What Should We Buy Before the Door Closes?

[BROBS]

Maybe, but the tobacco industry is very secretive. I doubt they'll be sharing any news. And if you have 11 months of potential shelf life on a popular blend, why would you stop making it?
I wouldn't be surprised if a number of blends start to wind down in the summer of 2021, though blenders could just ramp up overseas sales and ship what they can't sell it here.

Also the FDA submissions should be public record somewhere

 

[jaytex1969]

I guess I'll have to start muleing into Mexico and smuggling back the "good stuff" soon.

Code name: Pollito Grande!

 

[Akousticplyr]

I think the Asian markets, particularly China, will see the big makers' production and distribution of tobacco aimed their way.

 

[mityahicks]

I'm sure the manufacturers have some idea what will happen to their blends come that time. They no doubt want us storing even more with the looming "uncertainty."

Either way, it is nice to have plenty of your favorite blends on hand.

 

[hauntedmyst]

Ain't skeered!

Gonna get me a truckload o' that Captain Black Grape! ?

I'm with Jay. And if I was a tobacco scalper, I'd empty my 401k and any other savings and busy as much Captain Black Grape! ? and Sutliff chocolate blends as I could get my hands on and then just wait for that day huge payolla pay day to come in. And I toss in some CAP Cherry Bomb for good measure.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

This introduction of deeming regs and the cut off point doesn't seem to have affected the tobacco companies introducing new blends left, right and center.

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

Also the FDA submissions should be public record somewhere

You would think so, but maybe not. Various trade publications/associations are advising retailers to get written assurances that the manufacturer/distributor/importer, whichever the retailer buys from, has submitted the paperwork.

As @sablebrush52 says, this is a secretive industry. And when they break radio silence, their record for truthfulness isn’t exactly stellar. If I were a retailer, I would hold out for those “written assurances” to include indemnify and hold harmless language.

 

[mso489]

Either I'm not adaptable enough or too adaptable. I wouldn't buy up my current blend enthusiasms. For my moderate rate of smoking, I have on hand some of this Golden Age of online availability that will see me through for a few years or more. That would provide a transition to what seems to be a limited, some might say downright drab pipe tobacco market. My inclination, not especially rational, has been to stock up on a few more tubs of old standbys that might still be available but not readily, like if they gum up online sales or distribution to local shops. Is it enjoyable anymore if there is no variety, no new blends, and all the colorful artful people have left the profession. I'll go a year at a time. I may stash away a dozen tubs of Velvet, Mixture No. 79, Granger, and Edward G. Robinson. What's next? Limited access to fresh produce? Sartorial laws about what clothing styles we can wear?

 

[sablebrush52]

This introduction of deeming regs and the cut off point doesn't seem to have affected the tobacco companies introducing new blends left, right and center.

This presumes that these are new blends and not repackaging of old blends.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

This introduction of deeming regs and the cut off point doesn't seem to have affected the tobacco companies introducing new blends left, right and center.

Well, maybe from a marketing perspective their is some cache to the Chinese consumer to have them released and reviewed on US sites.

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

This introduction of deeming regs and the cut off point doesn't seem to have affected the tobacco companies introducing new blends left, right and center.

That is called getting while the getting is good. Take some leaf, throw it in a pickled herring barrel, triple press it, toss a piece of wood soaked in whatever beverage alcohol you didn’t hype last month in the tin, cut the tin size down to 1.5 ounces, call it a limited edition, price the heck out of it, and count on FOMO to sell it out.

Tobacco companies are a textbook case study of how to, and how not to, wring the last dollar out of a declining market. In some ways, as pipe smokers, we are lucky that we have as much choice as we do. But even before the FDA rules came along in around the summer of 2016, those choices were declining, and the trend would have continued. But along comes the FDA, and every day I get an email announcing some new cigar made by Pepe Don Frito Dorito Garcia and every week an announcement of a new mold culture pipe tobacco.

There are lots of good tobaccos out there that will still be in production after the FDApocolypse. Whether we will be able to buy it over the Internet is another question. The marketing money will move elsewhere. The industry as a whole will continue to shrivel.

 

[logs]

That is called getting while the getting is good. Take some leaf, throw it in a pickled herring barrel, triple press it, toss a piece of wood soaked in whatever beverage alcohol you didn’t hype last month in the tin, cut the tin size down to 1.5 ounces, call it a limited edition, price the heck out of it, and count on FOMO to sell it out.

