All my B&Ms around here are pretty expensive. I gotta start shopping online more. I dont like to spend more than $5 a stick, and I wont buy more than 2 or 3 at a time thats what I can afford occasionally.
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When I started smoking I tried to live with cigars in the $2-$3 range.
But most smoked hot, tasted bitter or tasteless, and generated too much tar.
So, I raised my range to $3-$5 and the quality of my cigars went way up.
There are many more decent cigars in this range.

After a while, I found that since I only smoke 2 or 3 each week, I could afford
more costly smokes for 'special occasions'. So I limit myself to $10 for these.
I usually buy special occasion smokes at Father's Day, before vacation, and
at Xmas/New Year. I refuse to spend more than $10-$12 for a few
tobacco leaves.

Most of the cigars I buy by the box are between $75- $100 for 20, or 25.

My goal is always to spend $3-$5 per smoke, and by using cbid, and watching
for specials from the Monster, and other websites I've got some outstanding
deals. Most recently I got a box of Oliva V lanceros(36) for $100 from the
Monster. That's only $2.79 per stick. Perrrfect!

Over the past year alot of BOTLs had to sell some of their smokes to make ends
meet, and xlnt deals were everywhere. I was able to get San Cristobals for
$6-$7, instead of $9-$10, and ended up with 2 boxes of them. They're one of
my favorite smokes. I also recently got some PANS for $8 ea., delivered. But,
my budget broke, and my New Year's resolution is to stop buying cigars for 6 mos.
Luckily, I smoke less in the winter and my humis are full, so it's a win-win for me.

Overall, affordable means $3-5 to me. CAO Brazilia, RP Edge Missiles, RyJ Reserve
maduro, Torano Casa Torano maduro, RP Liga 'C' X-outs, and Perdomo ESV'91
are my favorite affordable cigars. Look for deals!

Chemyst :-)
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Affordable to me is under 120.00 per box
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I like the different perspectives here. One man's affordable is another man's dream... :-)
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And it's largely dictated by where you live. For example:

While not all of these cigars are available in my local B&M, those that are all $15 - $20/stick and it's pretty much impossible to find anything under $10 (smokable or otherwise). This is entirely due to the tobacco taxes imposed by my provincial and federal governments.

As other's have mentioned, while I tend not to worry about the prices too much, I do expect that every time I walk into my B&M I'll come out roughly $100 poorer with 4 or 5 cigars to show for it. $15 - $25 is my average per stick price but I wouldn't call that "affordable", more just the cost of enjoying cigars North of 49.
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Ouch!!! I remember attending classes in St. Catherine's, Ontario and stopping at a B&M to pick up a smoke. I remember the high hopes walking in, that forbidden fruit would soon crumble to ash between my lips. I walked in, greeted the owner, walked in the humidor and stood there looking at prices. Never did even touch a cigar. I wasn't prepared for the prices and so I didn't have the money available that week to even buy one.

Thankfully, I had brought a few with me in my traveldor which lasted the week. But yeah, I know the prices - that stinks.

What is the rate of taxation if cigars come to your from down south? If a person (say, myself) sends you a package, how difficult is it to get to you - are you taxed for it?

Peace of the Lord be with you.
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Since I only smoke about one a week on the average, I look at the $8-$10 range at a per cigar price. I am still learning my pallet and not ready to invest in a box yet - also have not invested in a full humidor yet either, using a 10 count and a 5 count traveldor for now.

I am looking at the next six months or so to figure out what I like and find the most affordable in what I like - so far I really enjoy RP, Padron and Gurkha but would like to find a good low budget cigar in the $2 - $4 range as well.

I deploy to Afghanistan by the end of summer and hope to invest in enough to bring and share with the troops - as a Chaplain I see this as a great way to get to know the guys and have them feel good about trusting in me.

Jim
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I don't really have a cigar budget, pricewise.
It kinda works like "I find a box I want, then try really hard not to buy it."
Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I buy three.
I sort of use the "disposable income" routine. I try to save up $1,000, then I start trying to find the super best deals on the boxes I really like. I shop the WTS here heavily and always get the best deals on the stuff I really like.
Then I go pay through the nose for my Litto stuff.
The last time I managed to save up $1,000 for cigars, I bought tires instead.
Price per stick never mattered to me, but that's because I don't get to smoke all that often. When I do get to smoke, like this week while I'm on vacation, it'll be an all-star lineup because I'll dig through all my stuff and load up all my favorite stuff.
I like Sancho Panza Double Maduros as much as I like an Anejo as much as I like a Don Carlos Anniversario and so on.
I think the only thing that keeps things "affordable" is that I run out of money.
I do make a concious effort to smoke lots of JLP's and Sancho Panzas in the summer because I love them. Lots of 50 cent machine made cc's, too.
I do that because I hate to spark an expensive cigar and end up not being able to smoke it. It makes me feel like I'm taking food out of the kid's mouths for nothing, even though they're taken care of. Or I could have given it to someone who would really have enjoyed it and gave it it's due.
I honestly spend more time gathering cigars that everyone else likes than what I like.
It makes me a lot happier, and I already have more "me stuff" than I could ever imagine.
I am going to buy a bundle of El Original Toro maduros when I'm in Key Largo tomorrow. I don't know how much they cost. It doesn't matter. When I get home, I'm gonna give half of them to Sofaman and put the other half in my humi. What's left of the other half, actually. :-)

