Mine was/is already late as of end of day today when I posted. So no calling to get it early. Again, no communication or updates as to 'why' so I take that as fairly good news that the minor delay, so far, is for other more normal shipping reasons.
Estervals To Recommence Shipping to USA [5.23.21]
- Thread starter greeneyes
- Start date
I added my cautionary voice for forum members only because my package was/is late and not delivered yet. It's been on order since late May. So "...all other new shipments to the USA have been successful..." isn't quite true YET. I don't consider it false or intentionally misleading either. But, my order is pertinent to the situation for forum readers, particularly when juxtaposed with the quote about all successful orders. I agree that they want our business and it's more the EU changes, shipping issues, and them just working to figure things out. Again, I'll update when delivered.
Notice I referred to “frenzy”.
You have put up an excellent post about cellaring. It should be required reading. Some tips that were good reminders to me.
While you're right, please hear a different side to the story:
I live in Greece, pipe tobacco desert unless you count Clan, Captain Black, Seven Seas, Skandinavik, and Borkum Riff as pipe tobacco, I don't.
Roughly 12-13 years ago I started smoking a pipe and after my first pouch of some cherry blend I was told to try Dunhill Nightcap. It was not to be found in Greece, but it was to be found in the Danish Pipe Shop and UK stores, so I ordered a tin, loved it and proceeded to order 2 tins per month steadily for 8-9 years. You could ask, "why buy only 2 tins, not 10-20 to save some money in shipping?". Because I didn't smoke so much back then and because I didn't think the door would one day close...
...until it did: the Dunhill brand stopped production, and Denmark and the UK stopped sending tobacco abroad. So I was stuck in pipe tobacco desert and needed to find other avenues 'cause sure as hell I ain't going back to Borkum Riff cherry after 10 years of Nightcap. It's about then that I joined this forum and started reading and trying, and found the points above to be absolutely true.
The other point made in this thread, about "newbs" buying 20 bags of that or the other "rare" blend is also true, but do you fault them? Someone smoking x years more than someone else does not entitle them to dictate how one spends their money. I guess I'd be frustrated if I was in the US by the fact that all Gawith sells out in moments in SP.com but I question if it is "newbs" or plain old older hoarders, or resellers for Asia, scalpers, speculators etc. There are parts of the world where "western" premium goods are status symbols. From my point of view the solution is easy: slap a tin/weight limit to email address to curtail most hoarders, in the end of the day Gawith selling out is good for Gawith, and in turn good for me because it means they'll continue producing.
I've done plenty of business with Estervals, hope to continue doing it, we'll see.
Just a recommendation: it's better to to call and anticipate any problem than to react to an issue after it's already taken place.
If I were you I would call. Now. I don't understand the reluctance to contact DHL, frankly. If there is a problem you don't want to fix it, you want to preempt it.
@karam, I have no issue with people buying however much they want. My comments were just in regards to the reasons why people over the last X amount of years have been buying significant amounts to cellar. I'm very much all for buy what you can, when you can of what you like.
If something has any type of tin or weight limit, I general stay away from it the past year or so. If I can't just buy what I like, I find myself not being interested in even trying something because I don't want to deal with hassles of procurement when I can just buy 20 pounds of something else.
If something has any type of tin or weight limit, I general stay away from it the past year or so. If I can't just buy what I like, I find myself not being interested in even trying something because I don't want to deal with hassles of procurement when I can just buy 20 pounds of something else.
Maybe it's a perception thing, so far in my pipe journey I never bought more than 1 kilo of anything for various reasons, maybe if I was absolutely sold on a tobacco I'd like to go deep I might buy 5kg, but I haven't found it yet.
I'm similar in that I not one of the 30 lb guys, and they're not that uncommon, who buy and maintain a minimum of 30 lbs each of a variety of blends that they like.
My largest concentration of any one blend is 8 lbs of Stonehaven, and that was a surprise. I had no idea I had more than a couple of pounds of it. It just kept turning up in the bins. I'd just picked up a bag here and another there, over the years. Not hard to find when a drop occurs.
Most of the blends I have stocked are around 1 to 2 lbs, a few a bit larger, a few less than a pound.
While I can't complain about what's in the closet, I do wish I'd been a little bit more proactive. I'd like more McClelland than I have. But I'm good for years as it is.
I don't need to buy another shred. Doesn't mean I don't want to.
