I've been laid up at home all month and finally had surgery last week. During all of that time I tried to keep busy, but inevitably found myself reading the forums and following the auction sites where an amazing number of classic old blends have been appearing.
The prices that some of these tins have been realizing is frankly astounding. Perhaps it's just a matter of your financial reference point, but I cannot believe that people are paying $400 and $500 for a tin!
Back when many of these, now fabled mixtures were available I limited my purchasing to bulk blends that I could sample at the tobacconist. I could only rarely convince myself to buy a tin that I might end up disliking. Although at the time the price might have been a minor issue, the idea of such waste did violence to my thrifty nature. (In other words, I was cheap).
Of course we did not have online forums or reviews to aid us in our search back then and getting your tongue torched by a blend you picked solely on the basis of the artwork on the tin tended to keep the experimentation down.
Over the last twenty years or so, I have switched more and more to smoking English blends and these also lend themselves to aging more than the Burleys I used to favor. Consequently, I find myself regretting the missed opportunities to have at least sampled the classic blends from Sobranie, or Dobies or even the original versions of still extant products from Dunhill or Rattray.
Watching the last minute bids escalate the price of a blend I've always wanted to try, seeing a tin with an original price sticker of $1 going for hundreds has been rather disappointing. I finally decided to splurge and bought a tin of Dobies 4 square for a price I thought I would never pay for something I was going to set fire to.
Now I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my extravagance and wondering if it's worth it. Did I do wrong? Will it be desiccated or moldy? Will it be just another blend that I don't care for? Should I have bought 4 tins of a blend I like for the same price? Has TAD struck me?
The prices that some of these tins have been realizing is frankly astounding. Perhaps it's just a matter of your financial reference point, but I cannot believe that people are paying $400 and $500 for a tin!
Back when many of these, now fabled mixtures were available I limited my purchasing to bulk blends that I could sample at the tobacconist. I could only rarely convince myself to buy a tin that I might end up disliking. Although at the time the price might have been a minor issue, the idea of such waste did violence to my thrifty nature. (In other words, I was cheap).
Of course we did not have online forums or reviews to aid us in our search back then and getting your tongue torched by a blend you picked solely on the basis of the artwork on the tin tended to keep the experimentation down.
Over the last twenty years or so, I have switched more and more to smoking English blends and these also lend themselves to aging more than the Burleys I used to favor. Consequently, I find myself regretting the missed opportunities to have at least sampled the classic blends from Sobranie, or Dobies or even the original versions of still extant products from Dunhill or Rattray.
Watching the last minute bids escalate the price of a blend I've always wanted to try, seeing a tin with an original price sticker of $1 going for hundreds has been rather disappointing. I finally decided to splurge and bought a tin of Dobies 4 square for a price I thought I would never pay for something I was going to set fire to.
Now I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my extravagance and wondering if it's worth it. Did I do wrong? Will it be desiccated or moldy? Will it be just another blend that I don't care for? Should I have bought 4 tins of a blend I like for the same price? Has TAD struck me?
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