Pipe Collectors Club Of America 

Archived Columns from My View

The Smokers Pipeline

March 04, 2008

You will see several photos on this page of hand made pipes from Alex Florov and Brian Ruthenburg. Both artisan are American based, both offer their wares direct and do not use retailers or distributors, meaning these products are not available through PCCA but I thought you’d enjoy seeing their craft, I know I do.

We have just received 36 new Don Carlos pipes http://www.pipeguy.net/DonCarlos.htm, 12 new Radice pipes http://www.pipeguy.net/radice.htm and we’ve updated the purchase function buttons on the Peterson page for silver army mounts and the Aran series http://www.pipeguy.net/peterson.htm.  All of the new pipes have active buy buttons and are priced correctly on site. Radice specs and text has been done, Peterson and Don Carlos specs and text are still being worked on even though they are online offered for sale.

I was recently contacted about a very large collection of 1000+ new and used pipes, mostly estate-used. At this time I do not have specifics of what the collection contains, however this is a project that interests us if in fact the collection is of good pipes – I can’t imagine having a 1000 piece collection of non-names and lower graded pipes, but we’ll see. If or when we acquire this collection, we’ll send a special mailer to everyone on our “opt-in” mailing list before the inventory goes online or on eBay.  

Alexey Florov Pipes

Alexey Florov Pipes

http://www.florovpipes.com/

http://www.florovpipes.com/

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Brian Ruthenberg Pipes

http://briarart.com/

http://briarart.com/

Chicago Show May 3^rd & 4^th 2008 – Golf Outing May 2^nd

The CPCC Chicago pipe show is the mega-event of the year for pipe collectors, which is not something you didn’t know. There is a new state law in Illinois having to do with indoor smoking which will affect the CPCC show, but after speaking with Frank Burla at the RTDA show in Houston, I am happy to say that CPCC 2008 will go on as planned and should allow for smoking in the actual show. The latest information I have from Chicago is that smoking will be allowed on the display floor, but will not be allowed throughout the hotel as it has been in years past. CPCC will provide a large covered area outside the hotel for social periods – smoking allowed.

I believe that no smoking on the display floor will hurt this event and I’m not sure what future events will allow as far as on floor smoking, but you can bet that 2008 will be another great pipe show for everyone. I have agreed to again act as co-host of the Golf event held on Friday May 2^nd. One of these years I might even win the damn thing if Kevin Levi and his team of ringers get bored with taking first place every year. Every player will receive a goody bag with prizes, samples and other free items. Raffle and awards will follow the round. The golf information page is located here, although as of today the 2007 info is still posted. http://www.chicagopipeshow.com/golf_outing/golf_default.php Contact Kevin Levi to sign up at http://www.iwanries.com.  Contact Kevin Levi at   iwanries@att.net
 

The number of players has varied from a low of 24 in 2007 to over 60 when we first started this event as a fund raiser for CPCC. My primary job will be to get players for the 2008 CPCC Golf event so I’m going to start nagging everyone now. Anything less than 48 players will be a disappointment and suggest a lack of support for a pre-show event that contributes 100% of the proceeds to the CPCC (over the actual cost of the tournament charged us by the resort). Commit early and commit often, 2008 has to be the best turn out ever as it might be the last time we play.

P&T Foundations Forum

Starting in early September 2007 P&T Magazine officially went online live with their Foundations Site and Forums. I have been asked to be a moderator of several of the forums. I’m not exactly sure what that means other than I’ll be spending even more of my time online not making any sales that pay the rent. There are many different online pipe and tobacco related forums, blogs and user groups ranging from the self policing Usenet to the heavy handed single censor “moderated” groups (most fall in between). I’m hoping that the new P&T Foundations forum(s) will be like the old CompuServe P&T board where real discussions and debates take place concerning our hobby especially without the noise level found on some other venues. There is a 30 day free trial test run that you are welcome to try and the site offers an outstanding included database program to catalog your pipes and tobaccos. Stop by and take a test run on the new P&T Foundations site. 

Free 30 day trial: http://www.ptfoundations.com/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fPersonal.aspx

PCCA Tobacco Update 2008

A funny thing happened late last Fall (2007), PCCA pipe tobacco started flying off the shelves again, as fast I received new inventory it was gone. I’m sure some of this had to do with the positive reviews PCCA received from the Fall P&T Magazine. Two new PCCA signature blends were released in December 2007, Orient 996 and Tudor Castle, both sold out through pre-orders and within a few weeks of receipt. Tudor Castle and Orient 996 have been remade and continue to sell out as fast as I am restocked. The way tin tobacco has been moving as of late, it reminds me of the good days back in the mid to late 1990’s when new blends would sell out in 2 to 4 weeks.

For the CPCC show in May we will release a new batch of Jubilee and Aurora along with our new 2008 Signature Blend Tudor Castle Arcade. Only 240 tins of Jubilee and 240 tins of Aurora are being made. Tudor Castle Arcade will be made in a larger run, around 320 to 400 tins depending on the number of cakes pressed. “Arcade” is based on the same blend as the Original Tudor Castle being Red, Golden Yellow and stoved Virginias, N˚1 grade Village specific Yenidje and pure barrel aged St James Perique, plus a touch of rare Syrian Latakia. I know of no other company or brand that are using true Perique, rare Syrian Latakia and Number 1 grade village specific Oriental leaf at any price, perhaps that explains the demand.

We expect all of the new blends, along with a restock of Orient 996 and Tudor Castle, to be in house by early to mid-April.  Pre-orders are being accepted for all of these blends with preordered tins reserved before anything goes to Chicago. I do not believe that there will be a supply problem with Aurora or Jubilee, however based on recent sales demand from last December, it is possible that Jubilee and Aurora will sell out at the Chicago show. Arcade, Beacon, Tudor Castle and Orient 996 will be available after Chicago as the batch inventory is greater for these tins.

 PCCA pipe tobaccos are shown here and can be pre-ordered from this page: http://www.pipeguy.net/Tobacco.htm

 The following article was written and posted on P&T Foundations Forum last Fall.

The concept of PCCA small batch vintage pipe tobacco

Back ground

In 1990-91 Barry Levin was having very good success working with McClelland Tobacco Company producing a line of custom pipe tobaccos for direct sale through Levin Pipes International. By direct sale I mean these blends were not sold through retail stores but only through Levin Pipes directly to his customers. At the time Barry and I were the two most successful mail order operations in the USA, Barry being estate pipes and my business being new pipes.

Barry and I were also partners in a company called International Pipeline Limited, for import and distribution of new high grade pipes, along with partners in the assets of Pipe Collectors International (PCI), which was mainly just the annual pipe convention. More importantly, Barry and I were more friends than competitors and worked to improve each others business. This was before the internet and at the peak of the collector show – mail order business cycle.

Barry’s line was called Personal Reserve and consisted of custom blends and basic blends. Custom blends would be single run issues, usually using older leaf often discontinued tins say Sullivan’s OX as an example, blended with new leaf. The basic blends, like Blackwoods were mixtures and flakes that were made exclusively for Barry by McClelland, but were made over and over as needed.

One thing Barry kept pushing on me was to work with McClelland and develop my own line of pipe tobaccos which I resisted at the time. I resisted because my pipe business was very good at the time and being a one man show there was only so much time in the day and new projects were not something I was looking for to increase my work load. Between Barry and Mike McNeil I finally gave in and decided to go with a very high grade “light aromatic” line called the USA series. These were quality base tobaccos that were slightly top noted, not truly cased sweet blends. I chose 100 gram tins because they offered the best price points and what turned out to be pretty ugly labels looking back now at the designs.

Sales for the USA series were mixed, they sold to good reviews by their buyers but only 100 or so tins a month and considering there is not much profit in selling a tin of tobacco, it was no big deal and not something I was that excited about in terms of sales, profit or expanding into the future. The USA Series of PCCA tobaccos were also designed not to be like the Personal Reserve series of “natural” blends by Levin Pipes so we would not compete on the same mixtures as we shared many of the same customers.

In the Fall of 1993 things changed due to President Clintons proposed massive federal tax increase on pipe tobacco. The proposed tax increase was 27,000 percent if I remember correctly and it did not pass as proposed, although it did pass as the start of taxing pipe tobacco, on a federal level, in conjunction with cigarettes.

I spoke to Mike McNeil and told him I wanted an very high grade Virginia tobacco, branded Boston 1776 (for obvious reasons), that I wanted 1776 tins and I wrote the text for the label as a form of protest against the tax increase. At the time I thought that this would be the last chance we would have for an extremely high grade leaf at a reasonable price and I told Mike I wanted the tobacco to age well because I wanted folks to smoke this blend years later and understand what “was available” before the Government screwed everything up with their greed.

