Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Sure! You can be both!

I opened the humidor last night and pulled half my cigars out trying to find the right stick for the evening.

There are a couple of thoughts that run through my head each time I open my humidor.

• That is a special stick... for a special occasion.
• I only have one of those. I don't want to smoke it now.
• Holding on to this stick, I want to share it with a friend.
• This cigar needs a little more time.

But, most of all, it seems like I am starting to become a collector as there is a good percentage of cigars I am not smoking just because... Not exactly sure why that is... Maybe I just want to show off my stash. Sounds completely douchey... Ironically, the cigars I think about smoking the most are the cigars I am NOT smoking. :sl

Those of you that purchase Limited Releases... did you make the purchase to smoke them? Or, are you collecting? Maybe you want to show off the box?

Anyway, I wanted to get your thoughts. Are you a collector as much as you are a smoker? If so, why do you collect? What are the common reasons why you pass on a cigar?

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I think that I am more of a collector. I have several different brands,and usually like anything that's TAT. I sometimes force myself to smoke something different, which when I do, I enjoy it. If I am gifted or traded with something that I didn't have in my humi, I usally make an excuse to myself not to smoke it because it's the only one, ie Skull & Bones. Well, that's the truth and I am sticking with it.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I think I have come to the point were I am more of a collector and gifter of cigars then a smoker. With my job, baby at home, etc., I am lucky to smoke 1 cigar a week. I have a huge cooler full of cigars, and who knows when I will smoke them all.

The one thing I do like is that the cigars will last as long as I do. I can keep those cigars in great condition and be fine smoking them in 30 years when I may have more time to smoke ;-)

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Smoke them if you got them. They always have something big & better comming out. Sometimes a $2 sick is better then a $25 sick. Smoke them all the same & enjoy each one.

Thats just me...

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

smoker

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

i have a select few cigars that i do not intend to smoke unless a special occasion strikes. One is a cedar wrapped stick from 1935 while 2 others are the original release La Vieja Habana from the late 90's. Other than those, everything else is up for grabs.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Both. While there are sticks "...I'm saving...." nothing is free from risk of fire damage at some point.....:tu

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I postd this very same question several years ago on another board and the results were very interesting. I don't remember percentages, but it was good research. I smoke everything I buy and I'm not very good about aging things I really like. Usually the ones I keep the longest are the ones that disappointed me for some reason. Everything's smokable in my humi. Steve

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I'm a joker
I'm a smoker
I'm a midnight toker
I sure don't want to hurt no one

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Both, really. I have some special cigars that will wait for an appropriate time to smoke. All the rest air fair game. I intend to smoke all of them someday.

MCS

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

:r

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I have a decent sized stash, though perhaps modest by the standards of some around here, but I intend to see every one smoked, either by me or a friend. I get no pleasure out of just having something rare - they are intended to be smoked.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Never, ever save them for the sake of saving them.
Three and four on your list make sense to me. One and two would never apply for me.
Tomorrow may never come and someone else may enjoy them rather than you and who knows if they will be wishing you were still around to enjoy it.

:tpd:
Except I try to make that "appropriate time" hurry up and arrive.;)

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

more of a smoker, i feel like i paid good money and there is no point to keep 'em just sittin' around -unless of course my goal is to age them.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Anything is up on the chopping block. Mostly there are no sticks that I intend to save for years. Although, some of the larger sticks (Opus X RDC) are less likely to be smoked, only because I need to have enough time, and I hear those are better with age anyways.

Well, that's mostly true. I have a few cc's that I will age. I will save a few of the 05 PLPC's, an 01 CoLa, a 98 Charlotte, and maybe the one esplendido. In actuality though, I'm waiting for it to be nice enough for me to go outside and spark up that CoLa.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Initially you explore... buying things to try.
You find things you like and buy more.
If this trend continues long enough... buying more than you smoke;
You have become a collector.



I collect them to have the opportunity to smoke them over my forseable life/smoking career.


In the movie Bicentennial man, Andrew was finally granted acknowledgment that he was human and thus the oldest recorded living human being at 200 years old.

My plan also seems to incorporate breaking that record. :D

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Both...as Dave stated above, I have bought so much of what I like that I cannot smoke them fast enough. Nice knowing I will have some sticks to last me for awhile. And that means I get to "collect" them until they are torched.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

How well do Maduros age? :p

Seriously though. Honest question.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Smoker

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I consider myself more of a collector, BUT, because my opportunities to enjoy a cigar are few and far between, not because I hesitate to smoke anything I own. My worst-case scenario would involve laying on the road after being hit by a bus, wondering what any number of my 'special' smokes would have been like. Plus, who will get them if I die? My son? What would he and his buddies do with boxes of ERDM Slenderellas, aside from treat them like cigarettes?
I smoke them all, at every opporunity.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Some better than others Peter. Great example...the Cain Maduros have lost their "bite" in only a year and the Oliva Blue Oles have aged wonderfully in the 5-6 years they have been sitting. All depends on the stick. :2

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Quoted because Dave said it better than I ever could.

And good luck with that 2160 New Years celebration, Dave. :)

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

That's what I was wondering about. If they mellow out too much over time.

