How to collect vintage cigars seriously (!)–Part 1
I am Ray, ambassador of Light ‘em Up GO, and today I will try to explain how you can build up a mind-blowing collection of vintage cigars without spending fortune.
First, if you are not willing to risk, better stop reading here. No risk, no chance to get rare or vintage cigars without spending a lot.
I will separate the whole guide to IV chapters all related to different type of rare, fine cigars: Vintage Cubans, Non-Cubans, Very old Europeans and rare new non-Cuban cigars.
Chapter I – Vintage Cuban Cigars
To be classified as vintage cigars, Cubans–in my opinion–need to be older than 20 years.
If the budget is not a problem for you, there are few decent auction websites for Cuban cigars:
Online Cigar Auctions: Very interesting and big auction once every 3-4 months.
Bond Roberts: Continuous daily auction website with approximately 5-20 different lots every day.
The downside of those two websites is their popularity. It is almost impossible to buy fine cigars cheap, but the selection of vintage cigars is always great and there are always ‘’unicorns’’.
There is another way to find from time-to-time interesting boxes or parts boxes of vintage cigars. First you need to research and read as much as possible about how to identify the old Cuban cigars. There will be many, many fakes around–especially ‘Cohibas’.
The following websites do not guarantee any quality. You always have to consider that your purchase might be rubbish and no pleasure to smoke. But in some rare occasions, your will find fantastic and very well-preserved vintage cigars.
Ebay UK: Yes, EBAY! Usually, eBay does not allow tobacco products to be posted for sale and they remove all adverts regarding cigars or tobacco, BUT that usually takes 12-36 hrs. So, if you check regularly there is chance to find someone who is selling their parents’ or ex-partner’s collection. I also once spotted some fake vintage cigars from some beach in Latin America and EBAY still didn’t flag it. That’s why you need to know which ones are fakes and which one real.
The next problem is how vintage cigars are being stored. Are they in a humidor or just sitting on the shelf–fine cigars need care, as you can read here . You can start communicating with the seller and ask questions, 90% of the time they will tell you that the vintage cigars have been kept in a humidor, but they have not.
“Probably the biggest plus to live in the UK is almost constant humidity in the houses!”
It’s around 58-68%, which is almost perfect for fine cigars! So, there is big chance-even if those fine cigars have been kept in some cupboard or drawer for 20, 30, or more years–that they are still very well preserved and in enjoyable condition. You can try to search by brand name, “cigars”, “fine cigars”, or “vintage cigars”.
Ebay US, Ebay FR and Ebay DE. The main idea is the same as the UK one, but almost all websites are different as eBay has more than 40 regional websites and every big country has its own version. Only 20-30% of the adverts can be found on other regionals, but almost any other not allow any tobacco at all and there are very few adverts usually related even to the industry. So far, French and German version allow tobacco adverts and is easier to find vintage cigars there. Before starting to browse there, you have to do the following:
1. Change your VPN to be at the same country where you will look at
2. If you’re not based in the same region, when you start search change your address to a local one in the options
3. Use the local language for searching, e.g. ‘’cigar’’, ‘’cigare’’, ‘’zigarren’’.
Another way to find cigars on any eBay regional website is to look for humidors and start checking any private seller. Did he/she sell vintage cigars too? Most of the people selling humidors either downgrade or upgrade and some of them are big collectors, who don’t mind selling some fine cigars.
The Saleroom: It is a website which combines almost all small auction houses in UK and some from other parts of the world. It’s predominantly house clearance auctions, airport lost items, non-specialized cigar auctions and I have seen many damaged and fake cigars. The good part is that you can visit every single cigar lot which is advertised as all auction houses provide viewing days. If you have the knowledge, you will easy find out everything about the housed vintage cigars.
Type “cigar”, “fine cigars”, ”vintage cigars”, or “humidor” or different brand names in the search engine and you will find all results. I would recommend at least every day as sometimes auctioneers add auctions a day or two before the date.
All those methods and sources showed that it will take you good amount of time every day, but there is no free lunch 😊.
Light ‘em up and enjoy!
Ray
Cigar sommelier, cigar broker, and ambassador of Light ‘em Up GO