Boston 1776 was 97% very high grade red Virginia with a lot of acid and a lot of sugar, plus 3% Oriental to add complexity. The key here was aging and the raw leaf we used offered the greatest longevity and complexity for what we had at the time. You have to understand that pipe tobacco was produced to be used fresh, no one I know of produced pipe tobacco in 1992 with any look forward at the aging potential. It was fairly well known by “collectors” that 3 Nuns and Escudo needed to be held for 2-3 years before even considering smoking, but that “idea” did not reflect forward into either marketing or production models in the early 1990’s.

Collectors Reserve Boston 1776 was released in November of 1993 as a protest against the Government’s proposed massive pipe tobacco tax increase and marketed as the best pipe tobacco quality that perhaps would not be available in the future. A funny thing happened, close to 1000 tins sold in a very short period of time, maybe 3 months and then sales just stopped. Although 1000 tins was a lot and when we made the batch we expected to have enough to supply tins for years, I sure did not want to be sitting on 50% of the batch unsold.

A few months later, my partner in various ventures and dear friend Barry Levin died at age 42. Levin Pipes and Personal Reserve tobaccos died with Barry. McClelland picked up the better sellers of the line and they became McClelland products, but there would be no new Levin developed custom blends, no new Personal Reserve blends, and in truth the hobby which was mush closer knit then than it is now became depressed on an emotional level which reflected on a business level for everyone. You’d have to have been there in that time frame to understand how much Barry’s death depressed the hobby, but like anything time heals all things.

Mike McNeil told me it’s up to you to continue the custom blending that you and Barry started, again I resisted because even with the early success of Boston 1776, my business was pipes not pipe tobacco. Personally 1994 was not a good year for me, because of Barry’s death and several other factors in my life, but time heals all things.

As quickly as Boston 1776 sales had dried up they started again in late 1994 and I completely sold out the balance of the batch within a few months by early 1995. It seems the “aging” potential was being realized with actual results and in just 12 months the change was dramatic – in fairness the tins were held a few months before being released as they were tinned just after the RTDA in August 1993 giving the leaf a few extra months in the tins. In either case, aging quality tobacco was starting to be understood by pipe collectors and by “collectors” I mean the folks that were not smoking Captain Black and that type of prepackaged leaf.

Collectors Reserve Concept and birth

As part of a marketing plan and as an explorative series I wrote a 3 part series of articles in the early 1990’s about aging tobacco and “cellaring leaf” and yes I was the first to use that term for pipe tobacco, which I took from wine collecting as it seemed to fit in how pipe tobacco would mature, much the same as wine. At the time I had 400+ bottles of good red vintage wine in my basement (cellar) and I had both sold and studied wines for the last 10-12 years or so.

I had also had various conversations with Dan Merriman (well known collector at the time) Basil Sullivan (well known Charatan collector and co-founder of Indiana Briar Friars) and of course Barry Levin who was using older tin mixtures blended with new leaf for his limited edition tins, concerning how tobacco changes with time.

My experience of 20 years or so in the P&T business had exposed me to a lot of different tin tobaccos and as far as sales tons of bulk leaf, but “high grade” vintage leaf blends were not something offered. Of course every Tobacconists (B&M Store) offered their own custom blends in jars, which 99.9% of the time were just bulk blends from standard industry suppliers like Milton Sherman, Peter Stokkebye, World Tobac Ltd or Lane Ltd. Most shops would “custom blend” for you but really that was just mixing a bit of this bulk with that bulk and adding a little generic straight Virginia, or adding a bit extra Latakia to a bulk English blend. We kept generic grade Virginia, Burley, Oriental, Latakia and Perique in our shop, we used very little on a monthly basis (we had 5 true P&T stores).

The concept of actually blending on a manufacture level, using raw leaf, wine making per se, turned on the light bulb. This idea at least started me in the direction, to explore the concept of aging leaf through my conversations with friends and through my understanding of wine production and aging. My 3 part series of articles published in my print newsletter The Smokers Pipeline, was marketing the idea of custom blending, but it was also an invitation for input from my readers as to their experiences.

After I ran the first part I got 1 call, and that was from Basil Sullivan who said and I quote “damn it Bob don’t tell people this, I get discounts buying old tins from shops because they think the fresh stuff is better, now everyone will know and I’ll have to pay list price”. We both laughed, but he was just half kidding. That one call was the only input I got from the series, but the sales of Boston 1776 one year after release proved to me I was on to something here.

You can read part of that original series of articles here: http://www.pipeguy.com/tobac_age.htm

In late 1994 Mike McNeil pressed me to take up where Barry has left off, especially after the second “success” sell through of Boston 1776 and by the end of 1994 I agreed that I’d go into regular production of PCCA pipe tobaccos. Remember too that the massive Federal tax increase did not go through as we feared so the cost factor was controlled, at least for the time being.

Over the next 8 years we released 40 or 50 different PCCA Collector Reserve Pipe Tobaccos, all were “single batch” vintage limited production blends. PCCA blends sold very well during the peak years of 1995 through 2000, sometimes selling out in a week or two (400 tin run). In a few cases we reissued a blend because it sold out so fast that many that wanted tins didn’t get any, but each new batch was always renamed, such as Dulcet, Dulcet II, etc.

I’m getting ahead of myself here so let me back up a little and give you some additional insight into how PCCA blends were/are designed.

One of the things my wife and I like to do on weekends, especially in the Fall, is to visit local wineries to taste their wares. Virginia has a fairly good and expanding wine industry which is maturing into quality products in many cases. We’ll pack some good cheese, some flavorful bread or crackers, a bit of summer sausage and head out. Typically we’ll taste several samples and then buy a bottle of red wine to enjoy with our food on their lawn or terrace. Generally it’s a nice afternoon for us “old folks” and generally we find some interesting wines to try.

For 5 or 6 years in the mid-80’s we offered a full vintage wine selection in one of our B&M retail stores, not massive amounts or wine, but 100-120 hand picked bottles with quality and value being the key, mostly French, some California, mostly reds. My job was to select and source the bottles for that shop (in addition to my P&T job).

In my much younger years I worked full time in the food industry running a bakery within a restaurant, meaning all bread, all cakes, many deserts, pies, rolls, etc I cooked from scratch (some frozen pies and dough, not much). I also worked as a chief in the same restaurant as needed, but my primary duty was the bakery. Today I still enjoy cooking for myself and family, but I do not cook that much today. I do have a few personal specialties like Salsa (trust me it’s unique and addictive), some Italian, grilling and a few other things.

The point here is that cooking and wine tasting are perfect back ground skills for understanding pipe tobacco blending as flavors wed, as flavors change after being aged or cooked and as seeing the “finished product” from the raw ingredients. When you understand flavors, understand what works and what doesn’t, then learn to project how flavors will intertwine with time and when smoked, pipe tobacco blending becomes much like cooking and tasting the flavors of a complex wine both young and over time.

There are two keys to being a great cook, a great wine maker or a great pipe tobacco blender the first being the quality of the raw ingredients and the second being the way you choose to use ingredients. Some skill comes from experience and accepting ones failures, on the way to ones success, but without premier quality ingredients you can not make unique high grade results. At the same time having the best ingredients is no assurance that you understand the flavors, especially how they will wed, age and taste when consumed.

A few weeks ago we visited a well respected winery in Northern Virginia that produces what they said was “award wining bottles” with nicely designed labels and a beautiful tasting building (whatever its called). Usually the wineries we visit offer a tasting bar where you can try 3 or 4 or 6 wines at no charge then choose to buy a bottle or 2 or 6. This winery charged a $5 tasting fee to try the reds or the whites, which consisted of 5 of each. We choose the reds, $5 is no big deal even if it’s not the usual fare. Bottle prices ranged from $22 to $48 and I’ve never been so disappointed in tasting 5 different red wines in my life, all 5 were thin and watery, with no real tannins, no depth of color or taste, along with a “sameness” of all the samples.

I commented to the server after I tasted the $48 bottle sample that there was no character, all I tasted was alcohol, his comment and I quote “I don’t make it, I just serve it”. For $22 to $48 a bottle you can buy a lot of very good bottles, but not at that Virginia winery. 400 acres of grapes with results that in my opinion were unskilled and uninterested, unless you were looking for a mild red wine without any risk.

