Ken Byron’s Extra Mature FVF
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I should further clarify that Standard Tobacco sold its entire trademark catalogue to the Pipes & Cigars lot in PA earlier this year who still make War Horse, John Cottons and few other brands you all consume..
I "get" that, and understand, and redundantly also comprehend, ha ha.
But, I've violated about twelve laws before breakfast... and a few of them laws against nature and grammar... but no one cares about that.
I'm more interested in the tobacco than talking about the legality of the tin label, (which is about as interesting as talking about a tax return). What I find fascinating about the guy is that he's turned from an armchair home blender into a guy who actually markets the his stuff. He definitely found a niche market, which is not easy to do and now he's become a bit of a folk hero on the pipe forum where he hangs out. His stuff may seem a little ragtag and seat-of-the-pants but who knows where he'll be in five or ten years.
I agree. He’s been pretty innovative in both the stuff he produces and the things he has for sale. It’s nice to see some experimenting.
To paraphrase Chuck McGill, the top-notch legal mind in the legal drama / comedy TV show Better Call Saul, "I like to read updates to the Internal Revenue Code... FOR FUN."
Agreed, and I actually really dig the way he gets it done.
The foil/mylar bags that he ships in are genius. They keep both light and air out, are reusable, and they probably don't cost a lot when buying them in bulk.
It's rad how he includes a jar label with each item ordered as well. High quality sticker that fits perfectly on top of a mason jar lid.
And he charges a reasonable amount for his stuff. $13 for 50g shipped is not bad at all. There are very few 50g tins out there that you can have brought to your doorstep for $13 flat.
I agree as well. At the end of the day for me, the question really is "how does the tobacco taste?" and for me the answer has predominantly been "very good". I've only had 6-7 blends at this point, but I have really enjoyed all of them very much and thought 1 was just OK. that's a pretty good record in my book.
I have Dark Fired Cherry and Verge Engine Overdrive. Haven’t got to either one yet! ?
Oh, and if you haven't heard, Ken Byron and Watch City are teaming up on a project. They havent said much other than it's coming this Spring. With Watch City involved, the chances seem good it won't sell out so quickly.
Well thats good news. I wonder if he does anything with plugs? Sadly my tobacco consumption is still slowed by my slow recovery from this flu. Thank goodness its not thing you get from smoking bats or rolling snakes as cigarettes in China!
I found Ken's instagram post to be quite amusing.
Make some noise for me and @watchcitycigar if you want to see something that requires two cops. One the experienced pro who knows the streets like his back yard. The other a rookie who is quick to shoot and even faster to run away and pretend nothing happened. Coming this Spring. If you make some noise.
Make some noise for me and @watchcitycigar if you want to see something that requires two cops. One the experienced pro who knows the streets like his back yard. The other a rookie who is quick to shoot and even faster to run away and pretend nothing happened. Coming this Spring. If you make some noise.
Dude with Watch City involved chances are it will sell out before you can even read the description!!! Especially if it's listed on KBV's site.
Just to be clear, to me at least, this was more of an intellectual debate versus an emotionally charged argument. The world isn't going to suffer because this fellow "enhanced" some already created blends and sold them using the manufacturer's name and label.
With that said, if everyone had their own business and worked very hard to develop a positive reputation and brand recognition, I am confident you'd feel a bit different about an unauthorized entity profiting from your hard work. I suspect many of the same people didn't feel guilty about using pirated software. "What's the harm?'. It's all white collar theft but at the end of the day, to a certain extent, it's no different than walking in a store and stealing products off the shelf. It's just not tangible like a watch or a shirt or something you can hold in your hands and touch and feel.
I'll give one example of many I've had to deal with in my construction business. Around 8 years ago, a fellow we had working for us quit and formed his own company. In doing so, he quickly figured out a way to transfer some jobs he signed contracts for while working for us to his new business. One was a $25,000 job that involved a complete roof replacement. When i spoke to him a few weeks after leaving, he said this Customer had cancelled the contract. He hired his own crews and had them build the roof and also managed to get the Customer to write the checks to his new company. That, or he figured out some way to deposit checks made to our company. Not the end of the world, no guns were used, nobody was physically injured, it was just a matter of us paying him to create profit making jobs to fund the start up of his new company. And the lost profits for those jobs.
3 years or so after that, I received a call from that Customer complaining about problems and not being able to get in touch with this guy that left and started his own company. I had no idea at first who it was but quickly looked it up in our data base and figured out what was going on. They were threatening me with bad social media reviews, lawsuits, etc. until I clarified with them exactly what had happened. And wasted several hours of my time digging up the old documentation and getting my Attorney involved. These somewhat meaningless acts may not seem as harmful as armed robbery but they can often have way more negative financial impact on people.
Once again, it is entirely possible this guy is operating with full disclosure to SG and their written approval. This may all very well be just rather useless conversation on an internet forum to help keep a few of us entertained. Last time I checked, that is one of the purposes of an internet forum. We can only make discussing how to age tobacco in mason jars interesting so many times before it is redundancy squared.
