This is a great learning opportunity for me and maybe others. I’m sure if I searched long enough I would find a number of opinions, but now that the subject is out there I have a couple of questions.
1) Hemingway’s - If something is released once or twice a year and can be found in a couple of my local B&M’s and on the Comparison Shopper (CS), in more than a couple on line stores, all year long; is it still considered Rear or Hard to Find? .
You can find WOAM's and Untold Story Maduros in-stock in online stores year round? Can you provide examples? (I may have to take advantage of that!!!) :thumbs: I went to a local that just got their holiday shipment from fuente....BTL's, Opus and Anejo....no hemingway maddies. It's subjective to everyone, just because your local has it doesn't mean that all locals have them. Another thing I was taught long ago in passes....just because our CP retailers offer us exclusive deals or nice prices on some fuente holiday cigars, doesn't mean that the cigars are easy to find or obtainable. Can most cigar smokers walk into their B&M in July and get WOAMs and Untold Story Maduros off the shelf? Something to consider...I'm just providing the objective view point.
2) We all know of the issues with the sticks from 99 to 01. I buy 50 for the price of 25 and it’s a crap shoot. I’ve bought 50 and ended up with 40 good cigars and I’ve bought 50 and ended up with 10 good cigars. The HDM Churchill’s worked out where one box was garbage and one box was good. (Yes, I was intending to put up a good stick) So when all is said and done did I get a deal or not? Did I pay full price or not? Is a good stick with 9 years age on it worth full price on a trade? No matter the answer, the rarity of the Tat over rules the trade.
Normally we would take MSRP, but the 99-01 ISOM's are a special case. The going rate on those years from almost all retailers was 50% of MSRP. Therefore, since they are readily and widely available to all cigar communities at that price, we use that price in passes. This has come up a few times in other passes I've participated in before.
3) The Opus ($13) and the Tat T-110 ($7) can’t be found on the CS or in any of my local B&M’s, so I would say they are consider rear sticks. Sorry, I should have done better research. What would we say to a Cohiba Seleccion Reserva 2003 Corona Especial for the Opus. The regular 2010 release goes for $11.62 (averaged from 10 sites on CS) but this Reserva can only be found in the Reserve Series box released only in 2003, I can’t find how many boxes were released. Whereas the Opus comes out every year?
Rarity isn't necessairly based off of what YOUR local B&M gets or what's available on CS. Other factors to consider are # of releases per year and # of boxes released per year. The 2003 Seleccion Reserva box I believe had a per stick MSRP price of about $16. I'd consider it a good put for the opus.
All responses welcome, inquiring minds want to know.
Thanks
Tom