If you read pipe tobacco reviews and forum comments on the net you would think that there is a massive amount of supreme quality pipe tobacco available today to pipe smokers, however that is not the case. Most of the popular branded tins like 3 Nuns, Balkan Sobranie, Even Dunhill tins, are either discontinued or being sublet to outsourced makers. Pipe smoking and pipe tobacco usage is way down due to anti-smoking issues and taxes killing profit margins of branded tins.

The quote shown below appeared in an article that ran in 2005 in the Washington Post Newspaper: By Peter Carlson, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, June 19, 2005

"The decline has been persistent and unrelenting," says Norman Sharp, head of the Pipe Tobacco Council. Sharp rattles off the statistics: In 1970, Americans bought 52 million pounds of pipe tobacco. In 2004, they bought less than 5 million pounds. "That's a decline of 91 percent," he says.

In a 2003 survey, the Department of Health and Human Services calculated that there are 1.6 million pipe smokers in America.

…end Washington Post quote

Just after the 2007 RTDA Tradeshow in Houston I was talking to Mike McNeil of McClelland about a lot of things, but a similar number came up where Mike said “10 years ago pipe tobacco was in the 30 Million pound range, today its about 3 million”. I understand that Mike was just talking off the top of his head quoting numbers, but both of these sources show 90% drop in pipe tobacco production over a fairly short period of time.

With pipe tobacco production being so far off in sales you are not going to see the major tobacco houses develop new products, although the smaller pipe tobacco makers will continue to serve a small customer base, those that choose to stay in the business and I’m not talking about the Captain Black or Mixture 79 type market, although their tonnage is included in the gross numbers listed above.

You will not see branded production, widely distributed pipe tobaccos, going after the unique high end and expensive raw leaf for three reasons. The first is obviously the cost, the second is that high character leaf is not good for consistent production taste when a blend has to be made again and again over a period of years and finally, the very high character leaf is not easy to obtain as it’s usually a byproduct of much larger buys by mainly cigarette companies. Cigarette companies have no use for high character leaf as their product processes base tobacco into a flavored “sameness”, but they will sell off the high character leaf for a profit, usually to Asia or Europe. The custom blenders of pipe tobacco are such a small part of tobacco production that there is little access to leaf by even leaf processors or single pipe tobacco companies that would buy less than 100,000 pounds at a time “if” they have connections to the source.

Actual Production of Collector Reserve Blends

What exactly is a small batch blend? We take raw leaf that is chosen for its natural characteristics, that being sugar, tannins, acid, color and flavor and use it for a single run batch. There is no consideration made for recreating the blend a second time exactly the same which allows us to produce natural products with no flavors added and what is created is what it is. In cases that a blend works well, we have remade it using the same formula, typically with similar results, but that’s not assured.

In the case of a blend like Beacon which is high sugar Virginia and Perique we have made it 3 or 4 times with the hope that the raw leaf is only the precursor of the aged product and similar results. We do use stoving (heat) in some cases and we do use pressed cake for some products, both processes tend to wed the leaf for consistency. Note that Beacon and Aurora are the only two blends we have released several times without a name change - the tins are batch year dated.

Over the 15 years or so that I have been making small batch vintage tobacco blends I’ve learned a lot about how various leaf works, both in blending and in aging. When I started in the early 1990’s the concept of aging leaf for the finished product was certainly not universally accepted, today cellaring or after market aging of leaf is an assumed process for quality leaf. Frankly much of what is put away today does not benefit much from time put away, although no harm is done through aging.

I consider the success of PCCA blends to be mainly due to working with McClelland Tobacco Company over the years. This is due to several reasons, Mary designs the labels, has come up with more than a few of the names and designs the text on the labels. Now, a label will not make an average blend great, but based on the ugly labels we used on our original USA Series tins I can say that a nice design will help the product, whether I like it or not. Mary is also involved with blending, taste testing blends and several other aspects of the PCCA-McClelland venture.

As much as I’d like to claim credit for being the artist behind PCCA blends I can only claim a supporting role as Mike McNeil is the genius that actually does the hands on production, blending, cutting, etc. I am involved in the blend concept and in many cases I’ve stated what I want to do sometimes with disagreement between Mike and myself. An example was the “stoving” of a latakia based blend (Cyprian Star and Syrian Star) as Mike stated flat out you can’t stove Latakia it will mold. I insisted to do it anyway and figure out how not to let it mold – Mike proved himself wrong and we produced two stoved latakia blends.

Mike is the one that turns my theory into finish product, he is also the one that can source the rare and expensive leaf we use. I am of the opinion that the Virginias and Orientals we use would not be available through any other pipe tobacco company today, because of Mike’s connections to direct auction sourced leaf. I believe that Mike and I work well together and that he understands when I say “I’m not interested in the cost, I want the best bright Virginia you can find or I want some of that single village Oriental leaf in a heavy dose”. Mike has been known to warn me, such as with the two new Signature Blends we are releasing later this month, “they are going to be expensive” and I always say I don’t care I’m not offering production grade products here. In reality I think that Mike enjoys “custom blending” small batches with no restrictions on cost or re-creation. McClelland's annual Christmas Cheer is a single batch Virginia blend, designed to age as its limited to the single year of release and typically is 3 to 6 months old before release.

Production blends, even quality products like McClelland releases under their label, are always a compromise as there must be a consistency to the blend, a similar taste for a tin made today, yesterday, or next year. To maintain that consistency you must either tone down your base leaf, flavor your leaf or process it (such as heat) to a point of being always the same. If you pick up a tin of Dunhill 965 in London, Rome, Detroit or Miami you expect it to be exactly the same, and if you find it different you won’t be happy to say nothing of you’ll worry about the taste of the next tin you buy in Chicago or LA. Branded products, pipe tobacco or Peanut Butter must remain consistent in quality and taste over time and throughout various markets and with that consistency you get mediocrity to some degree.

There are a few smaller wine makers that produce “organic” wine today (for lack of a better word). These wines are not acid adjusted, nor sugar adjusted, nor finned for clarity and in some years they actually refuse to release a vintage dated product. These wines are highly regarded, prized and typically can be expensive yet the wineries are never the biggest or most profitable. The safe route will adjust the acid level of the wine, adjust the sugar level and release a clear product (finned for extraction of sediment) with a vintage year dated bottle every year, perhaps a good product, but rarely a unique product.

Later this month we will release Orient 996 and Tudor Castle, two very unique new Collector Reserve Pipe tobaccos using single sourced village Oriental leaf as their center point, along with Virginias, Syrian Latakia, Perique and other quality leaf (not all in each). I believe we are pushing the edge again with what we’ve done with these new blends and I know the quality is there along with a higher price. I guess the real judge will be the taste testers in December now and in a year or two, which is the risk of small batch custom blends – I’m not worried.

The Future

As of right now, with pending SCHIP taxes being threatened, the cost of inventory, declining sales and other cost factors the future of small batch blending by PCCA is very much in question. I would like to continue to produce what I consider very unique products, 3 or 4 or 6 per year, however the risk factor is increasing and I’m talking financial risk here.

Collector Reserve blends are not well known today, just look at the number of reviews posted on tobaccoreview.com verses the number of PCCA blends reviewed, which I suppose is due to the very limited production more than anything else. I do not see our blends ever becoming widely distributed as that would defeat the very concept of inconsistent vintage blends, but I would like to continue to push the edge and use rare leaf for what it is in creating unique natural blends. Between government tax greed and anti-smoking laws being passed I just can’t look very far ahead.

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What I find interesting is that the reason I really got into small batch blending was in protest of government greed which I feared would kill this concept (availability of unique leaf), with Boston 1776 in November 1993. Today, November 2007, Government greed has all but killed any future for speciality blending. With a 90%+ drop in pipe tobacco production and consumption, the anti-smoking crowd should be happy, but the tax collectors should be worried - not that they'll change their tune anytime soon. In 1993 pipe sales more than made up for any risk to investing in tobacco inventory, today we....I at least....do not have that advantage.

The one thing that is soon to be completely lost is the availability of high grade raw leaf - its a much longer story, but the cutter lines and large first stage leaf buyers are all but gone. Leaf brokers and second stage processors, such as Universal leaf in Virginia do not typically have access to the single batch 27% sugar Virginias, but even if they did there is a limit to their interest in such a small amount (300 to 500 pound lots) being held back in case they find a customer. Pipe tobacco operations using "tonnage" are producing consistant products and have no use for single batch leaf if its more expensive and if it will change the taste of their production.

