As a Canadian pipe smoker, I have some interesting challenges to overcome like $34.99 a tin of tobacco here in Southwestern Ontario. Well, at least that’s what it was the last time I was in the local pipe and cigar shop. I am a firm believer in supporting your local pipe shop and I have bought pipes and accessories from my local shop but tobacco in my area is just outrageous. Once you get the taxes on it we are looking at $39.54 per tin. That’s right, you want a tin of G. L. Pease Gaslight in my area you are paying basically $40 dollars for it.
This is where the online merchants that will sell and more importantly ship tobacco into Canada come in. I buy tins when I’m of a mind to, or I can only get the tobacco I want in tin form but for the most part, I buy in bulk. I’ve worked out the numbers for my 2017 tobacco purchases and you might be surprised at what you see. I have bought the equivalent of 41 tins worth of tobacco in 2017, that is between actual tins and various bulk over the course of a full year. For that, I paid $408.83 including all duties, taxes and handling charges the Canadian Government saw fit to levy on my purchases.
Now here’s where it gets interesting if you buy 41 tins of tobacco at retail over the course of one year here’s what you would spend in my part of Canada. 41 x $39.54 (taxes included) = $1621.14. That’s right, just under 4 times what I actually paid if I bought only Canadian retail tobacco. So there it is, for a guy with a growing family that is on a strict budget it is easy to see how the legal online tobacco trade helps someone like me to afford a hobby that would otherwise be unaffordable, $1600 is groceries for 3 months or fuel for our SUV for a year.
So in conclusion, if you are in Canada buy what you can afford from your local shop and buy what you can’t afford locally online at cheaper prices.
Thanks for looking and good smokes.