Musings on Tobacco Economics

[quantumboy]

I go through stages. Last three to four years it's been mostly cigars. But that's getting expensive! Even here in Louisiana where tobacco taxes are nothing like, say, California, prices have been rising. I miss the old days when I could buy Ashton VSGs for six bucks! True, mail order can make a huge difference with cigar costs, but still...

Having gone hog wild a decade ago, I am fortunate to be sitting on a great collection of well aged pipeweed, and I've been really enjoying a lot more pipes lately. Yes, it is absolutely worth it to age some tobacco and get serious about setting it aside for a few years. Even with today's prices, with GLP at $14 a tin, a pipe of tobacco ends up costing, what, fifty cents? In my mind there is no better bargain than a delicious bowl of tobacco (or three) for virtually no cost. I have not purchased any new pipes in a long time, so yeah, it makes a lot of sense to begin enjoying my weed collection in earnest.

Cigars absolutely have their place, e.g. in the hot tub, but I thank God, who by the way invented tobacco, for the simple pleasures of a good pipe and perhaps an iced coffee with real heavy cream. Which, by the way, is allowed for a carnivore like me.

 

[Servant King]

Having started in 2019, I never had the luxury of stocking up at these pre-Weimar hyperinflation prices. Nevertheless, I concur--even with current prices, it's still shockingly cheap, especially when you break it down to a per-bowl cost.

Hell, we can still get a pound of Newminster 400 for two Jacksons, at least for as long as it's still around...

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

For the most part, I only smoke cigars when I'm playing golf. I prefer pipe. Economics has little to do with it, I simply find it more satisfying. Nice bonus that it costs next to nothing.

 

[Choatecav]

Started with occasional cigars 30 years ago and still have one every now and then, but started working the pipe into the act around 15 years ago. Now, I believe I enjoy the pipe more as I can taste the tobacco better and it is more relaxing. Oh.... and if I can conquer my PAD, it is cheaper, too.

Fat chance of that.....

 

[Sobrbiker]

The fact that I get anywhere from 20-40min of smoking enjoyment (I prefer small-med chambers) from about the same amount of tobacco I’d roll one RYO with makes pipes pretty awesome in my book.

It’s the diving in to all the different blends, not to mention pipe makers, styles, and history that lighten the pocketbook (and I don’t even succumb to the “keeping up with the Joneses” pipe-wise.
I’ve yet to spend what I call “gun money” on a pipe, but stashing tobak for ensured future use has taken a toll.

 

[The Benedictine]

I have urges to smoke cigars occasionally. I usually just buy some bandidos but I'll spend on Romeo y Julieta. Pipe tobacco is a cheaper alternative that I much prefer. Even buying Peterson pipes is on the cheap side. I won't kick a Missouri Meerschaum out of bed thougg.

 

[Lumbridge]

It's a very affordable vice hobby as long as you resist any temptation to go down the artisan pipes and rare tins rabbit hole. A cob or affordable briar like a Ropp and a tin of something readily available will give lots of enjoyment for a pretty low cost.

 

[Briar Lee]

I go through stages. Last three to four years it's been mostly cigars. But that's getting expensive! Even here in Louisiana where tobacco taxes are nothing like, say, California, prices have been rising. I miss the old days when I could buy Ashton VSGs for six bucks! True, mail order can make a huge difference with cigar costs, but still...

Having gone hog wild a decade ago, I am fortunate to be sitting on a great collection of well aged pipeweed, and I've been really enjoying a lot more pipes lately. Yes, it is absolutely worth it to age some tobacco and get serious about setting it aside for a few years. Even with today's prices, with GLP at $14 a tin, a pipe of tobacco ends up costing, what, fifty cents? In my mind there is no better bargain than a delicious bowl of tobacco (or three) for virtually no cost. I have not purchased any new pipes in a long time, so yeah, it makes a lot of sense to begin enjoying my weed collection in earnest.

Cigars absolutely have their place, e.g. in the hot tub, but I thank God, who by the way invented tobacco, for the simple pleasures of a good pipe and perhaps an iced coffee with real heavy cream. Which, by the way, is allowed for a carnivore like me.

Tonight I’m smoking my latest Giant 10” WDC Wellington that only cost $34 delivered using Smoker’s Pride Whiskey that cost $2 an ounce or less than a quarter a smoke.



We are all living in a golden age of affordable pipes and tobacco in the United States.

It may not last.

