I’m sorry, but to just blame it on the poor simpletons in city hall trying their best requires a level of disbelief I’m not capable of.

Hood rats selling loosies is nothing new.  Most people are smart enough not to stand around on street corners.  My buddy paid for a lot of med school by filling up u hauls with Virginia cigs and selling them in Conn. He sold them via his family’s business.  That wa the 1970’s

At the beginning of this year MO had the lowest cig tax rate in the country- 17 cents a pack. VA was the next cheapest.

When you think about it, Tide hits all the points for currency in a low income area.

- It's desirable, everyone needs it.
- It holds a pretty stable value, doesn't fluctuate largely.
- It's easily recognizable by both look and smell for counterfeit.

I prefer jhereg's clarification.

Corruption, incompetence and rampant do-gooderism in the name of the nanny-state are better explanations than plain old evil intentions.

There a LOT of relatively smart people who, in the name of "doing what's right" make some pretty bone-headed policies.

I guess it depends on your definitions.  I consider corruption and rampant do-gooderism in the name of the nanny-state to be evil.

I get it. When I think of evil, bad policy isn't what springs immediately to mind.

Yeah, damn those violent cigarette smuggling cartels.

Yes, I'm sure if you really give it that New York effort you can find a way to make something legal but almost as bad as illegal. Or you could not go full retard, treat it like anything else, and not have an issue.

Same in NY.  My Dad would go to the Rez all the time for cigs and gas.  The Senecas tell NYS to FOAD with their taxes.

You realize there is a 10%-11% Excise Tax on all firearms and ammunition right?

Someone linked an article that explains it pretty well. A premium product that is hard to police on a store level gets stolen and fenced in the ghetto. I heard people where selling it by the laundry load at ghetto laundromats.

I know first hand this is how a lot of Marines at Camp Lejeune used to pay for leave in the Big Apple, so it's kinda patriotic for them to raise ciggy taxes, don't you think?

No, they bust open a regular pack of cigs and sell each one individually for folks who can't afford the pack.  Usually they leave the store and light up although they might buy a few for later and keep them in an old empty pack.

Because one has no sales tax, and the other has low vehicle registration fees, the Oregon/Washington border has some interesting dynamics as well.

Jay

I'm not a fan of NYPD in. the .least. ,,,,, but this is the correct answer.
NYPD didn't choke the life of of him: His obese, fat ass died of his own poor life choices.

Jay

Yep, but it's not 50% like the cigarette tax

Thanks

Never was good at math and he is in his 70s

Maybe when he told me 20-30 he meant a carton.

Point was as you explained its way cheaper to roll your own.

If Garner would have kicked up some of his profits or moved his business away from the bodega, he would be alive today still selling loosies

Cops don’t give two shits about loosies, probably some of them buy loosies

Someone ratted him out and complained

Pantalones was plainclothes

Big fucking crimes all the fuck around and they waste plainclothes to get fare jumpers and loosies

Real cops would laugh

It’s against the law to sell loosies but anybody in the ghetto after they see your face and know who you are even the bodegas will sell you loosies

Their pretty high here to due to the added taxes, maybe $11.00+/pack or thereabouts. I used to buy mine from the reservation till they started wanting more wampum. Like ammunition, I just started to make my own. It's really a no brainer to do. Get a machine, tubes and tobacco. Most machines work the same way, place the tobacco where it goes, attach a tube (the paper part preformed, with the filter attached if you use them) and either crank or turn a handle. done.

I use a Powermatic 1 and have been using the same one for years. They go for around $50.00 if you look around. Tubes and tobacco I can get locally but prefer to send away (smokers outlet) as they have a really good variety and even with shipping is cheaper than here. Even getting the tubes and tobacco here, it runs me about 95¢/pack. It takes less than 15 minutes to roll 4-5 packs while watching the tube.

I've been smoking for decades and do agree it's a stupid habit, though I'm not obnoxious with it in non-smokers presence nor do I not dispose of them properly but for just a short payout up front and what you recoup (say $90 startup you get that back three times over before you need to buy the tubes and tobacco again without the cost of the machine and very little time) it's silly not to.

To put it in perspective, think of it in re-loading. You already have the press, all you need is the dies, primers, powder and bullets. The dies are permanent, the shells for a while and the others you need to resupply. Your reloading to save some money because you're using a round that goes for almost a couple bucks a pop. I have some calibers that I may save 60% the cost of factory but I know of none that will save me 85+%. If proportionately speaking, that $11/pack vs what I make them for is like that $2.00 round costing me about 17¢. In New York, it would be getting it for 14+¢. A box of 20 will cost you $40.00 and me $3.40. In New York, $2.80

Across state lines should be the BATF

“Score us a loose, bru?”

“Those things’ll kill ya’, bru.”

“Yah-yah, but only if I live, right?”

POW!!!

“That’s for breaking my TV, bru...”

No doubt. The Sopranos had a subplot of Chrissy running them from NC but the bodegas wouldn't forge the tax stamp.

A lot of guys used to smuggle smokes around here but it was really small time mostly because that's all the market could sustain. It works great for the consumer who "has a guy" and that usually means an individual who sells to a group of individuals. There isn't the barrier to entry that drugs have where you need to cultivate a supply chain. You just drive South and buy cartons. The store isn't doing anything illegal selling you cases of smokes at retail so they don't give a shit. So lots of guy buy a trunk full of smokes once a week or month, then go sell them by the carton to their friends and co-workers. Stores buy illegal smokes too, but even that is either small time or gets busted pretty quick when someone finds out a completing store has smokes without stamps, or the city runs the numbers and sees Sam's bodega makes x in total sales but the tax revenue from the cigarettes is way lower than other stores with similar overall revenue.

Not sure if that applies to NYC, but that's how it was here for a while before the surrounding states upped their cigarette taxes.

I would spread them out thru 4 or 5 bodegas

The bodegas are somewhat legit and don’t want cops or tax people investigating, they would take them and get rid of the quick

I had no shortage of help either with what I didn’t sell, I sure as shit would not be out there selling loosies

It is profitable for a van full of cases of smokes

Smile and wave with the windows up and a/c fan on high as you drive by

As a young Marine in the 80’s I knew a guy that bought NC cigarettes by the case and mailed them to his cousin in the Bronx.

Cousin would set up a TV tray just outside of a subway station at evening rush hour. He sold out within minutes.

Guy went to the field and asked me to mail them to cousin. I made a few bucks too.

I lived in Spain and cigarettes were five bucks a pack.  At the PX they were less than a buck.  We had ration cards for each DOD adult.  Ten cartons a month sold out in town went fast as hell for a great profit.

In the 70's, I found Zippos to be the coin of the realm. I'd fill up one of my Alice pockets with them. They were dirt cheap but worth their weight in gold when out and about. I still had one of them up until about 15 years ago. There was no finish left on it but I didn't care. We were at a company party and I left it on the table along with my cigarettes and other stuff to talk with some coworkers. When I got back someone jacked it. I hope it means as much to them as it did to me.

It's good you don't know these things Fal.  You will live a long and prosperous life.