The Contradiction I Feel.
- Thread starter Alejo R.
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I've seen Barling collections that make mine look like regurgitated dog food. Items like large unsmoked Quaints, mint cased sets of ten unsmoked Barlings, Family Era giants, incredible straight grains, and on and on. I have a few nice things, but not DOZENS of nice things. When you have the $$$$, and a lot of patience, you can get anything."modest" collection
UNDERSTATEMENT, Jesse
Sorry to hear that hasn't worked out for you. I've never tried to sell more than three at a time
Reminds me of how my dad saw my cellar and was astonished at how much tobacco I have. If he only knew some people have mail calls greater than that every month
It's all a matter of perspective. By some standards I have a large cellar full of legendary blends, By other standards I have the modest beginnings of a cellar with some decent tobaccos in it, in small supply, and few of the classics of years gone by.
I'm enough aware of what some people have amassed over years of avid collecting to know that my own cellar is pretty unremarkable, with a little choice stuff, way smaller than most for someone who's been around pipes and tobaccos for as long as I have.
It's like pipe collections. Most people on this and other forums have no idea, not the beginnings of a concept, of what a world class pipe collection looks like, and we're not talking about size, size takes no skill, but quality, rarity and historicity.
And it's not like it really matters, unless you're in the competition and this sort of stuff matters to you.
I’m down to six pipes, the rest (including pipes that need stem repairs or overall restoration) went into a storage tote yesterday. I’m done buying pipes.
Next step: Selling.
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I’ve said and done the same about tobacco, but somehow can’t make it stick. I’m still buying. If I live longer than my mother (97), I will not smoke all that I have. I think I’ll have to jettison all you enablers if I’m ever going to succeed in getting back to rational behavior!
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...and then suddenly around the year 2025, we began witnessing PAD mutating into Pipe Abandonment Disorder.
Helplessness and despair set in as the new contagion began to claim its victims.
Helplessness and despair set in as the new contagion began to claim its victims.
For Sale: Brian64
This was a very good and highly entertaining blend for many years, but recent changes have rendered it depressingly realistic.
Exactly, and for somebody like my dad who had no idea anybody still smoked pipes I'm sure it's baffling to learn some of us cellar and have a rotation rather just than buy a pouch, smoke it up, then buy another. I had to explain to him about aging, the STG situation, and the deeming. Oh and the fact there's like six different genres of blends each with lots of variety within them.
Yeah, that's a good description of 99.99% of pipe smokers. Cellaring didn't start to become a thing, and then only on a tiny level, until the 1980's. It didn't really grow much until the early 2000's.
I did what most pipe smokers did, buy what I needed for a few weeks and then replenish. I only smoked a handful of blends, changing out blends as I got bored with them and looked for something new. Most of the pipes smokers I knew back then had a couple of blends they liked and stuck with them. Nobody thought about cellaring.
Still, I somehow managed to build up a few pounds of tobaccos without the intention of cellaring them, more a matter of not having time to get to the tobacconist when my career got super busy. No intention of aging tobaccos.
When blends started to disappear I bought some just to have them. So the pile went to more than a few pounds, but not by that much.
When my favorite pipe shop was sold, the owner invited me to come pick out what I wanted from his remaining stock before ownership changed, and since sales of pipe tobacco has seriously dropped in LA during the late '90's and early 2000's, there was a lot of stock, like various Rattray's blends, McClelland Blends, MacBaren Vintage Syrian and Acadian Perique, sitting around with a number of years on it, some of the Rattrays had 20 years on it, and I was getting it at cost. Who wouldn't take that deal?
When the shop reopened under the new owner, pipes and pipe tobaccos were gone.
No one was buying pipes or pipe tobaccos. All of the action was in cigars.
It never occurred to me that people would be willing to spend serious dollars on vintage tobacco. It it had, I could have snapped up dozens of tins of Murray's made Dunhill at a few bucks a tin, as well as McClelland blends, but it wasn't what I smoked at the time, so I didn't. I only bought what I thought I'd smoke. Joke's on me.
