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Price Increases. What are your thoughts.

VisionVision Posts: 7,764 ✭✭✭✭✭

So every time a company announces price increases I read on what their plans are. Some companies have gone up flat percentages, some a dollar amount per box, some on specific lines only, etc. But what I have noticed is that most look to be about 15-20% per cigar. Are you comfortable now paying $12 for a $10 cigar or how about $18 for a $15 cigar? How’s about $6 for a cigar that was great at $4? Your thoughts.

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Comments

  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,405 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I've never known anything else.

    WARNING:  The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme.  Proceed at your own risk.  

    "If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." --  Mark Twain
  • d_bladesd_blades Posts: 3,699 ✭✭✭✭✭

    When or if the new taxes go into affect we'll have to pay even more.

    Don't let the wife know what you spend on guns, ammo or cigars.

  • NorCalR1NorCalR1 Posts: 4,197 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Like everything else prices are on the rise and it’s inevitable. It does make me stop and think about my purchases and also search for the best deal I can find. With CA taxes and rising costs sticks under $10 are nonexistent at local B&M’s.

    If you want to bomb me send it to Tony @0patience :D
    If you are a newbie I got Dem nachos....

  • peter4jcpeter4jc Posts: 15,315 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Nobody likes it, but nothing is going to stop any of us from smoking what we want. I think.

    "I could've had a Mi Querida!"   Nick Bardis
  • VisionVision Posts: 7,764 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @peter4jc said:
    Nobody likes it, but nothing is going to stop any of us from smoking what we want. I think.

    So the price won’t deter you from buying “that” cigar? Padron at $30 and Tats Ltd at $18 will have no bearing on how you buy?

    No directed at anyone but just a story.
    A local Garden Nursery was telling everyone that Christmas trees are going to have….. “Increased prices! Limited availability! Trucking is unavailable! You won’t find them anywhere!” They were wrong. No one shopped them. People wouldn’t spend the $95-$155 a tree (8-12ft). People found good trees for under $40 and they were happy with them. The expensive place ….. 100s and 100s of trees left. Not purchased. Money lost.

    Because people will eventually say eff that and put their foot down. But…… bet your asś they will increase price on plants and seed to make up for the loss.

  • peter4jcpeter4jc Posts: 15,315 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Well, if Padron and Tat jumped to those numbers today, it wouldn't make sense to buy. But, the smallish price increases on sticks thus far (from what I've seen - I might not be seeing it) are just mirroring the rest of stuff going up in price. So living gets more expensive, that's kind of a given, and people here have a steady income and know premium cigar smoking isn't a cheap hobby. I just don't see the vast majority of us stopping when (not if) prices creep up.

    Rusty made a great point.

    "I could've had a Mi Querida!"   Nick Bardis
  • JrflicksterJrflickster Posts: 3,545 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @peter4jc said:
    Well, if Padron and Tat jumped to those numbers today, it wouldn't make sense to buy. But, the smallish price increases on sticks thus far (from what I've seen - I might not be seeing it) are just mirroring the rest of stuff going up in price. So living gets more expensive, that's kind of a given, and people here have a steady income and know premium cigar smoking isn't a cheap hobby. I just don't see the vast majority of us stopping when (not if) prices creep up.

    Rusty made a great point.

    Nailed it

  • VisionVision Posts: 7,764 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I do understand costs going up. I will also amend that I will lower the 10-15% increase to around 10%….. mostly. I do applaud those only going up 4-7%.

  • Rdp77Rdp77 Posts: 6,057 ✭✭✭✭✭

    ^ bet you’ll never guess who that disagree belongs to 🤨

  • NorCalR1NorCalR1 Posts: 4,197 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @rsherman24 said:
    The price of everything goes up. People complain about the price of gas going up 5 cents a gallon. Are you goin to stop driving?

    Main point of story. @Rdp77 is low on cigars. He is smoking yard gars

    We hit $5.00 a gallon and roadways are fuller than ever. I think we will continue to by cigars even with price increases just gotta look for the deals.

