What do you mean by affordable - by the box?

[RevSmoke]

Originally Posted by mithrilG60

And it's largely dictated by where you live. For example:

While not all of these cigars are available in my local B&M, those that are all $15 - $20/stick and it's pretty much impossible to find anything under $10 (smokable or otherwise). This is entirely due to the tobacco taxes imposed by my provincial and federal governments.

As other's have mentioned, while I tend not to worry about the prices too much, I do expect that every time I walk into my B&M I'll come out roughly $100 poorer with 4 or 5 cigars to show for it. $15 - $25 is my average per stick price but I wouldn't call that "affordable", more just the cost of enjoying cigars North of 49.

Ouch!!! I remember attending classes in St. Catherine's, Ontario and stopping at a B&M to pick up a smoke. I remember the high hopes walking in, that forbidden fruit would soon crumble to ash between my lips. I walked in, greeted the owner, walked in the humidor and stood there looking at prices. Never did even touch a cigar. I wasn't prepared for the prices and so I didn't have the money available that week to even buy one.

Thankfully, I had brought a few with me in my traveldor which lasted the week. But yeah, I know the prices - that stinks.

What is the rate of taxation if cigars come to your from down south? If a person (say, myself) sends you a package, how difficult is it to get to you - are you taxed for it?

Peace of the Lord be with you.

[mithrilG60]

Originally Posted by RevSmoke

What is the rate of taxation if cigars come to your from down south? If a person (say, myself) sends you a package, how difficult is it to get to you - are you taxed for it?

If the package contents were properly declared and tax & duty was charged, my guess would be expensive but I've never had to deal with that issue so I can't give you a particularly detailed answer to that question. I do know from comparing local B&M prices on Cuban's to those from retailers that exist in the tax exempt world of native reservations, that my provincial and federal taxes add about $10 - $12 per stick on average cigars (P D4, RyJ Short Churchill, Sancho Panza Beli's, etc) and quite significantly more on specialty, LE or rare releases. There are a couple boxes of the Cohiba Gran Reserva my local B&M right now for $2310/box as an example. Most discussions here have pegged the standard price at around $1500 USD/box for that release.


I know that, like alcohol, shipping tobacco products between provinces is illegal so I assume it would the same with international shipments. That said, I have ordered from a couple "Canadian friendly" online shops from the US in the past and never had a problem. The packages have also never been opened and inspected (to my knowledge) so I don't know if they'd send it back to sender or not. However I doubt that customs would really bother trying to assess and charge taxes on a small package with a quantity that's obviously a personal gift unless you got an agent that was having a really bad caseof the Monday's. Now if you were receiving a larger package that looked more like a commercial purchase or an obvious attempt to avoid local taxes it would probably be different.

(note that I am talking in CDN dollars for most prices, but the CAD and USD have been basically on par for the last couple years anyways)