Wanna Buy a Paganized Set of Bagpipes?

Blabbermouth has a news clipping about Eluveitie auctioning off the bagpipe of their former pipe player, Sevan Kirder, who left the band back in early June, not long after they blew my socks off at Paganfest. The auction doesn't run cheap - the opening price is about $2,300, if you're up for owning a modded bagpipe that's been around the world and back over three years - but I have to wonder: if the bagpipes belonged to Kirder, why is his former band auctioning off the instrument? In the total absence of information, I have a few theories. It's your job to pick your favorite, mention it elsewhere, and try to start up some rumors. It's memerific! Here goes:

1. Eluveitie is as much collective as they are band (they have a whole truckload of musicians, after all - maybe the idea isn't so farfetched), so all instruments are held in common. Someone leaves, they lose all of their group rights, and the rest of the collective can choose what to do with their instruments. I'm guessing bagpipe blowpipes are like harmonicas - sharing them isn't hygenic - so rather than getting a new blowpipe, Eluveitie decided to hold an auction.
2. As part of the group's pagan leanings, they have to clear the bad energy left in the air after the departure of a member. The best way to do so: auction off their instrument and give anything above the base price to charity.
3. Dude racked up some gambling bets, but left his prized bagpipes behind after ditching Eluveitie in Slovenia. The base price on the auction is to pay off the Swiss mafia.