WHY DO WE KEEP BUYING CIGARS WHEN WE HAVE PLENTY?

[MIKA27]

Hi all.

Something I have noticed over my time here on FOH, the only cigar forum I am a member of and what I have noticed is many people posting replies, opinions etc on their stock quantities.

Some members have rooms full of beautiful Cuban cigars whilst others have but a desktop humi. Cigars truly are an amazing hobby, one that brings friends together or even enjoyed on ones own for relaxation.

It is affordable to all peoples budgets, tastes and as such, we buy as little or as much as we can afford.

My question I guess and I ask this because I can not answer this myself.... Why do we keep buying when many of us have more than enough stock at home? This excludes stogies stored away for years to come.

I for one have loads that I have ready for smoking but find myself purchasing far more than I can smoke seeing I only smoke 2-3 max per week.

My wife just doesn't seem to understand but then I ask her, why she continually buys shoes, put a VR Unicos in my mouth and stride away with a grin with a sense of accomplishment.

Whilst I for one love the varied flavour profiles of differing Cubans, I cant help but feel I equally enjoy opening my Humi and desktop just to admire my cigars. It's like a drug for all senses.

Is this the same for yourselves or are there also other reasons?

[jacksfull]

You touched on two very significant factors, both of which are marketing motivators, pride of ownership and the promise of pleasure. CC's are wonderful things and each holds the potential for enjoyment yet to come.

Another, I'd say, is fear of loss. That's on several levels too. For one thing, cigars are consumable. When you smoke them your stock dwindles, and as we all know, it's painful to have fewer than you had before. So, maybe we tend to buy at a faster pace than we smoke them to compensate.

"If I smoke them all I won't have any left. If I don't smoke them, what's the point of having them? Better just buy some more."

Fear of loss also applies to the market. For some of us, it's the fear that our channels of supply will suddenly be cut off. For others in less restricted areas there is still the threat that tax-crazed governments will continue to drive prices higher until, one day, we can no longer afford them (the cigars I mean... we already can't afford the gov'ts).

"Even if you %#$&@'s cut off my supply or tax cigars to death, I'll still be smoking on these for a while! Maybe even long enough to see you voted out and your asinine policies reversed."

[shrink]

When asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, British climber George Mallory said, "Because it's there".

When I find a cigar that I fancy, I don't want to worry about running out. I just want to smoke what I feel like smoking.

[88keys]

Mika I feel exactly the same way as you do. Not only is smoking the cigars awesome but somehow the rest of it is also a pleasure, even including plans for the next purchase.

About Jacks' point re fear of loss: once I read a story that Groucho Marx was out walking in his LA neighborhood when he ran into W.C. Fields, who invited him in. Fields showed Marx his attic, which was completely filled with cases of liquor. Marx asked him why he had all that booze stored away, and Fields answered that he was afraid Prohibition might come back. If I can't get Habanos for whatever reason I'll still be ok for quite a while.

[samb]

Im currently still trying to build my collection, and due to budget restrictions, this is a slow process. I figured if I smoke a max of 5 per week, thats one box a month (I put 5 smokes from each box to age and the rest is to smoke as needed). So at the minimum, I should try to buy 2 boxes a month. I keep telling the wife once my stock is greater, I wont have buy as much....... Hope she never finds this thread, because I'll want cigars.

[MIKA27]

Interesting answers guys and they all make sense.

Kinda like squirrels hoarding acorns or nuts for another day.

[Guest rob]

I buy for many different reasons. But my rule of thumb is buy what I like... though make sure I have good variety to choose from. That way, no matter how I feel or how much time I have on my hands - I'll always have something to look forward to.

[Fuzz]

I buy because I have little self-control...

[skindiver]

I buy because I have little self-control...

A truly thought provoking and interesting thread starter. For me, at first I just had enough money and ambition to buy a 50 cigar desktop and admire the fakes I brought back from the streets of Havana. Most of those boxes came with a free tobacco beetle farm, and I could smoke and learn the fluta musica of cuba at the same time.

