I wish i could help but i´m not able to get anything related to tobacco from mail without paying tax with my soul.

Hey Charles, 

I’m sure there are people who would enjoy doing exchanges. There are new people joining the forum all the time too who may be interested. 

I suspect that you would need to be active here on the forum and keep the conversation alive until it gets going. 

It sounds like a good idea. It will only be feasible for those of us in the USA- otherwise Nach0 will loose his soul. Even then, tobacco shipping is a state by state thing and I would encourage everyone to check if shipping from their state to the recipient state is allowed. The fine for messing that one up is pretty big.

Not to be a party pooper, but I am worried about the potential legal challenges of mailing a highly regulated substance, (even between personal friends as gifts in small amounts). I have a small circle of friends locally that meet at irregular intervals (in good weather) for “Whiskey Tasting” in one of our back yards- where everyone brings a whiskey to share, and some bring cigars or a pipe tobacco to share as well. That’s not possible online, but, it sure avoids any legal issues.

Having said that, the idea sounds great to me, if legal and logistical problems can be solved.

Just brainstorming. It’s way beyond the scope of a couple buddies helping each other out; and it’s probably more trouble than it’s worth - but, it doesn’t cost anything but time and imagination to dream - so…

…what about a “pipe tobacco bank”?

…you’d have to open an account (proving ID and residence)

…you would “deposit” tobacco by buying it and having it delivered to the bank.

The bank then breaks it into “Tasting Units” (TUs) - 50-cent sample portions - repackaging it into airtight pouches labeled with exactly what it is (with tin date, repacking date, mg per pouch). You get credited with the number of TUs you deposit.

Then, you “withdraw” TUs by picking from the whole selection of blends in the bank.

The bank handles legal and regulatory compliance - and you pay only taxes, duties, tariffs, handling and shipping when you make a withdrawal. You already paid for the Tasting Samples when you deposited your own.

just brainstorming

I’ve sent tobacco to a number of people here on this forum and on others, as well as having gotten tobacco from others. It’s actually quite common in my experience. Some sites have blend clubs where people trade off each month sending out the tobacco to the group of people who participate. Most forums have sections for trading tobacco. I don’t think that there are any concerns with this, the hard part is finding someone who wants what you have and you want what they have. 

In South Dakota the law states specifically that no tobacco can be shipped to anyone in the state from a business. They do allow cigars to be shipped but the business has to be registered, pay tax, and clearly mark the packages. The belief is that if a friend or relatives who is in no way associated with a business could send you tobacco. The receiver does have to be 21 to possess. We live overall pretty free in SD so when I found this law as a new pipe connoisseur I was a little shocked. Take all for what it is.

No person who is engaged in the business of selling or distributing cigarettes or tobacco products may ship or transport, or cause to be shipped or transported, cigarettes or tobacco products to any consumer in the state.

Codified Law 10-50-99 - South Dakota

Again, not an attorney, so do your own research. Ted named the most problematic states correctly. Most of the regulations are meant to be for commercial tobacco shipments. The problem lies in exactly what each state defines as commecial- the answer may not be common sense. There are ifs, ands, ors and buts. That being said, tobacco is not regulated as stringently as alcohol- especially hard liquor. Hard liquor carries more restrictions because it is flammable (class 3 flammable liquid) and must be shipped in compliance with those additional regulations.

If I were to look up the shipping regulations of tobacco for my state and the recipient state (including provisions for age restricted delivery ie. Signature 21+ required) and I was able to be in compliance then I would feel quite comfortable with shipping small amounts of tobacco.

There is not enough room on this forum to address this fully - it would take pages. I again, encourage everyone to do their own research. In my opinion, a tobacco share would be a viable and legal option so long as all the variables are accounted for.

Hey guys, any ideas why my posts other posts are flagged for pending approval? I wrote an intro post as well as another one for this forum section. Neither is posted. Are there admins I can contact?

We originally thought that we would do a marketplace but decided to shelve it and wait for things to get going a bit more, since we would want to establish rules that are to be determined like minimum posts before selling or something of the sort, just to ward off spam and scams. That said, we would certainly look into all these legal questions before rolling that out.

I'm happy to share and send samples of a variety of tobaccos to my fellow pipe smokers.  I'm in on this one.

Couldn't we just post some blends that we would like to try and if anyone has that blend if they want to they can reach out to the person wanting to try it and they work out all the little details themselves?

I have a lot of tobacco I am willing to share. I think the guys in our pipe club think I'm crazy as I'm always trying to give stuff away. The problem is years of buying bulk has caught up and my surplus will probably out live me....

I've also been part of a tobacco tin box.  It requires a lot of trust.  The box starts out with like 10-20 different tins or pouches of tobacco.  It's sent to the first person on the list who takes 1-4 tins/pouches and replaces the taken ones with a tin/pouch of equal or greater value.  It is sent along to the next person on the list.  It's a pretty cool venture, but requires a lot of trust! 

Well @Charles it seems like your idea has already found interested participants! Start a thread and start swapping. I don’t think the admin cares as long as you’re not buying and selling, but if he does he’ll let you know I’m sure.

I’m not really looking for any tobacco right now so I don’t want anything, but I’d be happy to send out some samples to people on the forum if it’s something specific they really want to try. 

Back when I first started smoking a pipe, I knew lots of pipe smokers locally and you couldn’t get together with them without someone sticking a pouch in your face and saying “you want to try this?” And you doing the same. When you went to tobacconists, they would let you have a bowl of any bulk blends they had to try and they would occasionally have a tin of something open for the same reason. It was a fun part of pipe smoking and the only remnant of that I encounter is people sharing on forums. 

By the way, a tip for sharing tobacco  that I do that makes it a lot easier and cheaper to do. A regular letter or envelope can be mailed at the cheapest first class letter rate as long as it’s under 1/2” thick. When I send people things to try, I put about 4-5 bowls worth in a flat Mylar bag or foodsaver bag and make sure it’s smoothed flat, although I suppose any decent bag would do, fold a piece of paper around it and stick it in an envelope and mail it. If I’m sending multiple blends, I just tape the bags to a piece of paper and use a larger envelope. Obviously do whatever works best for you, but that’s worked for me. 

I’m all about this! Count me in. I’m just getting started with pipe tobacco and enjoying it. I typically buy a tin each payday (ahem, sorta). I’ve listed the tobaccos I currently have open in my profile, and I’m eager to try anything someone would be enthusiastic to recommend, especially non-aromatic blends. I really hope that trading takes off on this site.

Chris

I advise people to swap, whenever possible, within their own Customs Union or similar jurisdiction. I’ve started a thread for European Union citizens interested in swapping items of interest. I started participating in that swapping within hours 😊 We’ll see how it goes 🤞 

Love this idea guys!

Some of the tobaccos you guys talk about are completely foreign to me, literally and figuratively, and I would love to try them. Don't know what I could offer as a lot of what I have seems to be old hat to most of you.

My inventory at present is:

-Amphora Special Reserve Dark Cavendish

-MacBaren Vanilla Cream & HH Old Dark Fired

-C&D Autumn Evening & Chenet's Cake

-G.L.Pease Odyssey & Gaslight

-Gawith's Squadron Leader

-Colt's Aromatic

-Mr.B's English Mix

Not aware of any other Canadians on the forum yet either and don't think it would be easy getting tobacco over the border. I can't even buy it from another province. Ridiculous. 

I'll have to do some research on shipping small gifts to someone.

If there are any other Canadians out there, lets talk!!