Why are those O'Riordans so expensive?

Hey folks,

according to the recent for sale thread - why are those O’Riordan whistles so extremely expensive? I played one of them (a high D) some months ago when I exchanged whistles with a friend for one evening, and I noticed nothing special about it…of course a very good whistle, but I don’t understand what justifies those peak prices. My Bleazey cost lesser than a half of a O’Riordan at current rates and does the job as well…

Obviously it’s the same as with those highly sought-after Wooff pipes…but a set of pipes is a little bit more complicated than a whistle…

Any further hints?

Thanks.

  • Gabriel

The same reason any limited quantity item is expensive…
They’re in short supply (Pat is no longer taking new orders) and the quality is good. This is the same reason I’ve seen Thin Weasels go between 500-750 on ebay in the last couple of months.

Supply and demand mixed with the “buzz” about the product. These are very fine whistles (I have the Travelers and have heard wonderful things about the concert woods as well) made by a lovely gentleman who remains unaffected by the buzz; it’s the second hand market wherein the whistles go for 2 or 3x new cost, and they are no longer available new.

I have G and Low D Travelers that I got second hand but at the regular new cost some years ago. The G is an extraordinary whistle that sounds not quite like any other. The D is very good yet not extraordinary. More recently, I purchased in an E-Bay auction a D/C Traveler set for $700, but felt fine with that as I reasoned that it was two whistles. A might steep, but terrific whistles and I’m glad I got them. I’ll probably never do something like that again.

There are analogous circumstances in the knife collecting world for example. A certain maker has become legendary, his knives are no longer made, he was a bit of a pioneer, and the knives go into the thousands, and there are many collectors and a great “buzz” about his knives. I don’t particularly like his knives and just don’t get it, but there ya go.

Philo

Pat is aware of how prized his whistles are, and knows he can’t make them forever. In spite of that, he continues to sell them at prices that are comparable to whistles made by other fine makers. In other words, he’s refused to jack up the price to what the market will bear. So, some have purchased new O’Riordans at low prices and immediately put them up for sale at much higher prices. Say what you will about business-is-business and the free market and all of that, but I regard this as the moral equivalent of ticket-scalping. Well, it’s worse than that, really, it’s profiteering from Pat O’Riordan’s extraordinarily good character. That’s why, for example, a notice recently posted on this board offering an O’Riordan for sale at gouging prices has mysteriously vanished.

O’Riordans not special!!??? My experience with his whistles was very different. Unless you got a bad O’Riordan, his whistles are distinctive in their tonal purity and playability. Combine that with the fact that you can’t order one anymore and the price inflation is logical, if not ethical.
Dave

That guy only ever comes here to sell stuff anyway..a search on his posts show the latest 6 pages being sale or sale-related posts.

He comes up with some amazing whistles though… (sterling silver Sindts, phosphor bronze Copelands, etc…). I still wish I had had some money when he was selling the phosophor bronze Copeland…I think Jessie got that one.


-Brett

Hi Gabriel-
Sorry I can’t help with any insights on the O’Riordans, but what the others said makes sense to me.

I just wanted to tell you I love your avatar!! Is that a friend of yours? One of these days I’m going to figure out this computer stuff (maybe I’ll just let my teenage daughter do it!) and have an avatar with one of my cute alpacas :slight_smile:

**Tina

Yeah, that’s one of the few remaining whistles I was itching to try as well, but like you, I didn’t have the scratch at the time. I seem to recall Jessie offering it up for sale as well, so maybe it’s still out there floating around.

With regards to Pat O’s whistles, it’s like folks have said: Supply and demand, particularly because Pat’s whistles are somewhat unique in terms of construction and voicing.


Loren

Special? You want to talk special? I’ve got an Acorn that’ll blow your socks off. That’s the best $10 I ever spent. :smiley:

?! - since when is ‘ticket-scalping’ a societal concern?

We are talking about choices and free will and adults making informed decisions - so what’s the big deal? Buyers decide on the final price in the market and demand/cache/buzz are high for POR’s work product.

Someone invests time to get on a list and order, etc - someone chooses not to and decides to ‘pay the price’ (a premium for not ordering them through normal channels - an that option may even be closed off) and invest their energies elsewhere.

Considering the laws that our society created to stop it… quite a while ago.

“ticket-scalping” has been legalized in Illinois. The main concern for governments is missing out on taxing a transaction, so ticket brokers have emerged - with a business license (and fee to the state). Morals, though, don’t seem to play a big part in the decision to have them be licensed.

Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 10:10 am Post subject:


Bretton wrote:
I still wish I had had some money when he was selling the phosophor bronze Copeland…I think Jessie got that one.


-Brett


Yeah, that’s one of the few remaining whistles I was itching to try as well, but like you, I didn’t have the scratch at the time. I seem to recall Jessie offering it up for sale as well, so maybe it’s still out there floating around.


I’m the current owner of that bronze Copeland. Best session whistle I’ve ever had.

I understand your argument and, as arguments go, it’s probably right on the money, so to speak. But, it just bothers me. Pat O’Riordan is choosing not to charge the whistling community the prices he probably could get. That’s a nice thing to do for the whistling community. It has allowed a lot of people of more modest means to own these fine instruments. So, it bothers me when people turn around and make the profits Pat’s choosing not to make. I can’t defend that any further–it just bothers me. I don’t think it’s right to buy a new whistle for $135 and turn around and sell if for more than $500.

Feel free to correct me, I do not play the whistle, but would consistency be an issue here? I have heard that Bleazey’s work, while on average can be very good, can differ from piece to piece.

Nah, it’s the same with O’Riordan. Every one of his whistles is handmade and just a little bit different from every other.

Frequently that’s intentional, BTW – when I visited his shop earlier this year, I tried two very different low Ds, neither of which was anything like my low D. He was experimenting with different ways of making them, to get different effects. My impression is he’s been doing these experiments for decades now…

I have very mixed feelings about the pricing thing. I suspect the auction price is probably driven up by collectors and people who think that if they just buy the right whistle, they will suddenly be good. (One hint at this – the popular O’Riordans seem to be the Traveller and Concert models, but the better O’Riordan players I know all play one of his more obscure designs for high D and Eb!)

At the same time, if something happened to my Traveller D, I’d seriously consider $600 to replace it. And if Mr. O’Riordan offered me the chance to buy the whistle Micho Russell played, or better yet a newer, more durable whistle in the same style, I’d pay $600 in a flash.

You are talking about Dale Dahl of course :slight_smile: He even played for me a tune you composed. This guy is a mighty heck of a whistler, there’s only maybe 3-4 whistle players I’ve heard in person who had, in my opinion, a slight edge in their playing over Dale’s, but Dale is one of the two best non-professionnal whistle player I heard in my life. I’m just in love with his D whistle, I told him to make sure the whistle goes to me when he dies, but he did not agree, he’s well aware that accidents happen way too often. Now if he could only play a real instrument :smiley: