Selling your McClelland's?

Sobranie of London Balkan Sobranie No. 759 in a 50g tin – 1980’s era​

Zeno Marx said:

if you buy from Pipestud, and are successful getting exactly what you want, you must have the gods in your favor. Every time I go to the next page, or hesitate for 30 seconds to read a description, it asks me to verify I'm a human again. If I wanted to look through all the pages, there's no way I would get what I want. All theoretical, because I'm not buying anything, but more to say how frustrating it must be if you are. In 8 pages of listings, I had to verify 5 times. Is this how everyone else experiences the website?

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ftrplt said:

I fully admit it's a conundrum. Just looking at Pipestuds latest auction, my PCCA's, Esoterica's, GLPs, old DHs, and various McClellands +/McC-mades, and Syrian-laced 'baccy's, etc. are worth a bloody fortune. But, I didn't buy them to resell; I bought them to smoke. So all these "bulging bottoms" are staying with me!!! :cheers: FTRPLT

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Brewdude said:

This for me. They're worth more to me as something to enjoy rather than what $$ it can generate.


Cheers,

RR

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user 2027 said:

I have a few FM, FMOTT, FMOTB and FMOTP. I was actually pondering this week. Not so much for the money but I've kind of fallen out of the latakia kick I had for 20 years. So now I'm not sure what I will do. Probably keep it as my taste may swing back that way in the future.

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Zeno Marx said:

if you buy from Pipestud, and are successful getting exactly what you want, you must have the gods in your favor. Every time I go to the next page, or hesitate for 30 seconds to read a description, it asks me to verify I'm a human again. If I wanted to look through all the pages, there's no way I would get what I want. All theoretical, because I'm not buying anything, but more to say how frustrating it must be if you are. In 8 pages of listings, I had to verify 5 times. Is this how everyone else experiences the website?

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RSteve said:

My understanding from Steve (Pipestud) is that he maintains a list of hundreds of buyers, both domestic and foreign. I believe that periodically he notifies those on the list of his consigned tobacco and pipes. Items that aren't purchased quickly by those on his purchasers' list are then posted on his website. He's selling far more tobacco than that which you may see posted on his site.

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Zeno Marx said:

I think Pipestud sends out early bird, or whatever special name he might use, emails to notify everyone. A certain time, same day, every week, to notify his base. I don't think there is any secret customer society. If you sign up at his website, you get the same thing everyone gets. If he is bottlenecking his business, it's so he doesn't have to juggle more people and money than he wants. To him, bigger isn't better. More isn't better. But hey, he wouldn't be the first to have a secret system, so I could be totally wrong.

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Zeno Marx said:

I'd like to see the activity on his site. Like at 10AM, when he opens up sales, is it all one person buying it all? Or just a couple people/Chinese middlemen? I mean...how can that many pages of tins sell out in minutes? It's like Rolling Stones tickets selling out in minutes. Maybe not a good comparison, but you get the gist. I think he should raise the prices and push the limits. Not because I want to see this tobacco that absurdly priced, but I want to see what the outer price ridge actually is. If they're selling out that fast, traditional economics dictates the prices are too low. I don't like any of this one bit. Not. One. Bit. I find it to be the ugly side of hobbies and pastimes. Nevertheless, I am curious about the market.

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RSteve said:

I wonder how long it will be before Dunhill tins really escalate in price, even though most of the blends are still available with the Peterson branding. I think in late 2023, it'll be five years since Dunhill tins were marketed, so any tins will have aged for 5 years.
I have about 100 that I panic bought in 2017 when I heard Dunhill was leaving the tobacco industry.

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Zeno Marx said:

A wish would be for both of them to do a podcast of adequate length, explaining their entire process. I'd even be interested in their business process and organization. They must've had upwards of 500+ recipes, if not more. 1000? Even if some were the same tobaccos with different labels, how did they go about all of it? Imagine just two people keeping that all straight and at that level of quality. Baffles me. How many labels did they keep in stock? How many shops did they do proprietary blends for (Peretti got me thinking about that this morning)? It too goes to show that if you have the ingredients, the recipe doesn't have to be perfect. Reminds me of my Italian grandmother taking me shopping when I was a kid. Go to the store with a certain recipe in mind, but if the ingredients weren't up to her standards, she'd pivot and make something else. Chefs always talk about ingredients and not recipes. Getting sidetracked...

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5star said:

This ^

might be the way to go. I understand Pipestud has to charge a 50% commission to keep the lights on. (Quite understandable for a business). So his prices are twice what the seller gets.

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