So, I was looking through the humis

[ashauler]

and the coolers over the last couple of days just kinda sorting things out and rummaging around and I noticed a few things that kinda surprised me. So, I pulled up some old pictures of my stash and started comparing them.

The earliest pictures I have......the humi is crammed with Thompsons house shit-sticks. And there is only one humi.

The next group of photos......there were two humis.....very few Thompsons.....and a variety of sticks in groups of 2-3 of each. 2 or 3 HTF or high $ sticks in total.

The third group of photos there were two humis and a 120 QT cooler. 1 Thompson shit stick......large variety of singles......many 5-packs of a limited number of smokes......a few boxes. Quite a number of Opus----GOF----ISOM----and other high $$ sticks.

Looking at it now..........the Opus / GOF/ ISOM/ HTF are much less prominent and more targeted. The number of singles I have is as high or higher than when I first started. Way more 5 packs of selected brands, and it seems as if this category continues to grow. A few more boxes, but not a whole hell of a lot. I still have the 1 Thompson. Still 2 humis and the cooler.

I find myself less and less interested (for lack of a better word) in chasing the HTF's, or shelling out big bucks for smokes because they're "limited". I still enjoy the hell out of smoking as many different sticks as I can, in the mid to lower price ranges.......hence all the singles.

It seems that 5-packs and singles dominate my stash. I would have expected it to be boxes and 5 packs by now.....with not so many singles. It also seems that my preferred smokes fall into the mid range in price as well. This kinda shocked me, I thought it would have been weighted slightly towards the higher end, but this is certainly not the case.

I'd like to hear how some of your stashes have changed since you began.

[DeeDubya]

That all sounds too familiar although I don't have any pics. I've been collecting for a while and by nature I'm a volume buyer. Hence I've got a lot of boxes still wrapped. I'm a little embarrassed about it but when the tax news broke I really went nuts. So now it's settle back and enjoy them time. I promised myself to not buy any more unless they were really special or ridiculously cheap, you know, no more than one box per month. If I ever quit smoking I figure I can sell the still-wrapped boxes.

[denver24]

My stash life cycle:

Infancy: Garbage CI Sampler with maybe 5 decent sticks and a few random singles from B&M
Terrible Two's: A few high priced singles mixed with a few CI sampler singles left
Developmental years: More singles that I've been wanting to try in the mid range, along with a few go-to-sticks, still a few left overs from CI sampler
Elementary Years: More singles that I've wanted to try, 2 to 3 sticks of my favorites and some crap that I'm still wanting to pawn off on some friends
Teens: A few 5'ers of sticks I really enjoy, some singles of HTF's that are seasoning for celebtration sticks down the road, and a good number of low to mid priced favorite singles, and a few random singles to try

So, I guess I'm saying that I'm a teen in my cigar smoking life cycle . I really enjoy trying new sticks, which probably explains the singles, but I have started to buy 5'ers of sticks that I consider favorites. I haven't ever bought a box of smokes and probably won't anytime soon due to limited cigar budget and limited storage. But I like the mix I've got now and I've been able to accumulate some favorites and some sticks to try.

Great idea ASH!

[badwhale]

Maybe I'm too newb to reply to this, but here goes:

Wifey & I started 3.5yrs ago and after the wedding got a 75 count thing from Thompson's with a 20-25cigar sampler. Low to middle of the road stuff. From that we picked out our favorites, and bought boxes of those.

The 75 count only maybe allowed for a box here or a box there when the supply ran down.

Fast forward to last year, and I got megador up and running. From there, I started religiously buying a box of standbys, and a bundle of "shit" sticks each month to fill the thing up (it looked pathetic starting out with only 8 or so in there)

Now comes the corruption. I join this forum, and do the newb sampler. Wham! I have a bunch of singles mixed in with boxes of low-medium priced smokes. I keep buying a box a month and fivers now and then. Mix in a PIF, and a couple bombs, and the median stash $$ is rising into a solid medium range.

I noticed my purchase for this month pushing me in the solid medium $$ range.

I wanna say I'll never be up in the high price stuff (consistently) anytime soon, but you guys are a bad influence

Will

[bigwhiteash]

Started with just the plastic bags you get at the B&M, 2 or three sticks a month, then I made my only Thompson's purchase, I think there were three each of LGC, LFD 2000 and Brazillia Gol. when that arrived, my neighbor gave me a 50ct Thompson's humidor.

That's about the time I ran into this place.... Started with one 48 qt cooler, soon added another...

Then I won a 100 count humi on another board,

Then I started up with the pipe, and I now have 18 glass jars full of bulk, about 3 oz each, two LARGE jars with over 8 ounces each, 8 or 9 tins still sealed, and 4 or 5 open. And 7 pipes.. four nice briars and 3 corncobs.


Now, I have one 48 qt cooler that holds bundles, it's about 2/3 full, another 48 qt for boxes and misc. singles... lid barely closes on this one, the 50 ct is a dry-box, and the 100 ct is for the "special" cigars, and I have to be careful how I close that one, I've already crushed a few cigars since it's packed full also. I smoke around three cigars each day, and I'll grab anything, any value, any time.. whatever catches my eye, but probably averages on the day around the 5 to 7 dollar per cigar range.

All this from just under two years hanging around here!

[heftysmokes]

You wrote my cigar history, right down to the single Thompson's floating around.