Pricing Tobaccos

[finnian3]

All,
I have been cleaning out my cellar of tobaccos to make room, but I am thinking that my prices or tobaccos may not be desirable. Example, I am selling my HH Vintage Syrian Latakia from 2012-13 for $70. This is roughly $30 above its original retail. I have seen online vendors selling it for $120. I am selling Peterson's Sherlock Holmes and Dunhill Standard blends for $20 from 2012-16, which is $10 give or take above retail. So, are my prices too high, tobaccos undesirable, bad economy, all of the above? The only positive side to this dilemma is I can always smoke em:] Plus, my wife can't say I didn't try to thin the collection.

 

[BROBS]

All,
I have been cleaning out my cellar of tobaccos to make room, but I am thinking that my prices or tobaccos may not be desirable. Example, I am selling my HH Vintage Syrian Latakia from 2012-13 for $70. This is roughly $30 above its original retail. I have seen online vendors selling it for $120. I am selling Peterson's Sherlock Holmes and Dunhill Standard blends for $20 from 2012-16, which is $10 give or take above retail. So, are my prices too high, tobaccos undesirable, bad economy, all of the above? The only positive side to this dilemma is I can always smoke em:] Plus, my wife can't say I didn't try to thin the collection.

No I think your prices are fair. Lots of people are not flush at the moment. Also depends on blends. Some things sell immediately while others languish.

 

[haparnold]

In a market like this, any individual is generally assumed to be a "price-taker". That is, unless what you have is extremely rare, you can either offer your tobacco at the market price, or not sell it. The good news is that the internet can give you an idea of what the market price is, so there's plenty of information to inform your decision.

The other factor is how motivated you are to move it, i.e. how impatient you are to make the sale. If you don't mind waiting or never getting it sold, you can list a price that feels fair to you, whether it reflects market value or not, and then you can just be patient and see if anyone takes the offer, or revise the price down after the fact.

 

[unadoptedlamp]

I think that the stash of tobacco most people have is worth much less than they anticipate.

I sold off a lot of highly desirable tobacco that I was no longer interested in hoarding (Rattray's, Sam Gawith, Gawith Hoggarth, etc.) and they were all aged for years. I sold them at cost and was happy to do so. They moved quick, and in bulk orders, which I was most interested in. Parting out a bunch of tins or boxes to mail all over the world seems like a special kind of hell to me.

It seems that whenever someone wants to sell off a stash of tobacco (Sante's estate has had a few examples of multiple tins of quality aged tobacco), it is slow going if you want to make money on the age.

A lot of people on here also have the ability to flood the market when they may want to sell, after hoarding terrific sums of tobacco. How many buyers are out there for aged tobacco at a premium price? Probably not as many as you may think.

If you need the money, I would keep them for sale at the higher prices until someone bites. Could be soon. You never know. This thread itself may lead to sales! If you don't need it, sell at cost to get it out of your space and it will probably move reasonably fast with the bonus of age.

I just wouldn't ever "invest" in tobacco, as some people seem to do, when telling themselves that it is also worth money and is appreciating in value, so hoard on and sell later if you feel like. I don't think anyone's getting rich off of aged tobacco, despite the rare examples of a highly priced tin or box here and there. Put 50 of your aged tins on the market and see what happens to the price!

You'll probably have to space them out over a year just to make $40-50 a month in profits. Doesn't seem too exciting...

 

[finnian3]

Good suggestions. I may just place them in a sealed bin and place them in storage. Out of the way leaves more room to play. Plus, I am trying to age different tobaccos to see how age affects taste.

 

[anotherbob]

The issue isn't the price as much as limited but fervent interest. Not a lot of people are into buying old tobacco but a few people are really into it. And some are just curious and might try it out some day. So it's less using the wrong bait and just not that many fish.