What is your humidor stocking strategy?

[HoyoDC]

How do you stock a lot of your top favorite cigars and a box or so of all the other favorites? What is your strategy filling your humidor, or is it wallet related 😀?  

[ha_banos]

Lol. It's been both wallet directed and whatever I can get hold of. UK based here. Still is like this To Be Honest!

[Havanaaddict]

The party is over, I never really had a strategy back in the boom 90's / early 2000's when I was buying 3 to 4 boxes at a time. But I was also smoking 4 cigars a day, 7 days a week, so I was smoking over a box a week. I had to be buying a least a box a week to just keep up!😂 Nowadays the strategy is to just smoke all the stuff I had collected while buying a box here and there! 

[ElLoboLoco]

I was always chasing what is new but I have grown tired of that approach, new is not always better or unique and I kept passing by my favorites. If that makes sense. So, if it’s not a favorite they no longer take up space or my time. I still will try a few singles but no more than a fiver of assorted new sticks make it in there.

[Duder]

Always the bargain hunter. I will buy anything I like if the price is right. Since I rarely smoke anything with less than five years age I am always on the make for aged stock. Pickings are slim these days and it’s all secondary for now but some good finds appear here and there. 

[bmac]

I’m still chasing interesting new releases, both CC and NC. I plan to smoke the good stuff, Lord willing. I added an Upmann Factory H. Upmann 2 2023 last week. I’ll give them a couple of months to acclimate and test. Also added Regionals, LCDH and LEs over the last year and they have been superb. I’ll will or sell anything I don’t smoke.

[Mike Mecklenburg]

Living in the USA means three choices - 1) BR Auction and pay secondary prices  2) Trade with other fellow BOTL  3) Travel outside the US and chance bringing in sticks...very risky. 

[REesq]

13 hours ago, ElLoboLoco said:

I was always chasing what is new but I have grown tired of that approach, new is not always better or unique and I kept passing by my favorites. If that makes sense. 

I agree completely. As I was restocking my supply after COVID, I ended up adding more and more LCDH special editions. After a while, I came to realize, that for me at least, the extra price / quality ratio wasn't enough to justify not focusing more on the good old standbys that have served so well over the last many years.

12 hours ago, Mike Mecklenburg said:

Living in the USA means three choices - 1) BR Auction and pay secondary prices  2) Trade with other fellow BOTL  3) Travel outside the US and chance bringing in sticks...very risky. 

You mean that largest of Caribbean Islands? 🤣 Agreed, this is as bad as I have seen it in 40 years. Much worse than the old ship without the band days in the 80s.  

[Fireball]

I am almost at capacity. I generally don’t smoke enough for my current collection level. I love acquiring them, but I don’t want to just collect them.

I bought some fun NC boxes and got a few of my favorite boxes of 2025 CC for long term storage. 

[HoyoDC]

I always find myself stretching my capacity. And sometimes I downsize just to find myself buying again. 😀

[El Presidente]

NC by referrals from members here. I love to see what is rocking FOH members in the NC world. 

CC is very much regular production, generally sub $30 USD retail and what is rocking peoples world in the 94+ thread (pinned to the waterhole).  

 

[Greenhorn2]

Currently working on a tunnel from North Carolina to Cuba.

[REesq]

9 hours ago, Greenhorn2 said:

Currently working on a tunnel from North Carolina to Cuba.

Let me know if you need help digging. I can get a crew together. Desperate times and all that...😂 😂 😂 

[GVan]

Definitely wallet - related and I was lucky to enter the hobby before cigar-armageddon. Back then, it was buy enough boxes of my favorites that I could age them appropriately (mostly 3 to 5 years) and have enough aged cigars to smoke a box a year when they hit their sweet-spot. Generally that meant 9 to 12 boxes of each marca and vitola (ex: 9 boxes of Bolivar PC's spanning about 6 different years).

Interestingly, as has been said above, I used to smoke a lot more cigars and now am slowing down (from 2 a day to 3 to 4 a week). Add in some nice NC's into the collection and the old stock will last 10+ years. I haven't bought a Cuban in about 4 years. So to answer your question, once I find a NC that I like usually from a friend's or an FOH member's recommendation, I buy 2 to 3 boxes. One box goes in the "Now Ready Humidor" at 90 days and the other's go into the coolidors mixed with the Cubans for aging. I treat my NCs just like my Cubans. Some are ready to smoke young but most benefit from some time down. As usual, it's a matter of personal taste. When the box in the 'Ready Now' section is running low, the next NC box is removed from the coolidor in time to give it at least 90 days in the humidor. If it's still one of my favorites on the regular rotation - I buy another box for the coolidor.

Following this strategy has allowed me to have some very nice cigars in the Ready Now Humidor for me and my friends. Also contributing is the above referenced 'slowing down' comment. By way of example from my current rotation:

• All the Bolivar PC's are now 9+ years old. There's still one box of 2018's that aren't yet ready to smoke and I test one once a year - the 2019's are all 92 point +'s.
• The Puro Desnudo Rosado Lanceros from 2021 are on fire. All the Maduros have been gone for over a year.
• MOFOH Trinitys from 2024 show a unique, natural sweetness. These seem to come around to their sweet-spot a little faster.
• We are halfway through a box of Padron Anniv 64 Coronas from 2013.  One of my friends believes this is the best cigar in the collection.
• I'm still aging a box of Ashton VSG Sorcerers from 2021 - I won't touch these until they hit 7 years old. At that point they'll go quickly.
• AJ Fernandez New World Dorados just hit 3 years old and the first few have been awesome.
• Warped Cloud Hopper Corona's from 2022 are quickly disappearing and I may need to buy another box. Most Warped cigars are aged 3 to 5 years before I test one.

Following the above, I've built a pretty good collection buying almost everything on-sale. Prices have of course risen in the last few years and because of that (and I live in the USA) I've stopped buying all Cubans and exclusively focus on NCs. And I apply the same focused purchasing strategy to NCs that used to go towards CCs. There may come a day when I start buying Cubans again but it will likely be limited to only a few favorites given their likely future price. I keep a spreadsheet of all purchases (cigar, box date, received date, cost, cost per cigar and current storage location). By following other's recommendations and a smart purchasing strategy, I've built a decent collection of well-aged cigars for an average price per cigar of $9.02 !!! (yes, the Cubans were more than that).

But, the way I look at it, no matter what cigar someone asks to try -- it can be easily shared for less than $10. And that $10 has bought a great cigar collecting story as well as immense enjoyment to myself and my smoking friends and family. Best of luck on developing your strategy.

[zacca]

I prioritize sticks I want to smoke more of but have low stock…easier said than done when I ones in this category are Winnies, Party 898, and LGC.

NCs - I’ve toned it down recently. I have enough to hold me over for a while so if there’s a deal too good to pass up on a stick I like, that’ll catch my attention. But otherwise trying to keep some dry powder for CCs.