Later I learned that buying real Cuban cigars meant buying at the LCDH, or La Casa de La Habana.

More expensive, but no beetle farms and fantastic taste. Over time, I was also able to meet many of the great torceadors of Havana and became a friend of Don Alejandro Robaina out in Pinar del Rio as well. I learned alot from that great man. Spent many hours smoking and sipping rum with him. There were times he was in teaching mode- I listened really well then! He was El Maestro.

I just got lucky to be able to do all that.

So why do we buy? For me it is because I'm addicted. I smoke 15-25 Cuban cigars a week. I gotta buy. Don't try this at home.

[mazolaman]

It's nice to have a hobby.

It's nice to open up your humidor and breathe in the aromas,and feel them in your hands.

As mentioned previously,it's nice to know you've got a few smokes if armageddon happens.

Cos we're greedy buggers!

[mb55317]

Interesting thread, this is something i have thought about myself. I started buying just the 'regular' lines for the purpose of building a collection to age over time. I wanted a great selection from which to choose from. More recently my buying habits have changed though. I feel like i can get the regular lines whenever i need to (as per some of the other comments - they are unlikely to run out) and so I seem to have lesser interest in buying/ collecting boxes of them.

I have started buying limited and regional editions lately and for a couple of reasons; a) because I like them (this is still very important), and b I know they are relatively rare now but more importantly they will get even more rare in the future. My local LCDH has a fantastic collection of rare boxes and humidors and sometimes when i get a chance to see some of these there is a definite 'wow' factor. I want to produce my own wow factor. I have this vision that in 10 or so years i'll pull out a box and be like "these are awesome, you cant get them any more, but i have them!". Is that weird?!!

A good example was a recent purchase of a box of Ramon Allones Phoenicia, an RE for Lebanon. The cigar was produced to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Habanos Distributor in the Middle East, Phoenicia Trading. Firstly this is an awesome cigar! Very rich and powerful. Everyone i know who has tried this cigar loves it. There werent many boxes available and so I 'had' to get it! As other have already stated, I think this comes down to the fear of not being able to get this cigar in the future and the fact that i could miss out.

[bolivr]

Good question that took me a while to work out and bugged me till I did.

I'm with 88 and rob, and for me the whole process from browsing Czar to tipping the ash in the plants is a good one. Plus having that selection for variety and longevity - well its just nice just in case.

My current stock may last 5 years at the current rate of consumption. BUT, what if I want to smoke more , then I really should get more...

I sometimes think I am working towards a collection which to me has examples of the best Habanos offers without going too far into the ELs and so on. This may change as my taste has certainly changed since the early days of smoking CCs.

I hope I never get to the point of thinking I have the best or smoked the best there will ever be because then its all over, the mystery has gone.

[PADDYWHACK121272]

Interesting topic, I just find its nice to know that you have a few years supply and a wide selection of sizes and marcas at your disposal. I also find I tend to buy in phases going on a bit of a bender from time to time and then not buying for a few months. In the same way I know I have more books than I can possibly read in the foreseeable future - half the pleasure is in knowing they are there to look forward to. Do greed and lack of self control come into the equation? Absolutely, but I reassure myself with the thought that in the great scheme of things there are plenty of more expensive and less enjoyable ways of disposing with a of a bit of cash...

[joeypots]

I don't take your premise that we have "plenty". There are never enough in my humidor. Never, LOFL.

I have enough of a stash that I can buy cigars to age and not worry about having to smoke them out of necessity because I don't have enough around to be selective. Besides, what's better than a 50 cab at the post office?

[Wicky]

I don't take your premise that we have "plenty". There are never enough in my humidor. Never, LOFL.

I have enough of a stash that I can buy cigars to age and not worry about having to smoke them out of necessity because I don't have enough around to be selective. Besides, what's better than a 50 cab at the post office?

