Prices Through the Years

[frozenchurchwarden]

You can check the invoice history for everything you bought at Smokingpipes.com.
The price of Stokkebye Luxury Twist Flake in Bulk has gone up 1.68x, and C&D Autumn Evening is 1.70x more expensive!
Five Brothers is 1.48x more expensive.
Escudo is 1.44x more.
Orlik Golden Sliced is 1.37x more.
C&D Star of the East is 1.32x more.
A tin of Molto Dolce is 1.29x more.
An 8oz Tin of G.L. Pease is 1.23x more today, unless you caught it on sale in which case the price is the same, though I can't remember if G.L. Pease blends were discounted regularly 8 years ago.

For whatever reason the price of MacBaren Mixture: Scottish Blend has gone down from $13.89 to currently $13.30.

 

[tfdickson]

The logic is simple assuming you agree that most tobacco improves with age. Stock your cellar to the size you can afford both in money and space. If tobacco goes up in price and/or becomes extinct, you made a great move. If the prices only increses modestly and its plentiful in ten to twenty years, you're smoking nicely aged tobacco all the time. Nobody has a crystal ball but the former seems much more likely. Regardless, I'm missing any downside to building your cellar if you're serious about smoking a pipe.

Bingo. I was slowly stockpiling from 2000 to 2016, up to a cellar of roughly 60lb. The entire time it was not for fear that good pipe tobacco would go away, just that it was absurdly cheap and time only made it better. When it seemed clear McC was closing shop I did my panic buys before the official announcement (40th, #24, and Blackwoods) and after that I accelerated my stockpiling of other blends. By the end of 2019 I was around 200lb. 2020 I added some more, very little this year. I’m done with aggressive cellaring but I’ll still try new blends and if one rings the bell I’ll add at least 3 lb of it to the cellar. Premium pipe tobacco used to be practically free, and now after doubling over the last 10 years it’s just cheap. Both then and now it‘s a no-brainer to buy what you like and put it away no matter what the future brings.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Which gas company? Or were you referring to gasoline?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Which gas company? Or were you referring to gasoline?

Oh, this wasn’t an actual excerpt from a budget, but up until three years ago, the utilities were merely called Alabama Gas and Alabama Power. But, then they changed their name to Spire. Our natural gas bill is like $15 a month. The joke was that I paid more for tobacco than food (misspelled Foof) which I do.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

There has been a modest increase in tobacco prices online since I joined the forums. I wasn't even aware that you COULD buy tobacco online at the time, because all other forms of tobacco is illegal in my state to buy online or have delivered. But, what we are paying online is damn near wholesale prices, which pisses a lot of B&M's off; (eg) the owner of the Briary spits in the floor at the mere mention of smokingpipes.
But, if this were any other hobby or endeavor without us being able to purchase from a distributor, you would have really noticed an increase in prices. Escudo at a B&M used to be like $17 a tin, and now it is like $35 a tin. And, in Alabama, no other tax increases for pipe tobacco have been issued.

Dealing directly with Laudsi (smokingpipes) or the other warehouse based distributor P&C, with little overhead, we get the illusion that prices are mostly staying stable. But, for B&M's with higher (HUGE) overheads, the prices are going up at a much greater rate. Of course, I haven't been to every B&M, but the ones I have been to while travelling the Southeast all seem to have about the same keystones.

Like I said, if this were an endeavor in which we could not buy directly online, we would have all been singing a different tune when we discuss prices.

 

[fireground_piper]

If a B&M doesn’t have an online branch of their business that seems to be more a failing of the business. Instead of spitting at smoking pipes, they should have and push an online platform of their store to reap similar benefits. Plenty of places do and enjoy such expanded audience.

 

[lukasstrifeson]

You can check the invoice history for everything you bought at Smokingpipes.com.
The price of Stokkebye Luxury Twist Flake in Bulk has gone up 1.68x, and C&D Autumn Evening is 1.70x more expensive!
Five Brothers is 1.48x more expensive.
Escudo is 1.44x more.
Orlik Golden Sliced is 1.37x more.
C&D Star of the East is 1.32x more.
A tin of Molto Dolce is 1.29x more.
An 8oz Tin of G.L. Pease is 1.23x more today, unless you caught it on sale in which case the price is the same, though I can't remember if G.L. Pease blends were discounted regularly 8 years ago.

