Futures box poll - Partagas Serie du Connaisseur

[frenchkiwi]

From El Pres's blog post :

"We are fortunate in that no cigar is necessarily forever discontinued. The moulds exist, the tobacco exists, the blending knowhow exists or can always be found.

If wine futures can be done in the wine industry, why not with cigars. I know I would sign and pay up for Partagas Serie Connoisseur No 1, 2 and 3 for production in 2014. How many Bolivar Corona Extra, Partagas Corona, Ramon Allones 898 would you sign up for?

There is a rich untapped resource for HSA marketing to take advantage of. Working hand in hand with its consumer zealots (through the distributors) to achieve increased financial success by celebrating its past and enhancing the experience of its true supporters."

Good idea - hence the poll just with one line - Serie du Connaisseur - to get an idea of numbers.

[Your votes will be divided by geographical region, majority takes all in each region, allocated to electoral college representatives who may choose to disregard this majority, and will be further adjudicated by a court ruling after numerous recounts and fiddling with infallible but faulty voting machines. Divination based on the quantity of white smoke emanating from said faulty machines will determine the final outcome ]

[CaptainQuintero]

I don't think HSA will consider it while there are still easily available boxes of 1,2,3s.

Knowing HSA's timing the best bet would be they recognise the consumer want by 2015 ish, come up with a plan 2017ish and we see the cigars in 2025

[baragh]

If they can resurrect Vegueros, anything can happen lol

[Colt45]

First off, thanks for bringing this to light here on the main forum - I think it's a topic worthy of discussion.

For me, the ship has sailed - no thanks. I feel they've made their bed, and can't be trusted.

[CaptainQuintero]

I pretty much agree with Colt. The PLPC episode shows that there is always a chance but it's a very thin one.

They probably missed a beat by not releasing the PLPC as a LCDH doubled banded cigar with black lacquer box. I'm guessing someone high up with a love for PLPCs stepped in to make what did happen, happen. I'm sure we will see some kind of special release from the SdC line at some point though, for good or bad.

I think the people at the Partagas factory have more on their minds at the moment than cigars anyway

Sorry for being such a negative ninny! :

[Lotusguy]

I'd sign up for a couple of RA 898 boxes - IF they are the same blend as the two I've smoked.

[khomeinist]

Well yeah. I would buy up quite a few boxes if they hit the market.. These are not readily available as CQ mentioned. The 1's in particular are getting fairly HTF for a reasonable price. I don't believe in futures though. I think it is a joke as a marketing strategy and only works when there is a strong degree of trust between producer and consumer. That level of trust is currently lacking between HSA and myself........

[ChanceSchmerr]

That level of trust is currently lacking between HSA and myself........

x2 on this. If they are short-sighted enough to even CONSIDER discontinuing Partagas 898s and RASSC.....'nuff said

[Michel1968]

Well, it can be done... If I'm not mistaking we'll see a new batch of Gloria Cubana #2 in the first or second quarter of 2013. This after an request from various distributors around the planet and on condition the cigars are paid for, before delivery. H SA will produce anything on condition of guaranteed sale. (so that they don't have to deal with stock that lays around for 10 or more years...)

[dangolf18]

I haven't tried any of them, but if HSA brought them back, I'd be interested in a few boxes of each.

[Smallclub]

The PLPC episode shows that there is always a chance but it's a very thin one.

What's the PLPC episode? (Not that I care much…)

[PigFish]

Hmmm.... let me see!

Tabacuba is renowned for not paying vendors. That is why tobos are almost always late and they used to even run out of brooches for boxes. I think that eventually they will stiff the original Altadis investors by not living up to their agreements, nationalizing their interests. Did I mention I have about as much faith in them as a white liquor moonshining orgaization?

Cash and carry with these folks. -Piggy

[Cohiba007]

I don't think HSA will consider it while there are still easily available boxes of 1,2,3s.

Easily Available????

[dangolf18]

Easily Available????

