Good Briar Block Selection

[Sasquatch]

Shut up about Calabria Pipe, Scott - that's a secret!

[sethile]

Shut up about Calabria Pipe, Scott - that's a secret!

You're secret is safe... Unless things have changed it's almost impossible to order from him! Althought that adventure was 12 years ago! Translation issues, weird wire transfers, diasasterious hassles, and then an unexpected customs bill!! I did get decent briar, but man did I work for it!!!

[Jeff_Grivers]

Thanks for the info and the heads up about the Yazid situation. Maybe i wont take the chance. I actually had already found the Calabria site like a year ago and have it bookmarked. Prices were kind of high for single blocks they had shown but man were they nice. Only thing is pretty much every block shown is sold out and nothing new has been posted for some time. I will most likely stick with Vermont Freehand. I have had great experiences in dealing with them and I pretty much get all my briar and rods from Steve now so why mess up a good thing.

[caskwith]

If I lived in the US I would likely buy nearly all my supplies from VF, I know I live in Europe so buying briar etc is a lot easier for me, but there is still hassle and if I could buy from a UK based supplier I would definitely do that.

[Massis]

Thanks for the info and the heads up about the Yazid situation. Maybe i wont take the chance. I actually had already found the Calabria site like a year ago and have it bookmarked. Prices were kind of high for single blocks they had shown but man were they nice. Only thing is pretty much every block shown is sold out and nothing new has been posted for some time. I will most likely stick with Vermont Freehand. I have had great experiences in dealing with them and I pretty much get all my briar and rods from Steve now so why mess up a good thing.

I bought from Yazid a few weeks ago. Lots of difficult communication, weird pricing, ...
He did send out the blocks before payment. They arrived and are a lot smaller than expected, qualitywise they look pretty much like what I paid for.

However when I paid he got angry, because I transfered the agreed amount, but paypal obviously keeps a percentage in fees, so he wanted me to transfer more money to cover the fees. A scammy move, and I told him no, he kept insisting and eventually I sent him half the fee, just to shut him up (was €4 or something like that, I just couldn't be bothered with him anymore)

[Jeff_Grivers]

Thanks for the info and the heads up about the Yazid situation. Maybe i wont take the chance. I actually had already found the Calabria site like a year ago and have it bookmarked. Prices were kind of high for single blocks they had shown but man were they nice. Only thing is pretty much every block shown is sold out and nothing new has been posted for some time. I will most likely stick with Vermont Freehand. I have had great experiences in dealing with them and I pretty much get all my briar and rods from Steve now so why mess up a good thing.

I bought from Yazid a few weeks ago. Lots of difficult communication, weird pricing, ...
He did send out the blocks before payment. They arrived and are a lot smaller than expected, qualitywise they look pretty much like what I paid for.

However when I paid he got angry, because I transfered the agreed amount, but paypal obviously keeps a percentage in fees, so he wanted me to transfer more money to cover the fees. A scammy move, and I told him no, he kept insisting and eventually I sent him half the fee, just to shut him up (was €4 or something like that, I just couldn't be bothered with him anymore)

Thanks Massis. Ya i don't need the headache especially when VF is so easy to deal with and has been getting me nice blocks. I had a run in with a seller using paypal and they didn't factor in the fees then wanted more money after the fact. So far it sounds like the best options are VF, direct to Mimmo, or picking them from pipe shows.