    If you want to bomb me send it to Tony @0patience :D
    If you are a newbie I got Dem nachos....

  • ShawnOLShawnOL Posts: 8,284 ✭✭✭✭✭

    You're actually paying $5/gal?
    It's like $3.15 here.

    Trapped in the People's Communits Republic of Massachusetts.

  • JrflicksterJrflickster Posts: 3,545 ✭✭✭✭✭

    3.06 here

  • d_bladesd_blades Posts: 3,699 ✭✭✭✭✭

    2.69 to 2.95 depending on the location.

    Don't let the wife know what you spend on guns, ammo or cigars.

  • VegasFrankVegasFrank Posts: 16,586 ✭✭✭✭✭

    4.28 here

    Don't look ↑
  • silvermousesilvermouse Posts: 19,044 ✭✭✭✭✭

    $4.17 for premium here. Since I only drive about 3,000 miles a year it's not too painful.

  • NorCalR1NorCalR1 Posts: 4,197 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @ShawnOL said:
    You're actually paying $5/gal?
    It's like $3.15 here.

    Yup 87 unleaded hit $5.00
    Premium $5.19
    It’s all relative to California everything is stupid expensive.

    If you want to bomb me send it to Tony @0patience :D
    If you are a newbie I got Dem nachos....

  • VisionVision Posts: 7,764 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @VegasFrank
    So basically, “When there is blood in the streets, buy real estate”?

  • VegasFrankVegasFrank Posts: 16,586 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yeah really kind of think so. You know last time we had a cigar bloom, you didn't have 10,000 retailers selling stuff 4 fractions of pennies online like we do nowadays. The local brick-and-mortar stores fear the online retailer even more than they do the FDA. The FDA won't put them out of business, but the online retailer will.

    So now you have a situation for the local guy is out of everything that he sells the most. With the Advent everything delivered to your house because of covid-19, the everyday smoker started looking online define the smokes that he couldn't find when the shops were closed or when the shops were out of his favorite band.

    Lo and behold, what did he find? A cornucopia of brands and deals and free shipping and no tax but he never even knew existed! This is the music market that the local retailer fears the most.

    Now the enemy of his enemy is his friend. The federal government sucks, right? Well it doesn't suck as bad as the Amazon of cigars, cBid, does. Federal government will make sure that the local guy keeps making money because the local guy v for the people who will keep him in business. They're going to try to weaponize the federal government against the online retailer. Two guys, smoking, Corona, Neptune, and all of the other large retailers will lose their piece of online but they'll also bring back all of their local guys that they've lost to other online marketplaces.

    The first step in this game is 2 artificially inflate the cost of cigars across the board. While it's not an intuitive approach, if you think about it, pieces start lining up.

    1. The cigar boom coincided with workplace restrictions in Central America that made it harder to produce the same number of sticks. Basic supply and demand curves dictate the price per unit must go up. Economics 101.
    2. The price of cigars at the online marketplace also goes up. This is just commensurate with the price changes from the manufacturers. You may not even see this in price per unit. You may see it an increased shipping costs and slower methods of shipping, which our new on-demand world has conditioned us for. You're 20% off coupons turn into 10% off coupons. Your $10 newcomer gift certificate turns into a $5 newcomers gift certificate. You don't even see it coming bro.
    3. This new and slightly worse business model of the online guy subtly brings the online guy slightly closer to the local guy in terms of convenience and overall price. While you still save money online and still think you're getting a good deal online, you don't save as much as you used to oh, and now it's okay.
    4. The local guys like Dave and Jeff and Abe, along with manufacturers with juice like Nick perdomo and Rocky Patel negotiate with legislators in order to make it difficult to buy cigars across state lines. We're not just talking sales tax. We're talking tobacco taxes and surcharges as well. They all get together at the PCA to force members just signed a pledge to ensure enforcement of this new policy.
    5. The Policy is sold to consumers as a win as they strain their triceps lauding themselves about how they got a carve-out for premium cigars and that the s chip tax didn't go up another $0.41 per unit.
    6. The online guys cease to be a value. Their low overhead is nullified because they can no longer sell in the volumes they need to in order to turn a profit.
    7. Joe cigar smoker then goes back to the brick-and-mortar because it is the only option left.
    8. Many of us, me included, severely downgrade the number of cigars that we buy on a daily or monthly basis. The big retailers, the members of the PCA, will not feel the sting though. The smaller unaffiliated retailers will end up closing up shop and selling off inventory. To who? To the big retailers of course. They get richer. David garofalo buys another Tesla. Jeff at corona buys another sports car.

