Can Pipe Smoking Be a Cheap Habit?

[crashthegrey]

Can it be? Yes. It can be. It probably will not be for long. But it can be.

 

[cigrmaster]

I have smoked everything a human can smoke and pipe tobacco is the cheapest I have found.

 

[pepesdad1]

If you get serious...gonna get expensive...but tobacco will never be cheaper than today (said that 5 years ago and look what's happened!)

 

[tbradsim1]

It is until you start buying pipes and tobacco. : :rofl:

 

[instymp]

Amen Brother Bradley

 

[Chasing Embers]

My wife decided its easier to just buy me pipe stuff than try and figure out anything else to give me.

Same here.

I have smoked everything a human can smoke

Ever smoked banana peels or kinnikinnick?

 

[danielplainview]

Or

It can be cheap and easy or as expensive and complicated as you make it. We tend to go overboard because well, it’s just more fun that way. ::

 

[spcava]

Absolutely. I recently transitioned from a regular cigar smoker to a regular pipe smoker. I used to stock up on premium cigars at auction sites like cigarbid and occasionally purchase a few at the local shop. Even buying cigars for a fraction of their retail price on the auction sites, a years worth of cigars probably cost me at least $300. For that price, I can purchase three good estate pipes and enough tobacco to last me a year!
Pipes have maintenance costs, but so do cigars. Some people spend $50 to $100 a year just on humidification for their cigars.

 

[spcava]

Additionally, depending on the cigars you smoke, you could conceivably buy a new pipe with every new tin purchase for the price of one box of cigars. I think it is reasonable to equate a 4 oz tin of tobacco with a 20ct box of cigars.

 

[lawdawg]

I would venture to guess my average expenditure over the last three years (which is when I got serious about pipe smoking) has been about $500 per year for pipes and tobacco. I'm a former cigarette smoker, and its a hell of a lot cheaper than cigarettes, and I believe much healthier and more enjoyable too. Of course it can be more expensive too, as dave g illustrated above. I'm comfortable with a small(ish) rotation of factory-made pipes and a few of my favorite blends. I've been expanding my tastes some lately, but don't feel the need to own a bazillion pipes or try every blend under the sun... just the ones with the best reviews :: Of course, if I had more money, I'd probably have pricier pipes and a bigger cellar.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

The Day When You start upgrading on pipes and selling older ones away less than half of retailing price that is when this hobby' gets quite expensive,

 

[krizzose]

At the moment I have enough pipes that I like to be able to smoke every bowl out of a pipe that’s been rested at least a couple of days, which is what I prefer. I’m not a pipe collector, so new pipes are not part of my regular outlay to maintain my hobby. I have a rough budget of purely discretionary money that I spend on stocking my cellar against the day when high quality pipe tobacco may not be so ridiculously cheap in comparison to other high quality tobacco products. So I’m certainly spending much more money than I would just to cover the tobacco I consume in a given amount of time. But my cellar is very close to being at the point where that’s all I’ll need to do. And that will still be more about replacing the aged stock from the cellar I start to consume than needing to buy tobacco to smoke at that moment. And luckily I have enough unobtainium blends that I won’t need to pay premium prices for it on the secondary market. And none of that would be possible if pipe tobacco weren’t “cheap.”
Now I just need to stop trying new blends that make me dedicate more cellar budget to (I’m looking at you, Barbary Coast, you burley SOB).

 

[mso489]

If it weren't for the mania that comes with buying pipes and tobacco, pipe smoking moderately would cost next to nothing, to echo the above. A briar pipe can last for most or all of the rest of your life. If you can find a bag tobacco you enjoy, you can buy it by the pound for twenty bucks or not much more.

 

[cigrmaster]

Ever smoked banana peels or kinnikinnick?

No but once me and a friend tried smoking dried up pine needles using a brown paper bag as the rolling paper. It was disgusting. 15 year old's do some stupid shit.
My 20 plus year cellar of pipe tobacco was cheaper than my 1999 cigar purchases.

 

[brooklynpiper]

Cheap habit? No. Habits are never cheap.

 

[dethmutt]

As Mso489 stated,
it can be cheap,
but you will be driven to buy more, age more. You become a squirrel with ADD.. Oh look at that blend that looks nice I think ill, OMG look at that one!!! lemme buy 10!!! holy crap what is that!!! gimme 5... Esoterica is available (Ive never seen it happen) buy buy buy!!!!!!
But the journey while you "squirrel" away tins , what you smoke, what you save is just fun!!! its a Hobby remember!!!