Thanks for the info. :tu

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Not a collector at all.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

As a noob I am smoking everything I can get my hands on. I figure that I have plenty of time to start collecting so for now they all go up in smoke.
All except for the BHK 52's I have. :r

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I collect cigars to smoke? yeah I might get ahead in the next lifetime...not that I have that many on hand right now, let's just saying I am still losing the material balance war.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

IMO I am definitely a smoker. Nothing is off limits in my humidor. I have probably ~400 or so cigars and the only reason I wouldn't smoke them is if they needed some rest. I do often set aside maybe my best 5'er and only smoke them for special occasions if I cannot afford more of them. But that would be about it. Or maybe ration out cigars I won't be able to get again. But they all get smoked.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

well...insomuch as i have more cigars than i will ever smoke...a collector.

i have no special cigars tho...usually i just pick a "new" box from my oldest cigars...a smoker

same as klugs...just did it a bit slower. all i have ever done(and continue to do)is buy a few more boxes per year than i smoke. slowly but surely this adds up.

derrek :hm

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

There are extremes as well. Within any group of people there are obsessive compulsives who represent a small percentage of the group. Within the same overall group there are people who have extreme incomes.

There is a small overlap of these two subgroups whos combination of the aforementioned conditions create shifts in the market availability, pricing and the types of cars preferred cigar vendors drive. :D

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Pretty much what Dave said. I buy 'em to smoke 'em, but in some cases I lay them down for a bit of a nap.

By the time the game is done, I plan to leave an empty humidor behind. ;)

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I never thought of it like that before...good point!

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I buy them to smoke and my favorites get smoked first. :D

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

seeing as over the past 6months did half a cooler plus 4 trays of singles. Im a collector but with college around the corner, im soon to be a smoker.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I really enjoy the aspect of collecting but not to the point I wouldn't toast a single cigar that I have :D

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

While it takes me some time since this cigar smoking thing has been pissing off the female unit more and more lately, I still think of myself as a smoker.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Smoker.

The only ones that don't get smoked are the ones I buy to try and don't like. Those go to people who bum cigars -(P

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I haven't smoked much at all since last summer. Hopefully that'll change as the weather gets better, because I love my cigars.
I'm definately not a collector, but I'd admit to being a gatherer.
I do "keep" some cigars, but only so much as "I'm not going to smoke them, but I'll find someone who likes them".
I don't have nearly as many cigars as I used to, and I'd like to have lots less. I try to keep a box of each of the cigars I like, and I keep a bunch of stuff other people like so I can give them away.
I guess that'd put me in a low-level smoker/distributor/pusher class.
I do still enjoy keeping my eye out for really good deals, and I have a lot of fun finding unfindable stuff, so that "collector" part of me still exists.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

85% collector when I started in 03. Part of the collector in me was to see how well they would age. 100% smoker now (except 1 cigar). Part of the obsessive researcher in me satifies the craving to buy that next LE.....

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

What's the one cigar?

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Taboada Salamone 03 gifted to me at my first herf ever by Turnberry, who i don't see on any boards anymore. Just couldn't bring myself to smoke it, and have smoked enough Taboada stuff since to make that my precious unicorn. :xxx

Party Pyramid 2000 EL the day my son was born was the cigar that changed it all. So tightly rolled that it got clipped and poked/clipped then pitched for a simple Royal Salute SG which was delicious. EL's and HTF's are cool, but there's always that chance they won't perform.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Great thread Zach.

I'm a bit of both, but more than anything I'm a smoker. I have my smokes organized and of the eight sections designated for singles, only one of those is untouchable. And in that bin, most are being saved b/c I really LOVE them and I only have one left...not b/c they are super expensive, etc.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Ima smoker, but I told my wife Ima collector and my stash is an investment that I can always sell and get my money back...She bought it and supports my "collecting."

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Any chance of bringing her into the fold Chris? It has happened before.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I'm a smoker, there are maybe 3 or 4 cigars in my humidor that I'm holding on to so I can share them with a friend, but otherwise any stick I have is ready to go up in flames at any time.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I've often found myself thinking like this in the past, and there are still times when I say "that's a special cigar and I'm not going to have the time and circumstances to give this smoke the attention I want to give it," or "I've been wanting to smoke this one, but it's too mild for me tonight." But I'm finding more and more that *now* is the time to smoke those sticks that I've been saving.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Thoroughly enjoying all responses to this. :tu

I guess the better question is how each of us values the cigars we have.

From an analytical standpoint, each of us assigns some value to Cigar X when we receive the cigar into our Inventory. For Cigar X to be selected to be smoked/gifted, the value of that cigar will offset the occasion/emotional feeling/etc. Your everyday smoke for the evening on the porch vs that special stick (special to you) for special times (marriage/birth/etc).

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

A lot of the discussion so far as been "I will smoke anything in my humidor, nothing is too special." I agree with this statement. I guess I like what was stated above- I have gotten to the point that I have so many cigars, I may never be able to smoke them all, so I think of myself now as a collector.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

Smoker all the way.. What good are they just sitting there?

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I don't smoke very much compared to many on the forums, so I consider myself a bit of a collector. That said, I have no hesitation lighting an uber-premium just for the heck of it.

Re: Are you a collector or are you a smoker?
 

I'm definitely a smoker but, i do have a few I'm collecting. I smoke at least 1 or 2 cigars a day. I am letting my Drew Estates Flying Pig, AVO LE10s, Padron no. 44, 45, 46s, and my BHK 52, 54, and 56s age and waiting for special occasions.