 Our retailer survey showed vast differences in pricing nationwide
Los Angeles, August 6 – I love cigars, but I hate paying for them!
So it was quite a shock to see the vast differences in price on established U.S. mail order and on-line price lists in our national retailer survey. If you didn’t see yesterday’s story, surprising Atlantic Cigar Company of New York, N.Y., was ranked best overall.
When we conducted our review, we checked how many brands each retailer carried, with the number of brands standardized according to our Perelman’s Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars listings, and prices, based on nine specific cigars. That’s where the enormous price variations became apparent:
• Avo No. 5:
Prices varied from $100.75 a box at Bonita Smoke Shop (Bonita Springs, Florida) all the way to $219.40 at the Owl Shop in Worcester, Massachusetts.
• Arturo Fuente 8-5-8:
H&I Cigars of Plymouth, Michigan posted a price of $78.95 and Cigar-ette City of Newark, Delaware came in at $79.00. The highest price for this box of 25 was $159.04.
• Fonseca 8-9-8:
Atlantic Cigar posted the first of its three wins at $54.78, while the Cigarbox in Las Vegas had the same box at $119.52, more than twice as much . . . but you’d be enjoying the cigars and the thought of Vegas at the same time!
• H. Upmann Churchill:
Beachside Cigars in California had these treasures for only $68.50 a box and for $137.00, you could have two boxes. Unfortunately, our lowest-ranked competitor for this brand would sell you only one box for $138.40!
• Hoyo de Monterrey Double Corona:
Another win for Atlantic, this time shared with Corona Cigar Company of Orlando, Florida at $64.95 the box, while the dunce cap goes to an already-mentioned retailer who would ask you for $115.90 for the same box.
• Macanudo Hyde Park:
Cigars by the Box of Allen Park, Michigan had the best deal on this cigar, the most popular in our review, at $87.95. The highest price was from a shall-remain-unnamed, three-time loser in our survey, at $156.40 the box.
• Montecristo No. 1:
Atlantic was a clear winner at $103.13 for the box of 25, but you could spend up to $219.40 for the same box from our last-place finisher . . .
• Partagas Almirante:
These are my favorites in the regular Partagas line and at $92.00 a box, I was highly impressed with Cigars-2-You of Lakeforest, California. Want to spend more? No problem: fork over $167.65 to our favorite last-placer.
• Perdomo Reserve X:
Although the popularity of Perdomo-made brands is increasing, this was the hardest cigar to find in our survey. The best price was $124.25 by Bonita Smoke Shop (its second win) and the worst was $200.00 by an outfit so big, I cannot bring myself to mention the name . . .
As we reported yesterday, only 8.4 points separated the first five on the list. The full roster of our National Retailer Rankings is available to our CigarWire subscribers.
Our exclusive Comparison Shopper, also on the CigarWire, will be updated to showcase our top-ranked retailers and nearly 500 brands to give you the best chance to save.
Another important feature of the Comparison Shopper is that we have included pricing for sampler packs. These are often not the best value on a per-stick basis, but are often a way to get 5-10 cigars of a brand you like without having to invest much. I would particularly recommend the wide variety of samplers you can find at the major houses such as Cigars International, Famous Smoke Shop and J-R Cigars.
Next week: why the do-gooder community now finds itself between Scylla and Charybdis (you students of Greek mythology know what I’m talking about!).
~ Rich Perelman
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
