State of the Nation: Cigar Spend Poll

[El Presidente]

Snapshot poll with follow up questions tomorrow. 

Let's get a State of the Cigar Nation over the back end of this week. 

[Chucko8]

Goes without saying that my expenditure total may have not changed much in the past year, though the actual quantity for the expenditure has dropped.

[PuffDaddie]

My expenditiure is 50 per cent cuban, and 50 per cent non curban.

[Chris P. Bacon]

My spending hasn’t changed but I am putting more money in higher end NCs.

[Jackdani7401]

Spending has been reduced overall….mainly because of being out of storage space😂😂. 

[Bri Fi]

I was previously buying one to three boxes a month for several years. Normal stuff like D4, monte 4, H Upmann #2, and usually a special box once a year like Siglo 6 or SW. Amounting to around $8k annually in CC cigars alone up until 2022. Last year I bought a box of HUHC and this year I bought a box of H Upmann Majestic. That’s all. I can’t justify spending $400-500 on a box that was less than half that price a few years ago. 

[Duxnutz]

I’m betting there’s lots of people who nudies are the last stop on the train…..  

[HarveyBoulevard]

I’ve only purchased Nudies in the last 12 months. Still smoking 50/50 but not buying Cubans anymore. 

[Silverstix]

1% Cuban.  99% non-cuban. Mostly davidoff and the hard to find Fuente stuff.  If I'm gonna be gouged I at least want a cigar that's going to have decent construction.  Imagine my disappointment when my brother and I had to toss 2 VR Unicos the other day because they were tent pegs.  No thanks

[jakebarnes]

I have slowed due to cost but mainly storage space. I am not having as many cigars lately and I already have too many cigars. That said, I've added the Davidoff skinnies (millennium and No 1) to my rotation as well as the usual nudies (N1 maduro really shining). But mainly strategic purchases on the CC side--have some of those Double Edmundos from 2424 on the way and might add some other things if I see them.

[Fireball]

Basically buying and storing Nudies.

It’s not just that the costs of cigars are up that’s slowing me down.

I don’t smoke a lot, but I do like to buy cigars and collect them and that is over.

A family trip I’m going on soon will cost around 7500$. 2 years ago it would have cost 4000-5000$. And that's true for everything. Cigars are lower on the priority list.

[Hammer Smokin']

no option to say "stopped" but then skip second question. 

[Meklown]

Actually increased from 12 months ago (so answered the poll as such). I had a buying hiatus last year because of an impending move but have gotten back into it recently. Comparing to 24 months ago though, my guesstimate is that it has decreased 

[MagicalBikeRide]

Prior to this year, I’d never ordered online. I tried my best to buy from local B&M. But now, prices are just too much with increases (e.g. a single D4 is ~$50 USD here, Monte No2 ~$70 USD, etc).

Two bundle of ‘23 nudies was my first online order and I recently tried some HUHC from 24:24. This is all the cigars I’ve purchased this year, which is way down vs previous years - both in total spend and quantity. 

[Cayman17]

11 hours ago, HarveyBoulevard said:

I’ve only purchased Nudies in the last 12 months. Still smoking 50/50 but not buying Cubans anymore. 

Same 

[ManInBlack]

I’m buying 50/50 Cuban/NC right now. My plan is to stock pile as many of my favorite CC as I can fit in my coolidors, and transition to NC 100% by the beginning of 2024. I’m spending more right now but will decrease the budget once I’m stocked up. My pay increases are simply not keeping up with the rising costs of everything, including CC, so I’m thankful that I stocked up when I did and for the many wonderful alternatives including Nudies. Hopefully I’ll get rich so I can buy a Cohiba again one day!  

[SteveA]

My spending is up because my NC stash is low and I don't want to smoke through all my CC's in a hurry. Building up the NC stash will take a while and, woe is me, NCs with age on them are almost nonexistent in my stash.

[Boxer31]

Only purchased 1 - 10 ct Monte PE this yr. Everything else Nudies and other NC’s.  

[karp]

Spending is definitely lower, but I did buy some boxes of CC this year. Have a large stash of CC overall. Exploring NC but need time to figure out my niche… they are not as good as CC so far, nudies excepted, the Canonazo is quite good. If the NC had more transition I would jump ship entirely. 

[Tradesman]

Used to buy a box a week just a year ago. But now it’s more like a box a month/2 months. Mostly NCs too, recently just bought 2 sticks of 50 different cigars to expand my NC taste… which are stuck in customs atm.
 

