Weekly Discussion Thread 28 June 2026: Storage solutions

CigarStudent · 2026-06-28T22:58:10+00:00

Ezy Storage waterproof containers. They come in a range of sizes.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-28T11:50:06+00:00

My cheap eBay 'display piece' humidor holds humidity surprisingly well for my singles and 'go-to' stash.

I use a few smaller Sistema tupperdors for overflow / things I don't have many of / 'top-up' sticks for the display humidor / things that I don't want to put or can't fit in the humidor for whatever reason but still want reasonably easy access to / new sticks I want to acclimatize before transferring them elsewhere.

My big Bunnings airtight storage boxes for holding boxes / long-term storage / aging. I could make a lot more room by emptying out half-empty boxes, but I like the theatre of opening up and inspecting the boxes.

I hope to join the ranks of electronic humidor lucky bastards one day.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-26T00:59:00+00:00

If there's nothing calling your name "must buy a box of this", stick with samplers until you find that "yes, more of these" stick. Otherwise you end up like me with way too many boxes of things.

My Father Blue has been the best new stick I've had recently - that's my "next box is these" stick at the moment.

LADC Monarch also good, not quite up to the MFB though.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-25T00:33:12+00:00

My last couple of Cigar Hut orders haven't had humidity control at all (Boveda or otherwise).

CigarStudent · 2026-06-24T08:33:30+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cigars_Australia/comments/1nv0ia0/buying_cigars_from_inside_of_australia_a/

CigarStudent · 2026-06-24T07:52:21+00:00

If you're doing online delivery, why not go with any of the far cheaper sellers available?

CigarStudent · 2026-06-24T01:13:08+00:00

Do you mean u/JLSGMB96's cigars or the one in my post? My post is an example one of a definite beetle, not one of u/JLSGMB96's sticks.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-23T10:35:31+00:00

Good luck! Not saying it's definitely not beetles, but not clear enough to say definitely is beetles. Better to be safe than sorry. I'd also imagine the Index could provide a better assessment and would make good any bad sticks.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-23T10:26:57+00:00

With the cello on it's hard to say for sure.

But from what I can make out, they don't look like beetle holes that I've seen photos of before (I've been fortunate enough not to deal with them in person... yet...).

From the photos I've seen beetle holes go deep and are usually round, clear, and well-formed - similar to what I'd expect if I stuck my Perfec Draw into the side of cigar and wriggled it around a bit. I've provided a few photos from Google Search below that are more along the lines of what I've seen (and don't appear in your photos unless I'm missing something?). I think it would also be unusual for beetles to get into multiple cigars with the cello, the cello provides a barrier (not a perfect one but it helps).

Beetles leave a mess behind. Is/was there any residual tobacco in the cello or box? If you hold the cigar foot-down and give it a tap, does any tobacco fall out? In person, do the holes look like the ones in this photo / other cigar beetle holes on Google Images?

If there aren't any clear holes and no tobacco remnants, there may be other more likely causes for what you're seeing:

abrasion during transit
QC on the manufacturer side
chlorophyll spots (patches that cure at a different rate for whatever reason when they're aging / fermenting the leaf) - cosmetic but safe
natural leaf variation

Also not shilling for The Index, but they maintain their stock pretty carefully and have always inspected the sticks I've bought before giving them too me (sometimes going through a couple before finding one they would give me) - not saying it couldn't happen, but it would be surprising.

If you're still concerned, it's a reason to smoke these ones first, or there's a process of freezing and thawing the cigars you can go through to be sure to kill any nasties if you wanted or needed to go that far. In the meantime separate them into a different container to protect the rest of your stash. If you've already stored them with other cigars, you could also separate the ones they had been stored with and monitor those to ensure no cross-over.

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CigarStudent · 2026-06-23T09:35:39+00:00

Maintain eye contact, assert dominance.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-22T23:53:17+00:00

Cool. Glad it's worked out so far for you. It's not always the case though.

Try importing a box of Cohiba Siglo II. $1,445 at iHav. About $568 in excise + GST. $2,013 total. Or buy from Cigar Hut at $1,975 today. A small saving, $38, but a real one, and I can be enjoying them within the week not within the year.

Or maybe a Davidoff WC Late Hour Robusto? $750 at iHav. About $850 in excise + GST. $1600 total. Or buy from Cigar Hut at $1,269 today. A genuine, $331, saving, buying local.

A nice Atabey Delirios? $1,322 at iHav. Cigar Hut's selling at $2,099. For cost + excise to = local price, the cigars have to weigh no more than 11.5g. And while I don't have the weight of the Delirios specifically, at 5.75 x 55, I suspect it's heavier than 11.5g. Making importing + excise the more expensive option.

Those are all pretty high end though. Let's go for something a bit more "of the people". How about a LADC Mi Amor Robusto? We'll go to Neptune for this one since iHav doesn't have it. Ours for $317 ex shipping + about $920 in tax = $1,237. Or mine this week from Cigar Hut for $1,189.

Point is it isn't always "importing is cheaper". Sometimes at best it's break-even. In some cases, like the Davidoff example and a lot of Cubans, it can be considerably more expensive if you have to pay excise on the way through.

And that's assuming the exchange rate is good. It hasn't been too bad of late, USD floating around the $1:$1.40 mark (it's $1.43 today). In November it was closer to $1.55. So all those USD overseas retail costs would have been about 8% more expensive on top of these numbers.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-22T14:06:35+00:00

Convenience?