So I guess, in summary, $350 for a box of #49's is just the same as $45 for a box of Sancho Panza Extra Fuerte Barcelonas to me.
My gag reflex happens at Cohiba maduros. I still haven't managed to pull the trigger there. I love them, but the $$$ they cost just would make me feel stupid and sick if I bought them. They are so incredible though. Someday... :-)
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My Fiancee and I set aside part of each week's money for personal use, so most of my part of that goes to buying cigars, which she sometime steals :-) I generally buy boxes in the $4-5 a stick area, but occasionally save up longer and splurge on a nicer box, in the $8-10 range. Only a few times have I spent more, before she was around... I think I've managed to convince her that we should get a very nice box for smoking one every anniversary, but I can't quite sell her on the Cohiba Sig VI Gran Reserva :-)
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Affordable by the box, to me, is what a box of something that I want costs. Meaning, if I really like that cigar enough to want a whole box of it I'll splurge if necessary. Now that keeps me from buying a lot of boxes that I would really like to have because my money tree ain't growing real fast. But generally when I buy a box it lasts me a couple of years anyway.

That being said, I usually try to wait until I can get 15-25% off before making that higher dollar, to me, purchase. It does help take the sting off a little.


I don't know if that is what you were looking for or not, Rev, but it works for me. I think.
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I’m comfortable buying in the $8-12ish range, but prefer to keep it below $8. I have to nudge myself a little more when going north of that. :-)
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If the package contents were properly declared and tax & duty was charged, my guess would be expensive but I've never had to deal with that issue so I can't give you a particularly detailed answer to that question. I do know from comparing local B&M prices on Cuban's to those from retailers that exist in the tax exempt world of native reservations, that my provincial and federal taxes add about $10 - $12 per stick on average cigars (P D4, RyJ Short Churchill, Sancho Panza Beli's, etc) and quite significantly more on specialty, LE or rare releases. There are a couple boxes of the Cohiba Gran Reserva my local B&M right now for $2310/box as an example. Most discussions here have pegged the standard price at around $1500 USD/box for that release.


I know that, like alcohol, shipping tobacco products between provinces is illegal so I assume it would the same with international shipments. That said, I have ordered from a couple "Canadian friendly" online shops from the US in the past and never had a problem. The packages have also never been opened and inspected (to my knowledge) so I don't know if they'd send it back to sender or not. However I doubt that customs would really bother trying to assess and charge taxes on a small package with a quantity that's obviously a personal gift unless you got an agent that was having a really bad caseof the Monday's. Now if you were receiving a larger package that looked more like a commercial purchase or an obvious attempt to avoid local taxes it would probably be different.

(note that I am talking in CDN dollars for most prices, but the CAD and USD have been basically on par for the last couple years anyways)
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Don't know if that's what I was looking for or not either.

I was just letting my mind wander after seeing a couple other discussions and wanted to start a thread to explore it a bit.

I guess it was more curiosity in "What do you do?" type of vein.

So, what works for you is a good thing.

Peace of the Lord be with you.
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And also with you.
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By the single, it pains be to buy a cigar over $8-9. I haven't purchased a box yet but I have bought several 20 cigar samplers from JR and CI and kept the price to about $2.50-3 a stick for some premium sticks! That to me is "affordable" for the box(or large supply of mixed cigars) I suppose. I only smoke once a week so you would imagine my budget would be sky high, but yea, mark how I am the true definition of a poor college student!
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Never really thought of buying cigars on a single price basis. I'll have to check my spreadsheets to see what the actual per cigar prices are.
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Thad had me laughing. Thanks, Scott.

Peace of the Lord be with you.
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You keep track?!?! I would find that depressing and I would be scared my wife would find it.:-)
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It isn't so much the buying of them at that price. It is more of a way to break it down. A box of 15 for $100 breaks down to a different "per-stick-price" than 20 for $100 or even 24, 25, or 26 for $100. And of course, a 5er for $100 is much different.

It is simply a way to examine where we'd draw the line - price wise - in our cigar purchases.

As we've already seen, some say, when I find something I want, I buy it. Others save up to buy what they want. In both those cases, price per box or cigar doesn't matter.

There are some who won't spend over $X.00 a cigar.

There are others who have a normal price range, but will throw in the occasional expensive stick.

A few of us have a price range we like to keep our purchases in, and then watch the specials for cigars we'd like to get, but are normally out of our range.

It is just an excercise in comparisons and learning more about each other.

Peace of the Lord be with you.
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Some really cool stuff in here, thanks for starting this thread Rev!

Although we can't really do this, I would be interested to see how people's cigar buying habitats correlates to their age, marital status, etc
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