Frenzies, panics, and hoarding are all fear based. Since there isn't a tobacco blend made that missing out on it would instill that emotion in me, I'm immune from frenzied panic buying, and hoarding.
I personally just am a strong creature of habit. I started wider at first before realizing if I had many pounds of a small group of varieties, I'd be more satisfied than 4 tins of 100 varieties.
If I could have simply sat down and ordered 25 lbs each of say 20 blends, I would have done that at the time. However, it's generally a struggle to get 5 to 10 tins of many of my favorites. Try buying F&T CVP the past 3 to 4 years? But you can add Vintage & Special Brown Flake to the cart along with Aylesbury Classic Flake, Capstan Blue, HH Pure Virginia, Union Square and a few others and suddenly you're on the way to your cellar goal without any severe compromise of what you like.
Now that I've met that cellar objective, I'm happy it's more diversified. Granted, there were a few mistakes but not many. And I discovered a number of blends I otherwise wouldn't have that I really enjoy.
My "hoarding" wasn't fear based at all. That's an absurd idea painted by a very wide brush. I really enjoy aged Virgina based blends with age. I love not having to scramble from internet retailer to internet retailer when the hot blends hit two or three times per year. It's great not to have to call around to various B&Ms being for a few tins to be shipped my way. I consider that intelligence, not fear.
Now that I've met that cellar objective, I'm happy it's more diversified. Granted, there were a few mistakes but not many. And I discovered a number of blends I otherwise wouldn't have that I really enjoy.
My "hoarding" wasn't fear based at all. That's an absurd idea painted by a very wide brush. I really enjoy aged Virgina based blends with age. I love not having to scramble from internet retailer to internet retailer when the hot blends hit two or three times per year. It's great not to have to call around to various B&Ms being for a few tins to be shipped my way. I consider that intelligence, not fear.
So you were afraid when you built your cellar? I suppose a small amount of fear led me to hedge against blend Extinction, deeming, higher prices, etc. That was not my primary motivation however. But you're welcome to think whatever you wish, it certainly isn't pompous and arrogant to assume you know my thoughts and motivation better than I do.
I will admit there was a bit of a competitive aspect. Could I acquire a great cellar of favorite and difficult to find blends? Reading how others bemoaned the lack of availability challenged me to prove it could be done with some effort and diligence. I experienced the same thing 20 years ago with Fuente Opus X.
Perhaps what I did wasn't hoarding. I didn't hoard paper products during the Covid crisis. Seems like if I were a hoarder, I would prioritize comfortably wiping my ass over pipe tobacco.
I fail to see how one is “hoarding” if you have a reasonable expectation of use?
I think the greater likelihood is that unicorn blends are bought up for the secondary/scalper market.
Look at the runs on Dunhill and McClelland in 2018, and consequently look at the very quick turnaround on EBay, the various tobacco forums, Facebook, etc. certainly wasn’t a case of “oops, I bought more than I think I’ll use”, but rather more a case of “get rich quick”.
You see similar turnaround every time Esoterica drops, with $300/bag asks.
Fortunately there are plenty of great blends out there, so you’re not significantly deprived if you miss out on the unicorns.
As to building a cellar; there are a plethora of reasons. “Fear” of limitations in the future (though is it unfounded when you look at Washington State? Or North Dakota, Maine etc. Looking at the Fed raising the purchase age to 21, and the various States imposing “flavored bans”? I’d say it’s just being practical, and hedging ones’ bets) “Fear” of production being ceased (again, pretty reasonable in my opinion, as in my lifetime I’ve seen Murray’s cease, Tewksbury cease, Dunhill cease twice (But resurrected) and McClelland... just to name a few. Plus the very real possibly that existed of Perique going defunct if not for an aficionado and entrepreneur stepping up.)
There’s also the realized benefit of aging that will bring out the best in a whole lot of blends. Personally, I’m thrilled with the results of aging HH Pure Virginia, Escudo Navy Deluxe, Frog Morton and My Mixture 965, to name a few).
I think the greater likelihood is that unicorn blends are bought up for the secondary/scalper market.
Look at the runs on Dunhill and McClelland in 2018, and consequently look at the very quick turnaround on EBay, the various tobacco forums, Facebook, etc. certainly wasn’t a case of “oops, I bought more than I think I’ll use”, but rather more a case of “get rich quick”.
You see similar turnaround every time Esoterica drops, with $300/bag asks.
Fortunately there are plenty of great blends out there, so you’re not significantly deprived if you miss out on the unicorns.