But yea, if I’m gonna be spending good money on cigars, I’d wanna get the bang for my buck. Nudies + some NCs have been really good.

[Rhinoww]

I am fortunate to have built up a stash for lean times, starting in 2018. The current prices make it lean times. I have only bought CC, but the last box of banded stock that arrived at my house was last September from FOH. Pretty much only been picking up Cuban custom rolls since then - still at a rate double or triple consumption rate but well below the buy rate I had before cigarmageddon. Habanos has pretty much lost me for now. 

[Chris P. Bacon]

On 8/10/2023 at 6:56 AM, Bri Fi said:

I was previously buying one to three boxes a month for several years. Normal stuff like D4, monte 4, H Upmann #2, and usually a special box once a year like Siglo 6 or SW. Amounting to around $8k annually in CC cigars alone up until 2022. Last year I bought a box of HUHC and this year I bought a box of H Upmann Majestic. That’s all. I can’t justify spending $400-500 on a box that was less than half that price a few years ago. 

 

[slowsmoke]

It’s been well over a year since I purchased any habanos. Current prices are absurd. Just dumb luck that I discovered FOH when I did and went overboard building up a stash.

If I had to start all over again today, my collection would be much heavier on non-Cubans.

[Homebrew]

4 hours ago, slowsmoke said:

It’s been well over a year since I purchased any habanos. Current prices are absurd. Just dumb luck that I discovered FOH when I did and went overboard building up a stash.

If I had to start all over again today, my collection would be much heavier on non-Cubans.

I am in about the same boat.  I went on a huge binge, about 2015-2016, and then I slowed way down on my smoking.  Had a health scare, and quit smoking cigarettes, and cigars.  So now that I am back smoking cigars, I have a large stockpile of well aged Cuban cigars.  At the present time, the Cuban cigar market, is out of my price range.  I have been stocking up on my favorite high end non-Cubans, Padron 1984 Annis  Ashton VSG,  A. Fuentes Sungrown, Tatuaje, etc.

Dave (A.K.A. Homebrew)

[GVan]

Like several have said here - my spending is way down - < ¼ of what it was in total for cigars.  Started seriously collecting in 2018.  Buying more than 2 boxes a month from 3 different vendors (although FOH is always my favorite) and continued all the way up to the first CC price increase!  I still regret not buying more of the two box deals (remember those)!  I keep a detailed spreadsheet of my inventory.  After the first price increase, I slowed spending down to a very specific list of trying to buy "5 smoking years" of back-up inventory of only my absolute favorites (Monte 2's, DIP-2's, JL1's, JL2's, Boli CJ's, Boli PC's, Parti-shorts, Luis's, RGPC's, PLPC's).  I had a specific written "Buy-List" on my desk of the holes that I was trying to fill-in on the CC collection.  At the time, I rationalized (with the wife), that the price increase was a small price to pay for inventory security.  Unfortunately, after the second price increase happened, and since that time, I have stopped buying CC's altogether and switched to NC's (including Nudies).

There was a second reason for totally stopping buying CC's.  I live in southeastern Florida and it seems our two most common shipping stop-overs started a confiscation push.  For a time my trusted sellers stopped all shipping to my location despite never having had a package lost.  I'm not blaming them - after all - theirs is a profit making business and not charity.  Two have restarted selling to trusted buyers but in the interest of not seeing prices get jacked even higher to account for shipping losses - I have stopped all overseas buying.

I am now filling in my CC holes and past "Buy-List"with specific NC's that seem to fit the holes in my collection.  All in an effort to make the CC's last a few years more.  The Amante IV is a good second smoke choice to the Monte 2's and will make those last longer.  The Desnudo IV PC, Illusione La Grand Classe Rex and Tatuaje Black Label help fill-in the holes and extend my PLPC and Boli collection.  The Carlotta II and Rojas Street Taco's help me extend my Partagas collection.  I'm not saying any of these NC's are the same or even have the nuances of a good CC - for me it is a way of still having the fun of the good cigar search without paying the ridiculous prices of the current CC market.  Will there come a time as my collection dwindles that I likely pay the higher CC prices? - Absolutely!  But not likely for the next few years (although I still get on almost every evening to see what's up on FOH).  I just don't need to do it one-minute before it opens anymore (LoL).