Well, I guess that I could have used another title for this blog, like Recent emails. Or how about, Questions from Customers, or even, Hey Pipestud, Are You Out of Your Mind? I can answer that last one with a quick “Yes, I am.” But if I did that, then this would be a very short blog. Fortunately, most of you who do email me, whether you think that I am out of my mind or not, are very kind and I greatly appreciate that. Also, the more questions I get the more of a good feel I get for what my customers are thinking. What they want to know, and most importantly, I’ve gotten some great ideas for this website over the years from customers. The plain truth is that I can’t see the forest for the trees. I’m on the selling end and love getting feedback from my customers because they are on the buying end and see pipestud.com from a very different perspective than I do. So here we go with some interesting (at least to me), thoughts from some of the fine folks who give me their business and hard earned money.
The Thrill of the Hunt: One of the more interesting things that I have learned over the last seven plus years since turning this website from a manually operated site to an ecommerce site, is the fact that so many of you enjoy trying to get what you want before the next guy steals it out of your cart. I can’t tell you how many times over the years I’ve had buyers tell me their “action plan” for getting a tin before the next guy nabs it. Some people think that going through the entire process to pay for an item is fastest, and will actually make multiple orders more successful. Others think that loading their cart with several items they want and then paying, gets them a better return because they only have to pay once, eliminating the time it takes to make multiple purchases, which causes them to lose more items instead of getting more. I guess it depends on how confident the buyer is on his own method. At my end of the table, I see usually about 50 or so orders within the first five minute of publishing the new listings every Saturday morning and I often see 2-3 orders made in less than two minutes between a buyer’s method of buying one tin in his first order and then getting in his second order. So, I don’t know whether the extra time it takes to checkout multiple times is an advantage or not. I’ve heard other buyers say that they load up their cart with 3-5 of the tins that they want and quickly checkout and think that they get most or all of what they want that way. So, whenever I get the question (which is often), what do I recommend for fastest checkout? My answer is always the same, “just do what you think works best for you.
Your Website Has Been Hacked! About a month ago I had a really funny email from a potential buyer. I am not making fun of the gentleman, because there actually may be others with the same thought and I certainly want to take this opportunity to say “That just ain’t right!” Here’s a cut/paste of the email that I received: “Dude, your website has been hacked! Three times today I tried to checkout when purchasing tins I wanted and all three times while I was trying to checkout, a hacker jumped into my account and swiped the tins right out of my cart! Again, your website has been hacked!” I quickly explained that my website is unique due to a lot of the frenzied buying that occurs, and that to prevent hoarding of tins for any length of time to protect them from being purchased by others would create mass confusion. Can you imagine what would happen if one minute a tin has the sold out sign on it and the next minute it is available again? If you multiply that problem times 50 or 100, it would drive everybody batty, including me! Thus, the open shopping cart system. The first one to pay is the first one to get the tin.
Are You Out of Your Mind? Aside from my wife and children, I do get asked that question on occasion by first time visitors to my website. Just recently, I received the following question via email from someone that I don’t think will be returning: “I am a big fan of McClelland’s Dark Star. I was devastated when I recently inquired on a pipe internet forum regarding where to find some tins of that blend to stock up on. It seems I couldn’t find any available anywhere on the Internet. Some fool recommended your site as a place to find some. So I came here in the hopes of finding a few tins of Dark Star and was absolutely horrified and shocked to find that you are selling 50g tins of that particular blend for $65 a tin!!! That is insane. When they were in production, you could get a 50g tin of Dark Star for about $12. One thing is for sure pal, your pricing is way out of whack!” I usually try to respond to all emails sent to me, but took a pass on responding to that one.
The good news is that 99.9% of the email that I receive are very kind and supportive. And I appreciate all of you for not only your kindness but for your business. I am actually into my 18th year of running this website and I am continually amazed at all of the long standing friendships that I have made over those years. I still converse regularly with many customers who made their first aged tobacco purchases from my site back in 2006 when it opened. And right up through the first part of June 2025, I am still making new friends and loving every minute of it. Thanks to all of you, I am truly a very blessed man!
Steve
