My eBay Craziness With Old Vintage Tobacco...

...a fool and his money as they say, but dammit I find it hard to resist after having a few really good experiences with the old stuff.
Most especially some Thomson & Porteous that rang my bell like a loud gong,

as written up in this thread,

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/smoking-some-65-year-old-scottish-flake-a-group-review
... and seeing a couple of old cutter-tops go up recently I couldn't resist their allure. The auctions ended today and I made out fairly well, $72 for both I reckon is somewhat okay, although I don't know what the tops look like and I noticed rust on the Thistle Flake --- and who the hell knows what kind of aro that Thistle is?!?!?!? I bet nobody does, and I'm hoping with fingers crossed that it ain't a heavy floral, although I suspect it is :crying: It sure does have a pretty label though LOL I think I overpaid a bit for it, but what the hell, this stuff don't come around much...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Thomson-amp-Porteous-tobacco-Sealed-Thistle-Flake-Aromatic-Pipe-/301266585679?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=xIA%252BzkhNJJd6tMb51Xz2HsVb9VY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc
The Drifter Navy Flake holds much promise if the vacuum ain't been compromised, if both of these have rust pinholes and are dried out I will be crying and crying a big river and drown myself in some Scotch whiskey :crying:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Thomson-amp-Porteous-tobacco-Sealed-Drifter-Navy-Cut-Pipe-/301266587801?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=xIA%252BzkhNJJd6tMb51Xz2HsVb9VY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc
Just home for the weekend and being offline and away from the bay, I went into a frenzy as I usually don't and made another crazy purchase, I had another tin of this era St. Bruno Flake bought a while back when BriarBid was going and smoked a little of it, disappointed that the topping had gone soft and put the rest in a jar, recently I dug up that jar and combined it with some fresh St. Bruno because my stock was getting low and the combo of new with old provided a damn fine smoke of unparalleled quality and I decided I need to source some more older stuff, thus I paid the price for this 100g tin which will probably be dry, these rectangular tins rarely maintain their vacuum, but mixing old with new makes an extra-special magic smoke so out come the dollas...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/St-Bruno-Flake-from-1980-039-s-Sealed-Tin-/221511877394?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=xIA%252BzkhNJJd6tMb51Xz2HsVb9VY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc
The bargain of the bunch ended up being something I bought only for historical value but it turned out that the baccy was in damn fine shape and I'm gonna smoke it up! I'm excited to try it, although from a cursory initial search it seems that this stuff was mostly popular for chewing up North by miners.
I was astounded at what fine condition it was in as I unwrapped the foil!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/A-vintage-2d-packet-of-Franklyns-Plover-Pigtail-screw-Tobacco-Not-Tin-/390889747460?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=xIA%252BzkhNJJd6tMb51Xz2HsVb9VY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc
These purchases make me feel both elated and exhilarated, but also like an idiot :lol:

...my over-romantic heart cannot be defeated by the logic of my brain!

:twisted:

Sable, I agree with the wraith thing, shadows of their former selves, but the old cutter tops seem to preserve stuff pretty well if they don't get the rusty pinholes, I still feel crazy though LOL :lol:
kcvet67 - yeah, those big money auctions make me feel a little better :P

Sobranie and the Nuns always bring the big bucks,

T&P are pretty obscure, but at one point they had good US distribution,

perhaps the 92 year old lady who had these mail-ordered them from George Yale?

This 1942 catalog shows 'em and the Drifter Navy Flake was only 55¢ !!!

http://pipepages.com/pics/gy6.jpg
I didn't expect that 3N auction to go so high, both because Mr. Steve was so honest about the rattle and saying "...and do believe the contents have been compromised", and because it was the Empire Blend which didn't have any perique, they used African leaf innit in place of the Per, but I bet it's still tasty and probably has a good measure of strength too....it had a beautiful looking top too! And the WW2 era label makes it very interesting, they had to preserve paper so they made smaller labels during that time.
The same seller I got the T&P from had 2 more cutter tops, a John Cotton's 1&2 and a Rattray's 7 Reserve, I wasn't watching them so I don't know how much they sold for, but the JC was up to $63 last time I looked...

Dude, I don't think you overpaid at all. Those are possibly the last remaining tins in existence. And I bet you'll get far more enjoyment out of that 40 dollar tin than you would from 4 tins, say, of any current production tobacco. And the 30 dollar tin sounds like a steal to me. Just be glad I didn't see them -- I would have bid them even higher!

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Thanx mang!

:D
You're right,

I feel better already!
I like how you put it into perspective.

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I think you did well, Troy. Look at it as going to dinner but lasting a lot longer. Lord knows how many $100 dinners I've had and can't recall as anything special. Enjoy them and the fun you'll have.

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No doubt!

Well put.

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Thanks for that.

It sure sucks that your kids are going to have to attend school eating only crackers and barefoot though.

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LOL

:lol:

Seriously made me laff out loud, I can imagine little Jenny telling the teacher after being questioned why she has no shoes "Daddy says that old tobacco tins are just like shoes, you just have to use your imagination - I'm not barefoot, your eyes are naked!"

LOL

...and yeah, the old cutter-top tins sometimes are ridiculous prices.
Thanks for the well wishes,

I hope it's good stuff too!

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