Thanks for asking about my father, he’s alive but a bit mentally ill. He won’t listen to reason as I’ve begged him to get things together. I’ve offered to database the whole thing for him, but his mind is slipping. He enjoys just messing around and shuffles them around. He has collected seriously since the early 60’s and to say a million dollar collection would be an understatement. He has the very finest of the very hardest to find. It will be a shame when the hawks circle and there’s nothing I can do. I’ll try but my stepmother, though a good person could care less, and less about me.
Back to baccy... having a uniform system for your own book keeping is the main reason for the thread. The rest is speculation on a future I see based on events that are in motion continuing down the path. Growers will be given incentives for crop change to a more profitable plant that requires a tenth of the labor and issues. Right now we see that credibility in trading is taking form. Who you are will be very important in verifying your product. Just as an example, take pipes themselves…Who can make the difference in the thousands. A person can make an exact or even better identical pipe, but can only get maybe $150. While that pipe from a reputable man can be worth thousands. So that’s where bulk issues will come in play. Tins of course are much easier, but the bulk aged VA will be out there and people who can afford it, will buy it. Tobacco that has little VA never ages, just is stored with diminishing quality. (That’s another thread). Just like the Internet is destroying the B&M, future regulations on taxes applied to Internet sales will crush many of the websites now enjoying the golden days. Fewer buyers because of price will snowball down through the industry, making tobacco a luxury commodity. The common smokers will stop or move towards alternate means. Chemically they are making high grade vapors from the actual leaf and brand. Just like today, some people drive a Lexus and others a Camry. So those who can afford it will buy it, most will not. It will be a grey market, not illegal but hard to get, and who it is will mean everything. Another example, 10 years from now Harris posts 100 grams of 15 year old BBF for sale. How much do you think he would get compared to Joe nobody on the market. It’s a new world and anything is possible.
Personally I hope anyone who can, is cellaring for their own consumption. This is the same with cigars, but there value is a curve unlike pipe tobacco. Right now they’re flooding the market with new brands weekly. Enjoying the golden age knowing it will come to an end, and there will be a small percentage of people that have humidors stocked for 10+ years. So it’s an opinion, and I, like everyone, knows what that means. I’m stocking masons and tins at a rate that doesn’t affect my life style with the goal of being covered. Mine is data based and the family knows what my feelings are in 15+ years and being very Internet savvy will know what to do. Hell my bio-chemistry daughter may turn all the bulk into vapor.
Pipes on the other hand are collectables. Just like the example above their value isn’t just in function but as in all art and collectibles, it will depend on who makes it and condition. Many of the most beautiful pipes made today by great artisans will probably never be smoked. Would you smoke a mint never been smoked Preben Holm pipe you paid $2000 for? There are already a bunch of books on collecting rare pipes and comparing them to stamps and coins as collectables. Who and condition mean thousands, and these people don’t even smoke. Think about when you find a pipe for a thousand dollars, from one of the dead great artisans, and stuff $2 of FVF in it.