Today I want to produce small batch pipe tobacco as its interesting and challenging to produce "vintage" products and I have a source for quality leaf and a willing supplier/manufacturer. In 1993 the whole idea and concept was new and unproven (well, to some extent, Barry was doing well) and I really did not want to expand into this business until President Clinton got me all worked up over taxing pipe tobacco out of existence. If nothing else, in the 15 or so years we created small batch blends, on a true manufacturer basis, we showed what could be done blending to age, blending with "vintage as is" in mind and today cellaring or aging leaf is considered common place.

This story was really not about my company or my products as much as it was about the "discovery" of vintage production blending with aging as a goal. Perhaps in another 10 years pipe tobacco production will be down to only 1 million pounds but the sad fact will be that small batch blends will not be possible because the leaf needed will no longer be available.  

The following article was written and posted on P&T Foundations Forum last Fall.

  A Very Rare Castello Epoca Pipe Story

For additional photos: http://www.pipeguy.net/featured.htm

My pipe collection is not so large today, nor that extensive as far as examples of brands or shapes. At one time I had over 500 pipes in my collection which didn't really follow any theme other than pipes I liked that I picked up both working in the B&M business for 18 years and traveling to Europe many many times. Today, my collection consists of smokers, meaning pipes that I smoke and "specials" meaning pipes that I have acquired that are special to me because of when or where I picked them up - some are very rare, but without the story that goes with them, they are just pipes. The Castello Epoca N°39 Carved Rock Zulu is an example of a very rare pipe, but one with an interesting story.

In the early 1990's my business was booming, I was selling a lot of high grade pipes, mostly Dunhill as an Official PPD dealer, Castello as the "go to guy" in the USA with a link to Cantu' and Ashton pipes as a good friend of Bill Taylor's and someone with a connection to all three of Bill's distributors worldwide. One thing that was difficult to find was a Castello Epoca in any shape. Cantu only made a handful per year, mainly because the finish was hand carved with knives and files by a single Castello craftsman, which took a lot of time verses the listed selling price. Modern Epoca pipes are now called "Flames" and retail in the $2500 to $3000 range, but at that time an Epoca ran $300 or so and came in standard shapes mostly N°15 billiard, N°16 slender Billiard, N°65 classic 3/4 bent and once in a while a N°75 Lovat or N°32 Canadian or N°33 short chubby Canadian. That's not to say that other Castello shapes were not made in Epoca, as I've seen N°23 Apple, N°30 chubby slight bent oval shank over sized Apple, N°31 slight bent shank Canadian and a N°55 slightly bent Pot in Epoca, mostly the dripped wax more modern version.

I had several customers begging for an Epoca, any Epoca and since I was known as someone that could source just about anything, my mission was to nag Franco Coppo (owner of Castello) for Epoca pipes on every trip to Cantu' and I was going to Cantu' 4 or 5 times a year at that time. Usually I managed to pickup a N°15 or N°16 and on rare occasion I found a G/GG 15 or 65 Epoca, always in the drip wax finish. One of my suggestions to Franco was to make a red Sea Rock as something different for collectors, same Sea Rock, just use the trademark red stain and bingo you had a new finish that cost nothing extra but collectors would want them - just a few mind you because the red finish was the slowest seller. Franco made red Sea Rocks, but then he expanded the red stain to a few Epoca pipes which I had not asked for, but if it got him to make a few more Epoca pipes, great, lets have red Epoca pipes.

On one trip there were no Epoca pipes at all, which was not that unusual, but I had pressure back home for any Epoca so I started looking through the drawers in the inventory room for things I had not seen, There was an older Rock carved Epoca, in a N°39 Zulu shape, wow! Not only was this Epoca finish impossible to find, but the shape was rarely seen in any finish, let alone a Rock Carved Epoca. I had to have this pipe! So, I started my nagging, begging, whining routine saying I needed an Epoca, any Epoca. Franco said no, I begged some more, Franco said no. I ended up selecting I don't know, maybe 100 other Castello pipes to the tune of thousands of dollars and then said I've got to have the Epoca. Franco said no. Franco went to stamp my pipes - Castello pipes are purchased in Cantu with no grade or nomenclature on the shanks at all, you buy the pipe, you don't buy the grade or price point which means you have no idea how much money you just spent until after he grades your selection, once you said you'll buy the pipes you picked out.

Franco came back after grading my pipes and I said I just have to have the Epoca, Franco said why? I said because I don't have one. Franco said who is it for? I said its for me of course, he said you? I said yes, knowing full well that I'd "change my mind" on the flight home and no longer personally want the pipe. Franco said there is a problem with that pipe, I said what? There is a defect in the bowl inside. Funny thing is I had not even looked that close and now noticed a 1/4 inch long obvious fissure on the back wall of the inside bowl. A fissure on the inside of a bowl is not a problem 99.9% of the time if you are aware of the defect. I have smoked and sold many pipes with defects in their bowls, just as long as you coat the area or are very careful breaking the pipe in to fill in and cover up the fissure, you'll never have a problem with burnout or cracking. Of all the pipes I've sold knowing and disclosing inside bowl defects only one burned out, only 1 in over 30 years of selling pipes. I said to Franco "thats no problem at all, I'll just coat it and smoke it slow until its covered over". Franco looked at me and said Okay, you can have it BUT you have to smoke it, I said no problem I am going to smoke it. Franco said, no I mean you have to smoke it in front of me before you leave, I said no problem, I'll be happy to and dropped the pipe in my carry case. Franco added the cost of that pipe to my bill.

A group of us then went out to dinner and if you've never been to Italy, dinner is a 3 to 4 hour affair with wine and too much food followed by espresso and stronger drink during an hour or so of conversation after you are through eating. We were well into the after dinner grappa when Franco said okay now you have to smoke the Epoca or I'll take it back. I thought damn, I really wanted to take this home unsmoked, but no matter one smoke won't change anything when I explain how I "had to" smoke the pipe to get the pipe. The finish and shape alone were worth it, even with a single bowl through the pipe. So I filled the pipe, lit it up, tamped it and continued to blow smoke for the next 30 minutes or so before we parted ways after dinner. Franco seemed pleased, I know I was and now I had the Epoca no one else had too.

Several days later on the plane home I was going over some of the hand carried pieces I'd brought home with me and pulled out the Epoca just to take another look at my great find. This one I would get through customs free, it was a smoked pipe, no charge on that one. As I was looking over the pipe I turned it over and looked at a completely blank nomenclature panel, not a single stamp, no brandname, no Cantu, no Carlo Scotti stamp, nothing - I think they heard me in First Class as I screamed (thought) ... Son of a B@#$h !!

Franco won that round.

The no name Castello Epoca stayed in my collection for the last 15 years or so until I took it out yesterday to photograph it, I guess one of these days I'll take it back to Cantu and tell Franco he forgot to stamp it and show him that 15 years later I still have the pipe so yes it was "for me" after all.

-Bob

www.pipeguy.net  & www.pipeguy.com

March 04, 2008 

The Smokers Pipeline

August 31, 2007

RTDA Tradeshow in Houston, Texas - August 2007

This is an expanded edition of the Smokers Pipeline online as we have not published since June and I need to report on the RTDA Tradeshow and a whole lot more. Please understand that my comments are based on what I see at the time that I write these lines. Market conditions, trends, product lines, etc change over time and while these comments reflect my impression when written, they may become “out of date” quickly over time.

RTDA Report

The RTDA “season” is a strange time of the year for me as I dedicate 4 to 6 weeks each summer to the annual tradeshow. For those of you that don’t know what the RTDA (Retail Tobacco Dealers of America) is, this is the annual industry tradeshow where suppliers meet retailers and offer their lines for the up coming holiday season. The summer timing is to supply retailers for the holidays, however this is not just a “Christmas Show” as the tradeshow is used to introduce new lines and in the case of high grade pipes, allow retailers that carry high grade hand made pipes to hand select their inventory.

The RTDA Tradeshow is not a pipe collector’s event like Chicago or CORPS or Columbus, nor a cigar tasting event like the Big Smoke. For 2007 the event was held in Houston Texas and covered 330,000 sf of display space with over 1300 booths. Cigarette companies are not represented, drug store type tobacco lines are not represented. Today most of the display space is dedicated to high grade cigars, then giftware that a typical B&M tobacco shop would carry, then pipe lines and finally, hand made high grade pipes. Bulk and high grade tin pipe tobacco are also offered at the RTDA displays, although there are only a handful of pipe tobacco industry sellers today.