As to building a cellar; there are a plethora of reasons. “Fear” of limitations in the future (though is it unfounded when you look at Washington State? Or North Dakota, Maine etc. Looking at the Fed raising the purchase age to 21, and the various States imposing “flavored bans”? I’d say it’s just being practical, and hedging ones’ bets) “Fear” of production being ceased (again, pretty reasonable in my opinion, as in my lifetime I’ve seen Murray’s cease, Tewksbury cease, Dunhill cease twice (But resurrected) and McClelland... just to name a few. Plus the very real possibly that existed of Perique going defunct if not for an aficionado and entrepreneur stepping up.)
There’s also the realized benefit of aging that will bring out the best in a whole lot of blends. Personally, I’m thrilled with the results of aging HH Pure Virginia, Escudo Navy Deluxe, Frog Morton and My Mixture 965, to name a few).
No, but I'm not a hoarder. Hoarders have a compulsive behavior which is fear based and rationalized over, and THAT'S what I'm referring to.
People build cellars for a number of reasons. I wanted to take advantage of the potential benefits of aging while I have a good chance of living long enough to enjoy it. I have no issue with smoking my holdings and feel no panic over shrinking my stash. I have no problem with giving away tobacco to people who like blends that I have and don't smoke. Just got rid of my Frog Morton tins.
I'm not sitting on multiple lifetimes worth of tobacco that I don't intend to sell and clearly won't be smoking while buying more and more, and more. That's irrational and compulsive. That's hoarding, and at the base of it is fear.
I'm smoking more than I'm buying, so I can enjoy blends that age well now, and not leave a huge mess when I fall off the perch. I have about a 12 year supply at current smoking levels, and that's being reduced. While life is guaranteed to no one, both sides of my family generally live into their 90's and a few into their 100+s. So I might just have a couple of decades before I go, or, being in my 60's might die at any time. The 60's is the treacherous decade.
But even in the worst scenario it won't take a dumpster to contain my cellar.
Don't disagree, BUT, you're not describing hoarding. And while fears might have a basis in reality, that doesn't reflect on the emotion being fear.
Disagree. A friend who is no longer on this forum has a huge stash of McClelland that he started accumulating decades ago, before anybody ever dreamed up these apocalyptic scenarios. He also has large stashes of other defunct blends. I mean Banker’s storage boxes full. He has over 600 highly collectible pipes, mostly Dunhil, GBD and Castello. He has a tremendous collection of old Joe Zieve era Smokers Haven catalogs, every single mailer Barry Levin ever sent out with the accompanying photographs, old Dunhill catalogs, etc. All of this is inventoried. I have seen this. So has @Razorback.
I have known this person for almost 40 years. There isn’t a bit of fear in him. @Razorback, was he trembling in fear when you met him?
He is a collector. Maybe even a pack rat. If he was into cats, 137 felines might share his home. I am, too, but more of books than anything else. I had to stop going to Friends of the Library and other used book sales because I just didn’t have more room. I read constantly, but I will never read through the books I have accumulated. But, when I was reading Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, I had at least a dozen books that I could look at and see more about the characters. I had only actually read two or three of them, but that was an interesting period in history, and it isn’t that hard to ascertain which works are reliable guides. Thank heavens for the Kindle.
People are too damned different to think you have their motives figured out. Square pegs don’t fit into round holes. And about 1 in 5 collectors I used to run into at pipe shows from when I was most active, 1985-1996 or so, was definitely a square peg.
You're still not talking about hoarding. Pipes are individual, even two examples of the same pipe made by the same maker will be different. Two hundred tins of the same blend that you're never going to smoke because you are obsessed with having piles of tins is a different story. So the example you choose to use is a false equivalency.
I own a lot of Barlings and I own them for several reasons. I have a longstanding interest in the brand and its history sio I have Barlings from the 1880's through the 1970's.. I enjoy smoking them and do smoke all of them except for a few unsmoked museum pieces that I enjoy owning as unsmoked museum pieces. I'm not buying pipes to put in a drawer or stack against a wall and forget about.
A few years back I got into a discussion with a very well known member of the piping community, a recipient of a "Doctor Of Pipes" at Chicago and the subject eventually turned to people who continue to buy large quantities of tobacco to have, even though they're never going to live long enough to smoke much of what they already have and his response was interesting and it was this. "When we stop we'd have to admit to our own mortality."