    All we are left with at that point is the bullshit that these retailers "manufacture" under their own private label. I hope you like studio 21! The only place for guys like us to go is the secondary market, where there is no economic value to be had.

    On to whiskey, I guess!

    Don't look ↑
  • VisionVision Posts: 7,764 ✭✭✭✭✭

    “We are not happy with it but we are forced to do it,” said Fouad Kashouty of Hiram & Solomon, who attributed the need for an increase to increasing raw materials costs and shipping rates. “Shipping costs are higher than ever before,” he said, adding that he was confident that retailers and consumers would understand the need for the increase.

  • VisionVision Posts: 7,764 ✭✭✭✭✭

    “Although suppliers have increased prices due to shortage of tobacco and production, Gurkha has decided to absorb those increases on our end at this time so that the retailers don’t feel the impact,” said Jim Colucci, president of Gurkha Cigars, via a press release.

  • NorCalR1NorCalR1 Posts: 4,197 ✭✭✭✭✭


    If you want to bomb me send it to Tony @0patience :D
    If you are a newbie I got Dem nachos....

  • NorCalR1NorCalR1 Posts: 4,197 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2021

    If you want to bomb me send it to Tony @0patience :D
    If you are a newbie I got Dem nachos....

  • NorCalR1NorCalR1 Posts: 4,197 ✭✭✭✭✭

    If you want to bomb me send it to Tony @0patience :D
    If you are a newbie I got Dem nachos....

  • NorCalR1NorCalR1 Posts: 4,197 ✭✭✭✭✭

    If you want to bomb me send it to Tony @0patience :D
    If you are a newbie I got Dem nachos....

  • Hobbes86Hobbes86 Posts: 3,159 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2022

    I occasionally buy an expensive cigar, in my opinion that means anything $7 and up. Most of what I buy I pay less than $3 for per cigar. Call me cheap, but that is what I like doing. Gas here is about $3.07 per gallon.

    I never like price increases, but they are inevitable. Our government began killing our dollar bill long ago and inflation will never stop.

    "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." - Proverbs 27:17

  • CAcigarguy007CAcigarguy007 Posts: 1,903 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I'm more irritated with the elimination of the coupon codes. First the place got rid of the extra 10% off coupon for reddit cigars. That without the taxes was a great offset. Then the page page got rid of a great coupon for larger orders. Recently, the monster got rid of a very awesome $30 off coupon that I've been using for years. I now have no way to offset taxes and overcome increases with discount codes. I saw the writing on the wall and stocked up but now I have zero opportunities for offset and the page seems to be the best value. Monster does have some five pack deals that make their usually available $10 off $50 coupon a good deal but half is eaten back up with the $5 cali charge for signature.

    Point being, folks should stock up when the getting is good. I've been doing it for years as a hedge and it has paid off with both cigars and ammo. There are still plenty of deals but they are definitely a little less sweet than before. What I used to get for $4, now costs $5 but that offsets helped bring it back to $4 but that's gone. I'll still make strategic purchases but I expect a certain value for my money. There will become a time when I'll either have to smoke less or smoke less quality if things continue. Good thing I have many years worth of cigars to decide.

    Happy New Years all yee gar heads!

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