2 Amazing Websites for Buying Great Cigars at Ultra-Low Prices

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This post is for the cigar smoker on a budget. Chances are, if you’re an average cigar smoker, you know what being on a budget is like.  You can’t afford to regularly drop $15 on one cigar. Heck, you can’t even spend $30 on a five-pack. So you’re stuck either smoking infrequently (bad), smoking low-quality cigars regularly (more bad), or bumming cigars off of your friends (double-bad).

The good news is, there are a few places online you can go to find cheap cigars that will blow your socks off. I know many in our audience are big fans of Famous Smoke (my preferred retailer), Cigars International, Thomson Cigars, and other major online retailers, but I’m going to suggest a few, lesser known alternatives that will give you a bigger bang for your buck.

I regularly use these sites to get great deals on cigars:

Cigar Monster

Cigar Monster was the first website I bought cigars from. It is affiliated with Famous Smoke Shop, another online retailer that I particularly enjoy using because of their pricing and selection. But back to cigar monster.

If you’ve ever used other “deal a day” or “deal every hour” websites like Woot.com, they are what they sound like. Every hour, Cigar Monster offers a hot deal, typically on five packs and samplers.  Unlike other websites, however, their five-pack deals often include free shipping. From this I’ve gotten five packs of Rocky Patel 1990, Oliva G Maduro, Cain, My Father, and other brands for $15-$20 including shipping.  A price point like this allows someone on basically any budget to enjoy great cigars for $4-$5 a stick.

The real kicker is, every Friday, and often other days, the site lists all of the weeks previous deals in a “Mega Monster Mashup.” This adds a great selection to the already heavenly (hellish?) price point you’re getting.

CigarBid.com

Cigarbid.com is, for me, heaven. Think of it like ebay, but for cigars. There are plenty of online auction websites, and even other cigar auction websites, but none of them do the job like cigarbid.com. On cigarbid, I routinely find boxes of great cigars for $40-$50. That’s about $2 per stick.

Of course, cigarbid has all of the major brands like Rocky Patel, Alec Bradley, My Father, Nestor Miranda, etc, etc. But cigarbid also has a range of lesser known brands that blow my socks off. One of my regular searches is for the Nica Libre 1990, commonly viewed as a knockoff of the Padron Anniversario 1926. The amazing thing is, the Nica Libre 1994 is a kick ass representation of the taste (you can read a side-by-side review here).

Bottom line: I use cigarbid to buy boxes of quality cigars, mainly so that I always have something good on hand to give to friends when they come over, and something enjoyable for me to smoke. But I would caution you: it is very easy to get carried away on sites like cigarbid, so be sure to log on knowing how much you want to spend, and stick to that limit. 

 

Full Selection: Famous Smoke Shop

The only drawback to websites like Cigar Bid and Cigar Monster is selection–the only items you’ll find are the ones that are on sale. So it’s worth taking a look at Famous Smoke Shop because they have a tremendous selection of classic cigar brands like Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, etc, but also boutique brands as well.

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Check out our newest look at the best online cigar retailers here. Also, if you’re looking to purchase cigars for corporate events, check out our article on that here.

Matthias Clock: Brand evangelist, digital marketer, cigar and spirits expert specializing in consumer tasting and educational events. Matthias made the long trek from his hometown of Portland, Oregon to New York City in 2007, and in nine years has hosted more than 120 events and helped promote and launch dozens of cigar and whiskey brands in the U.S. In 2016, he joined the Cigar Journal Tasting Panel, blind-reviewing pre and new release cigars.

View Comments (5)

  • I like Cigar Monster. Just made my second order. Purchased Oliva V sampler and Oliva Master Blends III 5 pack for less than $5 a cigar. I'll checkout cigar bid and see what they have to offer. Great article. Thanks

  • Agree totally with your assessments as I've dealt with all of them. One cigar shop should be included in your best list is SmallBatchCigar.com. They have a great selection of boutique cigars, amazing customer service and daily specials that exceed discounts from other retailers.

  • While I respect your opinion on your favorite websites, I wonder why you didn't even mention brick and mortar and the advantages of supporting small businesses? Though you pay a little more, you are also getting an experience and helping someone make a living. It's fine to save money, I just hope nobody is actually taking online cigars to their local shop to smoke.....that's just rude. I even had a guy try to talk another customer out of buying from me. Told him to go online! Who seriously does that?

    • Hey there!

      I didn't mention brick and mortar shops because this post is focused on online purchases. I am a big supporter of brick and mortar shops. One clue there is the dozens of articles my team and I have written on local cigar shops around New York City and across the country.

      Anyone showing up to a brick and mortar shop and smoking their own cigar there is a fool and has zero class. I've also blogged about that extensively.

      So your points are all legitimate--I just didn't cover them in this specific piece.