Specialty, Short-Run Tobacco Blends - Worth It?

[logs]

I was very fond of Steven Books House of Calabash blends. My favorite blend was more than $10/oz. There was, in my opinion, something special here. Could be the skill of the blender... could be the aged tobacco he used. I can’t quantify it, but I always paid more for Mr. Books creations.

House of Calabash is an unusual example. They were/are known for blending with well aged tobacco, 10 or more years old. You're paying for the aging as much as the skill of the blender.

From my perspective, if a pipe smoker really wants the unicorn blends they'd do better to look at the actual small American blenders like House of Calabash, Uhle, Watch City and Perreti. These small blenders are today's McClelland. All that has to happen for one of them to go belly up is for the owner to die or retire without having a family member willing to take over (which in today's economy seems as likely as any scenario).

 

[peregrinus]

Technically, if you are not sending it to pipestud to sell it, you are valuing it higher than whatever you’d get from the deal. What would it net you, say, $80-$90 an ounce or so?

Hadn’t fully thought about a net profit.
Well let’s see, if approached as an investment and if I sent it to Steve to sell, I would receive a net profit about $75.00 an ounce after initial purchase cost, postage, Steve’s commission and any applicable taxes due are deducted. This number can be further refined if we account for inflation and take the relative value of $8.00 15 years ago vs $8.00 in today’s world. Of course, in this scenario, as with most investments, you neither make nor lose money until you actually sell, so it’s all academic.