But I’d reckon some other man will enjoy that huge WDC Wellington in another century as much as I enjoy a life’s trophy some man bought or was gifted a century ago.

My Buoy Gold cigarettes cost three cents each and are better than anything I’ve smoked in fifty years.

How can it get any better?

It’s all downhill from here, or is it?

 

[BingBong]

Depends where you live. Tobacco aficionados are fighting a rearguard action against oppressive forces in most of the "western" world outside the US. We are demonised, for now, and pay the prices demons must pay.

Happy days!

 

[Briar Lee]

Depends where you live. Tobacco aficionados are fighting a rearguard action against oppressive forces in most of the "western" world outside the US. We are demonised, for now, and pay the prices demons must pay.

Happy days!

If you were born in the USA and your Mama is still alive you should thank her every day, for your birth.

America is by far the most militarily powerful and rich and wealthy nation that has ever existed under the sun. The ancient Romans and the British Empire never got close to us.

Yes, we have do gooders who hate tobacco.

Most of them hate other vices like booze and fast women too. And I’m betting smoking and drinking and easy women will always be available, and not only for the high and mighty, but every man.

Despite do gooders, I can buy 5 pounds of about any Lane blend I like for about $200, tax paid delivered to my doorstep by the United States Postal Service.

And 25 pounds of Buoy Gold and 50 cartons of tubes, to make 10,000 excellent cigarettes, costs a little less than $300 for the tobacco and less than $100 for the tubes, delivered to your door.

And You Tube, is free.

We are all slowly dying, but here in America we have made an art of sinful living.

 

[Briar Lee]

Double post

 

[JoeW]

Yesterday evening I smoked a cigar that retails for $12-14. It lasted for 70 minutes.

The night before, I smoked some GLP Key Largo, which lasted for 70 minutes. The tin cost around the same amount. When I was finished, I still had most of the tin left.

As a cheapskate, I appreciate that I can buy a year's supply of a good quality pipe tobacco for the same cost as a few hours worth of cigars. I enjoy burning a nice cigar, but even more than that, I enjoy the wider range and variety of flavor I get from a few cents worth of pipe tobacco. The pipe has become more satisfying to the senses and the wallet than the cigar.

 

[stoopidbaits]

Californian here and I still smoke cigars everyday, although that's slowing down more and more.

I went into my local yesterday and splurged on a Padron '64. I won't tell you what I spent, but suffice it to say i probably could've bought one of those consignment tins on 4 noggins for the same price as that one cigar.

Grateful I've got pipe tobacco to fall back on.

 

[condorlover1]

That is one of the advantages of living in the 'Colonies' I will miss when I return to dear old Blighty!

 

[Briar Lee]

Another advantage of living in America is this perfect condition straight grain 70+ year old Super Jumbo Rhodesian Marxman is worth about a hundred dollars.


This 95 Grade Bertram Poker cost me $65 at an auction on eBay.



This enormous Ted Laird, cost $40.



A teenage kid working minimum wage brings home a hundred dollars a day in Missouri for 8 hours.


For less than a day’s pay of a 18 year old he can buy a magnificent pipe or two or maybe three, that will last lifetimes.

This is almost too good to be true.

But for now, we should enjoy it while it lasts.

 

[woodsroad]

Even if I live to 104, and I am still smoking cigars then, I have 5 times more dog rockets than I'll ever smoke. Unless I start smoking several a day, which could happen, I suppose, after I retire. Currently, my hoard will more than fill two 120 qt. Igloo coolers. I don't say that to brag, because really, it a little embarrassing, but it has it's benefits. Yesterday I had the good fortune to enjoy a JR Dominican from some time before 2013. The cello was browned nicely, and the natural 52x5 or 6 was perfectly smooth, delicate and flush with a cornucopia of flavors, including pepper and rich floral notes. I say 2013 because that was the year that my in-laws moved out of Chapel Hill, NC, so that was the last year that I stopped shopping at JR in Statesville. This was a bundle cigar, probably around $39 for 25 or 30, and it was one of the more enjoyable cigars that I've had for a while now.

With cigar prices where they are now, and even with the excessive number of stogies I've accumulated, I still feel dumb not buying more when TobaccoPipes had their massive blowout a few months ago. I bought two or three boxes of excellent cigars, but should have jumped on the deal sooner while they still had Fuentes.

 

[sardonicus87]

I've never tried cigars myself... their smell always put me off of them. Considering their relative cost, I'm lucky I don't have CAD (?) and am perfectly content with pipe tobacco and my basic factory pipes.