Today cigar distributors and manufacturers are the bulk of the RTDA tradeshow with handmade high grade pipes being probably the smallest segment. The same basis for distribution can be found in a typical B&M retail store with cigars making up 75% or more of the on hand inventory and display space. The primary reason inventory carried at most shops is mainly cigars has to do with turn over and profit as far as what a shop carries to stay in business. My guess is that less than 20% of the USA based “Pipe and Tobacco” shops today stock high grade pipes. Just to give you an idea, the large cigar companies like General Cigar, Altadis, Davidoff, Ashton Distributors, etc spend $100,000 to over $200,000 just to display at the tradeshow each year.

Market conditions, meaning demand by retailers and their customers, for high grade pipes is dropping even though you would think based on net activity that handmade pipes were booming. Net activity, eBay activity and Pipe shows are not the primary retail marketplace for pipe sales in the USA. Actually a lot of retailers I talk to blame the net activity for a decline in over all pipe sales. I don’t believe the net has that much to do with a local customer base, but if retailers are not supporting industry distributors, for whatever reason, then the over all selection suffers as distributors cut back their wares based on industry demand.

While the RTDA welcomes any actual manufacturer or distributor for membership and the right to display at the annual tradeshow most high grade pipe lines do not join directly or display at the event due mainly to the cost. A single booth, meaning draping and a single 8 foot table will average a displayer $5000 per year, almost all high grade pipe distributors use 2 to 4 booths at a cost of $10,000 to $20,000 per annual event counting the cost of the booths, signage, membership, transportation, set up, hotel, etc. For this reason alone, you won’t see small makers like R. Barbi, Paulo Becker, Bill Taylor, Upshall, Ferndown or the like displaying on their own at the event. What you will see is these smaller makers will use a distributor that offers several brands to show their lines, even if that means 30 or 50 or 75 pipes at the RTDA. Smaller makers, such as those you’ll see selling directly at shows like CPCC in Chicago (collector event), be they known European brands or smaller “hobbyist” artisans won’t be represented at the Industry tradeshow.

The high grade hand made pipe market is what I have always been interested in offering through PCCA. Not only are these product lines more interesting to me, but generally they are priced high enough that I can offer a decent discount from suggested retail and still make a profit which allows me to stay in business. The high grade market, at least as the RTDA Tradeshow or Industry is concerned consists of a handful of distributors (importers), who sell 50% to 75% of their annual gross sales at the Tradeshow.

There are makers like Eric Nording or Alberto Bonfiglioli that sell direct to their retail accounts, these are high grade makers that display at the RTDA, but they are not what I’m talking about as far as a distributor. Machine made pipe lines like Peterson, Savinelli or even Dunhill are offered through larger multi-product line companies and are widely distributed to RTDA members, but again these are not the “hand made distributors”. Brands like Castello, Radice, Jacopo, Don Carlos and Viprati are the types of lines I’m talking about that make up the core of the high grade RTDA distributed market.

Now that I’ve given you a basic back ground of what the RTDA Tradeshow is, I’ll discuss two other related topics. #1 Why the RTDA is a 4 to 6 weeks affair for me and #2 a basic health of the high grade hand made market based on the RTDA tradeshow for 2007.

80% or more of the high grade handmade pipe lines distributed to the retail trade today are handled by a handful of small low volume distributors. Understand when I say a distributor I’m talking about a company set up to supply the trade with product lines, but we are really talking about a single person or a partnership of one or two people, not in any way a large high dollar company. These guys (companies) all started as retailers or one man importers or hobbyists, most still are what I would call collectors or hobbyists.

I have known the people behind these company names for 20+ years in most cases, some longer and I’d like to say they are more friends then nameless companies. The reason the RTDA tradeshow is a 4 to 6 week affair for me is that I personally work with these folks during the RTDA to transport their displays to the tradeshow. Let me explain a little better what I’m saying here….

For over 20 years I have been a retail member of the RTDA, meaning a “retailer” type membership which gives me access to the tradeshow. In the late 90’s when I worked with Castello North America as their USA agent (basically logistics on this side of the Atlantic rather than a salesman per se) I used to drive the RTDA inventory and display to the event every year to cut down on costs and to insure the stock arrived at the event on time and safe. Several years ago I resigned my “agent” status with Castello North America as a cost cutting measure, and in fact the brand had been reestablished in the USA and I was no longer needed to help. One thing I gained while working with Castello North America is a displayer’s status for the tradeshow which means I get in before the event opens and I can stay after the event closes. This sounds sexy, but really it means you get to sweat setting up displays and stock as you get up earlier each day and stay later each day, although it is kind of nice not to wait in line trying to get in the event.

I will be at the RTDA every year with my original retailer membership, chances are that I’ll drive as I like driving and I like to see the country. The tradeshow is usually 4 days, if I drive I can take say 7 to 10 days see a few sites, visit a few friends and enjoy a mini-vacation of sorts during the business trip. Of course driving to Nashville or Atlanta or Tampa is one thing, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Houston is another.

The RTDA is a very expensive event for a small distributor and transportation of displays to the show and back can run thousands of dollars for each company. Four years ago I agreed to drive the displays for a group of companies to and from the event as a way to help the companies control shipping costs. For me it’s a way to help friends and keep a displayers badge (I don’t set up booths anymore). I do the driving pulling a 5000 to 6000 pound trailer full of displays, but “they” pay for gas and expenses on the road so its wear on my truck, but its free gas to and from the show for me.

The annual trip is planned starting 3 or 4 months in advance with material arriving from over seas anywhere from a month to a day before I leave. Travel time is projected to arrive during set up at the show, 2 or 3 days before the actual show starts. Then travel time back starts the day after the event and depending on what part of the country we are in, can take 3 to 5 to 7 days before I’m actually home again. I also need to consider a time factor for break downs and delays during the trip which seem to happen every year.

In 2004, while traveling with Alberto Bonfiglioli we had a flat tire on the trailer in Yellowstone National Park on the return trip (just a valve stem). In 2006 on the return trip from Las Vegas traveling alone I had a tire explode on the trailer in Kansas, not fun but I carry a spare and managed to find a dealer to buy a new tire. This year on the way to the RTDA in Louisiana I had a catastrophic tire failure that ripped the fender off the right side of the trailer just before we ran into horrendous  thunderstorms. You can’t have that much fun sitting at home in front of a computer screen !

Another consideration for my business is that while I’m on the road for 2 to 3 weeks, I am not able to take care of my normal PCCA business as there is no one here to answer email or ship products. I also typically will trade out inventory at the tradeshow which means I’ll take down available stock online before I leave for the event and have to start from scratch getting the site back up and online with new inventory once I get back after the show. Typically this means I do no business at all for 4 to 6 weeks – that’s more than a bit painful when it comes to paying bills.

I have to admit that I enjoy travel, not that lugging a 6000 pound trailer 4000 to 6000 miles round trip is that much “fun”, but seeing the country and visiting national parks along the way is still exciting for me.  I have traveled over 1 million miles by air and I’ve probably driven at least 1 million miles, but there is something about a “road trip” that I still look forward to each year. 

The real reason I pull a trailer full of displays to the RTDA each year is to help out friends that in fact “are” the heart of the USA high grade hand made pipe market. I know the margins and I know their annual volume along with their dedication to our hobby (trade). Believe me the money aspect is not good and I doubt that anyone would step in and fill their roles if any of these folks (distributors) decided to give up and no longer distribute their wares to the trade. My thoughts are that if my efforts help them stick around another year then the trade, hobby and pipe collectors/users are better off because of it. Yeah okay, maybe they look the other way when I’m late paying an invoice, but that’s between us.

The 2008 RTDA Tradeshow will be in Las Vegas, my favorite venue, 6000 miles round trip. The 2009 RTDA tradeshow is scheduled for New Orleans, my least favorite venue, only 4000+ miles round trip, but I’ll stay in Biloxi MS again rather than New Orleans.

During the trip to Houston for 2007 I spent a few days in Biloxi, MS where I had staged in 2005 for the RTDA held in New Orleans. Biloxi suffered a full frontal assault from Katrina a few days after I left in 2005 so I was curious to see the town today post-Katrina two years. I’ll report more on this in the next issue in a month or so as its probably going to be a fairly long segment and this edition is already long enough.

What sold at the tradeshow

I know you are expecting a line by line report on the RTDA tradeshow but to tell you the truth I did not spend 4 days walking around seeing every booth and every product line. I did not attend any of the RTDA parties or after show events either. The greater part of the tradeshow is cigars and since I have no interest in cigars, other than to smoke a few now and again, I didn’t get around that much. I did spend some time with McClelland talking shop.

