I'm seeing some new members on here who are not only new to the forum but new to cigars and after some comments in another thread about a certain vendor, rather than threadjack Keith's thread, I'd start the discussion over here on vendors to maybe help some of the newer people out.

Ideally, those of us who have been around can help out with not only the good and bad vendors, but why they are what they are.

"I'll do the stupid thing first then all you shy people can follow." --FZ

The good:

JR Cigars - Can't say enough good things about this company. They ship fast, the cigars are fresh, the CS department works weekends and when there is an issue, there are no photographs to send, no quibbling - 2 minutes on the phone and just *snap* issue resolved, new stuff is on the way to you. JR Plus Membership is pretty wonderful, $35 for a year of free shipping, that's like 3 or 4 orders and it's paid for. Not only do they ship to APO/FPO, they offer an automatic 10% off for anything going to an APO/FPO address (Military with non-APO/FPO and public safety - Police, Fire, EMS can get the same discount, details are on their site). I spend a few thousand a year there having cigars direct shipped to deployed military units and I've never heard a complaint from the guys I ship to.

CigarPage - This is Keith and John (the personality formerly known as "Gonz"), the original founders of Cigars International. They started CP after the acquisition of CI by Swedish Match. I haven't used them in a while for troop purchases, but they were pretty good. There was one incident when they sent me 12 beetle hole ridden boxes, then replaced them with another round of beetle hole ridden boxes because the person inspecting them didn't know what to look for, but they made good on it with a full credit plus bonus points for their reward program. In fairness to them, the cigars were probably gnawed on long before they got them into their inventory, and supposedly, they are using my photos as training now.

Neptune Cigars - Great selection of singles, expansive high end selection, some of the best packing and care of singles in shipping that I've seen, and they are fast. I've gotten shipping notices on Sunday from them. I don't smoke many NC cigars these days, but most of them are from Neptune. A bit higher pricing, but worth it to me.

Tampa Sweethearts - I haven't bought from them in forever, but they were always solid. They are the Fuente family, 1st cousins IIRC, to the Fuente's who are A. Fuente cigars. Same level of care and passion.

Famous - Again, haven't used them in forever, but they were always solid.

The Meh

Cigars International, Cigar.com - Meh. Ever since that colossal frack up a few years ago with their shipping and billing systems, I've never been back. Nothing personal, just not worth the effort. Seems like half the cigars in their catalog now are "brands" they own - more like they are just buying containers of cigars that were rolled on spec by some small outfit and slapping labels on them. If you search the patent and trademark database, the number of brands they own the rights to is staggering. It's like they have become a clearing house for mediocrity. And their auction site, Cigarbid, has become the clearing house for the clearing house.


The Bad

Thompsons - Garbage cigars, crap service they inundate you with junk mail and have been known to sell their customer database list to telemarketers. So you spam marketing calls galore.
[Reply]

Ditto on JRs. Deals not quite as good, nor catalogs as entertaining, as in the days before Lew sold out to Altadis, but still my go-to site.
[Reply]

True, true. I miss the old catalogs.

And I'd put their JR Ultimates up against just about any other NC cigar on the market. The quality and consistency are remarkable.
[Reply]

Smoking an Ultimate Habanito as we speak. :-)
[Reply]

Thanks for this post T.G, wishing I had found this site a bit earlier, as I’m unfornately one of the newbies you mentioned that was formerly unaware of the downside to Thompsons. (They already have my address lol)
Have otherwise dealt with CI, Cigar Federation & Famous Smoke. Famous handled an issue I had about a month ago and I have to say, they were excellent.
Pretty well stocked atm, but I’m going to give the other retailers you’ve suggest a shot once I need to reorder.
Thanks to all the older members here helping out the new guys! :-)
[Reply]

How is holts.com viewed these days? I haven't bought from them for at least 8 years or so, but there were my go to for Short Story cigars back in the day.
[Reply]

I've never had any problem's with Holt's. The only drawback to them is that their shipping is among the most expensive. However, they do offer free shipping quite often when they have some of their clearance sales. So that's what I wait for.

They do have some amazing samplers at times. My wife got me one a few years back called "The King's Ransom" or something along those lines. It had three each of four ultra-premiums for like $95. The only ones I remember were three Anejo and three Padron 1926.


