What plain packaging Behike look like....

[benfica_77]

What a shame... at least the proper bands are under the crappy ones. Imagine those flimsy boxes instead of the proper boxes. Terrible....

Btw not my cigars...these are screenshots taken from a video on a cigar group.  

[Bijan]

Think about the taxes too!

Cheaper to fly to Cuba for a week and bring a box back. Actually since it's a 10 count might be able to bring back 5 boxes. Could almost certainly get 3-4 boxes for the same price. Although might be tough to find, I don't know.

Also is that the box code in the lid?

[La_Tigre]

38 minutes ago, Bijan said:

Think about the taxes too!

Cheaper to fly to Cuba for a week and bring a box back. Actually since it's a 10 count might be able to bring back 5 boxes. Could almost certainly get 3-4 boxes for the same price. Although might be tough to find, I don't know.

Also is that the box code in the lid?

Yah, not finding Behike on the island unless you already excrete gold.

[Bijan]

5 minutes ago, La_Tigre said:

Yah, not finding Behike on the island unless you already excrete gold.

Fair enough. I think if you compare the price the market will bear (BR, flippers, vendors who jack up prices), and not the price set by Habanos or on 24:24, then the price of Behikes specifically doesn't actually work out too bad in Canada even with the taxes.

Edit: It's jus that a $100 cigar boggles my mind, so a $300+ cigar is just 🤯

[LordAnubis]

6 hours ago, Bijan said:

Fair enough. I think if you compare the price the market will bear (BR, flippers, vendors who jack up prices), and not the price set by Habanos or on 24:24, then the price of Behikes specifically doesn't actually work out too bad in Canada even with the taxes.

Edit: It's jus that a $100 cigar boggles my mind, so a $300+ cigar is just 🤯

From the very experienced land of high taxes and plain packaging, yes. The higher value the cigar the more "even terms" it becomes with international prices available. You can see it on 24:24 too... behike 52 doesnt have that much price difference in AUD and USD value. They're small cigars and so tax is 300 bucks compared to the 1200 price tag. .. but you then pay 400 in tax on a 120 dollar box of partagas shorts... thats where you really notice the pounding you get. You pay per gram of tobacco, regardless of the quality of the tobacco.

[Bijan]

6 minutes ago, LordAnubis said:

From the very experienced land of high taxes and plain packaging, yes. The higher value the cigar the more "even terms" it becomes with international prices available. You can see it on 24:24 too... behike 52 doesnt have that much price difference in AUD and USD value. They're small cigars and so tax is 300 bucks compared to the 1200 price tag. .. but you then pay 400 in tax on a 120 dollar box of partagas shorts... thats where you really notice the pounding you get. You pay per gram of tobacco, regardless of the quality of the tobacco.

Unfortunately or fortunately that's not how it is in Canada. Taxes are percentage of cigar price almost no relation to the amount of tobacco. So a $1,000 box of behikes will have $2,000 or more of taxes. It just happens in this case that behikes will sell for $3,000 in the free market due to lack of supply.

Somewhere around monte 4 and monte 2 is where things flip between Canada and Australia below that price the cigar is cheaper in Canada above that price the cigar is cheaper in Australia. Of course your taxes seem to go up all the time! 😥

[LordAnubis]

7 minutes ago, Bijan said:

Unfortunately or fortunately that's not how it is in Canada. Taxes are percentage of cigar price almost no relation to the amount of tobacco. So a $1,000 box of behikes will have $2,000 or more of taxes. It just happens in this case that behikes will sell for $3,000 in the free market due to lack of supply.

Somewhere around monte 4 and monte 2 is where things flip between Canada and Australia below that price the cigar is cheaper in Canada above that price the cigar is cheaper in Australia. Of course your taxes seem to go up all the time! 😥

Ahhh interesting! Here you pay DUTY on the weight of tobacco ($1.7 per gram) plus you pay 10% GST on that duty (No you're not paying tax on a tax, youre paying tax on a duty 😉😂)... and then you also pay 10% GST on the value of the cigar.

[Spaceman Spiff]

9 minutes ago, Bijan said:

Unfortunately or fortunately that's not how it is in Canada. Taxes are percentage of cigar price almost no relation to the amount of tobacco. So a $1,000 box of behikes will have $2,000 or more of taxes. It just happens in this case that behikes will sell for $3,000 in the free market due to lack of supply.

Somewhere around monte 4 and monte 2 is where things flip between Canada and Australia below that price the cigar is cheaper in Canada above that price the cigar is cheaper in Australia. Of course your taxes seem to go up all the time! 😥

Wow that is OUTRAGEOUS. I'm all for paying taxes but that is just undue punishment. 

[benfica_77]

20 minutes ago, therealrsr said:

Fortunately not dealing with this, yet.  I assume from last pic the label is intact under the plain, do they send the box?  If I'm saving a box that would be it.

No box and yes the band/label is intact under the plain label

[Bijan]

1 minute ago, benfica_77 said:

No box and yes the band/label is intact under the plain label

That's for Cubans some NCs don't have bands underneath.

[nKostyan]

Why are they doing this? Does it have something to do with the requirements of the embargo?

[Bijan]

22 minutes ago, nKostyan said:

Why are they doing this? Does it have something to do with the requirements of the embargo?

Anti-smoking, anti-tobacco laws, that are popping up all over the world. Australia started it 😛

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_tobacco_packaging

[havanaclub]

Why are they doing this? Does it have something to do with the requirements of the embargo?

Cigars are bad! Somehow Canada thinks kids won’t pay 300 a cigar for a behike with a brown band on top of the shiny band.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[NSXCIGAR]

On 12/23/2021 at 10:07 PM, nKostyan said:

Does it have something to do with the requirements of the embargo?

