 Spiraling out of control: Rush, Fidel and Opus X
Los Angeles, July 20 – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in that order:
What a Rush: There’s no secret about Rush Limbaugh’s love for cigars and he shared his passion on the air last week with a first-time caller who wanted some suggestions of brands he should try.
Ever helpful, Limbaugh offered a menu of safe choices, well known to experienced smokers: Macanudo. Diamond Crown, Ashton VSG, "anything from the Fuente sign," Partagas No. 10, Don Carlos. And he ended with a strong recommendation on Padron, plus Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey.
Limbaugh added a postscript after returning from a break, adding a plug for Fuente Fuente Opus X and the Ashton Cabinet Selection.
Interestingly, of his 11 brand suggestions, six are made at the Tabacalera A. Fuente and four come from General Cigar facilities in the Dominican Republic and Honduras. Padron is the other. Not a word for Altadis or Davidoff, among others. Better luck next time, I guess.
Opus X on fire: We wrote last week about the celebrated Fuente Fuente Opus X, retailing from $7.50 to $14.50, selling for a street price of about $30 or so. Boy, were we off base.
Although official eBay policy is not to allow sales of tobacco on its site, "collectible boxes" of Opus X have been selling for enormous prices. On Sunday, a sealed box of 32 Double Coronas dating from the mid-1990s sold for $1,200, a princely $37.50 each. Yesterday, a special box of assorted sizes originally made for a Prometheus special-edition travel humidor in 2000 went for $776, an astonishing $38.80 each.
And now comes the Mother Lode, a set of six boxes of Opus X now on eBay with opening offers set at between $750 and $950, with "Buy It Now" prices of between $850 and $1,195. I doubt that any box will be left when the bid period ends on Friday morning.
From the Cubador: The Castro government is tightening its grip on tourism, the island’s newest cash cow.
Although the tourism sector has been rescuing a dormant economy, with annual growth rates of 15 percent or more (compared to three percent in the rest of the island), Reuters reported last week that the ruling Communist Party is displeased with a "creeping capitalist ideology" that has been the result of market-oriented reforms that have fueled the tourism surge.
Although three-quarters of the island’s hotel rooms – about 30,000 rooms – are controlled by the four state-owned companies, plans now call for a merger into a single ministry under direct government supervision.
Never missing an opportunity to bite the hand that feeds it, the Cuban government is now attacking an industry that generated more than $2 billion in revenue in 2003, reported to be 42 percent of the country’s hard-currency intake!
Left in limbo are the dozens of foreign joint-venture partners who have invested in Cuban tourism. One told Reuters, "We are being kept completely in the dark."
Here’s hoping for more sunshine over the Malecon, and soon.
~ Rich Perelman
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