North American Society of Pipe Collectors

The North American Society of Pipe Collectors was founded after a long evening spent over a pot of good coffee and more than a bowl or two of good tobacco. Phil Bradford and Regis McCafferty decided that a club was needed in Ohio to promote pipe smoking, information sharing, knowledge of tobaccos, and fellowship with other pipe smokers. The club would share information via a newsletter, be open to all, and hold at least one show each year.

The club was founded in 1993 as the Ohio Pipe Collectors. In March of 1997, the club had grown to include members from 28 states and Canada, and the Board decided that a new name more appropriately reflecting the scope of the membership was called for. The name was changed to the North American Society of Pipe Collectors. NASPC continues today, working to promote pipe smoking, sharing of information, and fellowship.

The NASPC has since grown to over 1,000 members in almost every state of the Union, Canada, and many countries overseas.

TPC offers members interesting and readable articles on any and all aspects of pipes and tobaccos. I am particularly interested in offering as many new people as possible the opportunity to see their names in print and to be read. All TPC submissions—technical articles, personal essays, profiles, fiction, tobacco reviews, what have you—are written by the members. These are not just “posts” like you find on many pipe websites or chat forums. These are real articles, whether long or short, that you can sink your teeth into.

Few venues today offer carefully edited thoughtful content. TPC is a good read! It is professionally designed and professionally printed in black and white. Color pictures are too expensive for printing, but they are available in the pdf version. 

Members of NASPC receive a subscription to The Pipe Collector. It’s available in print form to U.S. members for $21 annually, to Canadian members for $40, and everywhere else in the world for $60. A truly superb deal is the $10 annual membership. available anywhere. You receive an emailed pdf of every issue of The Pipe Collector! You can pay for your membership by check to NASPC (PO Box 9642, Columbus OH 43209) or by PayPal (naspc@graphictouch.biz).

We use "pipe collector" in both our name and our newsletter. However, we are really about pipe smoking in all its aspects, including collecting in the traditional sense. At one point in our past, we coined, as a bit of a joke, the slogan "If you have one pipe, you're a pipe smoker. If you have two pipes, you're a collector." Our purpose was to appeal to anyone with a pipe. 

As an association (not a club—we don't have meetings), NASPC is involved in the following activities. One, we produce a swap/sell show (125 tables max) in Columbus, OH at the end of August each year. Two, we print the bi-monthly TPC for our members. Three, we offer a pipe of the year to members only. It's always a terrific bargain. Each issue of TPC contains a page listing B&M and internet businesses that offer discounts to NASPC members. 

I am an editor by profession, and I spend as much time as needed working with writers and making sure that all submissions are grammatical and contain no embarrassing errors.

NASPC dues are very reasonable for the value received. Because postage is a real killer, especially attractive for Canadians and anyone overseas is the $10-a-year membership, for which you receive TPC in an email pdf version.

Visit our website at www.napsc.org to see a membership form, information about the pipe of the year, and more. I invite you to “friend” us on Facebook and to communicate with us and other pipe smokers and collectors. Tell us what you think and discuss what you might contribute to the pages of TPC.