:-)
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I don't think people are hating on the brand, they are just hating on the gimmicks and marketing. I have not read a post where folks are bashing the sticks. On the contrary, Tats are some of the best NC sticks out there.

He will never be as big as Altadis or General. If that is his plan, I think he is living in lala land. People recognize brands like Punch, Montecristo, RyJ, etc from the brands' Cuban heritage. To say that selling some monster themed sticks or whatever marketing ploy you can come up with is going to boost your name recognition to that of brands that are well over 100 yrs old is crazy.

The best marketing tool for cigars is still the rating your brand receives in Cigar Aficionado magazine. While we all have our opinions about the magazine, it is where the average cigar smoker on the street gets his or her information about different cigars.

I could understand all the marketing ploys and gimmicks if Pete made chitty cigars (look at the way CI, JRs, Thompson, etc market some of the off-the-wall nastiness). His smokes are some of the best in the business and deserve to be treated as such. I can understand making a few collectors boxes, etc but making a limited production that sells at only certain shops and then hyping it up is and was a recipe for disaster. Folks were calling around to different B&Ms looking for Dracs. While this seems to be good for boosting the brand, I think a lot of folks got their feelings hurt as a lot of loyal Tat fans were not able to procure them on the open market and had to pay through the nose for them. Some B&M owners were jealous of others who received shipments and they didn't...etc. It damaged B&M reputations with their local customers in some cases and was an all around boondoggle over cigars that were not some of his best work. He could have sold more cigars at the same price by offering every one of his retailers a certain number of boxes.
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not to mention the whole ticket thing was insanely stupid, with retailers eligible to win.
I like Tatuaje.. a lot. They are some really nicely blended sticks.


I just can't afford them as it is, and I don't see them being as good a value as many other alternatives I can easily get for what I perceive is a a better value when my cigar budget isn't what I would like it to be.




And it helps to not feel/look like an 8 year old searching for an elusive Pokemon card. :-)
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Sorry - I'm just a noob in the cigar world, maybe 5 years. I missed that one with the Opus.
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:-)

I also can't afford much of the Tatuaje line. Last year with the Drac looming and hype building, I thought to myself, wow, I can have thirteen of this NC Limited Release that may or may not be good, or a whole box of 25 CC Monte Especiales. Let me just say I'm really enjoying those Especiales, and having avoided the Drac fiasco entirely, I can still say I like Pete Johnson and his product. :-)
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I must really be what PT Barnum was talking about.....

I fell head over heals for that clever marketing from the boys at the Moco.
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I thought I might repost after reading some of the followup postings.

In case any thought I was bashing the sticks, in no way. Smoke what you can afford and what you like and enjoy. Life is way to short to smoke bad sticks.

I was commenting more on his marketing. As others have noted, it also comes accross as gimmicky to me and that gets my cynical warning thoughts going. I am definitly more of the word of mouth for a good product advertising type. Too much smoke and mirrors looks shady, your milage may vary.

Whether it's good sticks, the marketing, distrobution, he has folks chasing his product. Good for him. As I noted on par with HD, Apple, etc that have a lot of the fans. I hop in and out of HD stock all the time because they can sell "stuff". I think their motorcycles are not necessarily the best (before you start hating, I currently own a '07 Streetglide) but HD knows how to move product. Apple has people upgrading a phone, device at least once a year. All good for the bottom dollar.

I do think at this point based on local B&Ms in VA, his product is out there. A bit higher priced than the average stick, but he is not unknown. I'm not sure at the end of the day what image, opinion, etc he wants folks to have concerning him and his product, but at this point, he still comes accross as a shuckster type to me and I don't think that's a fair representation of his cigars.
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Too funny, guess who pulled into town today and is setting up at the colosieum?
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Opus X came out in the late 90s...
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Who? The circus? Hells Angels?

Gotta give Harley credit; for over 100 years, they've been tricking people into spending 3 tiimes as much as as a metric for a third of the bike they tell me.

Sorry, this is about Pete Johnson...
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:-)
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90% of the cigars I smoke are Cuban, and the other 10% are DPG. Once my existing stock is gone, I don't intend to replace it except to support my B&M's on occasion.

DPG Blends for Tatuaje, and I like the majority of the line, sans Ambos Mundos.

Marketing 101 says that hype is key to developing interest in a brand.

Ladies and Germs, smoke what you like and like what you smoke. Whether you like Pete, Rocky, Jose/Jorge, Don Pepin, Kaizad, Dion, etc., doesn't really matter.

One could argue that REs and ELs are just hype, too... Don't lose sight of the forest from the trees...
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You wake up every day and decide what kind of person you are going to be and what kind of day you are going to have. You can look at all the hype around Tatuaje's products and decide that you are going to have fun with it and see if you can get a hold of some, speculate about what he is going to do next, or you can throw hate and ***** about this or that or how you can't get them, or how its a gimmick...

If you don't think you should have to pay over MSRP for a cigar just because it is limited, don't. I agree that people buying boxes and trying to flip them for twice what they payed is messed up, so I don't buy from them. I know I haven't paid any extra much extra for any of the LE cigars I have bought.

Its not like the type of advertising a certain brand uses affects you in the least and its not like you will die if you don't get to taste any particular cigar.

You are free to express your opinions, but realize that the opinions you choose to express affect people's perception of the community. There seem to be cigar communities that love Tatuaje, some that hate it and some that treat it like any other brand. I'd rather be a part of the latter.
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Word.
I think there is a serious need for butt cream on this issue, with the amount of people that are butt-sore over Tatuaje. While we respect varying opinions on this forum and coming out in a review that a cigar doesn't do it for you is a worthwhile contribution to the forum assuming you've tried it, it seems like the opinions expressed on the issue are bordering on needless flaming. Almost every new thread on Tatuaje lately gets thread-jacked by people with an agenda against Pete Johnson. I don't think they realize that when it's consistent enough, and when the same people are saying the same thing on thread after thread, it creates a hostile, divisive envrionment when you can't discuss a new release or review a stick without the thread turning into an "I hate Pete Johnson" fest. That's what people are saying might turn new members away from the forum. I would hate to lose membership just because a few people can't stop themselves from sh*tting on every thread that mentions Tatuaje. Especially when it's respectable, long time BOTLs that should be the bedrock of our community.
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I would argue that REs and ELs are just hype, too. :-)
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I like Pete Johnson's cigars as long as I get the ones I want.
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This is an entertaining thread. I thought most peeps here loved Tats. I've never had one or care to pay alot for them, but thats just me. I got plenty other smokes that make me happy. Like the rev says, like what you smoke, smoke what you like. Words to live by.
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back to the original topic of tatuaje anarchy....

From another board:

"It's a limited run cigar for a retailer's anniversary. The retailer needs to remain a secret."
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There is a big difference, if you polled the majority of smokers, they would say that Ghurka never ever lives up to any hype. I would wager most would say that Tats, while maybe hyped up, typically are in the ballpark of the best NC cigars out there. I really can't think of a line of cigars OTHER THAN PADRON and OPUS/ANEJO that consistently makes a really great cigar. Ghurkas are dog turds, you wont ever hear anyone say that about Tats.

I consider myself a VERY well educated smoker, and know a lot about cigars, and 7+ times out of 10 if I go into a random B&M and buy to support, its gonna be a Tat (J21 if they have it, Especiales if they don't).
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For NHC I believe......
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