Price Gouging Esoterica Tobaccos...

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Cartaphilus":g08wge2m said:
After reading many of the post here it seems I'm also correct.
There's a definite "If it don't affect me, I don't care attitude!"
So, don't anyone dare complain about anything that they could have fixed
by sticking together and doing something about it. And that about covers most
everything that is complained about here in one way or another. ;)
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We still love ya', Cart. :lol:

I went to compact vehicles during the first gas crisis, and you bastards kept driving big, comfortable suv's. Well, I ain't going back to compacts, I don't care what y'all say! ;) :tongue:
 
So Ron, what would you have us do? I don't get gouged because I refuse to pay what I feel are unreasonable prices. So in effect I'm already protesting, though I don't think for a moment my protestation amounts to a blip on the vendor's radar (because others do pay the higher prices and perhaps then grumble about it on public forums).  :geek:

I suppose I could burn one of my wife's bras in protest but that would likely cause me untold grief at home.

:)
 
It seems to me that you all get too emotional on it.

Just don't buy the stuff, and eventually they'll bring down the prices to the market level. No big deal. There's plenty of awesome tobacco out there, isn't that much of a loss.
 
I think the market will even itself out. If not now, eventually. For the moment, Esoterica and Balkan Sobranie are hot items people feel pressured to get. It will hit a ceiling and come back down. Maybe not in time for Christmas, though. ;)

Some of you will remember the FVF balloon about five years ago. There was the same Ebay gouging going on. However, FVF is again available and reasonably priced. Nobody "did" anything.

I think that's the nature of free market. Prices will always reflect what the market will bear. Don't think it's worth it? Don't buy it. Pretty soon many will come to the same conclusion and the spike will come back down. The dissent is already happening. This thread proves that.
 
The retailer can charge what they want for products, they owe nothing to any one, it's just business to them, why sell a product for $24 when people will pay $45, I don't like it either but that's just the way business is.

On a side note, I just can't connect with the general feeling about these blends you guys across the pond feel are over priced, 8oz (well, 250g with our measurements) here in the UK costs us around $90. So to us this $45 area of pricing is dirt cheap, this notion of $24 for 8oz is pure fantasy for folk here, if only we could get tobacco for next to nothing. :|
 
Briar Spirit":svx39nlz said:
The retailer can charge what they want for products, they owe nothing to any one, it's just business to them, why sell a product for $24 when people will pay $45, I don't like it either but that's just the way business is.

On a side note, I just can't connect with the general feeling about these blends you guys across the pond feel are over priced, 8oz (well, 250g with our measurements) here in the UK costs us around $90. So to us this $45 area of pricing is dirt cheap, this notion of $24 for 8oz is pure fantasy for folk here, if only we could get tobacco for next to nothing. :|
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We have two sayings over here that I think are very applicable here"
" A fool and his money are soon parted"  and regarding US vs UK pricing : "One mans ceiling is another mans floor " Onward thru The Fog :cheers:  :twisted: :twisted:
 
First off let me say this, "IT'S ALL PB's FAULT"!!!!!! :p

Second, I have little to no problem with a seller on E-Bay getting $200 from any idiot who is willing to pay it in an OPEN AUCTION! I do have a problem with retailers jacking up prices to line their pockets! P&C is currently robbing people on the Esoterica & Balkan Sobranie. I have always dealt with P&C because of Russ. However, I think what they are doing currently is outrageous! So, I bought my Balkan Sobranie from smokingpipes.com and paid less than 1/3 of what P&C was charging. I'll buy from who ever deals fair and square.

This reminds me of when Cheaper than Dirt was charging $99.99 for aluminum AR-15 mags! :evil:  They jacked their prices up right after Sandy Hook when there was fear of another "Brady Bill" hitting the Nation. I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THOSE ASSCLOWNS EVER AGAIN!!! I have a very LONG memory, and I DO hold grudges!!!!! :twisted:
 
Briar Spirit":kwjsorg0 said:
The retailer can charge what they want for products, they owe nothing to any one, it's just business to them, why sell a product for $24 when people will pay $45, I don't like it either but that's just the way business is.

