On the Fabled Blends

I, as I'm sure many of you do as well, keep my eye open for Penzance and Stonehaven. Their reputation in this community is mythic. No matter how hard I look, however, they allude my grasp -- but that's sort of the fun of it!
Sure, I could pay a premium for them on an auction site -- but that feels like cheating. With the unending bounds of the internet, my only real limitation is budget so being restricted by availability certainly adds to the wanting. There are other reasons to resist the low hanging fruit of auction sites, inflated prices, or breaking in to certain forum members houses (whose names will go unsaid in case their houses are broken in to and I wrongly implicate myself) to pocket a bag or twelve. Primarily, I have only been smoking for ~ 2 years: I have plenty of other blends to try; I think these blends would be wasted on me as I am still developing my methodology, cadence and palette. As we all know, this is a life-long hobby... and it is good to have white whales to chase!
There are those who say that these blends are overrated or that you can find more readily available blends that are essentially the same... but I still look forward to that glorious, fated day when I hold that elusive golden bag in my hands, knowing that I finally ensnared the beast!
What are your white whales of the pipe world? Or other hobbies at that?
(Clarification: this is by no means an attempt to prey on the famed generosity of this community and pry some ounces loose from your cellars. It would be sincerely wasted on me and would spoil the fun of the hunt!)

Sounds like you used that whale to land a better catch! Unless you feel differently about your wife
That sounds like one hell of a bank note! Have any pictures? When my grandma recently passed I received a 1923 silver dollar: not incredibly rare by any means but it has passed through so many hands that the liberty head has worn half off. It just kind of floats my boat to think about how many lives that piece of metal came in and out of.
I'm excited to see your Yanik too! I've yet to delve in to the meershaum world too deeply but I'm sure the artistry will speak for itself!

ericusrex

Thank you for the compliment! I just have too much time on my hands at work lately since I gave my two-weeks notice ahead of starting at a new company in June.
hiplainsdrifter, cigrmaster

I'm sort of delaying gratification on this one. I have a romantic vision of just stumbling in to a B&M on one of my trips somewhere and finding it. After a year or so of failing to stumble upon some I will fall back on your advice! I can certainly understand the allure of some of the older blends that have since been released but are plagued by 'not as good as the original' comments. I fear I will never know! But maybe I will stumble upon some old tins some day, or actually make it out to a pipe show where some is on offer!
freakiefrog

That's a tidy little sum if my maths are right, and I'm sure the employee who misplaced that transfer note had some explaining to do! Currency in general has always fascinated me -- these things we ascribe value to and just all agree upon. There's a video game series I like called Fallout where, after an apocalypse and the collapse of civilization, survivors decide printed currency has no value and start bartering with bottle caps :lol:

fnord There certainly may be harder to find, more appealing and less cliché blends out there but I've yet to catch wind of them. I was hoping some would come up in the replies and it appears some have!
misterlowercase Perfect images! And I'll certainly add those blends to the list of 'to try's that I keep in evernote. It speaks to my inexperience that the only one of those I have hear of was Capstan Full. Good thing it's a life long hobby!