"Far and away the best book I've seen on cigars." -Ken Garrett (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TJ309e-Ztg)

[Bearcore]

Hoping someone (perhaps Ken) can lead me in the right direction to find the the book referenced at 8:43 in the review for the ERDM Choix Supreme. Thanks in advance!

 

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[GoodStix]

I think Ken's referencing author Min Ron Nee:  "An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars".

@Ken Gargett please correct me if I'm mistaken

[JohnS]

3 minutes ago, GoodStix said:

I think Ken's referencing Min Ron NEE (MRN) "An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars".

Definitely this! 👍

[NSXCIGAR]

I would have to agree with Ken's assessment. Most of CCW was adapted from MRN.

I'm very grateful to have my copy. I have no idea what they're going for but I would imagine under $1,000 is a deal these days.

[Ken Gargett]

2 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I would have to agree with Ken's assessment. Most of CCW was adapted from MRN.

I'm very grateful to have my copy. I have no idea what they're going for but I would imagine under $1,000 is a deal these days.

without even checking the vid, this is exactly it. brilliant book. not sure of the price but i would not be surprised if this estimate was close. 

[NSXCIGAR]

1 hour ago, Ken Gargett said:

without even checking the vid, this is exactly it. brilliant book. not sure of the price but i would not be surprised if this estimate was close. 

I recall I got mine for around $100 from the forum group buy in 04. The MRN signed copy was only a little bit more but I think I missed it like a bonehead. 

My god, what was that old forum? I lost all my emails from before 2012 in a hard drive accident so I can't recall. The one with Hawkeye as the mod? It was Australian. Do you know what it was? It was up until around 2010 I think. 

[Ken Gargett]

39 minutes ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I recall I got mine for around $100 from the forum group buy in 04. The MRN signed copy was only a little bit more but I think I missed it like a bonehead. 

My god, what was that old forum? I lost all my emails from before 2012 in a hard drive accident so I can't recall. The one with Hawkeye as the mod? It was Australian. Do you know what it was? It was up until around 2010 I think. 

no idea. this is my only cigar forum. 

i got mine in havana on release. pretty sure it was $80? not signed. 

[NSXCIGAR]

A fair condition copy on eBay for $735. They were about $600 a few years ago so keeping up with inflation.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/An-Illustrated-Encyclopedia-Of-Post-Revolution-Havana-Cigars-1st-Edition-/313808891424?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

[Chas.Alpha]

I saw it available on Amazon for around $1400 USD. I’ll have to wait for Alex’s book to ship...

[joeypots]

I might be the only one who thinks the MRN Encyclopedia is way overrated. I had one and sold it. Not smart, I know. But I thought, if I remember correctly, that the writing was one dimensional even if the photography was pretty good. Anyway, if you are unfamiliar with MRN's book you need to know that it is a reference book that stops with the 2001 vintage. I think Alexander Groom's book will be a valuable resource going forward.

 

[Bijan]

10 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

A fair condition copy on eBay for $735. They were about $600 a few years ago so keeping up with inflation.

I got a copy on ebay for $410 last April.

[Chas.Alpha]

2 hours ago, Bijan said:

I got a copy on ebay for $410 last April.

If you see that again, buy it for me! I have cash stashed for the next trip to Cuba which will likely never happen. 😀

 

1 hour ago, Chas.Alpha said:

If you see that again, buy it for me! I have cash stashed for the next trip to Cuba which will likely never happen. 😀

I’d go +/-$450. 800-1400, not so much...

[MrBirdman]

The best part of @ATGroom's new book is that we can now have a beautiful book on Habanos without paying an outrageous amount of money. Unless you are into rare books or looking for another "cigar status symbol", I can't see the logic in paying $1,000+ for MRN.

I recall a Zoom on which @Bijan said something about MRN releasing a second printing priced at over $1k on release? Don't quote me on that though, and Bijan please correct me if that's incorrect or outdated now. 

[Greenhorn2]

Amazon has a copy for $999.95. If someone is extremely interested. 

