Tins or Bulk..What do you buy and why?

I have been buying bulk blends because of being able to make money go farther. The two tins I have (CAO Black and Cult Blood Red Moon) were given to me. I do have my eye on some tins. I kind of enjoy the bulk blends more because I enjoy putting them in mason jars and seeing them accumulate on my shelf -- makes me feel like an apothecary

I've tried so many different blends in tins over the years that most of what I try now pretty much reminds me of something I've already tried.I'm retired now and prices are going up faster than my income,so I watch what I spend.I smoke mostly bulk It's cheaper.I still sneak in a tin now and then though.I like the internet.It allows me to compare prices before I buy.

G'day , whatever I smoke is the best smoke ever, as long as it is angel herbs & not devil weeds, you make your choice & take sides. I have dusted off the ashes & stirred up the embers with poker & tampered with a finger & lit my MM corncob, shall I enjoy the smoke or dig up the mix of blends from my memory bank somewhere, some pipe lying around with a partly filled bowl of the finest made tobaccos in the history of backy so far in modern history , Hay, Chief...I breathe in & not inhale & do inhale, & play a little puffing out perhaps through nostrils & mouth, there is only so much time for mortal man to find a little contentment & peace....smoking in peace with Aztec & Incas & Mayas, no time for sour grapes or sauerkraut ye lovers of the pipe, sitting besides the Atlantic as Mr. Obama leaves the whitehorse after his crowning achievement of OBAMA CARE, UNIVERSAL, God Bless Mr. OBAMA & FAMILY. & God Bless Mr. TRUMP ESQ. & FAMILY, PAX, bye.

Hi Don, a nice Cap'n Black should give anyone too spicy a good anchor in any storm I put my feet up takes off blood pressure to my head, peace...bye.

I started my cellar with bulk, primarily 3 which include McClelland #5100, #2015 and Mac Baren Va #1. Later added H&H Old Dark Fired, Sam Gawith Full Virginia and Best Brown Flakes and the Stokkebye flakes, Luxury Navy, Twist and Bullseye. Later additions were Hearth and Home Anny Kake and Va Spice. I had my eye on these aging and they comprise approximately 3/4 of my bulk on hand. I'm pretty sure the last of these I jarred and put back was early 2014 so everything has at least three years on it now, some more. The last were Uhle burleys, Perfection Plug and #300, both cube cuts. Looking forward to enjoying this haul down the road.

I went nuts on tins the last couple years with my eye towards retirement. Too many on hand to count now but I will one of these days. Nice problem to have.

Mission accomplished. Nothing to do now but relax, enjoy and share unless the place sparks in which case local media will report a heavy fog and lovely tin note floating across a seven state region.

I probably should have added a couple other things. Peterson aros, primarily Sunset Breeze and CC, were instrumental in my transition from cigs to the pipe full time and I originally had a pretty healthy supply of both in tin on hand at one time; however, as I transitioned away from aros, I had little use for them. When my cousin joined me in the same transition I passed them onto him. Not only did he like them, as did I originally, his wife would let him smoke them in the house as they have a lovely room note. That having been stated, I would call it a "useful mistake" in that it served a purpose for both of us and, therefore, wasn't a total loss.

If I had a mulligan I wouldn't have purchased those tins, as well as a couple others. Bulks were the least expensive way for my tastes to develop, were real game changers and I'd probably be fine now if they were the only ones I had on hand. They're still represented significantly in my current rotation.

Thanks to some luck, trial, error and good advice, I got it right in the end; nevertheless, it wasn't a mistake free process by any means.

Hello everyone.
i'm fairly new to the forum and the hobby.
i can't find the answer to my question, so figured this may be a good place to try here. I'm sure I have missed it somewhere, because I'm not using the right keyword in my search.

storing Bulk tobacco.
I'm trying new tobaccos, so I will order 2oz. It arrives in a ziplock bag and I may not get to it for a month.
is it ok to just put the ziplock in a mason jar? or should I take it out of the bag?

Also some of my mason jars are pint size, more than enough room for an open tin.
is it ok to use? Or should I get smaller jars.

Thanks for your help!

Bulk.....because I smoke a lot of it and I don't want to have to be ordering every month.

The bulk of I own ironically is tins but thats because most of my favorites are only available in tins.

A good way of putting it.

I am probably at a 50/50 mix if I was to weigh out all my tobacco's... it is pretty cool to see the effects of aging through a glass jar. I wish when I had started cellaring, I had taken yearly pictures of different representative types.

Regardless of the choice, bulk or tin if one plans on smoking into the future, as someone else said, it will never be cheaper, and being three years in the benefits of aging are paying off for me.


On Brian Levine's latest podcast, the guest said that he doesn't smoke any burley that has less than five years of age on it.

Pipestud says that aged English blends command the highest resell prices on his website, and by judging the price of Balkan Sobrani that has age on it, It looks like discriminating smokers might see great value in aged English blends. And, I recently heard someone say that they prefer aromatics with age on it....As some may say that the flavors on them types may fade over time, maybe that allows the taste of the tobacco to come through that some complain about why they don't prefer aro's?


I have gotten the impression from the past that conventional wisdom said that only Virginia tobacco's see a great benefit from aging.... I am not so sure my mind is made up on that.... tastes can be wildly subjective.

I buy 80% bulk and 20% tins/tubs...