With that said, if everyone had their own business and worked very hard to develop a positive reputation and brand recognition, I am confident you'd feel a bit different about an unauthorized entity profiting from your hard work. I suspect many of the same people didn't feel guilty about using pirated software. "What's the harm?'. It's all white collar theft but at the end of the day, to a certain extent, it's no different than walking in a store and stealing products off the shelf. It's just not tangible like a watch or a shirt or something you can hold in your hands and touch and feel.
I'll give one example of many I've had to deal with in my construction business. Around 8 years ago, a fellow we had working for us quit and formed his own company. In doing so, he quickly figured out a way to transfer some jobs he signed contracts for while working for us to his new business. One was a $25,000 job that involved a complete roof replacement. When i spoke to him a few weeks after leaving, he said this Customer had cancelled the contract. He hired his own crews and had them build the roof and also managed to get the Customer to write the checks to his new company. That, or he figured out some way to deposit checks made to our company. Not the end of the world, no guns were used, nobody was physically injured, it was just a matter of us paying him to create profit making jobs to fund the start up of his new company. And the lost profits for those jobs.
3 years or so after that, I received a call from that Customer complaining about problems and not being able to get in touch with this guy that left and started his own company. I had no idea at first who it was but quickly looked it up in our data base and figured out what was going on. They were threatening me with bad social media reviews, lawsuits, etc. until I clarified with them exactly what had happened. And wasted several hours of my time digging up the old documentation and getting my Attorney involved. These somewhat meaningless acts may not seem as harmful as armed robbery but they can often have way more negative financial impact on people.
Once again, it is entirely possible this guy is operating with full disclosure to SG and their written approval. This may all very well be just rather useless conversation on an internet forum to help keep a few of us entertained. Last time I checked, that is one of the purposes of an internet forum. We can only make discussing how to age tobacco in mason jars interesting so many times before it is redundancy squared.
Did you mix 20 gallons of Buffalo Trace. bottle it with a Pappy's Label and attempt to sell it on the internet as your specially brewed version of Pappy's? Your analogy wasn't even as close as apples to oranges. Try that with the Buffalo Trace and see how long it takes before you hear from Buffalo Trace Attorneys.
Copyright/Intellectual Property Rights Infringement. Highly doubtful that Gawith would license their trademark like that. And as has been mentioned, there are issues remarketing an altered product using a Copyright holder’s imagery.
With all the outright theft of Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights occurring in China over the last several decades, companies are aggressively pursuing all legal remedies available to them.
Let’s I was to buy some of this and didn’t particularly like it. I go on some internet site and lament that Gawith’s FVF Brand LMNOP really sucks. Who’s reputation is being damaged...?
It takes a lot of time and money to build a brand. It takes just one pissed off customer/bad review/ to do significant damage to that brand, especially nowadays with interwebs...
With all the outright theft of Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights occurring in China over the last several decades, companies are aggressively pursuing all legal remedies available to them.
Let’s I was to buy some of this and didn’t particularly like it. I go on some internet site and lament that Gawith’s FVF Brand LMNOP really sucks. Who’s reputation is being damaged...?
It takes a lot of time and money to build a brand. It takes just one pissed off customer/bad review/ to do significant damage to that brand, especially nowadays with interwebs...
I just meant that Watch City seems to keep more blends in stock, whereas KBV seems to sell out more quickly/frequently. But yeah, good point, with both of those cats involved it's now a double unicorn
I'm keen to see what they've got cooking, but I'm not a complete fanboy looking to score anything and everything with a KBV or Watch City logo on it. I only like what I like. I don't really buy latakia/English blends, and I'm not that into aromatics.
I just meant that Watch City seems to keep more blends in stock, whereas KBV seems to sell out more quickly/frequently. But yeah, good point, with both of those cats involved it's now a double unicorn
I'm keen to see what they've got cooking, but I'm not a complete fanboy looking to score anything and everything with a KBV or Watch City logo on it. I only like what I like. I don't really buy latakia/English blends, and I'm not that into aromatics.
It's not that big of an achievement to sell out when you make 3 to 5 pounds at a time like this KVB guy apparently does. I've bought 2 to 5 pounds with a single purchase from Watch City many times. I don't think you can compare KVB's following to Watch City. I'm rather surprised Ernie would waste his time teaming up with the guy.
Dude, you're making the same point that I am. I was implying that KBV is small time production compared to Watch City.
EDIT: inappropriate comment removed
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@hoosierpipeguy Just for the record, I have only ever purchased two KBV products, with a third one now in the mail. It's good stuff, but I will 100% agree with you that Watch City makes better stuff. No question.
Hell even Ken Byron would agree with that statement. In fact he just did in his recent instagram post.
Make some noise for me and @watchcitycigar if you want to see something that requires two cops. One the experienced pro who knows the streets like his back yard. The other a rookie who is quick to shoot and even faster to run away and pretend nothing happened. Coming this Spring. If you make some noise.
Hell even Ken Byron would agree with that statement. In fact he just did in his recent instagram post.
Make some noise for me and @watchcitycigar if you want to see something that requires two cops. One the experienced pro who knows the streets like his back yard. The other a rookie who is quick to shoot and even faster to run away and pretend nothing happened. Coming this Spring. If you make some noise.
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