While on my paper run this morning, I bought a pack of smokes from one of my dealers. I said, "Wow" when the clerk asked for $3.67. That's about 50 cents higher than the normal price I pay elsewhere. She then told me that as of July 1, The tax will increase another $1.25 per pack, thanks to Der Fuheuer, er, Governor Dick, er, Doyle, I mean. Anybody know if this is true? Squeezer?

Damn it, ROLL YOUR OWN, Pat!! TAKE THE MONEY AWAY FROM THEM!!

Ditto what Dave says, Pat.

Roll Your Own.
Local store, in cash...

Any outlet that sells cigarettes should have access to RYO products through their cig distributor.

Stick with finding a friendly Mom & Pop store first - ask if you can pre-order...They will have distributor order books.

Remember, a sale is a sale.
If you buy it...they will stock it.

quote:

Originally posted by Pat:
While on my paper run this morning, I bought a pack of smokes from one of my dealers. I said, "Wow" when the clerk asked for $3.67. That's about 50 cents higher than the normal price I pay elsewhere. She then told me that as of July 1, The tax will increase another $1.25 per pack, thanks to Der Fuheuer, er, Governor Dick, er, Doyle, I mean. Anybody know if this is true? Squeezer?

DAMN $3.67? WHERE is that? I haven't see cigarette prices THAT low in more than 5 years.

Like everyone else said, roll your own. My packs cost me under $2/pack (I only like the American Spirit tobacco which more expensive). Using a more economical tobacco you can get that down to under $1.50/pack (that includes the price of your tubes).

I haven't heard anything about it passing, Pat. I got a thing in the mail from the ACS not too long ago asking me to call the local politicians to get them to vote for the tax increase.

One thing I did hear, several times now, is that we should start using our MSA money on anti-tobacco programs again. What I don't get is where this is coming from. We sold our MSA to balance our budget several years ago. We no longer get any money.

quote:

Originally posted by Lynda F:

DAMN $3.67? WHERE is that? I haven't see cigarette prices THAT low in more than 5 years.

Like everyone else said, roll your own. My packs cost me under $2/pack (I only like the American Spirit tobacco which more expensive). Using a more economical tobacco you can get that down to under $1.50/pack (that includes the price of your tubes).

The last time I bought a pack was in February. It was $3.11 + sales tax. Camels.

There's some tobacco out there (RYO) that's so cheap you can make a carton for under 5 bucks a carton.

quote:

Originally posted by squeezer:

quote:

Originally posted by Lynda F:

DAMN $3.67? WHERE is that? I haven't see cigarette prices THAT low in more than 5 years.

Like everyone else said, roll your own. My packs cost me under $2/pack (I only like the American Spirit tobacco which more expensive). Using a more economical tobacco you can get that down to under $1.50/pack (that includes the price of your tubes).

The last time I bought a pack was in February. It was $3.11 + sales tax. Camels.

There's some tobacco out there (RYO) that's so cheap you can make a carton for under 5 bucks a carton.

Seriously, I've not seen ready mades, not even generics, for under $5/pack in at least 5 years. Where are they still under $4/pack?

I've tried several different tobaccos lately and I've noticed that American Spirit is the only one that doesn't give me a dry hacky cough. So, I'm just going to stick with AS and be happy that a carton is only costing me $15 or $16 dollars instead of $45.

While I understand the concept of RYO...That is, you are purchasing your tobacco elsewhere as a refusal to pay outlandish prices, (and of course, it's a lot cheaper,) I would tend to think that it would be a very time-consuming pain in the ass to always roll your own cigarettes and that they would be very harsh-tasting with no filters. I plan to buy my Camel Lights at the Indian Reservation (Black River Falls at about $27-28 a carton and about 2 -3 at a time as it's 60 miles away) if this tax ever becomes reality. But at the same time, I'm waiting for Dickhead Doyle to impose some restriction such as having to be a Native American before you can buy them at that price.

Hey, Pat. According to how much you smoke is how big a PITA they are to always roll. Also the machine you use. Some swear by the Top-O-Matic--I haven't tried it, so can't say. Some swear by the Premier, which is the one I have.

There's a learning curve (or there was for me), finally figuring out that when they say don't overstuff, they really mean DON'T OVERSTUFF. The first Premier we bought, at $40 +tax, it paid for itself the first couple of weeks in savings. But something...and I'm still not sure what...was out of whack in it. After it kept jamming up, we just bought another machine a few months later (still waaaaay ahead, moneywise, and this is in TN where off-brand cartons can be had for between $15 and $20). It worked much better, but I still had to use fine sand paper on the cutter for a while, to get it smooth, and maybe to file it down it where it'd slip under the edge on the other side more easily? But I don't have to do that anymore. You could get one that would need no maintenance like that at all.

Also, if anything breaks or strips out, you can order replacement parts for the Premier. Most parts are under a buck or two. I think the handle is the priciest at 6 or 7 bucks (I may be off, tho, because it's been a while since I looked at the parts list).

As for tubes, they come with filters, too!

My local tobacco store is handy, but limited in what they stock. They only carry a few brands. I get the 1 lb. bags of Ultra-Light Stoker's, switching from UL Pyramids that I had smoked for nearly 20 years. I like the taste of Stoker's, and it's the cheapest my store offered, too, at the time I started RYO. They only carry one brand of light tube 100s, Zig-Zag, so that's what I use.

They recently got a cheaper brand, Golden Harvest or some such, but it smelled like a used cow barn. I mean just opening the bag, not the smoke. I just couldn't handle that, so went back to Stoker's, which has a chocolatey scent (but it doesn't taste like chocolate at all and the smoke doesn't smell like chocolate either).

