Rev you are really unlucky but I would advice you to pay attention to the "carvers"
I currently own 38 meerschaum pipes. 21 of them are carved by master carvers like ismail baglan,ramazan karaca. If a master carver is signing a pipe , he is guaranteeing two things:
1 Quality of the resource
2 Quality of the artwork + engineering of your meerschaum pipe.
I would advice you my favorite place to buy master carver meerschaum pipes :
http://meerschaumpipe.us/master-carver-pipes.html
www.meerschaumpipe.us