Wow! What a great little event.
My son Nick and I just got back home, stopped in Cary on the way home and had Sushi. [
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First of all, to all the folks @ Triangle Area Pipe Smokers club for making this happen. Secondly, thank you to all of the various vendors for taking time to make this a very enjoyable event.
A special shout out to JimInks. I appreciate you making me aware of this event and it was great to finally meet ya in person.
Also a shout out to Caa55. Great meeting you Chuck. Thanks for the tobacco flakes sample. Already in a ziploc baggie. [
] Also, got the Chess Championship playing on the tv as I type.
Met a lot of really nice folks, only one turd in the punchbowl, a fella selling estate pipes that was definitely the most unfriendly person there. No worries though, plenty of other nice folks and beautiful pipes.
The craftsmanship on the artisan pipes there was amazing. The first time for my son and I to attend such an event and definitely the first time to actually see some of these amazing works of art up close. Sorry, but I completely forgot to get any pictures.
Now for the most amazing news of the event. Ok, prolly not amazing for some folks but definitely for me.
I won the raffle for the free pipe!
I was sitting out in the smoking area visiting with Chuck and my son when I heard the announcer calling out raffle #'s. When we got back in a fella had just won a leather pipe pouch and they were calling the winning number for the pipe. No one had the #.
After calling it out both inside and out they did a last call and then drew another number... 256. I'm looking through my strip of tickets, I'd purchased 10 $1 tickets, 249 thru 258. I was surprised, as I was standing right behind the man calling out the #'s and asked him to repeat it. Sure enough, I had it!
Woo hoo! [
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After the raffle was over, we made our way back out to finish smoking our pipes and visiting with different folks out there.
Then it was time to make another round through the event and pick up some tobacco.
You can see that I took advantage of the sample offerings @ the Lane booth, picked up a dozen or so from them. Very nice and helpful folks.
All of the round tins were a result of Jim taking mercy on me and helping me select some blends to help me round out my cellar. Being a relative noob to this pipe scene thing, I have come to realize that the majority of inventory was English blends and Aromatics. (I love me some MM965 and Frog Morton) Jim helped me pick up some VaPer blends, Burley blends, and even one with Yenidge Raccon Accent (the one I'm smokin now in a beautiful little restored Kaywoodie Supergrain Apple with a beautiful tapered fishtail thin stem.
Oh, yeah, I also picked up some old obscure square tin. I think the guy said it was called... Penzance. Said he was having a hard time selling it and that he would just give it to me since my son had purchased a pipe from them. [
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Ok, Ok, I'm kidding. About him giving it to me anyway. The truth is that we were looking at a bunch of estate pipes that this gentleman and his wife had, great folks from Clinton NC. He also had a bunch of older/aged tins that they were selling. I almost pulled the trigger on a 12 year old tin of MM965.
My son bought a really neat no name freehand with very unique rustication from them. While he was paying them the $15 they were asking for it (great price really) I in passing asked if they had grown tired of folks asking them if they had any Penzance. Thinking of course, that since it is all but impossible to find, that they would have sold out of it long ago if they had any at all. It was then that he said. "No, I haven't had anyone ask for it, but I think that I do have one".
I was almost speechless. I thought that it and Stonehaven were all but "Unobtanium". Truth be told, I more than likely paid too much for it, but did get the gentleman down $25 off from his original asking price. Nice older gentleman, but he told me he knew it was quite sought after, but that he wasn't completely sure of the age of the tin.
So, if anyone out there is familiar with a possible age of this unopened tin, I'd be appreciative of any information you might have.
Well that's all for now folks.
Thanks
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