I remember when Topps, Bowman and Donruss were the main baseball card companies. Then came Upper Deck. Then Skybox. The Fleer Ultra. Then blah, blah.

Then there were subsets. Then subsets of the subsets. Then "one of's". Then game used jerseys. And so on.

The cigar industry is reminding me of the same thing. It's not just having a box of, let's say Fuente's, it's having an Anejos, or better yet a cameroon wrapped Anejo.

Your thoughts?



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Oh yes!! The days of hunting inserts...now it has turned into hunting sticks.

It's madness I tell ya!! :-) :-) :-)
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One difference I see - with baseball cards, you buy a pack in the hope that it might have that "limited edition hologram platinum signed rookie throwback contest winning" card inside, thus giving you a windfall as well as as a delighting treat. With cigars, they don't toss these primos into random boxes of the "regular" line, and instead expect you to pony up for a stick they tell you is "special", but which may totally suck.
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Agree...

I used to try to stay out front of new releases, chasing the sticks to be one of the first to smoke them and offer my opinion to those who hadn't tried one yet. I soon found out that good, quality, consistent cigars are few and far between. I've stopped buying the hype completely, don't care anymore. Most cigars are rolled in the same factories, by the same people, with tobacco from the same fields. Everything beyond that is just marketing... :-)
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I only hunt for cigars with an RG too large to fit in my mouth. I bet those will be worth something in a few years:-)
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Good analogy. Rocky Patel is definitely the Upper Deck of cigar manufacturers. Now I'm off to put some coronas in my bike spokes.

MCS
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:-) :-) :-)
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Ya know, I was just wondering why the box of cigars I bought the other day came with a stick of stale bubble gum in it....
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Now I just gotta get a new Beckett to see what my stash is worth:-)
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I blame Fuente, since it seems they started the whole idea of ultra rare, one-of-kind footballs and culebras with stripes and polka dots, etc...

Not everybody does it, but certain cigar makers have certainly followed suit and embraced the whole idea of collectible limited runs with great success, (like Tatuaje). Regardless of whether or not you agree with it, limited editions seem to generate tons of publicity and excitement among cigar nuts like ourselves.
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We love to ***** about them but we all scour the ends of the earth hunting them down. We are a nutty bunch.:-)
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It's called cigarcyclopedia.org!!!:-):-):-)
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I like the concept of this thread! I couldn't agree more. We even have TRADES just like baseball cards. I'll give you five of these, for 2 of those and three of that. Hilarious and TRUE analogy.
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I was about to say, "I buy to smoke. period" and then I realized that there are a handful cigars in my collection I bought just because they are limited and I don't really have any plans to smoke them, like my Opus Sharks.

lol, how funny is it that even though I'm opposed to the idea of collectible cigars, I'm just as guilty of buying and stashing them just because they look cool in the humi. :-)
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Perfect analogy....


A little off topic, but I had a cigar bet with a colleague( "a good cigar") and paid off with a opus & anejo shark... Told him it was a shark attack....:-) He is a regular smoker(pipe and cigar, paid his last loss with a Opus Double Corona).... Fairly confident he had no idea WTF I was talking about....(not that there is anything wrong with that)

I still buy to smoke, though admittedly have a hard time smoking some stuff... Not that I have super rare stuff, but things like T110's & Opus Sharks have been bombed from my humi....but I have not smoked either....:-)
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touche'
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I agree with the original post. That's why I stick to the gars that were around when I started in the 70's. Pretty much stick to the Fuente stock brands, Partags, Montecristo.
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So, which brand would be the Garbage Pail Kids? Gurkha?
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I think many of the manufacturers are trying to head that way. From my experience, I have found that the thrill of the chase outweighs the taste of victory. Trying to chase down every limited run smoke will wear you out physically, emotionally, and financially. The most disappointment I have experienced in cigar smoking has been with limited runs. While I have found some to be truly exceptional, most limited run stuff I have tried has not been as good as the regular production stuff. The Tat Drac and Black label and the Viaje TnT and Summerfest come to mind. I would buy and smoke them if they were regular production lines, but rather than chase down a mediocre cigar with a high price, I would rather smoke the cheaper regular production Tats and Viajes. This is no different than the sports card world. When I was a kid, all I wanted was to get one of the Santa Claus football cards...now you can buy them for less than $5. About the same time, I got a Brett Favre rookie card in a pack of Stadium Club....it went in the box with the rest of the "worthless" cards. Now these sell for $40+ depending on condition....go figure.
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i remember when it was just topps...
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