Some good things are happening regarding getting closer to reopening pipestud.com and I think once it is done, all of you, like me, will believe the forced shutdown turned out to be yet another blessing for all of us. Stay tuned because the upcoming news will be very good. Like any other worthwhile business improvement, the process does take good planning and time.
After doing the wrong thing and spending much of my time worrying over the last several weeks while fighting the battle regarding all of the crazy tobacco laws not only in this country but around the world, I decided to focus on how each time I was forced to shut down the site for a period of time to comply with some of these tobacco laws, I was able to come back with a better end result.
Back in 2001, I sold pipe tobacco on eBay and was probably getting up around 10-20 tins a week while sharing the selling of tobacco with my consignment pipe sales. In 2006, eBay changed their rules and allowed only the sale of out of production pipe tobacco. One week I was auctioning a lot of the no longer made Dunhill Murray’s era tobaccos and eBay shut them all down with a warning that they would suspend my account if I sold in production pipe tobacco again. I talked with eBay explaining that the Murray’s era Dunhill blends were no longer produced and that Dunhill tobacco was now being made in Denmark by Orlik. There response was that it was still Dunhill tobacco no matter who the blender was and I couldn’t sell it. So, I said to heck with eBay and started my own website to sell tobacco where I made the rules.
In 2018, PayPal instituted new rules to accept payments for tobacco and I was shut down for a whole month while going through the process of getting reinstated. Then in March of 2020, the Texas Comptroller shut me down because the law in Texas was that tobacco could only be sold from a commercial location. So, after operating for almost 20-years from a shop built behind my home, I had to scramble to get a new location, file a bunch of paperwork, wait for an inspection of the new building and then waiting another two weeks to get approval to sell again. And now the PayPal thing comes back with more new rules and shut me (and many other) tobacco sellers down until we either adhere to their new rules by following a list of things to do in order to get into compliance, or quit selling tobacco. And I am now into week number three of that shutdown despite the fact that I scrambled like crazy to get PayPal everything they wanted from me in a period of just three days after they notified me.
While I admit that I am a little weary of fighting these battles, I am nowhere near the point of stopping the fight. Thanks to all of you great customers and consignors who give me unbelievable support, I always feel like the battle is a worthy one.
A good friend of mine who died a few years ago, was a great pitcher for the University of Texas baseball team, James Street. I remember one time when he was pitching against another team and was tagged with three back to back to back home runs by the opponents in the 3rd inning. He stayed in the game and actually shut down every batter he faced after the last home run hit off of him and the Longhorns won the game 5-3. Later, I asked James what were his thoughts after that third home run in a row that he gave up. I’ll never forget his answer, “Well Steve, I’m a pitcher so I just kept pitching.” And that is what I am going to do.
In closing, I sure was blessed to have the greatest mother in the world, and I am sure that many of you have / had such a mother, too. I doubt very many mothers are reading this newsletter, but I sure am praying for a blessed Mother’s Day weekend for all of them!
Steve
