Noob Naivete Musing

After diving into the tobacco reviews here and noting the rave reviews for a particular blend I would use my google-fu and do a search. The sites for the vendors might have what I was looking for but some sites had complete pages with "Out of Stock" items. I should preface this with my thought that smoking is on the decline(?), stuff should be readily available...taking into account the recent holiday rush. Another bit of knowledge knocking on my noggin 'now' is no shipments out of the UK. And the final slap was companies out of business but still appearing in some cases at the top of the Google search.
So after an obvious late start on this quest on my part I am now collecting and sampling. I hope to finish my PHD (pipe hoarding development) and move to the honored state of PAD and TAD.

My point is that starting out has a learning curve. Not only technique but blends and pipes. Tobacco reviews trigger a search for a product I guess. The post was meant to be what it is like, for me, venturing back to pipes from cigars with a bit of humor. I'm not looking for anything at the moment as I have several shipments on the way.

Sounds like your acquisition success is akin to small lottery winnings. WooHoo

Searching for tobacco on Google returns a large number of results. Stumbling on a few links reveals the tobacco is from the UK or Germany. The vendors on the few UK sites indicate UK shipping only. When looking I tend to dig down on the Google pages way past page 1 or 2. I may have gone to 20 or 30 pages just to see where those end up. Ending in some interesting finds. I wasn't going to order from the UK or outside the US. The original post was just a compilation of what my results have been in the last month. Maybe it was bad timing with the holidays or a vendor not maintaining a web site of discontinued items or out of stock items. But, still keeping the listing name to draw in traffic. Kind of like the grocery store placing dairy items in the back of the store, drawing you into purchase additional items on the way back. Sales tactics at their best I guess.
Anyway, it is what it is. No worries, really. And I agree with miketompson's comments.
Wyoming isn't a tobacco rich environment. We have a small shop with a humidor in town. I usually have to drive to Colorado or order on-line. Few restrictions on smoking though and any restrictions are usually at a city level, not county.
Being introduced again to pipe sites has been great and I'm enjoying the experience overall.

I scored a Rattrays exotic passion the other day. It's like looking for prairie dog in a snow storm.