I don’t see there being tons of flippers. Of course, there’ll always be some. For it to really be worthwhile, someone would need to have purchased say, $25,000 to make it worthwhile. Obviously, they’d need to have $25,000 sitting around they could afford to sit on the shelf for 2 to 5 years. Therein lies the problem. Most people with that kind of available cash simply aren’t going to invest the money so they can sell the tobacco at 3 to 5x in a few years and then have the joy of packing up one or two tins at a time and heading to the post office with their arms full of boxes.
And what happens if someone does take that path and all internet tobacco sales are banned 12 months from now? Yes, there are still other avenues but the difficulty and effort goes up and the profit margin diminishes. Sure, I think you’ll continuously see McClelland stuff for sale but not in large volumes.
What I would think will be a bigger problem is the impact of this glut of buying on the big internet stores over the next few months. A number of people who may normally buy monthly will have spent their tobacco budget for several months. I guess the shipping and phone people will have to paint walls in the building to stay busy. I would think it will also affect pipe sales. Bottom line, look for some nice discounts on tobacco and pipes in the next few months when the big stores try to stimulate sales.And when credit card bills must be paid, look for some short term dumping by those that were overly optimistic and become cash strapped.
