The recently completed Las Vegas International Pipe Show at the fabulous Palace Station Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas was an absolute blast! The hotel boasts a movie theater, the largest buffet in all of Las Vegas, an enlarged casino, many top notch restaurant choices, etc. It is the only pipe show in the country that still allows smoking in the show room, and even boasted a smoking lounge next to the show room where the old buffet used to be located.
My wife (Beverly), and I always treat this show as sort of a mini-vacation. She helps me take care of the traffic at my vendor’s booth during the weekend – I always make more sales when I’m wandering the show room floor and she’s manning the booth solo. Go figure – and then when the show ends on Sunday, we have a tradition of going to Caesar’s Palace where I sit and watch Sunday football games, smoking my pipe while drinking a margarita or two at the famous Montecristo Cigar Bar, she snatches my credit card and goes shopping. The longer she’s gone the more nervous I get and the more I drink!
As for the show itself, the fun began Saturday morning with over 100 vendor tables and traffic was heavy and a lot of sales were made. I sold 32 pipes at my table and other vendors and pipe makers were also doing well. One of the things I noticed immediately was the large number of American pipe makers who were making sales. Prices on their pipes seemed to be holding steady and those with recognizable names were keeping prices about where they’ve been the last several years. Some of the newer pipe makers without name recognition were pricing their pipes in the same range and a few went back home with most of the inventory they brought. I think they’ll learn that marketing and name recognition over a period of years will earn them the prices for their pipes that they wanted immediately. But again, the trend was that the established pipe makers were making sure that they were keeping their prices fair to both themselves and their customers.
One item that was not fun, was the fact that for the first time ever, the State of Nevada tobacco comptroller’s office made tobacco vendors first register to sell tobacco, and then charged an excise tax on every tin sold. Due to that new rule, many would be pipe tobacco sellers dropped out of the show. So, less than a handful of individuals went along with the new edict and did show up. Whether the State of Nevada regulates tobacco at the show again next year remains to be seen.
Another trend that seems to be the norm at many of the pipe shows that I’ve attended this year, if not all of them, was to see so many younger people participating in the hobby. The under 40 crowd just keeps growing. Us old folks were there, as usual, but seeing couples in their 20’s and 30’s as well as singles in that age group, having such a great time at the show sure made me feel great. I hope the trend continues! Those young people were full of energy, asked lots of questions, and I received a lot of feedback from other vendors that the younger participants really made the show special for them, too.
The Saturday evening Pipe Show Dinner was also a blast. Show organizer Brian Levine was the MC for the event and even had a few games for us to play after the dinner itself. It was a lot of fun and Brian did his usual job of making the evening entertaining! Co-Show organizer Dave Peterson did a bang up job of taking care of everthing else!
There was a lot of talk at the show regarding both pipes and tobaccos. Probably the biggest change over the last decade is the way collectors have focused more on quality Virginia tobaccos rather than Latakia laden English blends. Quality Virginia leaf is not as easy to find as it once was, and when you find a blend or two that you enjoy, cellar it because the future of tobacco farming is unclear. Growing Virginia tobacco and processing it is very labor intensive and there just are not as many farmers eager to spend so much time on growing and harvesting a plant with an uncertain future. Let’s just hope that our battle with the tobacco Nazi’s of the world is a winning one!
Finally, Bev and I always take in a show each year on our Vegas trip. Since she is so accommodating and helpful at the pipe show, I treat her to whatever show she decides she wants to see. This year it was The Wizard of Oz show at The Sphere. It was truly incredible. And we got a kick out of seeing Dorothy and her dog Toto and the Tin Man, the Lion and the Scarecrow again.
Happy puffing,
Steve
