SPC Price Points

[captainsousie]

So this is the problem with using acronyms. When I read this, I thought you were talking about smoking pipes.com which is also abbreviated SPC here, not Seattle Pipe Club. It might be worth it to do the old literary trick of spelling it out the first time and then putting in the acronym. If course that's just a utilitarian way of doing things.

 

[sablebrush52]

Prices are crazy everywhere. However, when I see a “luxury item” I can’t afford or refuse to buy …i just move on. The perception of quality comes with a ticket price, and it is the buyer’s responsibility to determine if it’s worth it. Not everyone has Caviar & Champagne taste…I’m partial to Choice Ribeye & Maxwell House. . That being said I doubt SPC pricing supports what’s in the can. ️

Have you actually smoked any of the SPC blends?

 

[sablebrush52]

Yes, it is. I dislike PP so much so that I've no desire to try any other SPC offering.

I hated Plum Pudding, but that’s not the blend’s fault. It’s a type of blend I don’t like. That said, I could recognize both the quality and the individuality in the approach and decided to explore further. Glad I did, since I stocked up on Hogshead later on.
I also disliked the Frogs and was put off of McClelland because of them. Fortunately I got over it and found wonderful blends that I get to enjoy.

 

[brian64]

View attachment 275278

I cannot speak for how other psyches work, but FWIW (which may be nothing), my own psyche reacts hard against any advertisement like this. I immediately feel manipulated and dig my heels in.

If I got online to buy this tin, and then when I was just about to complete the purchase I saw these words, my brain would immediately say "No" and not go through with the purchase.

But I must be unusual in that regard, or else they wouldn't use this kind of ad.

I'm exactly the same way. I have an allergic reaction to 99% of sales and marketing narratives, slogans and imagery.

Especially in more recent times...it's always been bad to some extent, and I don't watch TV but when I see the occasional clips of TV commercials these days I typically find them horrifying...they're like something from a '70s satire movie.

I do hear radio/podcast commercials a lot and have to turn the volume down...I just cannot tolerate them. I marvel at the fact that there are actually people who get paid to come up with that crap, which is supposed to actually appeal to the "consumer" and is instead laughably pathetic at best, and often insulting and revolting.

 

[sablebrush52]

I'm exactly the same way. I have an allergic reaction to 99% of sales and marketing narratives, slogans and imagery.

Especially in more recent times...it's always been bad to some extent, and I don't watch TV but when I see the occasional clips of TV commercials these days I typically find them horrifying...they're like something from a '70s satire movie.

I do hear radio/podcast commercials a lot and have to turn the volume down...I just cannot tolerate them. I marvel at the fact that there are actually people who get paid to come up with that crap, which is supposed to actually appeal to the "consumer" and is instead laughably pathetic at best, and often insulting and revolting.

All true. And still…it works.

 

[didimauw]

I haven’t tried their blends due to the price tag but I have wondered the same thing.

At first I was reading this thinking of smokingpipes.com.

I motion that henceforth the acronym “SPC” only be used for Seattle Pipe Club with “SP” or “SP.C” be used for smokingpipes.com.

Is there a second?

I assumed this was about smoking pipes.com

Now it makes sense.

 

[brian64]

Yes, and the irony is, the poisoned masses chomping on chemically laden GMO products like Doritos as they watch their mind-control devices TV's is one of the long-term consequences of the fall.

 

[Simmerdown☕️]

Have you actually smoked any of the SPC blends?

Yes. ️

 

[SBC]

I happen to like Plum Pudding, but to leave my taste out of it and instead consider the tastes of the buying public, compare PP to Arrango Balkan Supreme, as both fill approximately the same niche/sub-genre.

PP
TR score: 3.48
8 oz. price: $54.94 (advertised as cut down from $71.22)

Balkan Supreme
TR score: 3.75
8 oz. price: $24.63

For the record, I keep some PP around, and some BBA-PP -- I like both a lot.
My point is not whether I as an individual happen to like PP better than Balkan Supreme. My point is just that if the TR scores woud still represent the proportional preference of the majority when scaled to similar sample size, and yet the price difference is accepted, then it must be accepted for reasons other than relative enjoyment of the tobacco (considered in those dimensions which are reflected in a TR score).

And that is fine. It's just an observation and a related guess as to business strategy.

 

[SBC]

So this is the problem with using acronyms. When I read this, I thought you were talking about smoking pipes.com which is also abbreviated SPC here, not Seattle Pipe Club. It might be worth it to do the old literary trick of spelling it out the first time and then putting in the acronym. If course that's just a utilitarian way of doing things.

Thank you for the heads up! As you can see, you weren't alone in taking SPC to mean SmokingPipes -- I should have foreseen that and instead done just what you recommend. Spelling the first time and abbreviating thereafter is good practice. Forgive me and thank you for the reminder!

 

[captainsousie]

Thank you for the heads up! As you can see, you weren't alone in taking SPC to mean SmokingPipes -- I should have foreseen that and instead done just what you recommend. Spelling the first time and abbreviating thereafter is good practice. Forgive me and thank you for the reminder!

No worries, just a confused middle aged man here.

