Box passes: My best cigar friend, Harold, died nine years ago this month. Pre internet he was the king of the boxpass. He smoked the best cigars, but rarely ever bought a cigar. Only when he was a few weeks from death did he tell me his method. Harold had the boxpass down to an art. Over many years, he’d cultivated scores of friends in the cigar world. He wrote well and was very knowledgeable and generous with information. He started ten boxpasses a year, each boxpass with ten different people. He’d begin a pass with 30 cigars; a couple super premiums, some premiums, several Cubans, and the rest, quality, branded and boxed, well known cigars. He’d learned that the newer a guy was, the less he’d take and the more he’d put, plus he knew there would always be a host bag. By Harold’s calculations and history, a pass that started with 30 sticks would bring home at least fifty and maybe sixty cigars; and that typically the host bag would have more Super premiums, premiums, and Cubans than the pass began with. When a pass returned to him, he had the material for the next pass and enough cigars for his daily after dinner smoke. Frankly, I thought my friend’s behavior was unconscionable. After all, he was a wealthy man who could easily afford to smoke anything he wanted. He thought it was humorous and a game.
He actually had a waiting list of guys trying to get into his boxpasses.
If there’s a lesson to be learned from my late friend, it’s the same as in trading: equal for equal is the best policy.
If you take five $6.00 cigars, put in five $6.00 cigars; not six, seven, or eight. If
you take five $6.00 cigars, don’t put in thirty $1.00 bundled sticks, even if the totals are both $30.00. Equal quality out=Equal quality in.
If you want to send the host a gift, send it to him. It shouldn’t have to travel with the pass. Do you really want a gifted PSD4 or Opus to travel for a month or longer in the mail? A boxpass should return to the originator with the same number of cigars with which it left him + the host bag, if there is one.
If there’s one thing I sincerely hope I get across in this overly lengthy post is that EQUAL is the best method in trading and passing. Don’t ever be intimidated by the post “Joe Schmoe is a great trader/passer. He took two Connies and put in one PAM, one Opus, and a new 1916.” That’s not the way passes and trades were meant to be. Boxpasses and trading are for developing friendships and gaining knowledge about our cigar hobby. There will always be a few people who get carried away in the spirit of brotherhood, and it’s the responsibility of others to calm the fires.
