Thanks for the heads up. I hit the Balkan Flake as well as I remember smoking it years ago, and threw in a St James Plug which I think I will like. It'll take a while until I get them as I sent it to my firm's UK office and will pick up the next time me, or a colleague, are over there.
The real question is, and what I've wondered for anyone who collects vintage consumables, when the hell do you open it?! Like having a bottle of wine from the Titanic, or one of the Mayan cigars (ok I am exaggerating a tad here), do I put it in a glass case like a saint's relic for public pilgrimage, do I dress up in a suit and tie and set up the "perfect" conditions for consuming it, do I share it with friends (though I don't have any pipe-smoking friends)? Or - as usual - do I keep it for that one occasion which never actually comes? Oh and when I arbitrarily decide it came, the overblown expectations mean the actual experience is a bit of a letdown (a bit like perfect sex, it is never the "set up" kind, it is more often the middle of the day, kids are out for 45 minutes kind). Or do I load up and smoke it in a day in my torn jeans and sweater, then pulling the tin out of the drawer to look at for many years to come? I am being a bit sarcastic towards myself here, but would like to hear others' opinions despite the off-topic nature of the paragraph. I never smoked "vintage" tobacco, and just started buying more than I can smoke.