When I occasionally get compliments for having the foresight to start my own pipe tobacco website, I must be honest and say that I did not have that foresight at all. In fact, to this day I credit eBay for my private website which has become a much larger business for me than eBay ever was. Back in April of 2006, after having had literally a couple of dozen of my Dunhill Murray’s era eBay pipe tobacco listings shut down, out of desperation I started the original version of Pipestud.com. eBay told me that their rules specifically stated that no still in production pipe tobacco could be sold on their website. And since their employees were not trained to know the difference between out of production Dunhill Murray’s era tins and the then new Orlik version of Dunhill tobaccos, they would not allow any version of Dunhill tobacco to be sold by me, and that if I was caught selling any more still in production pipe tobaccos of any brand, they would be forced to ban me from eBay.
I was able to sell all those Murray’s era Dunhill tins privately to an individual who made me a good offer on all of the tins that had been pulled by eBay. However, I wanted to continue to increase my sales opportunities that I knew existed in the after-market pipe tobacco business. It did not take a genius to see that tobacco laws were getting stricter and stricter, making good tobacco harder to get, and as more pipe smokers “tasted” the value of aged tobacco and were willing to pay more for the pleasure, it would be wise to take advantage of that budding market.
I didn’t know the first thing about running a private website. And back then there were not very many “Go Daddy” type of market places where a non-tech savvy guy like me could go to open a website without severe struggles. I did note that some people in our hobby had very basic manual websites, so after a few phone calls, extensive research on Google, and consumption of a dozen or so big bottles of Excedrin, I finally opened my own private website – where I could make the rules and not eBay. It was April 12th of 2006 and I had somehow managed to list 12 tins of tobacco of my own with both a description of the contents and a simple photo. It was a manual rather than e-commerce site, so if someone wanted to buy a tin, they would have to email me at the address that I included in each listing and tell me the name of the tobacco that they wanted. I would then send them a PayPal invoice and asked them to include an address where they wanted their tin(s) shipped. I got off to a roaring nothing! In fact, it took 11-days before I sold the first tin on my new site and it was almost a month before all 12 of those tins sold.
Fortunately, I was at least smart enough to figure out that I needed to find marketing avenues to drive business to my new aged-tobacco website for purchases and to get consignment customers so that I could have product to sell. I joined just about every pipe and tobacco forum that I could find on the Internet, I advertised in the NASPC Newsletter and any other outlet that would take my money in exchange for advertising, and did a lot of praying! It all seemed to start falling into place as time went by.
As we fast forward 17-years, I am pleased to report that it no longer takes me 11-days to sell a dozen tins of tobacco! And the explosion really occurred in 2018 when I hooked up with my webmaster Andrew, who built a new e-commerce website that allows me to sell more product each week, and pack and ship the purchases quickly to my customers (now you know why I call him Andrew the Great).
The most often asked question – by far – that I get, is “How do you keep getting all that old tobacco to sell week after week?” Well, the secret is simply my consignors. Did you know that on average I now sell for over 500 consignors each year? Some of that number are also repeat consignors. Heading into my last weekend of listings for 2022, I have received orders for over 7,300 tins and bags of tobacco. That is an average of 14.6 tins and bags sold per consignor every week. So, as we get the new year underway, I do indeed want to salute the men and women who drive this website’s tobacco train. Your business has made me a very happy pipe smoker! And for those of you who have never consigned with me before, I do indeed hope that some of you will hop in the driver’s seat in 2023, and give me the honor of consigning for you.
Finally, I could get all the consignors in the world but wouldn’t make a dime if not for all of you who enjoy this site and the product offered. So, a huge Texas sized salute to all of you who have made purchases in 2022. And if you’ve been a visitor to the site but never made a purchase, why not make that your New Year’s Resolution for 2023! (-:
Happy New Year everyone!
Steve