On a side note, I just can't connect with the general feeling about these blends you guys across the pond feel are over priced, 8oz (well, 250g with our measurements) here in the UK costs us around $90. So to us this $45 area of pricing is dirt cheap, this notion of $24 for 8oz is pure fantasy for folk here, if only we could get tobacco for next to nothing. :|
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Don't know about you, but I order all my tobacco from US. Smokingpipes, 4noggins, the usual sites. It takes about 2 weeks to get here, but it's still 3 times cheaper than buying it locally. When the package is under a kilogram, comes directly otherwise goes to the customs. $10 bribe in the customs officer's pocket, and you're all set.  Corruption can be quite useful sometimes. :)
 
If your tobaccos were being over priced you'd all be whining. It's funny when the shoe is on the other foot but, none of ya think about that. I couldn't give a hoot in hell about Esoterica tobaccos. Granted the great but, I have others I enjoy just as much.
I hear many of you complain but, I see you still do business with the same person
that want's to bend you over on another product. I just don't get you guys.
If they find they can raise the price to stupid on one tobacco,what makes you think they won't do it to another and then more? I have ethics, so I don't do business with those who don't, it's that simple period.
 
Cart, WHO are you fussing at?  Lol


Dover, they didn't do this stuff when Scott ran the show... This nonsense started when cigars international bought the joint out. There's a reason their 'mascot' is that nasty goomba smiling face with a 3 day growth and a wife beater.  THEY started the nonsense with Opus X obscene pricing back then, is it really a shocker they are trying the same with pipe tobacco?
 
Big 'merger' a couple years ago.. HQ switched out to CI's HQ in Bethlahem PA. There was a thread on it where guys said "hey it's a good thing"... Lol. Yup sure was. Lmao
 
http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/pipe-news/pipesandcigarscom-acquired-by-cigars-international/

There's one of the announcements.    It was the beginning of the end.. And damn did it happen fast.  That's where all the "buy three get one" and the "tobacco if the month" type bs came from too. Scott didn't do that nonsense either.. Prices were prices.. You'd get some discount t over three tons of the same blend, and a sample every now and then, but it WAS a straight up tobacco shop.
 
It's a shame, seems to be the way of the mom and pops nowadays. A few corporations own all of the major retailers... but hey, they give us cheap products, right? :roll:

I'm glad I'm not in the market for much anymore. I hardly ever walk into a store unless it's Tractor Supply.

ADDED: And I realize TR is a chain-store as well, but it's right down the road from me and is as much of a small town farm store as can be found nowadays.
 
puros_bran":u3wlscye said:
Cart, WHO are you fussing at?  Lol!
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No one really and everyone that has the mind set that, if it doesn't effect me it don't matter.
Just my annual rant at the blind and self-centered.
 
Cartaphilus":9q5qzcuk said:
puros_bran":9q5qzcuk said:
Cart, WHO are you fussing at?  Lol!
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No one really and everyone that has the mind set that, if it doesn't effect me it don't matter.
Just my annual rant at the blind and self-centered.
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:lol:

ADDED: I'm on your side, Ron. I ain't buying anything from P&C until April! Or any other retailer... broke I am... until April. :lol:
 
I may or may not have ordered from them some years ago, but I don't think so... I've been boycotting them since 1999.
 
...When I started this thread, my main goal was to get a sense of how others felt about "price gouging" for these tobaccos by the two retailers mentioned, and perhaps to get a sense of everyone's perception of the fairness and equity aspect...

Like many of you have stated, I too do not buy from anyone who charges more than what I feel is reasonable...no matter how much I may like or want the product. However, I do tend to "favor" those retailers that are consistent in pricing and conduct themselves with a true sense of fairness...
 
Peter, I will tell you who I have shopped with.....
Excluding local B&M's scattered across the country.
Knoxcigar (back when there was a Knox cigar)
Smokingpipes.com
Marscigars.com
Cupojoes.com


Those 4 have got 99.9% of my business specifically for the reason you mentioned... Back then the first hosted the forum I was on and the other three seemed like good people... Since my interlude in smoking Rich @4noggins has been pretty upstanding with the folk here.. Him and Mike @mars would get my money now a days.
 
Mike Rutt at Mars Cigars is a swell guy, and I'll never get tired of telling people that.  
Noggins' staff is cool.
JRCigars is cool, but they have sometimes random/limited stock of pipe tabacs.

My local Tinder Box just sent out a letter about price increases of their tobacco.   Their prices hadn't raised in five years, though the cost has been creeping since then.   I think prices went up 5% at most, but they're 30% pricier than online.   Online places I can't go sit and smoke for hours, watch baseball, help myself to stuff in the back fridge, and do so with friends.

It all works out.  Do business with who treats you right.    The other stuff behind-the-scenes (mergers, new distributors, hurricanes supposedly wiping out the best crops) you can't do much about, sometimes.  

8)
 
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