online ordering

[mark]

The B&Ms in my area have either closed, or have mutated into lottery ticket-cigarette dispensing-crack pipe selling news stands. They carry a few (3 or 4) uninteresting mass marked bulk tobaccos, and several cards of corn cob pipes. 100% of my purchases are online, not that I'm complaining, reasonable deals on pipes aren't hard to find if you do considerable surfing, and the selection of both pipes and tobaccos is outstanding. However after having pipe in hand have you ever returned it?If you have a dedicated B&M in your area you're very lucky indeed. I'm wondering what percentage of your purchases are from online stores.

 

[Buck]

100% of all my Tobacco/pipe supplies are ordered online either
on e-bay for pipes or http://www.wvsmokeshop.com/index.aspx
for my Misc. and tobacco supplies.

Living in a rural county in the middle of farm land with the nearest
city 75 mi away I have no other choice.

 

[Pseudo Nim]

A fair bit (tabac) on line, but I do love a B&M, the nearest good one is a 34 mile round trip, another good one is a phone call away, too far to travel, I leaned heavily enough on a local shop that sells a few pipes and tabac's to buy in Sam Gawith's flakes and mixtures, he finally broke down and got some, he does'nt usually sell much pipe tabac, but he's since been supprised and delighted at my hoarding ability.

 

[jhuggett]

Anything within reasonable distance is pretty lacking in selection. Even if they do have something that appeals to me the prices are at least double what I can get them online. The last tin I bought from a local store was Full Virginia Flake and it was $14 as compared to $6 online. Hard to justify it, especially when the store own was a... well not the greatest guy in the world. Also I have yet to find anyone that I would consider knowledgeable.

So, unfortunately, I purchase almost exclusively online.

 

[kilted1]

Now that I live over an hour away from anything in Atlanta, I shop online, mostly at smokingpipes.com, thepiperack.com and Frenchy's

ipe:

 

[Justpipes]

Anything within reasonable distance is pretty lacking in selection. Even if they do have something that appeals to me the prices are at least double what I can get them online. The last tin I bought from a local store was Full Virginia Flake and it was $14 as compared to $6 online. Hard to justify it, especially when the store own was a... well not the greatest guy in the world. Also I have yet to find anyone that I would consider knowledgeable.

So, unfortunately, I purchase almost exclusively online.

You pretty much summed it up Jason.

 

[Mikem]

I guess I'm lucky in the fact that there are at least four pipe/cigar shops within a twenty mile radius of me. Three of which probably stock several hundred pipes each, from Dunhill to Peterson, Don Carlos to Ardor. I would say that at least 50% of my pipe buys are from them of which at least 80% of any new/unsmoked pipe that I purchase is from one of the local B&M's. The other 50% of my pipe purchases would either be from ebay, pipe smoking friends, smokingpipes.com or thepiperack.com of which 20% of those would be new/unsmoked pipes. I do like the ability to be able to touch/feel the pipe before purchasing.

 

[Doc Manhattan]

My options are pretty limited as I lack a car--probably 95% of my pipe and tobacco purchases are web-based. I'd love to support my "local," but the selection is spotty and their pricing is often high and (worse still) wildly unpredictable.

I honestly don't understand why so many B&Ms run their businesses as if there's no web competition. That approach has driven hundreds of small bookstores and record shops out of business, and they have a far bigger and more mainstream market.

 

[Winslow]

I buy everything online despite the fact that a 1/2 hour train ride will bring me to
Iwan Ries B&M in Chicago.The oppresive taxes that the state and city levy make it
impossible to buy there anymore.12 years ago I bought everything there but it's over now,I only buy from them at the Chicago Pipe Show now.I just won't pay retail
for a pipe anymore,there's E-Bay and online stores to buy from.How long that will last?Who knows? :affraid:

Winslow :sunny:

 

[ftrplt]

Heavily on-line for pipe tobacco. Smoking Pipes, Pipes & Cigars, and Peretti's getting the majority of my business. Not much in the way of B&M's here in OKC; but I try to patronize the few with a bit of business. Cigars mostly, some pipe tobacco. Poor pipe selection. In my travels, I stop in at a local B&M when possible and buy when something strikes my fancy! My heavy cigar buys are reserved for JRCigars as I travel back and forth to North Carolina. However, even that is going to be curtailed until I see how this dern SCHIP cigar tax shakes out. With basic price increases of $.35 to $.70 per cigar looming after 1 April, my cigar purchases will probably be limited to a few sticks at a time on an "as-needed" basis. Multi-box purchases may be a thing of the past for me! We'll see. ipe: FTRPLT

 

[Muddler]

I buy everything online. I have two B&M's quite close by, but the selection is limited. Besides, I don't really like local tobaccos (pity, because they're cheap). Online works, even with shipping adding 30-40% to the cost.