That's how I see it. A lot of marketing wizardry on display lately; they've learned to sell to our fear, and they've gotten pretty good at it too. I feel a curious mixture of disgust and admiration.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

That is called getting while the getting is good. Take some leaf, throw it in a pickled herring barrel, triple press it, toss a piece of wood soaked in whatever beverage alcohol you didn’t hype last month in the tin, cut the tin size down to 1.5 ounces, call it a limited edition, price the heck out of it, and count on FOMO to sell it out.

Tobacco companies are a textbook case study of how to, and how not to, wring the last dollar out of a declining market. In some ways, as pipe smokers, we are lucky that we have as much choice as we do. But even before the FDA rules came along in around the summer of 2016, those choices were declining, and the trend would have continued. But along comes the FDA, and every day I get an email announcing some new cigar made by Pepe Don Frito Dorito Garcia and every week an announcement of a new mold culture pipe tobacco.

There are lots of good tobaccos out there that will still be in production after the FDApocolypse. Whether we will be able to buy it over the Internet is another question. The marketing money will move elsewhere. The industry as a whole will continue to shrivel.

Yeah the amount of new releases in the US blows me away, especially with the looming deeming regs cut-off.
In England we're lucky if we get 10-15 new blends a year, in the US you can get that many in a single month. I think last year we got the 4 Peterson special editions (St Paddy's day, Summertime, Special Reserve and Christmas) plus Germain's released 1820 Flake and Gawith their 3 Reunion Series blends and that was about it.
There were the Peterson/Dunhill reintroductions (I think that was last year) but I don't consider them to be 'new' blends. I'm sure there were one or two I'm forgetting but even with them it's definitely a small list when compared to America.

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

This presumes that these are new blends and not repackaging of old blends.

I don’t think it necessarily presumes that.

Some companies are taking a position of running their operations as if the FDA rules were already applicable, but some aren’t That is a business decision. MacBarens is an interesting study. They introduce a Limited Edition like Rusticata, which as far as I can tell is truly unique, but blenders I respect and are well known in this and other forums tell me that when they ask Sutliff (owned by MacBarens) to maybe not add chemical x to blending component y, the answer they get back is, we can’t because of the FDA and those damn lawyers. Oh, so the law works differently for the parent company than for the subsidiary? Differently for Sutliff as an importer than for Sutliff as a wholesaler of blending components? Horse manure.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

Yeah the amount of new releases in the US blows me away, especially with the looming deeming regs cut-off.
In England we're lucky if we get 10-15 new blends a year, in the US you can get that many in a single month. I think last year we got the 4 Peterson special editions (St Paddy's day, Summertime, Special Reserve and Christmas) plus Germain's released 1820 Flake and Gawith their 3 Reunion Series blends and that was about it.
There were the Peterson/Dunhill reintroductions (I think that was last year) but I don't consider them to be 'new' blends. I'm sure there were one or two I'm forgetting but even with them it's definitely a small list when compared to America.

I’m sure a lot of people in the US would prefer Skiff Mix or FVF being widely available than some new offering from xyz.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

This presumes that these are new blends and not repackaging of old blends.

I've no idea if they are really 'new' or not. To be honest I'd guess a lot of the newer blends are quite similar to something else already available, especially when it comes to Cornell and Diehl's range.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

I've no idea if they are really 'new' or not. To be honest I'd guess a lot of the newer blends are quite similar to something else already available, especially when it comes to Cornell and Diehl's range.

When I look at the C&D category on smoking pipes I start to doze off by page 2.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

I’m sure a lot of people in the US would prefer Skiff Mix or FVF being widely available than some new offering from xyz.

Yes I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case. I've got 50 odd blends in my rotation, including some from the US but I tend to return time and again to a few certain Gawith, Germain's and German blends.
Nothing against US tobaccos BTW, I adore some of the Cornell and Diehl stuff I've got (at considerable expense!). I especially love the Carolina Red Flake and I'm looking forward to trying the Smokingpipes Anniversary blends when this lockdown ends and it's safe for my mum to post them up to me.

 

[saltedplug]

Everything.
Pease of everything.
Everything Pease.
Everything.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

This might be helpful, it’s what was available on SP in 2006:

Tinned Tobacco at Smoking Pipes .com

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