New FDA Regs; What Isn't Affected?

[cigrmaster]

I have no clue as to what any of this means so I am just going to buy everything I can get my hands on until the retailers run out of the blends I like to smoke.
Seriously though, I just bought a 100 tins of Capstan Blue Flake, 75 tins of Klondike Gold, as many tins of Fribourg & Treyer Cut Virginia Plug I can get my hands on and so on. I had stopped buying months ago as I had completed my 250 pound cellar and had no intentions of buying anymore until this new FDA ruling went into affect. Now that there are going to be blends that are most certainly going to be discontinued, I will start buying again as I honestly believe that pipe tobacco is going to be a great investment down the road. I can see tins I pay 10 dollars for now going for 100.00 plus 10-20 years from now and there is no way I can get a better return on my money by letting it sit in some stupid savings account getting .1%.
Does anyone else see their money getting a better return by letting it sit getting a lousy .1% or do you see pipe tobacco being a really good investment? I am serious about this, do you think I am crazy or do you also see this as a wise investment strategy?

 

[pipesmokingtom]

Seems wise - unless the government bans private resale of tobacco products. Wouldn't surprise me if they did.

 

[sablebrush52]

Seems wise - unless the government bans private resale of tobacco products. Wouldn't surprise me if they did.

Owww. Bummer, dude.
Harris, only time will tell. Many of these blends may bite the dust. The market for tobacco may bit the dust. I may bite the dust, in which case I don't really care how it all turns out.
Maybe 10,000 cellars, whose masters have croaked out, fallen off the twig, are eating dirt sandwiches, will be up for sale. When those 150,000 tins of '50's through '70's Balkan Sobranie hit the market, will they all be worth $700 per ounce?

 

[andrew]

According to my online retailer of choice international customers won't really be affected by this, as I was worried about my favorite blend being discontinued. It's only shipping within the US that will be. So Canadians and others outside of the US might be able to make a nice business of shipping tobacco to the US of blends American's can no longer get. So basically GL Pease etc. will be able to ship outside of the US the post 2007 blends, or simply find someone outside of the US to make the blends and continue to make them. Then simply have a european company, or perhaps Canada's native americans could cash in big time using their tax exempt status to start making these blends then shipping them internationally, like to the US. There's going to be loopholes to exploit, there always is.

 

[jacks6]

These loopholes sound potentially super expensive.

 

[andrew]

Yes it will definitely be a game changer, so stocking up is the best option, but theoretically these blends can still be produced. Especially if Brexit happens and the british pound gets on par with the US dollar, there could be a pipe tobacco boom over there.

 

[andrew]

That might work for discontinued blends that were in production in 2007, though I really think not. But something like Balkan Sobranie, which was not in production in 2007, will be subject to the deeming process, or go out of production. Hmmmmmmmmmmm...maybe not such a bad thing in the case of this version.

Germains isn't a US company so I don't know why they'd stop producing blends.

 

[sablebrush52]

Germains isn't a US company so I don't know why they'd stop producing blends.

I should clarify. It's not that Germain's can't keep making and selling Balkan Sobranie. It's that they can't sell it here because it wasn't in production on Feb 15 2007.
As I recall from looking at the Rules, foreign manufacturers who wish to continue to sell pre 2007 blends here will have to submit their recipes to the FDA and follow FDA regs on their products. They will need to register their blends by December 31st. In the meantime they should be able to continue to export to the US.
Have any of the foreign manufacturers indicated whether or not they're willing to meet the registration requirements?

 

[andrew]

@Sable welcome to the wonderful world of grey areas and online shipping. Considering people in the US have been importing cubans since the embargo through the mail service, I think it's going to become a similar thing for Americans that the rest of the world already experiences. It's not illegal for a company to ship internationally, it's potentially illegal for someone to order it, and there's enough companies that can't be touched by the US because the US doesn't have jurisdiction. Switzerland is already known as a prime location american's have been ordering cuban's from, so I think it's going to be a similar thing in the end. It just won't be the same prices you guys are paying at the moment. I can't see companies like SG or G&H jumping through the hoops, same with Germains, plus they sell enough in the UK alone to survive.

 

[andrew]

Actually putting it in perspective now it almost looks like MacBaren was testing the waters for the new line of pricing for tobacco in the US.

 

[sablebrush52]

@Andy, well with that scenario, Esoterica will not continue to be imported to the US, though it's a product made under contract for the US market. I suppose the owners of the Esoterica brand could simply sell it elsewhere. Likewise, the Smokers Haven blends will go up in smoke.
That should cause a stampede!

 

[zekest]

Waiting for the FDA to ban internet sales of all smoking materials; tobacco, pipes, cigars, rolling machines, vape juice, and vaporizers...because children might purchase anomalously.
Like purchasing cigarettes online.

 

[sablebrush52]

Waiting for the FDA to ban internet sales of all smoking materials; tobacco, pipes, cigars, rolling machines, vape juice, and vaporizers...because children might purchase anomalously.

Wouldn't surprise me a bit, but having read through the proceedings, the FDA was pressed to order such a ban and it refused, citing their belief that on line vendors requiring proof of age should be sufficient. That doesn't mean that they won't do that in future, by I do find it interesting that the FDA declined to take that action.

 

[andrew]

Like purchasing cigarettes online.

You can purchase cigarettes online, there's many companies in eastern europe that sell cigarettes online. The FDA doesn't have jurisdiction over the internet. Have you heard of the dark web? There was a site that was selling illegal drugs over the internet called silk road, I don't know if it was based in the US or not, but many americans were buying things like cocaine, lsd etc. online using it. It got shut down and the owner was charged and sentenced, but then several sites popped up overnight selling the same substances. It's like with neo-nazi groups in Germany, it's illegal to engage in hate speech and holocaust denial, so they use severs based in other countries to run it. There will be ways around this too that creative people will come up with.

 

[blendtobac]

Germains isn't a US company so I don't know why they'd stop producing blends.

Germain doesn't have use of the trademark for Balkan Sobranie. That's licensed to Arango, which is a US company.
Russ

 

[piper64]

Are we going to see guys dealing baggies of Christmas cheer on street corners soon :puffpipe:

 

[Chasing Embers]

Taking a look at eBay I think they already are. No plans to sell here though. I commissioned this pipe especially for it.

 

[mso489]

Chasing, hey, I have a tin of that! You have a corner on the market. Also a nice tin of Navy Cavendish and Dark Star.

 

[bouwser]

So I keep reading about thse awesome blends of McClellands. As I am new to this, should I be on the lookout for a decently priced tin? The Dark Star really seems interesting to me if not by name alone.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Sure, why not? OTOH, why chase stuff that's hard to get and $$, when there are thousands more, hundreds as good or better?