For whatever reason the price of MacBaren Mixture: Scottish Blend has gone down from $13.89 to currently $13.30.

Sorry your wording is confusing here.

When you say Escudo is 1.44x more, do you mean 144% more now than 10 years ago?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

If a B&M doesn’t have an online branch of their business that seems to be more a failing of the business. Instead of spitting at smoking pipes, they should have and push an online platform of their store to reap similar benefits. Plenty of places do and enjoy such expanded audience.

Different business models have different processes. In our area, there are enough pipesmokers to justify a business not having an online site. The Briary for example has pipes on their website, and they've tried to keep up tobacco online, but because they are a B&M still with a huge overhead, that they cannot possibly compete with smokingpipes. I think that they have some of their tobaccos online, but when Laudsi is the distributor, offering you and me just about the same prices as their wholesale to B&M's they can't exactly turn around and sell that tobacco back to us at the same price. They also can't offer cheaper tobacco online than they sell it for in shop.
Plus the cost and time involved makes it hard as shit for a store that only has one or two employees to keep the shelves stocked, customers served, the place cleaned, and then turn around and expect them to be taking picture of everything that comes in and typing up marketing scripts.
Sure, every store needs a presence of some sort, but they all don't have to necessarily have the same sort of offerings. There are tons of cigars stores and several other small pipe shops that have no online presence whatsoever and are doing great... because there are way more pipe and cigar smokers here apparently than anywhere else. I see guys smoking pipes in their trucks and cars every day.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Sorry your wording is confusing here.

When you say Escudo is 1.44x more, do you mean 144% more now than 10 years ago?

Yes.
In 2014 the price was $9.91, today it costs $14.28.

 

[fireground_piper]

Different business models have different processes. In our area, there are enough pipesmokers to justify a business not having an online site. The Briary for example has pipes on their website, and they've tried to keep up tobacco online, but because they are a B&M still with a huge overhead, that they cannot possibly compete with smokingpipes. I think that they have some of their tobaccos online, but when Laudsi is the distributor, offering you and me just about the same prices as their wholesale to B&M's they can't exactly turn around and sell that tobacco back to us at the same price. They also can't offer cheaper tobacco online than they sell it for in shop.
Plus the cost and time involved makes it hard as shit for a store that only has one or two employees to keep the shelves stocked, customers served, the place cleaned, and then turn around and expect them to be taking picture of everything that comes in and typing up marketing scripts.
Sure, every store needs a presence of some sort, but they all don't have to necessarily have the same sort of offerings. There are tons of cigars stores and several other small pipe shops that have no online presence whatsoever and are doing great... because there are way more pipe and cigar smokers here apparently than anywhere else. I see guys smoking pipes in their trucks and cars every day.

That’s just a laundry list of excuses in reality. One can’t crap on an online retailer and then have excuses why they don’t have an online presence themselves. Boswell does it, cupojoes does it, many others do it and they are small family businesses who made the decision to invest in an online market platform for part of their business in addition to their physical retail store. As far as I’m aware, when these stores sell online they are as or close to as competitive as other online retailers because they don’t have to charge the local excise tax to an out of state purchase. I pay the same price for a tin of GL Pease at cupojoes as I do smoking pipes.

if they just don’t want to do it for whatever reason, that’s fine but don’t claim it as a disadvantage when there’s no actual real blocker to restricting them from doing it. That’s not an accurate depiction.

 

[lukasstrifeson]

Yes.
In 2014 the price was $9.91, today it costs $14.28.

Thanks, that's what I assumed. But for some reason when I read it earlier 1.44x more, I kept thinking it was 1.44x on top I guess. But yea, glad it's slightly more reasonable... LOL

 

[cosmicfolklore]

That’s just a laundry list of excuses in reality. One can’t crap on an online retailer and then have excuses why they don’t have an online presence themselves. Boswell does it, cupojoes does it, many others do it and they are small family businesses who made the decision to invest in an online market platform for part of their business in addition to their physical retail store. As far as I’m aware, when these stores sell online they are as or close to as competitive as other online retailers because they don’t have to charge the local excise tax to an out of state purchase. I pay the same price for a tin of GL Pease at cupojoes as I do smoking pipes.

if they just don’t want to do it for whatever reason, that’s fine but don’t claim it as a disadvantage when there’s no actual real blocker to restricting them from doing it. That’s not an accurate depiction.