Copy that. You can't have "too" many cigars. It's simply not possible. I find everything about them enjoyable. From selecting what to buy to anticipating the arrival to opening the package and getting that new box smell to storing and finally smoking! The only anxiety I ever feel is when a particularly good box starts to run low! Then I buy more and I feel better imediately!

[arnehd]

This is just the question my girlfriend asked me yesterday. She then says that she worries about my health, which at my momentary count of one cigar per month or so, is a littler exaggerated. I found a stampcollection book I got when I was a kid some years ago, it was about as boring a when I started it, that is why it got lost. But cigars I dream about . Something for all the senses. They are hand made, so not one is like the other. They tease all the senses. I've got enaugh shoes, I#ve got a watch. But cigars I want more. Just the feel and smell , and yes the taste... While not many people around me understand this passion ( let them buy what ever they want) I'm happy to know that this place right here is full cigarmaniacs. Ok, I've finally got put down the next order.

[MIKA27]

I want to produce my own wow factor. I have this vision that in 10 or so years i'll pull out a box and be like "these are awesome, you cant get them any more, but i have them!". Is that weird?!!

Not weird at all mb! I myself think the same way!

An amazing response, so many differing reasons, opinions that completely make sense, even if it is just within this/our community here at FOH.

I've enjoyed reading all the responses from you guys, thankyou so much for sharing your thoughts and reasoning. It's great to reach out on the forum, post a question and know people here take the time to contribute their opinions, suggestions and answers.

This really is an amazing hobby and unfortunately many don't see it as a hobby but an addiction like cigarettes. I don't agree to that however as I do not smoke cigarettes at all, never have, never will.

[LowKey]

A related question:

how many here collected sports cards in their youth?

Cigars are more or less the adult version of such collectable hobbies.

[ChanceSchmerr]

A related question:

how many here collected sports cards in their youth?

Cigars are more or less the adult version of such collectable hobbies.

Right here, and I still have all my baseball cards too. But then, I havn't bought any in forever......

[Colt45]

Member Chinamike recently asked a very similar question. My own response was that I like to have on hand cigars with a few years of box age, and that

prices are unlikely to ever start to come down.

I'll add here that if buying Cuban cigars was like buying milk, or buying toothe paste - where one could simply go to the local merchant and the cigars would

always be of the same quality and relatively ready to smoke - there'd be little need to stock up on much more than a desktop humidor full at a time.

[cigcars]

For me it's the anticipation & expectation of the safe and successful arrival of our forbidden fruit here. Then, it's the adding to and admiring of the growing collection. I do not chain smoke my cigars. Sometimes I may go for days w/out smoking. Some days I may smoke up to 3 of them. I've got numbers of Cuban, Honduran, Dominican, and I think the runner up of and king of cigars outside of Cuba - Nicaraguans. If I smoked them they way some people I know out here do, it would be a case of arrival/depletion - arrival/depletion. But in my opinion, since cigars in themselves aren't really addicting, it's the habit, enjoyment and joyful anticipation of acquiring, storing and aging them that is. I will be purchasing habanas and domestics as long as I am able. And they will be building up and growing in my collection/additions. Which means more humidors, more space, and especially sharing them with people I want to make very, VERY happy!

[khomeinist]

The sports card comment was spot on. I suspect that many of us have a collector impulse that could be termed a neurosis or merely dopamine-fueled fun. I choose the latter interpretation. I have always collected. Women, vinyl records, pipes, comics, books, and yes....cigars.

So be it. I love the contemplative and ecstatic moments that my hobbies allow. Life can be absurd to someone cynical like myself. Cigars provide me true pleasure. I don't care to rationalize my pleasure beyond that. At least not tonight after several great smokes.

[Guest rob]

WELL SAID KHOMIE

[mazolaman]

I'll second that!

[LeafLover]

Peer Pressure?