There's a bit of a misconception here though... Here in the US these pound and 5 pound bags we are speaking of are "Pipe Tobacco" not RYO Tobacco... Not in function though.. in Tax Classification.
All 50 states have their own additional state taxes on tobacco that range from non-existent to absurd (A pack of smokes can cost you 2-4x in a place like New York or California than a state like North Carolina or Virginia where it is grown and still carries some political clout as an industry (and interstate smuggling of cigarettes to take advantage of this arbitrage, both for personal savings and larger scale profit, is a very real thing).
However to keep it more simple I will forego state tax and speak only about Federal. 2 of the main "loose tobacco" classifications in the Federal Tax Code are:
Tax Class L, "Pipe Tobacco" @ $2.83/lb
Tax Class J, "RYO Cigarette Tobacco" @ $24.78/lb
Now, from essentially our founding til April 2009, the tax on these products was basically the same.. it was all loose tobacco. In 2009 however the legislators decided to rack up the tax on RYO (Under the guise of public health and saving the children, ofc) from $1.10 to $24.78. This created quite some consternation especially with older and poorer citizens who relied on RYO as one of their few affordable pleasures of life. Brands of RYO that used to be freely available (even online) and cost a pittance were now less available and the price per cigarette worked out to being about the same as just buying machine-mades.. again, a significant drag on those of the lowest socio-economic brackets and kind of a kneecapping to the whole idea of rolling-your-own in the first place. Tax Class L, however, was kept cheaper as pipe tobacco was understood to be a different animal and a dying one at that. (Again, a public health measure that cares not about health outcomes but about industry market share/$ value... of course!! lmao) Also I believe some of the carve-out was due to the significance of pipe tobacco to Native American culture and to not exempt them would be seen as politically unpalatable.
Seeing this change it didn't take long for tobacco companies to come up with a clever workaround, however. If they could take the RYO styled tobaccos, change the brand names, rough the cut up and change just enough of the blend for them to be passable as pipe tobacco (regardless of what people think pipe tobacco and cig tobacco is essentially the same base product just blended and prepared slightly different) then they could sell their bulk "RYO tobacco" wherever they want (including online) and at a price almost the same as it still was 20 years ago. This is currently probably the largest loophole in US tobacco/tax law and so it makes sense to exploit it (whether you enjoy cheap cigs or just the idea of hoarding quality commodities with fair pricing).
However the phenomenon of a .65 oz sachet of Bugler, Drum, Top, etc. RYO tobacco costing $10-15 is also a very real phenomenon here as well. It's just that we also happen to have the option of forgoing these old standbys for $12-20/lb bags of "Gambler", "Buoy", "Cherokee", "OHM", etc.
Personally I find the ones I've tried to be of middling to acceptable quality vs machine made cigs when keeping price in mind but most of the issues I've had are due to the rougher cuts on many in tubes. As far as the leaf itself though it is quality and smoking in a pipe will show that.
Sorry for the novel, but hopefully it helps others (foreign and domestic) to understand the absurdities of our legal system/environment a little better and how to navigate. Cheers!
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