Ha ha, okie dokie. Next time I am standing in line at one of these places, I’ll let them know that you think that they don’t know how to run their businesses.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I paid more for tobacco than food (misspelled Foof) which I do.

With my overactive thyroid, I pay quite a bit for food, but my tobacco spending was still more.?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

With my overactive thyroid, I pay quite a bit for food, but my tobacco spending was still more.?

We grow most of our foods, so grains, meat, and coffee are really all we have to buy.

 

[Chasing Embers]

We grow most of our foods

I miss that. Hoping one day when the kids are grown I can settle back into farming.

 

[fireground_piper]

Ha ha, okie dokie. Next time I am standing in line at one of these places, I’ll let them know that you think that they don’t know how to run their businesses.

Not what I said. I said there’s no standing for them to complain about an online business because they choose not to partake in it.

 

[saltedplug]

The logic is simple assuming you agree that most tobacco improves with age. Stock your cellar to the size you can afford both in money and space. If tobacco goes up in price and/or becomes extinct, you made a great move. If the prices only increses modestly and its plentiful in ten to twenty years, you're smoking nicely aged tobacco all the time. Nobody has a crystal ball but the former seems much more likely. Regardless, I'm missing any downside to building your cellar if you're serious about smoking a pipe.

Some useful prognostication clothed in good sense.

 

[cigrmaster]

It is kind of funny as back when I loaded up I spent much more at P&C as their prices were cheaper. I also spent a good amount at 4noggins mostly on Wessex product as for some reason they had a lot of Wessex Product than most others. This was also a time when we didn't go yelling to the world who had just got a drop. It was considered poor form telling the whole world who had what. People kept their mouths shit so things lasted in stock much longer. If you had a buddy we would tell them, but only close buddies got a heads up. We never started threads saying so and so just got Esoterica in stock. We also didn't tell anyone if a small mom and pop got something good in. We had a crew who kept their mouths shut and if you found something good for you. For example Peck found out SP got Klondike Gold in and he bought probably bought 150 tins before he told me about them. I called him a prick for holding out and then bought 150 plus tins. This was way before limits were installed. If they had those when I built my cellar I would have been pissed. My guy who sold me all his SG stock 5 pounds at a wack was great. Pounds were 52 and change and as much as I hated bulks I bought around 42 pounds within 2 weeks. I split it up with Best Brown, Full Virginia and St James Flakes. In todays world of every telling everyone what has come in and and the limitis that are on the hard to finds, building a cellar is a full time job,

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It is kind of funny as back when I loaded up I spent much more at P&C as their prices were cheaper. I also spent a good amount at 4noggins mostly on Wessex product as for some reason they had a lot of Wessex Product than most others. This was also a time when we didn't go yelling to the world who had just got a drop. It was considered poor form telling the whole world who had what. People kept their mouths shit so things lasted in stock much longer. If you had a buddy we would tell them, but only close buddies got a heads up. We never started threads saying so and so just got Esoterica in stock. We also didn't tell anyone if a small mom and pop got something good in. We had a crew who kept their mouths shut and if you found something good for you. For example Peck found out SP got Klondike Gold in and he bought probably bought 150 tins before he told me about them. I called him a prick for holding out and then bought 150 plus tins. This was way before limits were installed. If they had those when I built my cellar I would have been pissed. My guy who sold me all his SG stock 5 pounds at a wack was great. Pounds were 52 and change and as much as I hated bulks I bought around 42 pounds within 2 weeks. I split it up with Best Brown, Full Virginia and St James Flakes. In todays world of every telling everyone what has come in and and the limitis that are on the hard to finds, building a cellar is a full time job,

That’s as it should be. I tried explaining to newbies why making posts like that are poor form, but they’d get all butthurt by it. Now, I just avoid those threads, knowing whatever it was they were posting about would be gone before members could even read it. People don’t realize that we have more lurkers than members, and it doesn’t help their friends, the actual members at all.

 

[mingc]

2012
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2021
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As I recall, Mac Baren used to be cheaper than the rest, like Dunhill, SG, GH, GLP, McClelland, etc. Then, they started the more "premium" HH line and slowly started upping prices to where they are today. So, I don't think its simply inflation; they also decided to raise prices to match their competitors. At least, that's what I remember.