That's a good question, and it's one that we've struggled with. The whole reason we started selling Missouri Meerschaum pipes in the first place was because our local pipe shop stopped stocking the mid-size cobs that I enjoyed. As we were going over the MM offering we decided that our niche would be the larger pipes, but as soon as we started selling them we started getting requests for the smaller pipes. So we added the Legend, which is found in every drug store in the USA. It didn't make sense to me, but who an I to argue with customer requests?
Then we started getting requests for the miniature corn cob pipes. Now, I have vivid memories of hanging out in the Country Store of a KOA Kampground as a kid while on a family vacation, totally lusting after a mini Missouri Meerschaum! So I asked a few of the folks who were requesting them what they saw in them, and to a man they all wanted them to smoke dope. Not to offend your Libertarian sensibilities or nothin', but until marijuana is legal everywhere I'm not going to put myself in the interstate paraphernalia bulls eye like our buddy Tommy Chong.
So we avoided the Miniature, but added the Legend, a because of their low price we added the the Pony and Mizzou as our "Compact Pair". Then the complaints started. "I know you said in the description that that these pipes were small, but I didn't expect them to be THIS small." Oh yes we did! In fact, you may have noticed that we have a Pipe Size Chart on www.aristocob.com which we created after an obnoxious email thread that implied that we were somehow deceiving our customers by selling them novelty pipes! WHAT?!?
So we promptly dropped the Compact Pair, and quite frankly every time someone buys a Legend I cross my fingers that they won't be disappointed by it's size.
So I hope that this explains why we don't sell the small pipes int eh MM line. The good news is what we do offer is what I believe are the best values in full-size tobacco smoking pipes on the planet! My current personal rotation includes a couple Generals, a Diplomat, a Freehand, and always several Country Gentleman pipes.
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