Most of my time was spent in the high grade pipe section. Day one was pretty slow as far as retailers attending the event (Sunday), Monday and Tuesday I did not attend the tradeshow and day four (Weds) was very slow.  My understanding was that day two and three were fairly busy, however over all demand for any handmade pipe which retailed for over $150 was weak. I selected inventory on day one before the “crowds” of day two and three and again on day four after the rush. Frankly I was pleased that I was able to fill my pipe buying budget with very nice pipes at good price points. Generally those lines that sold well, meaning those that retailed for under $150, I had no interest in stocking.

Overall numbers for the high grade pipe section were soft, but not unexpected given the over all B&M pipe market. Houston was also not the best venue for RTDA members, Las Vegas seems to be the best for attendance which means sales in total, pipe, cigar or in general. I don’t have any specific information as far as classic line sales like Savinelli, Peterson, Dunhill or similar pipe lines, but I’d guess that their numbers were soft too.

You will notice that the “rebuilding” of our pipe offers online is not complete as I decided to get this issue of the newsletter out before I completed the pipe offers. There are photos online of all of the new products I hand carried back from the RTDA, but there is an awful lot not yet on hand.

In stock and photographed are IL Ceppo, Radice, Don Carlos and a few Ashton, Dunhill and Ser Jacopo pipes. Retail prices have been updated, however text and specs are NOT online nor are the purchase buttons or the actual selling prices. In most cases the net selling price is 20% less than the suggested retail if you are interested in what is shown on site before I complete the listings. Please understand that the specs shown are NOT correct until you see a purchase button in place.   

Before the CORPS show at the end of September we will have in stock a good selection of Ashton sandblasted pipes in 2X, 3X and LX, plus a nice mid-priced value line from Italy called Opus. We will also have a nice group of smooth Amorelli pipes, carved Caminetto pipes, classic Peterson pipes and several series of Stanwell pipes. I expect to have these other lines in house by mid-September and hopefully get them photographed online before CORPS.

Castello pipes are limited at this point as I did not select any new inventory at the RTDA. There are several reasons I did not select any new Castello stock at the RTDA, first my buying budget is very tight right now and I just don’t have $20,000 plus to invest into Castello inventory. Second, I have a great selection of the custom made PCCA 2007 Castello pipes available which I’m going to promote at 25% off the listed online price, just to move this inventory. I have to admit that I thought the 2007 PCCA Castello would have sold out quickly, but then again the over all high grade market is slow right now….its still a bit puzzling.

Finally, I was a bit disappointed by the Castello selection at the RTDA. There was good stock, some limited issues like the 60^th year anniversary Poker and the 2007 RTDA Limited Edition, but I was not very impressed by either special edition. Prices for the 2007 RTDA, a large “base standing” bent pipe ran $1800 to $2800 for the pieces I saw which seemed very high for the piece offered.  Of the 28 pieces offered for the Castello 60^th year anniversary Poker, all but 3 or 4 sold, but again the suggested retail seemed high for a fancy banded standard shape and size.  

I personally like the heavy cast silver bands that Castello uses for limited editions, but a similar band was used for the P&T Magazine Castello and of course Castello offered a 4 pipe series of “chains” banded pieces. The two tone stem-ferrule look of the 2007 PCCA Castello Pipe of the Year has a better look at less money, but you expected me to say that.

Please don’t misunderstand my Castello position. I am a big fan of the brand and personal friends with both Franco Coppo and the Castello North America distributor, Marco Parascenzo. I suspect that if I had a better pipe budget I would have purchased some new Castello inventory, but the special pieces I was looking for like GG65’s, GG15’s, 84’s and that kind of thing was not offered at the tradeshow.

What's hot what's not brand names

There is a real difference in market driven demand and marketer (marketing) created demand and I believe today’s pipe scene is more marketer driven then anything else. I see real value and quality product lines go begging for buyers while other lines with inflated perceived value (my column, my opinion) showing strong demand. There is a real danger in buying into the hype of marketing value product lines, not so much in everyday smoking value, but in real term cost values.

Before I get into explaining the reasons behind current market trends I’ll give you some basic insight into quality value brands that are generally met with a “ho hum”. Peterson and Stanwell are two very large lines of well made pipes that get very little respect (read demand) in today’s pipe market. Both of these lines offer very good to very high grade production standards with a full range of price points and designs. You might add Savinelli to this group but in my opinion the better Savinelli lines have become expensive for what they are with the lower price points in Savinelli being less over all quality then either Stanwell or Peterson. 

As far as Handmade pipes, Ser Jacopo offers great designs, a wide range of shapes and finishes, but less respect (again read demand) then other handmade lines. You could perhaps add Savinelli Autographs to the handmade no respect group, but this is not a new thing as autographs have never held their value well in the estate market nor have they ever been that popular in the over all new market. Upshall is another handmade line that enjoys little demand, but I believe Upshalls are over priced as far as suggested retail compared to other high grade lines.

There are other brands that through out modern history have enjoyed “step child” status compared to their market competition. Original Caminetto pipes were never so popular as when they were discontinued, original production Upshall did not support their price points well in the USA. Original production Charatan had a love hate relationship with the retail market with unique handmade pieces being somewhat popular, the extreme high grades being popular but since there were so few made I don’t think we are talking very high numbers in the quick sell group for Charatan. Standard shape (machine turned classic numbered shapes) Charatans were not very popular compared to say Dunhill standard shapes and that holds true even today where there are still many Lane Era standard shape Charatan pipes available unsmoked and at less than their original 20+ year old suggested retail - ho hum…  

As I reported in the beginning of this newsletter, what is “popular” to retail shops are pipes priced under $150 suggested retail with $50 to $100 being the sweet spot for in shop pipe sales. Stanwell, Peterson, Savinelli, Lorenzo and other brandnames would fall in this price point area, but I just don’t see much “press” showing excitement towards these brands. I do see a lot of low grade Savinelli pipes offered along with what we used to call “private label” and “basket pipes” meaning house brands, off runs and one time “name stamped” products. We used to call these starter pipes, just fine for everyday smoking, but not really a good value for the best taste or long term usage.

I will say here that I am not making any judgments as to what you want to smoke. My feeling has always been that you should smoke what you want based on price points, design, style, weight or whatever other factors you use to select your pipes. It is your choice, not mine, and that is where I have an issue with market driven verses marketer/marketing driven sales.

For the most part today’s collector pipe smoker is Internet based rather than local B&M shop based and in fact these are two very different worlds within the pipe market. I’m sure most net buyers shop at a local B&M on occasion and I have no doubt that many local B&M customers will look over eBay or online merchants on occasion.  There are a few B&M retail stores that regularly attend pipe shows, a few more that will do a local collector show if there is one in town and a few that are Internet active meaning a web site and collector shows.

On the other hand there is a fairly good size online pipe smoking community that draws in members from around the World, but mostly the USA and Canada. Add to this online world the Internet P&T merchant, a few have regular retail stores, most don’t. Many Internet “merchants” were based in Europe before the US $ dollar lost out to exchange rates, now most Internet sellers are US Based. Net based sellers do not look at the over all customer base the same way as a B&M retailer nor do they tend to think long term on what they offer today.

I’m getting ahead of myself here and want to go back over the last 30 years to give you a better idea of the difference between market driven and marketer driven product lines. Looking back I am going to try not to use specific names of retailers or pipe brands as this story is about the pipe market and marketing rather than a specific brand or shop which might side track the over all discussion.

Thirty years ago (1970’s for those of you that are not good at math) everything was local and retail stores depended on the ambiguous pipe “market” to offer trends in the inventory they offered their pipe customers. Then like now the bulk of pipe sales were standard shapes from International pipe brands like Savinelli, GBD, Comoys, Barling, Sasieni, Lorenzo, Stanwell, Peterson, Kriswell and others. If you had a “good shop” you carried Dunhill and Charatan. Almost all inventory was English or French as far as brand named lines with some Italian lines, mainly Savinelli. High grade hand made (read expensive, more expensive then a $50 Dunhill) were not a common thing or a real factor during this period.  

As a matter of understanding the 70’s era pipe scene, a good pipe shop would make about 35% of its business on pipes, 40% on cigars and the rest on tobacco, giftware (humidors, lighters, etc), racks and leather. I’m basing this on my personal experience as our stores did not stock “drug store" type pouch or box pipe tobacco nor did we stock cigarettes.  At the time you could smoke just about anywhere and tobacco taxes were a non-issue even with cigarettes. 

A local shop gained a reputation based on what they offered, however the overall market was brought to us by manufacturers salesmen, the RTDA trade show held in NYC each year and what our customers requested. That is not to say that local shops did not influence marketing, such as Smoker’s Haven in Ohio was “pure GBD” or Milan Brothers in Roanoke VA as heavy Savinelli sellers, but this was due to the employee or owner of the shop more than the over all market for pipes. Everything was local but that doesn’t mean that the “marketer” driven effort did not occur, as I know of several company salesmen that would practice their own form of market influence.

