New here-Cuban ?'s

[craig]

All Cuban cigars are made by the same (government) company. (Crown Corporation in Canadian-speak.) Cohiba and then Trinidad get first pick of each year's tobacco crop. (Farmers all get paid the same price.) Only Cohiba gets a third fermentation (just the ligero, IIRC). Of course there is the blend. Does that add up to the price difference? Of course not.

According to Lew Rothman, a decent hand-rolled long-filler cigar costs about a dollar by the time it lands in Florida. The difference in cost from an Opus X to a Curly head is pennies on that dollar. The rest is marketing and profit and taxes. For example, a Padron 2000 is about $4 in a low/no tax state. Cigar retailers generally run on Keystone (100% gross) profit, so the wholesale cost is about $2. US federal tax is about $1, so Padron is getting about $1 for a 2000. Thus they are making very little on a 2000. For a $20 Padron Anny, Keystone grosses $10, fed tax is still around $1, so that's $9 to Padron. The cigar still costs around a dollar to make, so they're making about $8 a cigar instead of pennies. That Padron still makes 2000's (and doesn't charge more for them) tells you a lot about the way old man Padron does business. It also tells you a lot about how some other cigar companies do business.

[CptnBlues63]

All Cuban cigars are made by the same (government) company. (Crown Corporation in Canadian-speak.) Cohiba and then Trinidad get first pick of each year's tobacco crop. (Farmers all get paid the same price.) Only Cohiba gets a third fermentation (just the ligero, IIRC). Of course there is the blend. Does that add up to the price difference? Of course not.

According to Lew Rothman, a decent hand-rolled long-filler cigar costs about a dollar by the time it lands in Florida. The difference in cost from an Opus X to a Curly head is pennies on that dollar. The rest is marketing and profit and taxes. For example, a Padron 2000 is about $4 in a low/no tax state. Cigar retailers generally run on Keystone (100% gross) profit, so the wholesale cost is about $2. US federal tax is about $1, so Padron is getting about $1 for a 2000. Thus they are making very little on a 2000. For a $20 Padron Anny, Keystone grosses $10, fed tax is still around $1, so that's $9 to Padron. The cigar still costs around a dollar to make, so they're making about $8 a cigar instead of pennies. That Padron still makes 2000's (and doesn't charge more for them) tells you a lot about the way old man Padron does business. It also tells you a lot about how some other cigar companies do business.

Thanks for the info Craig!

I knew none of that about the Cuban cigars and little about the rest. It's good to know.

[ggiese]

Thanks for the info Craig!

I knew none of that about the Cuban cigars and little about the rest. It's good to know.

I'd take anything Lew Rothman says with a grain of salt. I think there's some form of truth somewhere in his statements... But if you know Lew Rothman - he's short of many things EXCEPT "opinions". Kinda like P.T. Barnum, in a way...

I also mostly agree with the observations Craig made about the Cuban cigar industry. It is state run, no doubt - and they (theoretically) put the "best" into the Cohiba brand (followed by Trinidad). But I don't believe it's otherwise as cut and dry as Craig lays it out.

It is worthwhile knowing what a certain Marcas is generally comprised of. For example - it's good to know that Vegas Robaina is generally made from tobacco's harvested in the Vuelta Abajo region of Cuba. If you know anything about Cuban cigars - you know it's a good thing when tobacco in a cigar comes from Vuelta Abajo - just as it's good to know that a "domestic" cigar may come from Nicaragua or a cigar is wrapped in "Cameroon" leaf.

[TheGreekTitan]

Lack of cigar knowledge is part of why I joined here, so I will leave that to you gents. However, like it or not, here is my 2 cents on the discussion. It's not comparing Bics' to Mont Blancs'. Is Acura that much better than Honda?...or...Infiniti over Nissan?...Lexus over Toyota?...the list goes on and on. Will made a good point earlier about the difference between Craftsman and Snap-On...What is it, really? In my humble opinion...a HUGE part of it is marketing and perceived value. What can we get for it? What is this "perceived value"?

In my business, I can charge X amount of dollars on one side of town and Y amount of dollars on the other side of town for the exact same job. When I first started in business for myself I DID NOT do this. I felt it was cheating, and taking advantage of one side or the other. The funny thing is, I got very few jobs where I was the lowest bid in A town, but got over 40% in B where I was typically upper middle. It wasn't until I upped my bids considerably in A town until I started landing deals. Even though I had an proven record all over the metro area, because I was the lowest bid in their part of town they didn't trust me. Fine, I'm happy to make more money for the same amount of labor and material. Thank you very much, tell your neighbors...PLEASE.

That said, even though I'm a newb at cigars, I can tell the difference between an good stick and a not so good. I don't know what all goes into them, nor what it costs. I can tell you that I believe the difference between an $5 stick and an $20 stick from a manufacturing standpoint is NOT $15.

BTW I'll take my Uniball Jetstream over my Mont Blanc any day.

[CoventryCat86]

Jaguars cost more to make than many cars, far less cars produced per year is one reason there are others too but mostly the fact that they're English.

I'll be the first to admit they're not very "practical" cars, that's for sure......