What a great display of camaraderie here, on a lot of levels. Not only for the financial reasons, but for new pipe smokers to start out with a respectable pipe and tobacco and save a lot of wasted motion.
I'm not sure if this will be of any use to anyone or not, but if folks weren't already aware, Scandinavian Tobacco Group is sending out a lot of coupons if you sign up on their site. They are for things like Captain Black, Borkum riff, SWR/SWRA, Half & Half, etc. The coupons are for a 1 dollar pouch-- and they usually send them in pairs, so maybe folks would be interested in signing up for the coupons, getting a pouch for themselves and sending a pouch out for redistribution to new smokers? Captain Black Royal & Sir Walter Raleigh, just to name two, are classics that I think would be a great thing for a new pipe smoker to try to orient themselves a bit.
Here's direct links to where you can sign up for the coupon mailings.
http://captainblackpipe.com/ (link to captain black)
http://www.borkumriffusa.com/? (link to borkum riff)
http://stglanepipe.com/ageGate.aspx?redirect=http%3a%2f%2fstglanepipe.com%2fdefault.aspx (link to general coupon applicable to SWR/SWRA, CB, BR, H&H, Paladin, velvet)
Do what you will with em, charitable or to start up a bit of a collection!
Thanks for doing this, wish I was in a better position to help out with it!