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| The Pipe
Collector (it has gone through a couple of name changes)
is the official newsletter of the North American Society of Pipe Collectors.
In addition to the chance to purchase the NASPC Pipe of the Year
and the discounts that many businesses offer to NASPC member, it is the
primary benefit of NASPC membership. The Pipe Collector has progressed
from copied sheets stapled together to a professionally printed and bound
publication. It has progressed from a small number of pages appearing
four times a year to a large publication of usually 40 or 44 pages appearing
six times a year. We continue to call The Pipe Collector a “newsletter,” but this is pretty much a misnomer. Each issue is professionally edited, laid out and printed by Jeff Knoll and Eddie Fliess, pipe smokers, NASPC members, and owners of The Graphic Touch print shop in Columbus. Over the years, membership contributions to TPC have increased in number and quality. Subject to good taste and relevance to pipes, members continue to submit articles on a wide variety of topics. We do accept ads, but we do not suffer space constraints based on the needs of an advertising department. Thus, we tell writers to take as long as they need to say what they want to say, and we try to publish everything that we receive, although doing so is becoming more and more difficult. Regular and popular contributors include Regis McCafferty, Rich Esserman (known for his encyclopedic knowledge of pipes and collecting), Lou Zisholz (with his tobacco reviews), Marty Pulvers (known for his trenchant, sometimes sarcastic, wit), and others. We don’t shy away from controversy either. The pages of TPC kicked off the brand-versus-briar and fills-in-high-grade pipes debates, both of which generated quite a bit of heat before they tapered off. We don’t encourage controversy for the sake of controversy, but we do feel that, in addition to its wonderful friendships and fellowship, our hobby does have important issues—upon which reasonable people may disagree—as well. At membership rates of $17 per year for U.S. members, $20 per year for Canadian members, $34 for overseas members, and $10 per years to receive The Pipe Collector in pdf format anywhere in the world, we believe that NASPC membership is a great deal and that TPC makes a major contribution to our hobby in these troubled times for pipe smokers and collectors. We urge you to join us. To receive a free back copy of The Pipe Collector, contact the editor, Jeff Knoll, naspc@graphictouch.biz |
