What's the market for hand made humidors?

Hey folks:

I'm a bit of a woodworker. OK, I guess I'd have to say that I'm a "semi-pro". I mainly make musical instruments but now that I'm getting back into cigars I'm thinking about humidors.

The thing is, there are an aweful lot of great humidors out there at prices that I can't compete with. The cost of wood really isn't much of a problem, the labor far overwhelms the material cost. I know that back during the big cigar boom every woodworker seemed to be making custom humidors and prices of $200 to $400 were common.

But now that the boom is over I'm wondering if building a few custom humidors would be worth the time and trouble or if I'd just be wasting timethat could be better spent making something with better earning-per-hour potential.

So I'm wondering what your thoughts are. Are factory made humidors all we'll be seeing in our future or can the market bear a hand made $150 to $250 desktop humidor?

I know of a couple people (Jim) who have custom humis, and the look amazing. Defiantly worth the price if you can find someone who can afford it. I cannot ATM and my 50Qt works fine. If you are confident, have you considered doing a cabinet? I am sure you would find some people interested. Just my .02

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Originally Posted by Dru Lee Parsec

Hey folks:

I'm a bit of a woodworker. OK, I guess I'd have to say that I'm a "semi-pro". I mainly make musical instruments but now that I'm getting back into cigars I'm thinking about humidors.

The thing is, there are an aweful lot of great humidors out there at prices that I can't compete with. The cost of wood really isn't much of a problem, the labor far overwhelms the material cost. I know that back during the big cigar boom every woodworker seemed to be making custom humidors and prices of $200 to $400 were common.

But now that the boom is over I'm wondering if building a few custom humidors would be worth the time and trouble or if I'd just be wasting timethat could be better spent making something with better earning-per-hour potential.

So I'm wondering what your thoughts are. Are factory made humidors all we'll be seeing in our future or can the market bear a hand made $150 to $250 desktop humidor?

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Wow, just checked out your site and it seems like "semi-pro" is a helluva understatement.:smiley20: Some very beautiful works of art there.

Although I don't play any stringed instruments, I am a bit of an amateur musician myself (sax).

You do nice work :smiley31:.

Make a humidor to have fun and see how it sells. That'll give you a feel for the market pretty quick.

Nice work! I'd make a humi or two just for fun, and see how they do. I wish I could do that, it seams like a really cool way to keep my stash, in a humi i built by myself. Instead i keep it in a cooler i bought by myself from walmart. so really its a collaboration between walmart and myself. Only one ever made, its now priceless. The bidding for my coolidor will start at $500.

I agree with the others, why not give it a shot, at the worst you end up with a cool handmade humi for yourself.

One of my friends own/runs a company that does a bunch of CNC work for paintball stuff and some other cool parts. Recently he put a big bad nasty motor in his C5 Vette and needed to get a catch can, he looked online and found it for like $79.99, then decided to say screw it and make his own. He made one and it worked awesome so he decided to share with other Vette owners and posted on some different car boards. Now he's working on his 3rd batch of 100 pieces and making some really good money off of them.


Give it a shot... I don't think you have anything to lose.

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Make a humidor to have fun and see how it sells. That'll give you a feel for the market pretty quick.

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It sounds like that may be the best advice. I do have to be careful with projects that I do for fun though because it takes away from the time I have for projects that make money. But heck, a couple of boxes should be easy enough. It's just the details that kills ya.

I'm thinking of making a humidor where the top of the box looks like the back of a guitar with bookmatched indian rosewood and an inlay stripe down the middle. Or maybe a humidor where the top looks like a guitar top! Complete with a glass covered sound hole viewing port and a fretboard.

It might be fun.

Thanks guys

Greg

I don't think there's much of a market for them at all. You can find MANY nice looking humidors dirt cheap which is what most beginners do. Once they get serious about the "hobby" they quickly outgrow the small humidors and are on to larger storage schemes like coolerdors, etc.

Actually, the target market for this kind of humidor, unlike the cheap mdf crap that makes up most of the larger humidors for sale, would be the people seeking a high quality one of a kind piece of art. I doubt it would be a very large market, but it does exist.

It is very reasonable to sell minimally around $300

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Originally Posted by Dru Lee Parsec

Hey folks:

I'm a bit of a woodworker. OK, I guess I'd have to say that I'm a "semi-pro". I mainly make musical instruments but now that I'm getting back into cigars I'm thinking about humidors.

The thing is, there are an aweful lot of great humidors out there at prices that I can't compete with. The cost of wood really isn't much of a problem, the labor far overwhelms the material cost. I know that back during the big cigar boom every woodworker seemed to be making custom humidors and prices of $200 to $400 were common.

But now that the boom is over I'm wondering if building a few custom humidors would be worth the time and trouble or if I'd just be wasting timethat could be better spent making something with better earning-per-hour potential.

So I'm wondering what your thoughts are. Are factory made humidors all we'll be seeing in our future or can the market bear a hand made $150 to $250 desktop humidor?

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Wow, nice work, if you do end up building a few, or even one for personal use, im sure eveyone here would love to see it. Keep us posted... And good luck with your work.

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Originally Posted by SmokinDVM

Actually, the target market for this kind of humidor, unlike the cheap mdf crap that makes up most of the larger humidors for sale, would be the people seeking a high quality one of a kind piece of art. I doubt it would be a very large market, but it does exist.

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Wow, I have some crazy ebony african sculpture on top of a humidor stuck in my mind now. Its pretty cool for all of you who cannot read my thoughts.:smiley20:

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Originally Posted by SmokinDVM

Actually, the target market for this kind of humidor, unlike the cheap mdf crap that makes up most of the larger humidors for sale, would be the people seeking a high quality one of a kind piece of art. I doubt it would be a very large market, but it does exist.

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Exactly. Same kind of a person who would buy a $3000 Aristocrat instead of a couple $15 coolers.

You do some good work there. I think you would be great at building humidors, but like what everyone said before, just make a couple and see how it goes. Who knows, one day you might have orders from people on this forum!!!:smiley41: :smiley41:

Dru, check out THIS THREAD for the humidor Drew referred to in the 2nd post here.