I'm in a dinky town on the backside of nowhere, so my choices are severely limited. If you're in a bigger town or city, you'll probably have a greater variety to choose from.

Anyway, I now can roll a pack in 10 min. Sometimes I roll a day's worth at a time. Most of the time, I just roll a pack when I finish the last one. Roll while watching TV and it makes the task go by faster. I still see it as a chore, but being able to roll a pack of 20 in ten minutes makes it bearable. What I truly resent is that I'm FORCED to do it because of where the hellacious taxes go (MSA) and the crap they put in ready-mades. Stoker's isn't organic, but it has to be a LOT better than what's in the ready-mades.

Try it, you'll like it!

I may consider it. About 2 hours after my last post, I went to a tobacco store and indeed saw that RYO does come with filters. I didn't know that. I thought all RYO cigarettes were like joints. I agree in sentiment about the money for "premium brands" going to the MSA, but it was the fascist anti's in our government who forced the tobacco companies into this. I don't really blame companies like RJR or PM for that. They are even forced to lie about shs, but I'm sure they would rather not. Think of the times we see crude videotapes on the news of captured soldiers blindfolded and proclaiming the US to be Satan. What baffles me to this day is why Big Tobacco didn't sue the EPA for slander; specifically when concerned with shs. Had this been done, say, 15 years ago, we wouldn't even need a board such as this, because things would be as they used to be once the public realized they were lied to. The only reason tobacco smoke bothers nonsmokers now is because they have been conditioned to believe that it is "deadly." Before this orchestration of brainwashing, 99.9999% of nonsmokers couldn't have cared less whether or not someone smoked around them.

Pat, I felt like you did until I found that you can buy tubes with filters. I use the premier supermatic machine. My learning curve was all of 3 packs of cigarettes.

I put on a movie I've seen before (means I don't actually have to look at the screen to enjoy it) to watch and sit there making my cigarettes for the week. I do this on Sundays usually, and it only takes me about 3 hours, and with the movie on it goes by painlessly.

It's really NOT as bad as I thought. I'm glad I switched.

Lynda,
Wisconsin is where you can still get cigarettes for under 4 bucks. In fact, when I mentioned the last pack I bought was $3.11 they had just gone up a dime at that time.

On RYO. My first pack took 45 minutes to make. I can now make them at a rate of over 8 packs an hour. Working at a leisurely pace I make 5 packs an hour.

www.ryocigarette.com has a tobacco called FairPrice Tobacco and it's only $8.99 for 26oz. I haven't tried it, but that price is cheap.

When I smoked Camel filters,the filter always had very dark stains in it from the(I guess) very nasty stuff that was filtered out.

The myo tobacco that I use does not produce that black stain in the filter.

Also;now,my fingers do not get stained very much at all.

Am wondering if any one else has noticed similiar things with their myo/ryo cigarettes?
Gary K.

I have noticed similar things.

I would never go back to premades. The RYO's are FAR superior in quality.

quote:

Originally posted by squeezer:
Lynda,
Wisconsin is where you can still get cigarettes for under 4 bucks. In fact, when I mentioned the last pack I bought was $3.11 they had just gone up a dime at that time.

On RYO. My first pack took 45 minutes to make. I can now make them at a rate of over 8 packs an hour. Working at a leisurely pace I make 5 packs an hour.

www.ryocigarette.com has a tobacco called FairPrice Tobacco and it's only $8.99 for 26oz. I haven't tried it, but that price is cheap.

My first couple of packs took me about 30 minutes per pack to make. I got it down to 15 minutes per pack. I haven't tried doing it faster, mostly because it doesn't bother me to take my time anyway. I do an easy 4 packs per hour and don't break a sweat in the process.........hehehehehe

I'm sure if I were out and needed a pack fast before running out the door, I could probably whip one out in about 10 minutes. Maybe one day I'll try..........LOL

quote:

Originally posted by gkayser30:
When I smoked Camel filters,the filter always had very dark stains in it from the(I guess) very nasty stuff that was filtered out.

The myo tobacco that I use does not produce that black stain in the filter.

Also;now,my fingers do not get stained very much at all.

Am wondering if any one else has noticed similiar things with their myo/ryo cigarettes?
Gary K.

I never noticed my fingers staining at all. I have noticed the filters are not as stained, but my fingers never got discolored. It's a phenomenon I'm not familiar with.

quote:

Originally posted by squeezer:
On RYO. My first pack took 45 minutes to make. I can now make them at a rate of over 8 packs an hour. Working at a leisurely pace I make 5 packs an hour.

I made cigarettes this morning and timed myself for 30 minutes. I made 97 (4.85 packs). That's 9.7 packs/hour.

quote:

Originally posted by squeezer:

quote:

Originally posted by squeezer:
On RYO. My first pack took 45 minutes to make. I can now make them at a rate of over 8 packs an hour. Working at a leisurely pace I make 5 packs an hour.

I made cigarettes this morning and timed myself for 30 minutes. I made 97 (4.85 packs). That's 9.7 packs/hour.

OK, I admit it.......... I just don't make them that fast. I can manage 4 maybe 5 packs an hour. But then, I can't just sit there making them either, so I'm sitting in front of the TV and watching while making them............

quote:

Originally posted by Lynda F:
OK, I admit it.......... I just don't make them that fast. I can manage 4 maybe 5 packs an hour. But then, I can't just sit there making them either, so I'm sitting in front of the TV and watching while making them............

Yeah, there's not much looking up at that speed.

Oh, and it was kind of dark in the room. I should've turned on a light. It's harder to put the tubes on the nozzle when the room's not lit well. I'm sure I could've made 100.

And the very first pack I made took 45 minutes. LOL

Had to throw away about half of the first pack that I made.