I'm gonna run a contest next month regarding this topic but just wanted to hear stories of all of your rookie mistakes. When i started out all i could think about or want was cuban cigars (forbidden fruit) so I went on cigar.com and found the infamous Gurkha Pre-embargo cuban cigars where they found this palate of perfectly kept pre-embargo cuban tobacco and how you had the privilege of spending $20 a cigar to own one so i bought 3 plus some montecristo's because that was a brand i recognized. Not only were they not that good BUT i didn't know how to cut a cigar so like al western movies i bit the caps off making an awful mess of it. I thought i was pretty cool until i joined club stogie and learned how wrong i had been. I don't remember much about the flavors other than they tasted NOTHING like the cubans i've had since. So what were some of your rookie mistakes? Let me know. I think this could be fun. God bless you all!
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don't you love autocorrect? palate versus pallet. it's only a big difference in terms :-)
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Storing some cigars in a ziploc bag with an overly-moistened paper towel for humidity. I ended up with a nice collection of cigars you could fold in half without breaking, and all riddled with mold.

It worked out for me, though. They were a bunch of cheap Thompson smokes I'd bought to bring with me on a deployment to Qatar. Once they were ruined I had no choice but to go to the local B&M for some replacements. The B&M happened to be an LCDH. So because of my newbie faux pas I ended up exposed to some quality smokes and set me on the path of the BOTL.
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I smoked a Pineapple White Owl once . . .
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Grape flavored cigars from behind the counter at Hess are a very poor choice when you're first dabbling in the cigar hobby. Trust me.
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why does grape not even sound good as a flavor to me?
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Bought a bundle of Don Mateo's because Esquire magazine dubbed them "the World's Greatest Cheap Cigar".

First one was horrible. Then much like James, I put them in a Ziplock with a wet paper towel.....and then into the refrigrerator.

Things became much clearer once I joined Club Stogie as well..... :-)
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I’ve been spared many rookie missteps. I joined this board with limited experience, but nothing of the magnitude of buying blunt wrappers for my first. I was sent a great newb bomb by Mr Clean. As a result, I paid close attention to the hows and whys of cigar smoking, eventually settling in on what works for me.

Unless you want to count the time I cut a cigar, set it down, picked it back up and proceeded to light where I cut…
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Buying a Lotus lighter trusting the sales person on lighters. Now I just use a crème brûlée torch as all cigar lighters are crap.
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I was that guy who only smoked a couple of sticks a year... until the in laws took a trip to Cuba.... the old boy asked what I wanted him to bring back for me.... he was thinking rum....
I asked for cigars and he brought back two boxes of RyJ Mille Fleurs.... it was all down hill from there.
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I agree...except for my Alec Bradley table-top lighter. I've been using this for years and it's never once given me any issues. I've got a small basket filled to the brim with lighters that are just collecting dust as all I use is the table-top. (no endorsement of the product or CI intended).
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You found a unicorn :-)
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