so many half sets and full sets that have been up for sale recently rather than practice sets?

I think all of you have great points…If I may add another one by saying that I believe pipers (not beginners) had themselves on several waiting lists for several different makers (Seth only requires a deposit of $50.00 US Dollars before ordering) and being that Seth has one of the shortest list around...Pipers purchased their order when Seth called., but still kept their names on the waiting list from the other makers. When time came up for the other makers to call...they made a decision...keep Seth’s set or sell it and go with another maker from the waiting list they have been on. Some people were actually selling their place in maker’s waiting lists.
Case in Point:
-Your on Seth's waiting list and K+Q’S
-Seth’s waiting list=2years K+Q=4-6years + (estimating of course)
-Seth calls in 2 years and you buy his set
-K+Q call years later...you sell your Seth set…make a profit, and get a K+Q set.

This is just a theory but I am speaking from personal experience… (Different makers though)

[Brazenkane]

i don't know why i'm chiming in on any of this

as it's all fairly inane;

seth made more pipes for years than any other maker. people sell their pipes. big deal......

...drawing any conclusions is just a waste of time...

get practicing, eh?

[Marcus Dun]

[

Then why are there so many half sets and full sets that have been up for sale recently rather than practice sets?

I think all of you have great points…If I may add another one by saying that I believe pipers (not beginners) had themselves on several waiting lists for several different makers (Seth only requires a deposit of $50.00 US Dollars before ordering) and being that Seth has one of the shortest list around...Pipers purchased their order when Seth called., but still kept their names on the waiting list from the other makers. When time came up for the other makers to call...they made a decision...keep Seth’s set or sell it and go with another maker from the waiting list they have been on. Some people were actually selling their place in maker’s waiting lists.
Case in Point:
-Your on Seth's waiting list and K+Q’S
-Seth’s waiting list=2years K+Q=4-6years + (estimating of course)
-Seth calls in 2 years and you buy his set
-K+Q call years later...you sell your Seth set…make a profit, and get a K+Q set.

This is just a theory but I am speaking from personal experience… (Different makers though)

I think 'irishpiper' has got it bang on.
I know of a few pipers who have their names on the waiting lists of 1 or 2 ( in one case 3 ) very sought-after pipemakers, even though the wait could be as long as 14 years in some cases.
Their reasoning being that whenever one of these sets become available, if is not their 'dream set', they will keep it and sell it on ( or if they can afford to at the time, keep it as an investment ) when their 'dream set' is ready.
I personally, do not agree with this but then again, I'm too old to be on anyone's waiting list.

Slán,

Marcus.

[Piobairi Uilleann Inis Fa]

Coincidence may contribute, and undoubtedly, the combination of a shorter wait list vis-a-vis other wait list makers, the relatively recent appearance of Seth's wait list (had been under a year only a couple of years ago), and most importantly, the fact that he produces somewhere around 40 sets per year as compared to about 8 or 9 by fromment, 4 by Woof, 6 to 10 for K&Q means that you should expect to see more of Seth's in the resale market. If someone has been waiting 10 years for a set, and they still want it after that long, they are probably still playing and are going to keep the set. If you have been waiting only a year or two (noone has waited 4 years so far for a Seth set, and it will take another year or two to get there), you may very well still be a newbie and the risk of quiting the pipes is still high. Hypotheticly, on average, if 10% of sets get resold out of 40 sets made, you will see 4 per year sold from the newly minted sets, and 10% of sets of older vintages. Since Seth has made at least 30 more per year for the past 7 or 8 years or more, you can count on many more sets being put up for sale. As a comparison, Seth produced approximately 300 sets in the last 10 years, while K@Q, Fromment and Woof and Dave Williams (RIP) combined only produced about 225 during that same period (at most) by my estimate. Therefore, more than half the quality sets that you would expect to see out there by this group, on sheer numbers would be Seth's sets, and when you overlay the short wait list resulting in many more newbies getting those pipes, you can up that figure to over 80% of resales among this group.

This is all just analytic opinion and observations though, but my 2 cents anyway.

Neil