 

[Servant King]

Not a fan of Seattle Pipe Club myself, but I'm even less of a fan of SPC being used for SmokingPipes in lieu of what I think it should be abbreviated as: SP! The C just throws everything off. You don't see people using TPC or PCC to refer to TobaccoPipes and Pipes & Cigars respectively, so why do it with SmokingPipes? Am I missing something here?

Anyway, Hogshead I thought was pretty good. Plum Pudding I thought was average, certainly not worth the hype. Give Me Liberty should be renamed "Give Me Dry Time." I'd take any of a half a dozen or so VA flakes I can think of off the top of my head over any of Seattle Pipe Club's VA offerings, and any of about a dozen English blends over PP. And come out of the experience better off financially, to boot.

YMMV

 

[sablebrush52]

I happen to like Plum Pudding, but to leave my taste out of it and instead consider the tastes of the buying public, compare PP to Arrango Balkan Supreme, as both fill approximately the same niche/sub-genre.

PP
TR score: 3.48
8 oz. price: $54.94 (advertised as cut down from $71.22)

Balkan Supreme
TR score: 3.75
8 oz. price: $24.63

For the record, I keep some PP around, and some BBA-PP -- I like both a lot.
My point is not whether I as an individual happen to like PP better than Balkan Supreme. My point is just that if the TR scores woud still represent the proportional preference of the majority when scaled to similar sample size, and yet the price difference is accepted, then it must be accepted for reasons other than relative enjoyment of the tobacco (considered in those dimensions which are reflected in a TR score).

And that is fine. It's just an observation and a related guess as to business strategy.

This is, within limits, a reasonable approach to framing the question. The limits would be the value and legitimacy of the TR overall rating - its argument being that the more popular something is the better it is - and the other limiting factor being that Arango Balkan Supreme and SPC Plum Pudding are the same product. Otherwise, how would it be different from comparing a Tesla to a Prius because they are both cars?

 

[AppalachianPipe92]

View attachment 275278

I cannot speak for how other psyches work, but FWIW (which may be nothing), my own psyche reacts hard against any advertisement like this. I immediately feel manipulated and dig my heels in.

If I got online to buy this tin, and then when I was just about to complete the purchase I saw these words, my brain would immediately say "No" and not go through with the purchase.

But I must be unusual in that regard, or else they wouldn't use this kind of ad.

Gotta appeal to the consumer mindset that is the American culture.
Work, consume, die.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

While I do admit to wincing at the price of the recent holiday version of Plum Pudding, I’m glad I got it, especially because I missed last year’s iteration, which I didn’t get to experience. I enjoy a number of Seattle Pipe Club blends, but that has nothing to do with its packaging or the ads that appear on this site—I enjoy smoking them, so I buy them. I have a commissioned pipe that I’ve dedicated to Plum Pudding and its variants. I can be found smoking this pipe most Saturdays for about five hours while I watch men and women beat each other up. The blend is tasty and burns well. The money is already spent and I don’t think about the price tag while I’m smoking. All tobaccos are luxury items if you don’t need them, regardless of cost.

 

[alaskanpiper]

Say what you will about the prices, but Hogshead is one of the best new releases in years. I happily paid for 5 more tins of it after bowl number 1, which for me is an extraordinary amount of a single tobacco.

For me, yes, it really is good enough for the price.

Esoterica/Gawith etc. regularly retail for nearly $20/50g tin. I bet people would happily pay even more for them if you told them they’d be available for months on end like SPC blends are.

Or perhaps they wouldn’t, for precisely the same reason

 

[Tbaggins]

View attachment 275278

I cannot speak for how other psyches work, but FWIW (which may be nothing), my own psyche reacts hard against any advertisement like this. I immediately feel manipulated and dig my heels in.

If I got online to buy this tin, and then when I was just about to complete the purchase I saw these words, my brain would immediately say "No" and not go through with the purchase.

But I must be unusual in that regard, or else they wouldn't use this kind of ad.

Saw this the other day and had the same reaction. Looks like a crusty throwback to old school cigarette adverts only worse. Hopefully doesn’t become the norm.

 

[Auxsender]

I'm a big fan of Deception Pass (the only SPC I've tried so far). Thank you for the plug re Hogshead! that will be the next one I open, to go with a new pipe I've been mulling what to have as 'first smoke.'

If you like Deception Pass, you’ll love Galloping Gertie. It’s incredible.

 

[jipper]

Seattle pipe club blends are made by Sutliff who must take a cut. And the pipe club itself with members and the blender, Joe Langford, must make some profit in the deal. I always thought I was helping their club get along. So I dIsn’t mind paying the extra.

I really dislike paying huge premiums on discontinued tobaccos whose market has perhaps been driven up by FOMO.

Fear of missing out.

I visited a great independent tobacconist in a Berlin recently. Great knowledge of the whole industry. Had so much fun talking about all the tobacco houses, all the drama, and the soap opera-ness of it all.

Standing in Der Pfeifenladen made me believe these years of so much to choose from in pipe blends will never end.

Here’s hoping.

 

[andrew]

I think folks are feeling a thing called inflation. I remember when SPC were 10$ a tin. Every blend is more noticeably expensive. Easily 25% more