X2

[Charltonc]

Easily available in england probably.

[CaptainQuintero]

Easily available at around a dozen stores maybe, just depends where you shop I guess?

Different markets and retailers control stock differently, some have large storage facilities and store large quantities while others hold back limited availability stock away from their online storefront, others prefer to move stock quickly and have minimal amount of cigars sitting around etc

Someone mentioned last week that you can still get pretty much what you want in the cigar world it's just paying for it. I know a few retailers have stocks of the most wanted deleted/EL/RE cigars and are just waiting for the casual market to dry up, add a few more years of sitting on them and then release the odd box for huge profits. It already happens with RA 898s etc

[frenchkiwi]

just to clarify - put this poll up out of curiosity - how many people would take up on this "futures" idea?

if we had a thousand boxes worth (some R.E.s get produced in these small quantities), i'm sure Rob could put an order in now...

it would however give him and other magnates of the cigar retailing world some indication of how far aficionados will go to get their cigars back. Where there is clear indication of Demand, HSA may consider Supplying. Unlikely, but if they don't hear from us through their retailers, they won't hear from anyone....

[dangolf18]

Why would you lock up your money for 1-2 years unless you could buy the futures as 60-80% of resell value. Also, HSA wouldn't be that concerned with quality of the cigars because you already paid for the product. They could send you crap sticks and you couldn't do anything about it. Not the greatest idea in my opinion.

[Orion21]

I wanted to write a scathing statement about how HSA has not shown the world that they can produce a world class product year in and year out like the top growths in Bordeaux and Burgundy, but who am I kidding? HSA, with all of it's flaws and Cuba's horrible socioeconomic system, still produces the best cigars in the world. Like in France if they were to allow consumers to buy futures in their top growths there would be a market. Would I participate, no, but I think many would especially if the market consisted of one of a kind runs like the Behike or GR program.

[PartagasIV]

Thank you for the news on the LGC#2--that is certainly a step in the right direction...I will anxiously be awaiting them next spring.

[CanuckSARTech]

I think LGC or RA 898's are the way to go for something like this.

If they did a "futures sale" on RA 898's, those boxes have a fairly high demand, and would be a viable weather gauge for H S.A. to see how it could pan out. I think the recent RA Extras EL may have been an indicator for them already at how viable the market may be for RA releases.

I'd love to see this in the new year, although I very HIGHLY agree with others that H S.A. doesn't have my trust for this. Unfortunately, I'd only take a gamble and put my money down if it were for RA 898's. For anything else, I'm sorry, but it'd have to be the distributors/marketers that put down their futures deposits, as I wouldn't cough up for it likely.

[Smallclub]

I don't see the main european distributors (Altadis, Coprova, 5th Avenue, etc.) paying in advance for RA 898 or Partagas SdC's. These cigars didn't sell before their discontinuation, why would they sell now?

Keep in mind that the petition against discontinuations didn't gather 500 signatures…

[CaptainQuintero]

Easily available? Maybe fakes are easily available. The real ones are gone.

Aww fiddlesticks! I best take all mine back for a refund!

[mk05]

You forget that the online cigar forum community is a mere fraction of the total smoking aficionados, albeit more educated. Majority of the market are not in line with us. The best selling vitola is the robusto and most popular stick the Monte 4 & 2. I hate both of those.

Dreaming is nice, but we are...how do you say, the vocal minority.

[frenchkiwi]

Dreaming is nice, but we are...how do you say, the vocal minority.

precisely the point. let's quantify the dream. if enough of the vocal minority could agree to pre-purchase something in a great enough quantity, then there is always a possibility, however remote, that the HSA stooges would deliver. They do small runs of regional releases which they have to think up, set up the production of, and market with an unknown outcome... much easier to do a thousand boxes of a "re-release" (like the SdC) that are pre-sold. Less costly for them by far.

... almost 200 futures boxes "requested" above, from a small sample of only one (much larger) forum on a random idea... dreams that could one day make things happen?