One day you’d get a call on the phone from a customer:

Caller: Hi, do you have the Comoys Silver Cloud pipes in stock, I picked one up the other day and they are great I’d like to pick up a few more.

Shop: No we don’t have those yet but we’ll look into it for you, please give us a call next week.

This would repeat itself over the next week or 10 days 3 or 4 times, different callers, different stories, but the same request for Comoys silver cloud pipes. Who would show up 12 or 14 days later? The Comoys salesman of course and before he could even mention the new Silver Cloud line, boom you were ordering 36 or 48 of them. Usually 6 months later you sill had 90% of those pipes in stock. 

For some reason the mid-1970’s saw a boom of sorts where the market exploded for Danish freehand pipes from Ben Wade, Jobey Dansk, Celieus, and Preben Holm, but mostly Ben Wade and Jobey Dansk. The core of this market was $40 to $60 with a range of $30 to $200, with few selling in the over $100 price point. There was no real advertising or push for these new larger, bulkier, heavier, fancy cut briars but the market spoke nationwide and there was a real boom in sales which lasted 5 or 6 years. Our little 600 SF shop was selling hundreds of these Danish freehands every month. We sold very few original Caminetto pipes for $40 to $50, very few Dunhill pipes at $51 to $71, but thousands of these large Danish freehands every year.

The Danish freehand market cycled out of favor in the early 1980’s which really left pipe sales flat and shop owners depressed. Two things happened in the mid 1980’s where marketing drove the pipe market to greater sales for those that jumped on the wagon. Rick Hacker published his first “The Ultimate Pipe Book” and Pipe Collectors International (PCI) was “born”, both offered a collectors marketing engine.  The purpose of both of these efforts was to make money of course, but the actual end result was more complex then just making a profit and more long lasting to the over all benefit of pipe collectors.

I will always consider the decade of 1983 to 1993 as the golden age for pipe collecting (and smoking) in the United States. Many of course think of patent numbered Dunhills, pre-trans Barlings, pre-Lane Charatans and Patent numbered Sasieni’s as the high point of  quality pipe manufacture, say pre-1955. Whatever you think of the old “pure” quality standards of English pipes, that period is about production of products rather than pipe collectors and modern pipe smoking.  During this period of the early 1980’s you also saw the original Caminetto team break up into two new makers Radice and Ascorti, along with Bill Taylor starting Ashton Pipes in 1983 and Mike Butera arriving as a pipe maker.

What you really saw in the mid to late 80’s was a “market” that expanded its reach caused by the marketing effort of PCI through their magazine, through pipe and collector shows starting in 1984, and the birth of several larger mail order companies to serve the new larger market.  Levin Pipes International and Pipe Collectors Club of America (PCCA) were born from this exposure to a greater number of pipe collectors.  There were other mail order companies that were also created in this era, most lasted a year or two and disappeared.

Mail order had always been a tool of a good retail tobacconists. Alfred Dunhill maintained a “My Mixture” list of custom tobaccos for many of his customers and although each customer was given his own personal mixture number I have no doubt that many “my mixtures” were the same. As a manufacturer of pipes Dunhill also offered OD (own design) pipes and published an extensive catalog to order by post. Modern day US based B&M stores in the days before the Internet typically offered mail order for their pipe tobacco customers, especially house blends for customers that had visited from out of state or moved. Companies like Iwan Ries, Tinderbox International and Edwards offered full color catalogs, usually sent for the holidays which included pipes, tobacco and everything else offered in the shop. Mail order for a typical shop was not a major source of income and was handled on a part time as needed basis.   

PCI attempted to control or manage the pipe collectors market by acting as central authority for the hobby, it didn’t work.  Levin Pipes International attacked a part of the collectors market that was not commonplace, that being used pipes (named Estate pipes by Barry). The reason that LPI went after the used market is that Barry was an outsider and was not able to purchase new products through normal industry channels. WO Larsen was the only maker that would sell Barry new pipes in the early years and Larsen Pipes were not that popular. Barry found that used pipes were easy to find, cheap, easy to clean up to resell and most the name brands had  interesting stories or brand histories. Generally the “market” had little interest in used pipes, other than that crowd that had to have a patent number on the shank, so Barry became a marketer of used pipes.   

Pipe Collectors Club of America (PCCA, aka me) had access to all of the regular industry supply channels and I personally had a real passion in knowing the products I was selling. True information was not that easy to acquire at the time so even though I had been a “professional tobacconists” for over 12 years, I really was learning as I went along. PCCA went after the high grade, hand made pipe market using color photographs and a printed text listing, which is basically what Barry Levin did also for his used pipes.  I believe that the market told me what they wanted more than me telling the market what they wanted – however, because of the excitement created by Rick Hacker’s book and the exposure PCCA gained by attending pipe shows, that concept created by PCI, I had access to a much larger customer base telling me what they wanted.

In 1986 I attended the Dunhill Principle Pipe Dealers Convention in London which was followed by a 2 day event hosted by Bill Taylor of Ashton Pipes. From London we extended our trip for a total of 27 days where we traveled to Italy, France and Switzerland. This 27 day trip to Europe was the beginning of the real world of pipe making for me as I got to see first hand pipe making by Dunhill, Ashton, Charatan, toured St Claude France (pipe makers) and found large supplies of Castello pipes which were very hard to acquire in the USA.

PCCA’s offers were centered on 4 brands, Dunhill, Ashton, Castello and Ser Jacopo which I believed offered the best value in cost verses quality. Of course all of these brands were in great market demand. Having supply channels both in the states through normal suppliers and through European distributors allowed PCCA to become the premier high grade pipe supplier of new wares in the USA. What PCCA did was expensive and a lot of work, not just for the cost of inventory but because the mid-80’s technology offered CPM based computers, dot matrix ribbon fanfold printers and color photos taken with a 35MM SLR camera.

1000 newsletters, mailed 10 to 12 times per year required 20,000 3x5 color photographs and 20,000+ sheets of dot matrix printed paper – we did this every month. I don’t remember the exact year, but it was probably 1987-88 or so when we purchased our first Hard Disk based PC, plus B&W laser printer plus color scanner at a cost of over $10,000 for the system including a 300 baud modem which got me “online” for the first time.

Once I got online I got involved with the Wine Forum on CompuServe which offered a section for Pipes and pipe Tobacco. Keep in mind that you paid connect time to CompuServe (and AOL) by the minute, and there were months where I had charges of $500 to $800 just for CompuServe connect charges. The P&T forum on CompuServe was an active forum, more of a BBS, but a great preview of what became the Internet.

As I mentioned earlier, 1983 to 1993 was the golden age of the modern pipe market and for pipe collectors . McClelland was going from a start up to a powerhouse working especially with Barry Levin on his tobacco blends and then with PCCA starting in the early 1990’s. PCCA was doing 10 to 12 pipe shows a year all over the country. Technology was advancing the output for better quality newsletters at less money and we went from local mail order only to CompuServe to dedicated Internet sites (domains) for PCCA. I was working nonstop 12++ hours a day 7 days a week but we were moving a lot of product and making a lot of money. I helped build a lot of collections, established lifelong friendships with both customers and manufacturers, and I was having a lot of fun watching the hobby explode. The good times could not last forever and they didn’t.

I’m going to stop now or I’ll never get this issue in your mailbox so I’ll continue this article in the next issue. See the future of our trade and hobby in our next issue….

Taxes and Nanny State

Currently there is a bill pending in both the US house and US senate that will have a chilling effect on the retail pipe and tobacco trade. HR3162 and HR976 proposal to fund expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) solely through higher tobacco taxes.

I’m sure by now most of you have heard of this bill and it was the talk of the RTDA. Originally the bill called for up to $10 per single cigar in tax, which is now down to $1 in one version and $3 in the other version.  Congress is currently in summer recess  but will take up a compromise version once they return in September. President Bush has promised to Veto this bill based on the expanded coverage of the bill and the future unfunded cost.

The real danger in this bill is not that it will cost pipe smokers a bit more for future purchases or cigar smokers a lot more, but the included “floor tax” on inventory that is already in stock at local B&M stores. What this means is that as of the effective date of the new law, if it passes, a local shop will have to pay the new increased tax on 100% of his inventory of all tobacco products. If an average medium size shop has 1000 boxes of cigars in stock which is a fairly typical inventory, and the actual tax is $1 a cigar, the retailer will have to write a check for $25,000 just for his already owned cigars.