To Adam's list I nominate Atlantic and Small Batch Cigars under the "Good". I've never had an issue with either of them.
[Reply]

My goto cigar vendors are Atlantic Cigar #1. Purchase VIP, trust me.
#2 Cigar Fed - buy Ezra Zion and the Cigar fed brands. Buy the Mexican Hot Chocolate by the bundle, bought one but I guarantee more. They ship in packages like Small Batch but maybe a little rougher as tracking can be wonky but you’ll get your cigars. The shipping problems I’ve seen they hid which was they shipped a delivery to themselves and then just paid to send me the cigars First Class which if they had called I would have said don’t worry but they just owned up and sent. The one other problem I had is they were sold out on a cigar but the website let the order through. They called me and gave me a discount code. Small but growing shop so I like them.
#3 - CI mega stores including Cigar Bid and Cigars.com
#4 Holts

Both CI and Holts are easy to work with with solid websites.

And this list would not be complete without Small Batch. I used to buy from them a lot but now they have to apply a CA tax to my purchases but they are a great website and top notch service. The shipping and handling has Boveda packs so bonus.

Good would be Atlantic, Cigar Fed, and Small Batch.

Meh - I agree with Adam, CI mega and Holts.
[Reply]

Michael,

This thread was not meant in any way as calling you or anyone else out.

I started smoking cigars in 1992. My first cigar was either an Onyx or a Macanudo. I can't remember which. It was just a formal military thing back then. The cigar that hooked me was a Cuban Cohiba Robusto in June of 1993. I got serious sometime in the early mid 2000's. It wasn't until around 2006 or so that I started to figure it out.

I smoked a lot of crap in those 14 years, but I didn't know any better.

This thread was meant with the intent of those of us that have been around or even through similar as a way of maybe helping new guys avoid the pitfalls we found.

Please accept my apologies if this came across in any way other than its intent as stated.

-a
[Reply]

Adam, I liked that you said "pitfalls" of our hobby. Back during the 90's boom I bought so much crap for cheap when the boom went bust. I smoked a lot of really bad cigars. Thankfully I knew so many moochers I was able to gift most of it away.

New smokers are fortunate today that there are so many good cigars available today. My feeling now is the one pitfall I see is the "fever" to chase the newest hot cigar releases. Sometimes I'm astounded by the prices. There are so many truly great cigars from some older makers that are a much better value. Padron, Fuentes, Pepins come to mind.

My advice to newbs would be to do a little research and read lots of reviews. Identify tastes you enjoy and hunt them down, put them away for a nap and reap the longterm benefits.

As far as online retailers I've always loved JR, Holts, and Atlantic. Once I've found a cigar I love I use Cbid and Famous Auctioneer and bid when the prices are right. The beauty of the old favorites is they are almost always up for auction.

I'd like to throw Mike's Cigars in the ring. Always great service and fair prices. Since they are located in Miami they have access to brands enjoyed in that area. Corona Cigar is very good but I avoid their house brands.:-)
[Reply]

No worries the other Adam, I didn’t take it that way, but I definitely was one who was unaware about Thompson’s. But I do appreciate the heads up about some of the various vendors. I remember reading another sticky when I first joined about the different vendors but if memory serves correct, it seemed a bit dated.
[Reply]

Cigar.com is owned by Cigars International.

In the past they used it to sell some of the higher end cigars and real brands. Less chaff from their numerous house owned lines. Not sure how it operates these days.
[Reply]

The often overlooked hidden gem of the line IMO. $48 for 24 thirty-minute flavor bomb cigars. One of the few NC cigars I actually keep around.
[Reply]

Shhhhh!! They are too often on backorder already, so keep it quiet! :-)

:-)
[Reply]

Jack Schwartz in Chicago in another good one if you look for top shelf cigars from some of the bigger rollers. They and Holts are the only NC vendors I used recently besides a 5er or two from CigarBid.
[Reply]

SmallBatch is my go to for nc's. They are always running specials, include priority shipping in the price, and ship very quickly.
Tampa Sweethearts is another vendor that I use from time to time. Great service.
[Reply]

Glad to see I was heading in the right direction. I ordered an AF Eye of the Shark bundle with Tampa Sweethearts and they shipped fast without issue. Ive had really good luck with cigar page and cigar international too. Just joined the small batch email list so I’m waiting to see what specials they run. Privada Cigar Club is a pretty good bang for the buck considering it was only about $30 shipped for three great sticks. I’ll be posting pics soon on the Boutique Thread.

Cheers,
Nelson
[Reply]

Great post Adam! Tampa Sweethearts is still a go to for me.....was a Fuente whore to the core before I found other cigars.....still a Fuente whore after, just not quite as often anymore.

Just placed an order two weeks ago. If you buy 3 boxes the shipping is free. Always fast. Personally I call and talk to them. They seem to like the conversation sometimes and I get to keep that personal connection. I order 2-3 times a year still.
[Reply]