It wasn't until I arrived at this forum that I really began putting away the things I really enjoy smoking, as signs that the future marketplace would become more constricted became obvious. None of this had anything to do with aging, just with having the blends I liked available.
Considering the period when I started smoking a pipe, all of this adulation over certain blends, reviews, worry about "doing it right" etc, feels a little fetishistic. It was all so much simpler and straightforward 50 years ago.
Yeah and for the longest time I was under the impression that codgerdom was now a dwindling minority and the way people on this forum and elsewhere do it was now the norm. It wasn't until the drama with STD deciding we aren't worth catering to that I realized how wrong I was. The guys who just buy Smoker's Pride at the Kroger or the same bulk aro at a B&M probably don't even know about pipe forums, so it really does create a misleading perception of the customer base when it's not actively discussed. I think in coming years there will begin to be more of a shift as more codgers die off and more people get into it from watching YTPC, especially since OTCs are getting harder and harder to find at most stores.
Pipe and tobacco "enthusiasts" represent about 4%, if that much, of the total population, based on my best guess crunching numbers. We're not in the least representative.
Which is exactly why STD decided we aren't worth catering to. Hell the only reason Sutliff was able to do so much for us was because made tons of stuff for the other 96%
And because, as mentioned previously, these deeming rules will basically kill any innovation that took place since 2007 ad infinitum. Sadly enough that was also a big part of this decision from what Leonard said.
And depending on how much the FDA decides to crack down on that in the years to come it could really kill things off as far as what remains for the "boutique" segment... People on here like to say "as long as there's a market there will be someone to fill it". Well not if the penalties for filling it are $1.5 million for each non-registered blend and other than Laudisi everyone else is an independent entrepreneur (like KBV) ... at that point I think becoming a coke dealer makes more sense for risk/reward lol.
Basically we're getting it from all ends... big corporate $, overbearing legal prohibition, and an ever waning demographic/demand.. at least users-wise. Will it happen tmrw, no. I'm sure there will be great tobaccos 10 years from now... but far less than 5 years from now and that many less than today.
Ooooh, 4% seems to me to be off by a factor of at least 10, probably 100. Maybe 4% of all pipe smokers…
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YouTube is cutting out tobacco related material dye to not being able to monetize it. They deleted all of my videos due to inappropriate content (tobacco use).
I didn't even know you had one. You're right, even the big names like Spurgeon have been getting a lot of stuff nuked. No other video site is even comparable in reach so there's not really anywhere else to replace it. I think Pipe Cottage started his own platform but I wouldn't touch anything from him with a 39 and a half foot pole
Id personally keep a few just regular pipes for bang around purposes and sell all the ones that are "Just pipes"
Keep the ones you like
Even if you dont always smoke them you may come back to them for the sake of variety.
If you really dont care about some of them move em on. I think its better to have X number of nice pipes vs a larger number of "Just a pipe" pipes.
Im getting rid of a lot I dont like as much as my main body of pipes. There are a hand full of pipes that I really like but dont often smoke. I will keep those.
That doesnt mean you need to get rid of them now. In my limited experience, eventually pipes you are not attached to will go in a box to sell and you will not feel conflicted. If you feel conflicted you just are not ready yet...and thats ok. You are not deprving someone of a pipe by keeping them.
Keep the ones you like
Even if you dont always smoke them you may come back to them for the sake of variety.
If you really dont care about some of them move em on. I think its better to have X number of nice pipes vs a larger number of "Just a pipe" pipes.
Im getting rid of a lot I dont like as much as my main body of pipes. There are a hand full of pipes that I really like but dont often smoke. I will keep those.
That doesnt mean you need to get rid of them now. In my limited experience, eventually pipes you are not attached to will go in a box to sell and you will not feel conflicted. If you feel conflicted you just are not ready yet...and thats ok. You are not deprving someone of a pipe by keeping them.
Why is that? Just wondering... I've seen a few of his vids... generally okay to annoyingly slow and mundane imo lol
Is there some kind of beef I don't know about though? haha