[NSXCIGAR]

17 minutes ago, MrBirdman said:

The best part of @ATGroom's new book is that we can now have a beautiful book on Habanos without paying an outrageous amount of money. Unless you are into rare books or looking for another "cigar status symbol", I can't see the logic in paying $1,000+ for MRN.

I recall a Zoom on which @Bijan said something about MRN releasing a second printing priced at over $1k on release? Don't quote me on that though, and Bijan please correct me if that's incorrect or outdated now. 

MRN was a little less than $100 on release. Just wait 10 years--Alex's book will be worth much more than $100. 

MRN's second (third) multi-volume edition will be big bucks. 9 volumes (at the time), bamboo case and stand.

I believe @Nino has the most current news on that. Last update was several years ago. Here's Nino standing with a pre-print version a long time ago:

[Bijan]

1 hour ago, MrBirdman said:

I recall a Zoom on which @Bijan said something about MRN releasing a second printing priced at over $1k on release? Don't quote me on that though, and Bijan please correct me if that's incorrect or outdated now. 

It was supposed to be high. I never really looked at how high. But the spirit of it was that it would be very fancy and exclusive and very limited quantities.

Looking around it seems it was going to be pre-sales $5,000 and retail $10,000 at one point. But unfortunately didn't end up published yet. A short pdf of the beginning did look pretty nice, but yeah too rich for me.

https://www.cigarpass.com/community/threads/min-ron-nees-new-set-of-books-5-000-00.72687/

http://www.cubancigarwebsite.com/Cigar Book Text Test Print 2014-03-21.pdf

[NSXCIGAR]

14 minutes ago, Bijan said:

It was supposed to be high.

I was hearing numbers like $2,500-3,000 a few years ago. Actually more than a few years ago...2015-2016. I believe there was going to be a lower-priced version without the stand and case.

Hopefully Nino has some info about the status. The major problem with this book is that new cigars are coming out all the time and when do you stop and go to print? This thing has been in the "final stages" for 8 years...I know MRN's a busy man but based on where he was at 8 years ago he has to have been working on this for 15 years. 

[ATGroom]

20 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I was hearing numbers like $2,500-3,000 a few years ago. Actually more than a few years ago...2015-2016. I believe there was going to be a lower-priced version without the stand and case.

Hopefully Nino has some info about the status. The major problem with this book is that new cigars are coming out all the time and when do you stop and go to print? This thing has been in the "final stages" for 8 years...I know MRN's a busy man but based on where he was at 8 years ago he has to have been working on this for 15 years. 

The information in 2014 was 200 copies given to friends, contributors, and retained by the author, 300 for invitation only pre-sale at $5,000, and then 1,500 copies at retail price of $10,000 available to the general public. The prices were supposed to be confidential at that time, and I only mention them as others have leaked them already. The book was a bargain at that price; firstly, because the amount of expense and effort that went into the research would make it impossible for anyone to ever produce anything close to it; secondly because the quality of the printing and cabinetry would probably mean he wasn't making much of a profit just on the production cost (it also included shipping, which would have been substantial as it was 85kg + packing materials); thirdly, because it included a free copy of any future editions, which he was planning every two years; and finally because given the scarcity and the demand, I doubt it would ever decrease in value or be difficult to find a buyer if you wanted to get rid of one.

I would regard all the 2014 information as no longer relevant. It's not my place to give any update, but I imagine all those numbers will be different if it ever does materialise.

[Frinkiac7]

For folks looking for the original MRN, if you are multi-lingual or just in it for the pictures, I had good luck getting a Spanish language copy a few years ago. I found one for maybe $100-150USD on a Spanish auction site (similar to eBay or Abebooks) and just paid to have it shipped to U.S. You do have to hunt around and check back if there are no current listings, but after one or two auctions I had mine. There was also a guy selling them right out of Havana for maybe $100-150 shipped a couple years ago -- I never took him up on it.

The Spanish language edition is generally the cheapest...after that the German edition occasionally pops up on Amazon, Abebooks, etc. for maybe 400 bucks. If you are looking for an English language version, that still runs a pretty penny. There was a full scanned PDF of it floating around the internet years ago but I'd encourage everyone who is that into it to just hunt one down at a reasonable price and go for it. "The hunt" of finding one was part of the fun.