Cellar Building Method.

[crusader]

Hey all. I have been at the pipe for a few yrs now and keep going back and forth on whether to create a cellar horde. Right now I have roughly 30+ blends jarred up and don't have a real favorite genere.

I see guys around here who talk about 100's of lbs in stash and I wonder, how much time and money did that take? Real Robles is is that I don't want to leave anything out of the fray and will start an order only to end up with two tins of 10 different blends and then catch myself asking myself, what are you doing?

So, my real question is, what was your method, time frame, thought process and how did you set a budget for yourself to be somewhat responsible financially?

I myself am 45 and have just one kid left in the house and at best have just one smoke a day (wishing for more). I do ok financially but definitely not loaded.
I was thinking $100 a month but that doesn't get you that far any longer.

Home blending with WLT is another option but takes away some of the pipe lore thatI love about this lifestyle.

What was your method?

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

The amount I spend is from my tobacco budget. It's disposable and discretionary income that I can afford to let go up in smoke.

I tend to primarily buy bulk with a few tins here and there. My limit is $5 an ounce and like with groceries, I tend to only buy what's on sale.

If your tastes are wide (and not focused on one or two categories), buy 1 to 5 pounds of each category. Like Balkan Supreme, a codger match, Oriental Silk, and some bulk flakes and coins.

Boom, instant cellar base to expand on.

 

[kschatey]

Don't drink the Kool Aid!

In all seriousness when it comes to cellaring anything for future consumption, determine an estimated target amount and set a budget. Then a strategy can be better determined.

 

[Chasing Embers]

how much time and money did that take?

Three decades at $20,000+.

how did you set a budget for yourself to be somewhat responsible financially?

Watch for sales.

 

[VDL_Piper]

Three decades and don’t ask the value but it would be a fairly large deposit on a house

 

[bullet08]

Get what you enjoy smoking. Of course, figuring what you will enjoy later in life is kinda hard to do. I enjoyed Latakia blends at start. Still enjoy them. But slowly moving to Va and Va based blends, so stocking on those now. But I don't smoke much. A bowl a day, maybe. A tin can last me months.

 

[OzPiper]

The problem with a large cellar of anything, be it pipe tobacco, cigars or wine, is that one's tastes can change.

There are some who have settled on what they like, and have bought deep.
Kudos to them.

I love latakia blends. But now my tastes are tending towards VaPer blends.
I have not been smoking long enough, or simply not smoking enough to have settled on a favourite blend yet.

Some years ago I sold off over 130 cases of wine.
Simply because I was not enjoying that style of wine anymore.
Thankfully there was a secondary market for them

Likewise I smoked cigars exclusively for some 15 years. I rarely dip into my stash these days.
Even if I were to get back to my previous level of cigar smoking, I will have enough for at least ten years.

If you love a certain blend, buy up a supply.
But just be aware that tomorrow something else may become be your new favourite

 

[sablebrush52]

About 8 years and about $9,000. I don't have a huge cellar, more than enough at my rate of consumption. It's a mixture of tins and bulk. Luckily, I started before some of the better quality blenders and better versions of blends went away.

 

[mortonbriar]

Don't knock the whole leaf option...between whole leaf and home grown, my hobby has been greatly enhanced...I can't remember the last time I purchased commercially processed leaf.

 

[Ahi Ka]

I think that budget sounds more than reasonable bro, especially if you are only smoking through a kilo of leaf a year. If I were in your position, I’d take the above advice and start by building a cellar base with a few pounds of bulk tobaccos from each genre. Use sales, and if necessary combining the monthly budget to make the most of the savings by purchasing in larger quantities.

Once that was sorted I’d then just follow sales and buy whatever gives me the most joy in the moment. I’d probably stick with buying sleeves of tins, so if it was a blend I ended up loving I had a handful of them, and if not, I’d still be able to trade/sell the aged tins.

just have fun, and don’t try and keep up or compare yourself with people who smoke more in one day than you might in a week.

edit: I should add, that while not my approach, a good friend who smokes only once a week decided his cellar strategy is all about variety. He has a couple of blends he stocked up on, and then beyond that all he has is pretty much one tin of a hundred odd different blends.

 

[Ahi Ka]

Don't knock the whole leaf option...between whole leaf and home grown, my hobby has been greatly enhanced...I can't remember the last time I purchased commercially processed leaf.

30th June 2020

 

[captpat]

I have a pretty diverse cellar that I acquired by purchasing an extra tin or two when I make a tobacco order. Bulks represent a good value if there is a blend you like, these will need to be re-packaged (mason jars or mylar bags) for longer storage.

It's been said here before, and it remains true -- tobacco will never be as available or inexpensive as it is today.

 

[tmcg81]

I went pretty nuts cellaring for 2 years, and spent probably $3,000 or so. I have enough for about 10-15 years of smoking, given I keep smoking at my current rate. I went pretty wide with my cellaring at first, but lately, I'll just wait for a sale and hit about $100 per order and just get the stuff I know I'm smoking a lot of, and stuff that I like with some age on it. Basically all I'm buying now are the Burley flakes I like, Windjammer, and rouxgaroux.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

$100 per month adds up. That 8 tins per month, almost a pound per month, over 10 pounds a year. At your rate of consumption, you'll have a lifetime supply in five to ten years. Be the tortoise, slow and steady wins the race.

Next you need to decide which blends are your favorite and focus on purchasing those.

 

[Streeper541]

1. Buy what you like.
2. Buy it when its on sale or at a discount.

I buy my tins 3-5 at a time because their cheaper or I buy bulk.

It takes time, patience and dollars. Nothing more. Try not to overthink it.

 

[maker]

Plenty of cheap good bulks that are easily acquired. I buy some FVF and PSLF every year and start smoking at 4 years so I'll never run out. Use the rest to buy those FOMO blends that come out almost every month now. You can also trade for those blends you missed out on once you have a bunch of tins.

 

[petes03]

Cellar building method……


Buy lots of tobacco….. lots and lots of tobacco…..

 

[ChonkyTonks]

I am new to this hobby, but the intensity with which I approach any hobby still applies. I generally go about $2k into a hobby out of the gate and tastes all of the tastes/feel all the feels. Once I dial in what I like, I focus in on that area and continue to narrow until I get to about ten varieties of what I like (scotch, american single malt, and mezcal were my last hobby). At that point, I then slow my spending to filling out my cellar with a lot of each. With this hobby, it is going to take me a lot longer to narrow down since there are so many flavors to research and categorize.

 

[AJL67]

My credit cards hate me, but fuck em im happy.

 

[ChonkyTonks]

My credit cards hate me, but fuck em im happy.

I call it "retail therapy in the pursuit of filling the black hole that is my emotional well-being"