Keep in mind that most retail B&M tobacco shops do 75% or more of their business in cigars. This law as written will put a large number of retail  tobacco stores out of business, they will just lock the front door and walk away. Makes you happy to see American elected Democrats last go round.

Chicago Show May 3^rd & 4^th 2008 – Golf Outing May 2^nd

The CPCC Chicago pipe show is the mega-event of the year for pipe collectors, which is not something you didn’t know. There is a new state law in Illinois having to do with indoor smoking which will affect the CPCC show, but after speaking with Frank Burla at the RTDA show in Houston, I am happy to say that CPCC 2008 will go on as planned and will allow for smoking in the show.

I believe that no smoking on the display floor will hurt this event and I’m not sure what future events will allow as far as on floor smoking, but you can bet that 2008 will be another great pipe show for everyone. I have agreed to again act as co-host of the Golf event held on Friday May 2^nd. One of these years I might even win the damn thing if Kevin Levi and his team of ringers gets bored with taking first place every year.

The number of players has varied from a low of 24 in 2007 to over 60 when we first started this event as a fund raiser for CPCC. My primary job will be to get players for the 2008 CPCC Golf event so I’m going to start nagging everyone now in August 2007. Anything less than 48 players will be a disappointment and suggest a lack of support for a pre-show event that contributes 100% of the proceeds to the CPCC (over the actual cost of the tournament charged us by the resort). Commit early and commit often, 2008 has to be the best turn out ever as it might be the last time we play.

P&T Foundations Forum

Starting in early September 2007 P&T Magazine will officially open their Foundations Online Site and Forums. I have been asked to be a moderator of several of the forums. I’m not exactly sure what that means other than I’ll be spending even more of my time online not making any sales.

There are many different online pipe and tobacco related forums, blogs and user groups ranging from the self policing Usenet to the heavy handed single censor “moderated” groups (most fall in between). I’m hoping that the new P&T Foundations forum(s) will be like the old CompuServe P&T board where real discussions and debates take place concerning our hobby especially without the noise level found on some other venues.

There is a 30 day free trial test run that you are welcome to try and the site offers an outstanding “included” database program to catalog your pipes and tobaccos. Stop by and take a test run on the new P&T Foundations site, it should be interesting.

PCCA Tobacco Reviews

The September 4, 2007 P&T Magazine will feature tasting notes on PCCA blends (trial by fire) which are fairly positive (I’ve seen the cliff notes). I suspect that the reviews will equate into tin sales for us which is good because frankly we really need the business at this post-RTDA period. I mention it here because there is a limited number of on hand tins, especially Beacon and Aurora, so fair warning after the magazine comes out these might sell out quickly.

I would also suggest that you add a bit of extra tobacco to your cellar stock based on the pending federal tax increase “for the children”. Should this bill pass you will pay more for future tobacco, if it doesn’t pass this time around all you’ve done is add to your supply at today’s lower prices. Of course I’d like to see you adding PCCA tins to your cellar, but in any case I think it is wise to stock up on pipe tobacco today.  

New lines and products

I like to believe that the product lines we offer through PCCA offer you great value for the cost and because of that  we are expanding our inventory of several lines that are on the “lack of respect’ list that I talked about earlier in this issue. Stanwell and Peterson are being added as value priced lines in September. We will also offer new pipes by Ashton, Caminetto, Opus, and Amorelli at great prices. These new product lines are expected in house by early September and will go on site as soon as possible once they are in house.

If you are going to attend the CORPS Pipe show in Richmond Virginia September 28^th through 30^th, please stop by our tables to say hi and check out the new products, including PCCA pipe tobacco tins.

Bouncing email and Filters

I get a lot of email, plus of course the usual spam and extra spam because I make no attempt to hide my valid email from Usenet or the web-bots. Several layers of filters are used to cut down on spam, both server based and local. Mailwasher offers a very good free version of their program and of course there are others out there, everyone has their favorite.

One thing that I can’t deal with is bouncing email as it eats up time and effort with no results. If you write to me I will answer by clicking on “reply to” so please set your cute anti-spam corrupted return email off, please add me to your “approved list” if that’s required (Earthlink, etc). If you want to check spam use a free spam filter like Mail Washer because I’m going to just delete any email that bounces back to me for whatever reason. I know this sounds rude, but I just don’t have time to chase down bouncing email or beg to be added to approved mailer lists.

If you need to talk to me face up or drop me a message, I expect to be on the new P&T Foundations forum starting next week so you can always get me through that service.    

 August 31, 2007

Robert C. Hamlin (PCCA)
Pipe Collectors Club of America
Post Office Box 5179 - Woodbridge, VA 22194-5179 
 Questions or Comments please email me at rch@pipeguy.com

The Smokers Pipeline

June 5, 2007

New Strambach Calabash – Meerschaum Bowl

This is not a full issue of the Smoker’s Pipeline e-newsletter, just a quick note to list some of the new products we have online and an announcement on Estate Pipes.

Tobacco news:  Beacon is once again sold out with a new order due in the net month or so. Please watch the tobacco listing to see when Beacon is back in stock. We have also learned that PCCA custom blends will be taste tested in the Fall 2007 P&T Magazine, which we are looking forward to since we don’t get a lot of “press’ on our custom tobaccos and we certainly can’t afford to advertise them in print media. Right now we have aging in tins a very special Virginia-Oriental mixture which we are calling “Tudor Castle” (not sure that will be the final name). Very high sugar content bright golden yellow Virginia, pure Yenidje leaf, and a touch of Perique. I personally expect this new blend to be on par with Millennium and Beacon as far as quality – Fall 2007 release.

Calabash report: We have in stock 5 each of the large Strambach real gourd, briar, amber and meerschaum Calabash pipes from Austria. These are not the pained gourds, ceramic bowls or plastic stems, they are high grade Austrian real Calabash pipes that are difficult to find. I will try to keep these Strambach Calabash pipes in stock, but supply is limited and they are costly to import so the best time to acquire one is now when they are in stock and available.

NJ Jackass update: I know I said that this wasn’t a true newsletter, but I have to pass on this item:  If you don't understand why this bit of "news" rings a bell, just look at the My View column archives dated 1.23.07 having to do with NJ Casino smoking ban. Councilman Eugene Robinson "smokes" in a whole new light....chief sponsor of the 2006-07 no-smoking Casino act in Atlantic City.

You won't believe this! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18359860/from/ET/

If the MSN link has expired use this one:  

http://www.gallowaynews.com/CITYCOUNCILMANCAUGHTONTAPE.htm

We have added a few new Castello pipes to our online offers including a few nice Greatlines and a good selection of the very hard to “stock” number 84 Hawkbill shape. Hawkbill’s are difficult to acquire and usually sell out almost as fast as we find them, right now we have more in stock then we have had total in the last two years.

Estate Pipes drastic reduction in prices:  I really do not want to dump our estate pipes on eBay for several reasons. First, eBay is an awful venue for quality pipe sales with so many cut and run sellers offering junk, along with a few quality sellers that hype every pipe as the best that has ever been, its difficult at best to get a fair price for quality products on eBay.  Second with fees and reserve costs what they are, eBay usually makes more then we do when we try to sell through that venue. Third and perhaps most important, “quality” does not equal value on eBay, whereas price and hype seem to “sell” over true market value.

We have reduced all of our listed estate pipes to basically “wholesale” meaning I’ve marked them down to what I’d offer them to other dealers for. Typically that means our current prices are 10% to 40% less then they were yesterday. Estate pipes shown on page 1 through page 7 are included. The pipes shown on page 8 through 10, which are mostly high grade Petersons, have not been written up or priced yet. If you are interested in one or more of the Petersons, we can talk about price and I can set up a purchase button, I’m just not ready to measure and write up the whole section yet.

Once you have had a shot at our estate pipes at their reduced prices I’m going to “dump” the rest on eBay with an as is, no return no exchange policy. We do not expect to offer estate pipes again in the future as I prefer to offer new products and frankly I’m a bit disappointed in the sales results of what was offered vs. what actually sold over the last 2-3 months in the estate pipes. At pipe shows the estate pipes did fairly well, online they did not – go figure.

The next full SPL issue will be out in late August with a news update and information on new products available from the RTDA Tradeshow in Houston.

-Bob

www.pipeguy.net  & www.pipeguy.com

 June 5, 2007

Robert C. Hamlin (PCCA)
Pipe Collectors Club of America
Post Office Box 5179 - Woodbridge, VA 22194-5179 
 

Questions or Comments please email me at rch@pipeguy.com

The Smokers Pipeline