Do You Smoke A $100+ Tobacco?

[npod]

I have a few aged tins that I paid >$100 for. I bust them out from time to time. It’s worth it to me. But the real pleasure is sharing it with others.

 

[lordofthepiperings]

With the McClelland tins I have I will eventually get through them all.
I haven't gotten too much into the vintage tin market. I have started to cellar away tins. I would probably spend $100 on a tin and enjoy it if it was a really old Escudo/Capstan.

 

[daveinlax]

If I had some $100+ tins of whatever that have been sitting in the davecave that I paid $4 to $20 from JR's or a pipe show 20 some years ago sure why not. 8O

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

I paid up for 1992 Christmas Cheer recently (actually a good buy, well below an auction I saw on eBay that had ended just days before, but over$100) and I will smoke it July 4. Still cheap compared to the Cuban cigars I chased years ago. I don't regret that, so why would I hesitate to crack a $100 + 100 gram tin of pipe tobacco? Besides, I am 68 years old. I still buy green bananas,but that is about the extent of my comfort zone for long range planniing.

 

[npod]

I would probably spend $100 on a tin and enjoy it if it was a really old Escudo/Capstan.

Precisely! It can be nirvana and worth every penny.
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/33-year-old-capstan-blue-perfection

 

[shaintiques]

Someone once gave me a tin of Balkan Sobranie from the 1970's. At the time such tins were selling for over a thousand dollars on eBay. I cracked it open and smoked it. I also shared it which was cool to do and I would do so again.

 

[rmpeeps]

Smoke - yes

Stare at with angst - yes

Sell - yes

.....and even enjoy sharing a few.

 

[seldom]

I would not buy a $100 tin of tobacco. If my tins became worth $100 or more I would seriously consider selling them. I've children and am not in a position to watch that much money go up in smoke. For me a cellared $100 tin is unlikely to provide 10x the enjoyment of a $10 tin anyway. I'd rather have ten $10 tins than one $100 tin.

 

[lasttango]

I sold a healthy amount. I don't prefer any particular tobacco enough to pay $100 a tin or to miss out on making $70-$100+ a tin. In the end, I could be happy all day smoking my non-McClelland's blends. I will miss the vinegary Virginias, but not enough to justify hanging on to them. I am enjoying the LPs, pipes and my new espresso machine I bought with the "tobacco sales money" tremendously.
i'll have a bigger dilemma if RY or Hyde Park ever go for $100 a tin. I have hoards of them and I do like them quite a bit.

 

[tavol]

Living in Europe I guess I'll find out in a couple of years the way they're taxing tobacco.

 

[kola]

A few times I had to sell and cash in on some of my older cellared tobaccos. It was nice to have that option to get 100 or so bucks for a tin I only paid 10 bucks for. 2009 and 2013 were some rough times for me (financially) amd selling my baccy was a life-saver.

 

[scloyd]

I'm new to the pipe hobby and I have never smoked any aged tobacco. I recently purchased a twenty year old tin of Mac Baren's Symphony ($15) and plan to open it and compare to a new tin of Symphony. It will be my inexpensive taste test.
I do have six tins of Frog Morton that I paid $15.95 each that I plan on storing away.

 

[scloyd]

Sorry, I didn't answer the original question.
If I was a more experienced smoker...yes, I would open and smoke a $100 tin.

 

[briarbuck]

I managed to accumulate 15 pounds or so of aged stuff at normalish prices over the past 5 years. Some from PS and the rest on EBAY. Ebay was a fabulous place to find tins. I was buying 10+ year old CC for 20-25$ for a couple of years before the shit hit the fan. That should be enough to let my "new" stuff gets 5+ years of age on them. Pretty much have it set up where I should ever have to crack a non-aged tin (barring a natural disaster like fire or locusts).

 

[pipestud]

I think this is a great thread started by Jesse, and have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of the comments.
Having been a re-seller of old, rare and/or out of production pipe tobacco for more than 20-years, I have received a lot of comments from my buyers as to why they are purchasing such and such a tin. I'm not sure which responses were most prevelant, but here are comments I get when someone pulls the trigger on $100+ tins that I sell to them -
* I've heard about this great old blend for years and have always wanted to try it.
* My father/grandfather smoked this one all the time and I'm buying this tin for nostalgia's sake.
* This is one of the finest tobaccos that I have ever smoked and now that it is out of production I hoard as many tins as I can find for future enjoyment.
* I'm actually buying this tin as a gift for: a friend/family member/my pipe club.
* I collect rare pipe tobacco and this tin will be a great addition to my stash.
* I see this blend sell on your website all the time for huge prices. I figure it must be good!
* I loved the tin art on that one and just had to have it.
And finally, I will close with one of the most humorous comments that I ever received - "Hey dude, you don't fool me. You are running a fake website to build your reputation. You really don't have those tins or sell them at those ridiculous prices. Nobody would be stupid enough to pay $400 for a 50g tin of pipe tobacco. Someone should report you for fraud!"

 

[npod]

This just in! Delivered to my office this morning. Esoterica Dunbar, purchased from a member here. While not $100 it is a great example of a specific blend I chase hard and am willing to pay a premium for. Especially when it has a bit of age like this one.
No nestalgia in this case. I will immediately consume this tobacco, starting tonight after work. I pay the premium in this case due to the unobtainable nature of the blend. Sure it’s still made, but I literally don’t have the time to chase it. So I pay the convenience fee. And now the price probably just increased because I posted a picture with praise.

 

[npod]

^^^Pipe Stud^^^

Great comments from a master on this topic.

 

[carolinachurchwarden]

I might would try it once, just to see if it was worth it. I don't know if it would smoke that much better than anything else for a LOT less money.
Just to add to the $1,000 pipe part, I mean, you could always smoke $1,000 W.O. LARSEN HAND PRESSED 2015 in a $1,000 pipe, right?

 

[mso489]

I'm going to sprint ahead by sitting still. For the thrill of wildly expensive tobacco, I'm going to smoke the several tins of those blends that have gone wildly inflated in price, while also enjoying in rotation the many excellent blends that are still available at pleasing U.S. retail prices which must be about the lowest in the world, except maybe for the shops on Gibraltar mentioned in another post.

 

[nitemair13]

As a newbie pipe smoker, no I'm not smoking something at that price. I might use a $100 or more pipe one day but they last, the tobacco is set on fire so I wouldn't spend that much money on it. That's mainly why I switched from cigars, I was smoking the cheaper end of the spectrum $5-$15 cigars but that's for one smoke. I found out I could spend that amount on pipe tobacco and it last for weeks.