What A Joke

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

excellent points.

maybe they have to keep the luxury and pipe tobacco/pipes etc hidden from the internet lest they be hassled by their government in some way?

Or maybe the hidden Chinese demand isn't real at all.. "Hey, buy my pipes.. The rich chinese love em. That's why I charge a grand for them."

 

[jerseysam]

excellent points.

maybe they have to keep the luxury and pipe tobacco/pipes etc hidden from the internet lest they be hassled by their government in some way?

I'll preface, right at the start, that this is all navel-gazing on my part so nothing meant more seriously than noodling on "Damn, where is all the pipe stuff going so quick?"L

Re China: I no longer travel their regular, and there's other posters likely much more on-point on their take....but from a decade of doing business there I *personally* got the picture that the modern Chinese government was more than fine with it's business and upper-class folks buying whatever they want from around the world. There was a huge, money'd, college-educated, western-brand savy crowd even 10 years ago and it's grown. At least for that urban crowd, it was not social control/60's era Maoist peasant fantasy stuff (from my foreign interpretation /expectation going in).....it was 'make money our way : follow orders our way'. Nobody had to hide luxury trips, vacations, or purchases.....but holy smokes if you/your 'princeling' kids caused a ruckus that got attention in the sticks, you in some serious doo-doo son. Not current year America shamed on internet doo-doo.....but like "Your husband fell ill during a discussion with party members and passed away....here is the bill for the medical expenses and party member time" kind of doo-doo. Again though, luxury brand 'everything' was all around....and demand was so deep and strong I'm not just talking one big brand in a category.....

Now, the sole reason I brought China/Chinese market up......is pure anecdotal pipe/tobacco browsing for the last two years. Just like many members on this board I'm sure....whether it's whisky/bourbon, guns, pens, knives, antique tools, antiques guns, whatever....we're all used to some type of relative spending (not crazy custom rich) hobby, You learn the releases, demands, what will drive what prices, secondary markets, Youtube channels, etc. Usually late on a weekday night, I'm grabbing a nightcap, pulling up the tablet, and after reading the news I'll browse whatever purchasing hobby. Twice a week usually I'll look at pipes/tobacco, maybe a dozen sites. And for two years, just in cursory browsing, I see (easily) 30+ $500-$1000K pipes move a week and quickly. Week after week, year after year. That's honestly a higher velocity, at that price point, than many bigger name domestic vices in certain segments. Add to that...for sure there's immediate 'pounce-on'/bot buying demand all over any pipe tobacco

Watches, knives, whisky.....typically you will see all kinds of social/internet action. Secondary selling, Youtube channels. Branding in culture. Now.....outside of this and a few other forums/reselling sites, where is pipe smoking in relation to the former domestically? Couple random review channels on Youtbe...but pipe smoking has nowhere near even the 'nerd cultural' presence as other similar vices.

So who is buying all this stuff, at big $'s, week after week (rhetorically). Where is the audience where SP.com can say..."Hey, let's have multiple 20 Anniversary drops of dozens of $800 pipe" and just know they will all move pretty quickly. Is Chasingembers like the riches guy in America and buying all this stuff? Does Pipe-smoking have a relative wide upper-middle class hobby following with the most socially shy group around? Again....the key part (ala' the comments with Hoosierpipe) is that the supply for this hobby is way small compared to other niches. A few bodies can tilt availability scales quickly. So that lead to....is there just a lot of 'socially shy' domestic buyers or is the foreign/Chinese luxury market really that hot (and conversely, is there actually a small-time lucrative domestic to foreign resell undercurrent). Again, all just navel-gazing around demand in the market....nothing impacting daily piping.

 

[anotherbob]

My opinion matters about as much as it does for politics, but here we go:
Screw these 'alert me when it is in' options unless it is a normal and short-term lull in what is usually available inventory. For these tobacco's that are never in stock, or only in stock for 2 minutes...all it does is piss people off for retailers to sell this way where you ask for these alerts knowing damn well most people won't have a chance. I respect the one above that does not alert everyone. I think there is still a better way. What the retailers should do is analyze the buying history of their patrons and if you hit a certain level, when you go to checkout, you get a link that says...'you are a valued customer that spends a lot of money here and we appreciate it.

I bet they have looked at the patterns of their sales and such and have probably noticed that when they send a notification out there is a good number of customers that buy something similar when the main one is out, and yet they don't exploit this buy sending out mass notifications. And the hoarders and mass buyers are probably going to get their hands on things as they become available especially if that is part of their income. If they did what you suggest like some retailers do then most people aren't going to pay much attention to their e-mails. Oh some other blend I really have no interest in is available again, Oh darn I wish I would have still paid attention to those alerts when Mcdondulbucks Crabby apple blend came back in stock (not a real blend by the way).

 

[anotherbob]

Or maybe the hidden Chinese demand isn't real at all.. "Hey, buy my pipes.. The rich chinese love em. That's why I charge a grand for them."

or more likely it's highly exaggerated. Like there is a good market but not one that is soo huge and hungry that it's consuming most of the worlds supply.

