Mastercases

[Ritch]

This one has been bugging me a while and @El Presidente is probably the only person who can answer.

When mastercases arrive do they contain just one type of cigar? Is it just one brand? One vitola? Do they come by sea or air? Or is it a case containing a random selection of cigars?

Do you order stock in or do they just send you a selection?

[GP]

You must be planning a heist!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fuzz]

A master case is just a cardboard shipping carton of cigar boxes, nothing fancy. Typically holding 20-30 boxes, depending on the brand, vitola and packaging type (eg SLB, dress box, etc). Some have more, some have less.

Below is an 11 year old post from an FOH member who is sadly no longer with us.

 

[Piligrim]

only mastercases I ever bought were RA Hermitage. i had 7 of those. each contains 58 boxes of that exact vitola

[Nino]

2 hours ago, GP said:

You must be planning a heist!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Heist is my middle name when it comes to Mastercases .... ???

[ponfed]

3 hours ago, Piligrim said:

only mastercases I ever bought were RA Hermitage. i had 7 of those. each contains 58 boxes of that exact vitola

Wait where do you buy a mastercase.

Retailers like Rob? Does PCC or Havana House sell directly to customers?

[Piligrim]

Wait where do you buy a mastercase.
Retailers like Rob? Does PCC or Havana House sell directly to customers?

I'm retailer myself. So,I buy from Russian importer.

Отправлено с моего ONEPLUS A5000 через Tapatalk

[El Presidente]

It's all been covered 

mastercases contain all of one cigar. 

However, occasionally they can contain more than one box code. 

Take Monte 4. 1300 sticks to a MasterCase. 52 boxes.  

The world of habanos works in "sticks" and not boxes. 

[BinBin]

Glad we cleared it up. This was an on going question I had

[ponfed]

11 hours ago, Piligrim said:

I'm retailer myself. So,I buy from Russian importer.

Отправлено с моего ONEPLUS A5000 через Tapatalk
 

Ah.. did not know that. Thanks for the info.

[SCgarman]

16 hours ago, El Presidente said:

It's all been covered 

mastercases contain all of one cigar. 

However, occasionally they can contain more than one box code. 

Take Monte 4. 1300 sticks to a MasterCase. 52 boxes.  

The world of habanos works in "sticks" and not boxes. 

Ever had a client request to buy a whole mastercase?

[Ritch]

Are they sent by air mail or ship? I would imagine by ship would cause massive issues for stock levels.

[Fuzz]

7 hours ago, Ritch said:

Are they sent by air mail or ship? I would imagine by ship would cause massive issues for stock levels.

Not really. Container would take about 4-6 weeks ocean transit from Cuba to HK. If all the stars aligned, fastest would probably be 7-8 weeks to get product into Aus.

[ponfed]

On 10/14/2018 at 6:32 PM, El Presidente said:

mastercases contain all of one cigar

I have this image of a box the size of a 27 inch CRT tv, bursting with packing peanuts.

You're reaching in the box, rummaging around to fish out a single Monte 4 in a ziplock bag.

Throwing the empty mastercase to the side and picking up a fresh one, you mutter to yourself: "One down.."

[El Presidente]

8 hours ago, Ritch said:

Are they sent by air mail or ship? I would imagine by ship would cause massive issues for stock levels.

Airfreight all round. 

[Nino]

1 hour ago, El Presidente said:

Airfreight all round. 

Used to be Lufthansa Cargo, it is now Hellmann Logistics.
All cargo and HSA warehouses insured by a Lufthansa subsidiary, DELVAG.

[mt1]

I'll take a mastercase of Reyes...

[El Presidente]

25 minutes ago, mt1 said:

I'll take a mastercase of Reyes...

You have balls of steel 

[mt1]

9 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

You have balls of steel 

I like the PSP cigars but in truth I have very low standards...?

[El Presidente]

9 minutes ago, mt1 said:

I like the PSP cigars but in truth I have very low standards...?

In that case you will get along fine!  About 30% will be fails and that is an improvement on early 2018. 

I love good colorado wrapper PE stock for these. they represent about 60% of an average case. the balance 10% will be PSP/HQ. 

[mt1]

11 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

In that case you will get along fine!  About 30% will be fails and that is an improvement on early 2018. 

I love good colorado wrapper PE stock for these. they represent about 60% of an average case. the balance 10% will be PSP/HQ. 

Wow 30% fails...that's pretty horrendous but not that surprising.  Would be really interesting to do a side by side of the 30% vs the 60% vs the 10% of any cigar!  Makes you wonder if the fails you see in some shops are due to the shop not caring or due to the shop receiving terrible stock (or perhaps there's a causation here more so than a correlation)...

[Ritch]

What happens to the fails? Do you send them back?

[El Presidente]

everything gets sold be it as seconds or to nightclubs, bars, liquor stores or to retailers/wholesalers offshore (at a discount). 

[Lucass111]

So do you get to order what you would like to be shipped or do you just say ship me so many master cases and you get what you get?

[El Presidente]

These days there is that little stock, it is take what you can get. 30-40% of lines are either not available or on drip feed.