Ha, no, one of the easiest and cheapest places to get CCs is the one country that actually has the embargo! 

[nKostyan]

Ha, no, one of the easiest and cheapest places to get CCs is the one country that actually has the embargo! 

Yes, I heard that this is a store on an Indian reservation

[Bijan]

16 minutes ago, nKostyan said:

Yes, I heard that this is a store on an Indian reservation

Oh then it's only about 85%-100% taxes and not 200%+ taxes 🙂 

Edit: but in Canada the plain packaging is done by the importer and not the vendor and in the case of Cuban cigars there is a single importer and they have the plain packaging done in Cuba before the cigars even enter Canada. In any case the cigars have to be plain packaged before they can enter the Canadian retail market.

[nKostyan]

I'm surprised, but they even make tubes

[Bijan]

5 minutes ago, nKostyan said:

I'm surprised, but they even make tubes

I don't have the exact rules in front of me but from memory any packaging for cigars has to be either plain uncolored wood/glass/metal/paper/cardboard/etc. Or exactly the same color of green/brown with writing in standard font describing Marca and vitola. Any cellophane needs to be transparent I think or same color.

What surprises me is that they don't just do plain wooden boxes for something like a Behike.

[SCgarman]

7 hours ago, Bijan said:

Oh then it's only about 85%-100% taxes and not 200%+ taxes 🙂 

Edit: but in Canada the plain packaging is done by the importer and not the vendor and in the case of Cuban cigars there is a single importer and they have the plain packaging done in Cuba before the cigars even enter Canada. In any case the cigars have to be plain packaged before they can enter the Canadian retail market.

I thought I recalled Rob saying that Cuba refused to have anything to do with the plain packaging of their cigars for certain markets? 

These cigars are definitely rebanded and reboxed in Cuba? Anyway, the whole thing is dumb. Discourage cigar use and promote Cannabis use! 

[Bijan]

54 minutes ago, SCgarman said:

I thought I recalled Rob saying that Cuba refused to have anything to do with the plain packaging of their cigars for certain markets? 

Yeah I think he's right in the sense that the cigar factories/habanos have nothing to do with it and want nothing to do with it. I think the Canadian importer/distributer has it done by someone else in Cuba. Which might mean the cigars are produced in the original packaging which this third party factory has to throw out before putting the cigars in cardboard boxes.

55 minutes ago, SCgarman said:

These cigars are definitely rebanded and reboxed in Cuba? Anyway, the whole thing is dumb. Discourage cigar use and promote Cannabis use! 

Yeah definitely dumb. The taxation which has been there for a long time may be dumber. Similar plain packaging applies to cannabis. But it's not like branding and blending are a big factor there.

[99call]

I might be going out on a limb here, but is there there the very odd chance that these things become incredibly valuable?

My opinions on this packaging are known.  Personally I think its outrageous......not that there is 'plain' packaging,   thats a whole other political/health debate,  but that the boxes are not protective, or supply some defence of humidity fluctuation/protection.  Also if the bands do not feature the same security features,... this is patently at loggerheads with consumer rights. 

All that said, those cigars look fabulous,  their visuals alone sort of qualify their value.  Everything about these cigars 'in a way' screams "DO NOT BUY!!!"   but for the brave few flippers, I have a really odd feeling their courage will be rewarded.    These things have to be pretty rare, and in 10+ years I think they could command a kings ransom from collectors with more money than sense. 

Hats off to anyone who had the balls to buy these things.......I think you will have the last laugh

 

 

[NSXCIGAR]

2 hours ago, 99call said:

I might be going out on a limb here, but is there there the very odd chance that these things become incredibly valuable?

It seems like Havana House has made serious investments in the PP process so it seems it's here to stay. I'm not sure why the PP would be valuable. Same cigars everyone else gets in ugly boxes. Maybe if it only lasted a year it might have some novelty value but if it's ongoing I don't see how anyone would want it. 

As far as the security features, the bands are intact--just covered with the plain band. But one could make the case the box and packaging itself is a security feature. It looks like the OP BHK 52 doesn't have the HSA bar code either. 

 

[99call]

46 minutes ago, NSXCIGAR said:

Same cigars everyone else gets in ugly boxes. Maybe if it only lasted a year it might have some novelty value but if it's ongoing I don't see how anyone would want it

My thought process was, A buyer would be an unlikely flipper, hence the cigars would get smoked (boxes tossed) minimising those in circulation. 

Maybe more likely is (sadly) people repacking with original ghost boxes then holding for long enough to make it worth it. 

[SCgarman]

2 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

It seems like Havana House has made serious investments in the PP process so it seems it's here to stay. I'm not sure why the PP would be valuable. Same cigars everyone else gets in ugly boxes. Maybe if it only lasted a year it might have some novelty value but if it's ongoing I don't see how anyone would want it. 

As far as the security features, the bands are intact--just covered with the plain band. But one could make the case the box and packaging itself is a security feature. It looks like the OP BHK 52 doesn't have the HSA bar code either. 

 

Those black lacquer wooden Behike boxes are beautiful. What a travesty to relegate those high end sticks to thin, crappy cardboard boxes. And plain packaging discourages young folks from taking up cigars? As if an 18 year old can really afford to spend $1,000 on a 10ct. box of Cubans! 

[99call]

26 minutes ago, SCgarman said:

Those black lacquer wooden Behike boxes are beautiful.

Are they?.......I like cigars......I love Trinidad......i'm not fond of Cohiba...... but I don't min paying top dollar for cigars.    I'm asking out of interest, what is nice about a Behike box?  In terms of dedication to craft they express little to no skill or ability.   In many ways they are the most unremarkable/unimpressive boxes out there. 

Again,  I'm honestly not trying to be a dick.......what do you like about them? its likely just sprayed MDF.... cheap as chips. why do you like them?