 

[stan41]

I buy everything online. It is 150 miles (one way) to the nearest B & M Pipe/tobacco store. I even buy my pipes on ebay. I don't buy new pipes anywhere. If I get a pipe I don't like on ebay, I just turn around and sell it on ebay. Sometimes I even make a profit.
I am finding myself buying more of other stuff (not tobacco related) on line. At the price of gas, you can't afford to run around town too much trying to find something, and it takes lots of time too.
Stan41

 

[Dock]

I have several pseudo B&M's in my area. One is owned by a real a-hole who stocks a few Altadis blends, a few high priced tins of McClellands and a handful of mid grade pipes that are marked up substantially. Another is a glorifield newstand with a few packs of Captin Black decaying on their shelves and another caters mainly to cigar smokers. I have to drive to Boston to visit any well stocked shops. Because of this I make 100% of my pipe/tobacco purchases online...

 

[Anonymous]

There is a B&M a few blocks from where I work, so occasionally on nice days I stroll down to check out the inventory. His specialty is cigars, so that's where most of his stock is at. He has a few overpriced Savinelli's & a few other bigger name pipes in a case with a rack on the wall full of overpriced no name pipes. For pipe baccy he has the heavily cased fake flavored jars on the counter in preweighed ziplocks. He does carry MacBaron tins with a few Peterson & McClellend's around but no great selection. I had asked once about C&D tins but he didn't sound interested in carrying anything else.
He sells alot of bongs though, as he is located across the street from VA Tech. :flower:
Mostly I get pipe cleaners & Zippo fuel from him as well as an occasional cob pipe. I would say 97% of my purchases are online.

 

[paddy-boy]

My B&M is awesome.
Hundreds of pipes to choose from and if they don't have it they will order it.
Same deal with tobacco.
Prices are a little higher than wholesale but that is to be expected.

 

[regor]

Ording on-line is so much easier. The nearest one is in Phonix about 225 miles up the road. On line is delievered right to my door with very seldom a problem. :sunny:

 

[nyed001]

I moved from Westchester County to upstate NY just about 7 years ago.Down where I was from there were close to 12 places I could shop all within 15 minutes of our house.The biggest one was Mom's Cigars in Scarsdale.The closest,real smoke shop where we live now is roughly 45 minutes away in PA.They mainly cater to cigar smokers and have raised their tin prices so drastically in the last 3 years that I have no choice but to shop on-line for tobacco.
Living in anti-tobacco NY sucks anymore!

 

[vasco]

Anything within reasonable distance is pretty lacking in selection. Even if they do have something that appeals to me the prices are at least double what I can get them online. The last tin I bought from a local store was Full Virginia Flake and it was $14 as compared to $6 online. Hard to justify it, especially when the store own was a... well not the greatest guy in the world. Also I have yet to find anyone that I would consider knowledgeable.

So, unfortunately, I purchase almost exclusively online.

My personal record is paying 26€ for a tin of Davidoff English Mixture that can be bought on-line by 8,50 USD.

As far as I know there's only 1 good B&M in Lisbon and it's so out of my everyday route that I haven't been able to pay them a visit.
I'm planning to order tobacco on-line from Synjeco (www.synjeco.ch) but for the time being I'm having to live with newstand blends, the best I can find is Mac Baren Mixture, and there's a place that have Presbyterian tins, all the rest is Borkum Riff, St. Bruno, Amphora, and of course, Clan... 8-(

So far I haven't been able to find ANY latakia blend here.

I've been told that in Spain the situation is much better (and cheaper) so I'm planning hunting trips to Badajoz.

 

[JT]

Interesting thread, Mark; particularly the number of guys who buy exclusively on-line. I suppose it shouldn't really be that much of a surprise, though, as over the past 5 years or so I've gone from a 50/50 split between on-line purchases and B&M's to about 95% on-line myself.

Come to think of it, about 5 years ago is when all of the nicer shops with worthwhile selections were closing up here in ATL, and I have to admit, sometimes I do miss the experience of walking into a place that was dedicated solely to smokers and smoking supplies. Even though it's a lot more convenient and cheaper to buy on-line, the smells and the wall-to-wall selection of pipes and accessories of a nice B&M were an enjoyable way to piss away an hour or so, especially while smoking a pipe and chatting with guys about nothing in particular.

I still stop in at JR's Outlets when I travel through NC, and I visit Lowland Pipes (Smokingpipes.com) at least once a year when I get to the Carolina coast, but I rarely purchase much outside of pipe cleaners, a new lighter, or a stray tin of tobacco every now and then. Of course, everything on the shelves or in the display cases at these places is available via their on-line stores, so I guess it's more about the experience than the potential purchase.... same reason, I suppose, that I drive through my old home town from time to time, and always take the time to cruise through the parking lot of my old high school.

 

[Strongirish]

I am finding most B and M stores are either head shops or cigar outlets and noone in the stores knows anything about pipes anymore. A lot of the tins have gone stale and I never have this problem online. I eBay pipes or buy them at antique stores or estate sales and restore them. I do a lot of trades with others to try new blends.