Cigar Weekly

Monday October 27th, 2008

by Tom Chapman

 

"Cheapskate." I don't like to be called a cheapskate. It makes me feel so... cheap! I prefer thrifty! Yeah, that's it. I'm thrifty!

 

Let's start out our new Cheapskate's Choice series with some ground rules. When I say, "cheap," I'm not talking about a cigar with compressed cow pie filler, burlap binder and palm leaf wrapper. I'm not even necessarily talking about bundle (50 cents to a dollar or so) cigars either, although some of those may be covered in the series. I'm talking about bargains!

 

I'm a bargain hunter. I rarely smoke anything I've paid more than three or four dollars for. I try to keep my price paid in the two dollar to three-fifty range. With patience and a little effort, some great bargains can be had online. I'm not trying to take away from our Brick &Mortar retailers, the real backbone of our hobby. Let's face it though, with local taxes, overhead and the size of their customer base it's really tough for them to keep up with the online guys for price. Still and all, I do have my local B&M favorites, and will continue to support them.

 

Now then... online sources. We all have our favorites, whether regular retailer or auction format. The trick is to shop for specials and not to get caught up in bidding frenzies.

 

Allow me to present a case study. I happen to think that the Indian Tabac Super Fuerte Maduro is a pretty decent middle of the road smoke. This is a Honduran-made, medium to full flavor cigar that sports a Nicaraguan Maduro wrapper over a Nicaraguan, Costa Rican and Honduran binder/filler package. I find it very tasty, with hints of chocolate and spice, and a well balanced character.

 

 

 

I like to keep a fair number of Super Fuerte Maduros on hand. When my stock gets on the low side, I start bargain hunting. In my findings, the price of, say, the Toro size runs as high as $99.50 for a box of 25. That's about four bucks per stick! NUTS! A more typical price for a box is around $60, or about $2.40 a stick. Now that's getting better. With a vigilant eye, I've been able to score this cigar for $1.75 a stick - from the same source that normally sells them for $2.40 a piece at a box price! Now we're talking 'cheapskate'... er... thrifty! Likewise, using the same attentive eye, I've landed the corona size for $1.30 per cigar. My source: Cigars International. Both these purchases were CI Joe Cigar Specials. With persistence and patience, you might be able to do even better on Cigar-Bid.

 

 

Stay tuned for another installment of Cheapskate's Choice... I mean thrifty cigar enjoyment!

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Tom Chapman (tchapchap) is a recently retired mechanical engineer who survived over three decades in the bowels of the domestic car business developing future products. He's been a lover of the leaf for several years, and has been known to go considerably out of his way to make cigar-related visits. In addition to family and cigars, Tom enjoys motorcycles (owning more of them than he needs to!) and, in spite of living, breathing, eating and getting beaten up over cars, still loves them too! He's also an avid fisherman.