Cigars are a treat given their price tag, I'm careful about what I buy and only buy from auctions sites, and then only if I can save at least $20.00 less than buying them at discount. Although my choices are limited by what the site offers, I always win on price. I also like to smoke up, which I can afford by smoking less.

I've only smoked one LP #9, I loved it.

Well-blended high-quality tobacco costs money, both in the fields and in the barn. By the time the tobacco reaches the rolling bench, many hands have cared for it. If it has been aged four years, as in the Pardon '64, more hands are involved. Rotating it in the tiers in the aging barn, from the cooler lower shelves at the bottom to the higher hotter shelves at the top for the aging years, is labor, at cost.

The growing and manipulating of tobacco through pressure and heat borders on alchemy, and smokers are indebted to the centuries of skill that have produced what we enjoy today.
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Only you can decide if a cigar is worth a certain price....to YOU. Try one. As to why it costs so much....well, it isn't a whole lot different than most other consumer commodities. Supply and demand, of course. Also, materials, production and marketing costs. Even (most of) the LP haters will acknowledge that the brand sources superior tobacco and employs very strict production and QC. That costs money. They cost more to make; they are in great demand; and there is a strong market for them at their price point. Cigars tastes are extremely personal. There's LOTS of cigar smokers who would NEVER get their money's worth from an $18 cigar. There's plenty that will.
I will tell you that two of the best cigars I've ever smoked were LP's. I'll also tell you there there were LP's that I enjoyed not one bit. In fact, there's an LPT52 toro in each category!
I also try to keep in mind that price has a fairly strong impact on my impressions...even my enjoyment of a cigar. I hold a $15 cigar to a very different standard than a $3 cigar. I have had crappy $15 cigars that I might have been perfectly happy if I'd paid $5 for them.
Buy one. Don't put it away for a special occasion that may never come. Smoke it. But smoke it when you have a chance to contemplate it a bit....and let us know if YOU thought it was worth it
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I wondered the same thing when I started out smoking cheap boxes from a site. I asked myself what the difference could possibly be. Then I smoked my first Padron 3000 maduro amd immediately understood. Just try one.
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