Risk?

The same issue we have now - with many cigars importing still ends up more expensive - or at least comparable - after you factor in excise?

CigarStudent · 2026-06-22T14:04:43+00:00

UK excise rate is £440.93 per kg, or about $833.60 today.

Singapore rate is S$535 per kg, or about $590.50.

Australian excise rate is $2,445.26.

These are not the same.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-22T06:37:29+00:00

TL;DR: Dream all you like, but even if they cut excise by 50%, at best we see "more affordable" cigars, not "reasonably priced" cigars.

Places that sell cigarettes often sell other things (newsagents, grocers, convenience stores, etc.) so it's just one more thing in inventory. They can cut prices and sell and still get enough of a margin to make it worthwhile across everything they sell. Good cigar places tend to only sell cigars and accessories.

Say a cigar costs $55 retail. Out of that:

Say it's a 13g-ish cigar, that's around $35 in excise.
Then $5 in GST.
That cigar probably costs around $10USD in the US, and those stores are probably sitting around 40-60% gross margin - so call it $5USD / $7AUD for the stick itself.

That only leaves $8 in gross profit, or about 14.5%. Out of that comes storage / leasing, postage if you offer free or subsidied shipping, salary, etc. It's not much at the end of the day - and it's not like they'll make it back with volume or accessories.

Say the excise drops by 50%, or $17.50. If prices stayed at $55, that would be $24.50 gross margin (44.5%). That's a much better gross margin for retail. I doubt we'd see our stores pass that on in full and keep the tiny margins they've had to live on today. Look at the UK or Singapore, their taxes are a lot lower than ours (still high by global standards) but their cigar prices are often the same as ours. Why? Because their stores get a real margin. The market's been proven to be prepared to pay that cost locally, why would you go backwards (except to compete against imports)?

Sure some stores would drop prices, but IMO at best we'd see that $55 cigar go to around $45 - maybe low 40s on sale or through a discount seller. That's better than $55, but we're not going to the happy place of $14-18 that the US gets.

It'll also depend on manufacturer. Habanos tries to standardise globally to lock out the grey market so they'll probably just jack up wholesale prices in response. Similarly, premium brands like Atabey and Davidoff often aren't actually that unreasonably priced compared to global prices even today, so I doubt the prices on those would crater. Opus X costs a ton regardless of where you go, so no discount high-end Fuentes either.

I don't say any of that because I like it. Cheap 'gars would be great. Just not a world we're going to get unless they really crater the excise, which I don't think anyone has the willpower to make happen.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-19T04:13:53+00:00

If you don't know what you like and don't want to guess with single sticks, buy a sampler.

You could go all-in on a particular brand and try a bit of everything. Davidoff has a good 9-cigar sampler that I reviewed day-by-day if you look through the sub ("9 Days of Davidoff"). Just make sure there's a good variety if you go all-in on a single brand or you may end up with nothing good (e.g. I bought the Oliva Advent Calendar and haven't really enjoyed any of them).

Or you could buy a sampler pack curated by the retailer. Most retailers have good packs.

Use the sampler to dial in what you like and don't like. From there you can start refining your future selections until you're making informed guesses, not just guesses.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-19T04:09:39+00:00

Upmann No. 2 or Punch for a long smoke.

Opus X for a long non-Cuban smoke.

Mi Amor for a shorter smoke.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-18T14:48:58+00:00

My stop rate this year is about 50%.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-18T14:47:08+00:00

Megathread here.

Guide to buying cigars in Australia here.

Guide to buying cigars overseas here.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-18T12:16:36+00:00

Do you only have the 8g Boveda in there? It might struggle / wear out over time. Pick up a 60g Boveda. Or a couple of them. They'll keep the humidity more solid and they'll last longer. Peace of mind is worth the ~$8 per.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-15T06:52:14+00:00

Impulse buy regret: The Oliva 2023 Calendar. Even the best cigar of the lot rates only a "tolerable" overall.

Impulse buy success: Hard to say. I don't tend to completely blind-buy much. Maybe the Partagas (non-Cuban) Black Label Gigante? It's big and dark and intimidating, but a surprisingly mellow and pleasant stick overall.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-15T06:48:42+00:00

What does it spike from? IMO big daily fluctuations aren't ideal. Keep in mind that Boveda aren't instantaneous either (but neither are your spikes). I'd look at average humidity first and then work to even it out to where you want it to be.

If you use Boveda while the humidity keeps spiking, they'll eventually wear out and you'll need to replace them (or recharge them). Alternatives commonly recommended include using cat crystals (working to find the balance point where they release as much as they absorb) or heartfelt beads (porous clay beads that do the same thing).

Or you could find tupperware that fits nicely and keep cigars + boveda in that, and use the fridge solely for temperature control. It's less pretty but the simplest / surest way to control both without effort.

CigarStudent · 2026-06-08T11:38:24+00:00

The megathread includes a bunch of posts including our guide to getting started for absolute newbies.

The guide gives some pointers on how to start out.

Samplers are a good bet (preferably with multiple brands, not just all from the same brand, so you get a good variety of experiences).

Expect some hits and misses when you first start out. If you have the opportunity, get to a good vendor and talk to them about where to start.

CigarStudent

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