 

[haparnold]

@jerseysam, I have nothing to add to what you said, but that was a great post. Thoughtful, non-snarky, long-form posts are the best part about this forum, not all-caps snark and sarcasm. Thanks for keeping the quality up.

 

[Worknman]

Because first come, first serve is how marketing works.

Markets usually work by the item being priced according to the demand. Same reason why high end art is so expensive, even though its just paint splattered on a canvas.

 

[virginialover]

Abundance of money is not a guarantee for good taste. There's plenty of good pipe tobacco at a fair price left so far but I would cellar my favorite mixtures if I were a new pipe smoke. As for pipes you only need a few with good smoking qualities and your favorite shape and there's enough basket pipes left that go for 40-50$.

 

[cigrmaster]

The two main reasons I even built a cellar was because l love the taste of aged tobacco and II was afraid that my favorites were going to be discontinued one day. I saw how Three Nuns went away, Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky, gone for a number of years, I never expected it to come back and when it did I loaded up in it in one shot not taking any chances ,One other reason I built a cellar is I also live in a state with an 85% wholesale tax on pipe tobacco, so I had to purchase all of mine on line.
I also believe that on line sales of pipe tobacco will go away some day soon. It feels like there is an evil power looking to fuck with pipe smokers like we are some kind of parasite.

I am hopeful I can live long enough to smoke every tin and every bulk I have but if I cannot then my kids will find a way to get to those Chinese buyers and make as much money as they can.

edit: I forgot to mention two other favorites got discontinued. Rotary Navy Cut and Brigham Klondike Gold. I was sure the Rotary would go away but I didn't predict the Gold. I had bought plenty of each and am very comfortable with my supply.

 

[lightmybriar]

if it's from SPC they go based on when you put in the alert and only alert so many people each time.
I figured that out when like 2 years after I signed up for an alert I finally got one.. I emailed them and ask why it took so long when I had seen it in stock before.
They told me that's how it works.. that if there are like 600 people signed up for alerts it takes forever before you are ever in the group that is "alerted".

You can check where you are in line for the alerts in your SPC profile. I’m somewhere in the 4,000s for Stonehaven haha!

 

[Pipelady20]

I have bought a fair percentage of my pipes and tobacco from spc and have not complaints with their service or selection. Their pipe finder tool is excellent and you can find some good sales on pipes. And I have managed to buy some tins with one time alrets. This is just a minor annoyance I've noted -- but I don't know of a better US online pipe/tobacco retailer.

My only other complaint with SPC is their tobacco reviews on youtube. Would be nice once in a while to hear a negative or even middle of the road review of a tobacco - would lend credibility to their many, many glowing reviews. I guess it's tough to negatively review a product you sell.

Lol I have noticed their ever-positive reviews too. I've even gone back to re-watch some videos after i bought tibacco just to see how they spin the negative aspects inside their narrative.

 

[anotherbob]

nice 169 on Silems alert. So I'll probably never try any of their stuff. Actually that's not too bad.

 

[haparnold]

Lol I have noticed their ever-positive reviews too. I've even gone back to re-watch some videos after i bought tibacco just to see how they spin the negative aspects inside their narrative.

Sometimes choosing not to review something is the negative review. I'm not going to write someone a letter of reference for a job if it isn't going to be glowing. Instead, I'll just decline to be a reference. Same deal here.

 

[ofafeather]

Oh darn I wish I would have still paid attention to those alerts when Mcdondulbucks Crabby apple blend came back in stock.

That’s one of my all time favorite blends. I wish I could find it in stock. I have a tin of the original McDondulbucks version. Before Orlik then K&K then Mac Baren then STG were blending it. Now it’s so hard to get but at least Sutliff has a Match version and GLP trying to recreate the original.

 

[ofafeather]

Sometimes choosing not to review something is the negative review. I'm not going to write someone a letter of reference for a job if it isn't going to be glowing. Instead, I'll just decline to be a reference. Same deal here.

Exactly.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

Sometimes choosing not to review something is the negative review. I'm not going to write someone a letter of reference for a job if it isn't going to be glowing. Instead, I'll just decline to be a reference. Same deal here.

Good point, sir.

 

[badbriar]

One other point -- I know some will disagree, but i think its a bit absurd that supply pricing doesn't reflect demand. Does it make sense to charge the same amount of a tin of Astley's 44 or Esoterica as a tin of CAO Bella Vanilla, or even close to it? If tins sell out that quickly -- and they know which ones will -- they should increase the price dramatically. Would make good business sense for them, and would dissuade people from building cellars with multiple tins of tobacco they will never smoke but will eventually try to resell at a huge premium.

Agreed here. I'd much rather buy at a higher price from a business supplier than pay obscene prices to some schmuck that bought out a good supply of hard to finds only to resell at a huge profit. SCALPERS SUCK!