I went to my local cigar store looking to pick up a PAN or PAM,64 or 26. When I looked at the price it was anywhere from $21.95 to $25.95 per stick in the sizes I tend to smoke. When I mentioned they were high, the salesman said if I buy 6 I get one free. Oh yeah thanks. The shop is normally within range for the better smokes but I felt this was highway robbery and walked. He had a full supply of types and sizes, no suprise here with those prices.

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Assumption is the mother of all screwups

whoa man! just went by holts today and they had em for under 10 for alot of the sizes!

This will always be a tough issue for shops. I am friends with one shop owner, and he routinely keeps his top of the line sticks hidden away. He sells them to his best customers for very reasonable prices, but does not put them out. If he did, they would be gone in a day or two.

This shop you were at knows that people will be willing to pay for hard-to-find cigars. Supply and demand. Is he right to do that? The MARKET will dictate.

They do the same thing at my local B@M. I've been going there for 15 years so they usually let me in on the good stuff for a very reasonable price.

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Originally posted by riddl85707:
They do the same thing at my local B@M. I've been going there for 15 years so they usually let me in on the good stuff for a very reasonable price.

It's one reason why people should frequent and support the local shop. Sometimes they have something good tucked away.

May also come in handy when the embargo is over and every man, woman and child all of sudden becomes a cigar fan. If you think the mid-90s were bad. . . .

What a cynical approach. Coriolanus is right...my local B&M doesn't mark up anything, they just keep it behind the counter so looters can't cherry pick the good stuff. I feel like I've earned the right to the pick of the litter becauuse I buy all my everyday sticks there...for every PAM 1926 or Anejo Shark I buy, I probably buy a dozen Fonsecas or Patel 99s or Cuesta Rey Centro Finos.

I won't pay more than MSRP for anything.

I don't do business with locals because they are price gougers. I could understand some higher than online because of local punitive taxes, and overhead, but not the two to three times online price they charge. Had bought a box a month for years from a local until the fad set in, then all of a sudden he didn't have them, he was selling them to cigar bars at triple the price. Now I buy nothing from him.

I think you have to balance support for locals with the search for the best prices. For one thing, locals often provide one of the last indoor public places where you can enjoy a cigar in the Nanny State. And, once local shops are gone, that is one less commercial voice to oppose a total ban.

Also, a good relationship with your local can put you first in line when he gets in something special, like the recent Anejo release.

Being a committed capitalist (some would say a capitalist who should be committed ), I would say that one important aspect of the market is the consumer's free choice to spend more than rock-bottom price, and indeed many companies do well by differentialting themselves in service, selection, and other intangibles.

Unfortunately, where I live there is no local LCDH