At this point, I don't even want to risk trying a cigar. For me, I don't even jar up pipe tobaccos or care about aging and so far, even several year old old tins have been great when I finally crack them. I don't want the overhead and necessity of learning humidor stuff and the costs associated just with that part, not counting the cost of the cigars themselves. I know proper storage is more important for cigars than pipe tobacco, and my pipe tobacco storage already is blasphemy to many pipe smokers (original tins tossed in a cabinet, no fuss, no jars vs mylar vs whatever).

 

[Sig]

100% agree.
I started many years ago with cigars. Then switched to pipes.
Now I'm into both.
Fortunately I'm near an Indian reservation where cigars are still relatively cheap. But I still have a bunch from the past 25 years of stuffing my humidors.
I have a LOT of well aged pipe tobacco too. But I HADN'T bought a pipe until a few weeks ago. Someone here posted about the NOS Brulor pipes at SP.....so I bought one.
Then I needed a new Peterson System pipe....so I bought one.
Because I've been getting into some aromatics lately, and don't have enough aromatic pipes, I ordered a Morgan Bones pipe today.
Of course I already have over 100 pipes, but most are from my ebay days and need to be restored.
Buying a new one sounded....um....easier.
As for tobacco, I HADN'T bought any in years....until last Spring when I returned from a 7 year hiatus.
I haven't added it up, and I'm not going to, but I've spent enough on tobacco in the last year to buy a used car!! Some just turned up today.
This new tobacco is being added to the 30 years of tobacco already in my cellar......soon to be cellars.

I tend to get carried away.

 

[ChubbyOldHiker]

Speaking of carried away...

Wahoo! Math!

I figure I get about 10 smokes per ounce of tobacco. For my favorite Atlas Balkan, at $4.22/oz, each smoke costs $0.42.

If I smoke 3 bowls a day, then I'm spending $1.26 per day to smoke.

If I live 30 more years, that means I'm spending $13,797.00 on tobacco. That amounts to 3,269.43 oz or 204.34 lbs of tobacco. If I buy it by the pound at $51.38, that's $10,498.96, a savings of just shy of $3,300! How many Brighams could I buy with THAT?? (Answer: LOTS.)

I used to smoke cheap Joya de Nicaragua cigarillos, at the rate of (at least) 3 per day. The best price I found for them was about $1.10 per stick. That's $3.30 a day, nearly triple the cost of my pipe tobacco consumption. 30 years of smoking at that price is $36,135.00, about $25k more than pipe smoking.

Obviously pipes, supplies, shipping, etc. aren't factored in. But from a purely economic standpoint, pipes are a no-brainer.

I should do a spreadsheet!

 

[Choatecav]

Even if I live to 104, and I am still smoking cigars then, I have 5 times more dog rockets than I'll ever smoke. Unless I start smoking several a day, which could happen, I suppose, after I retire. Currently, my hoard will more than fill two 120 qt. Igloo coolers. I don't say that to brag, because really, it a little embarrassing, but it has it's benefits. Yesterday I had the good fortune to enjoy a JR Dominican from some time before 2013. The cello was browned nicely, and the natural 52x5 or 6 was perfectly smooth, delicate and flush with a cornucopia of flavors, including pepper and rich floral notes. I say 2013 because that was the year that my in-laws moved out of Chapel Hill, NC, so that was the last year that I stopped shopping at JR in Statesville. This was a bundle cigar, probably around $39 for 25 or 30, and it was one of the more enjoyable cigars that I've had for a while now.

With cigar prices where they are now, and even with the excessive number of stogies I've accumulated, I still feel dumb not buying more when TobaccoPipes had their massive blowout a few months ago. I bought two or three boxes of excellent cigars, but should have jumped on the deal sooner while they still had Fuentes.

@woodsroad , I can literally feel your grief, shame and embarrassment and want to lend a hand to help you. If you will box a good portion of them up and ship to me, I will help bear your cross for you...... I know you are touched, but allow me to help.

I had 400 in my upright humidor at one time. Now, probably half that and still have a stick every now and again, but enjoy the pipe more. I got to where when folks came to the house (Terminix man, UPS driver, trash pick-up, etc.) I would offer them a cigar.

My problem was that I would buy all of these cigars when I did more international traveling and would say "I'll save these for a special occasion." Trouble was, the occasion rarely came.