01
Valued at $6,000+/year Rare Brand Allocation Rights
Priority access to Liga Privada, Padrón Family Reserve, My Father Le Bijou, Ashton ESG/VSG, Fuente Don Carlos. The SKUs that walk off the shelf the week they land - if you can get them.
MDC Concierge Access - earned membership for the accounts we concierge.
The concierge tier for retail and hospitality partners who run a real program. Earned, not paid. Not self-serve. The boxes, service, and review cadence we reserve for the accounts that earn it.
We only take 4 new accounts a month
4 spots open for July
Not Paid
Earned
14 years·Trusted by Four Seasons, The Broadmoor, Caesars Entertainment
The Concierge Benefit Stack
Six things you get - and nobody else does.
Elite Perk
Rare brand access
Liga Privada, Padrón & Family Reserve, My Father Le Bijou, Ashton, Fuente Don Carlos, Arturo Fuente - the boxes your clients ask for by name.
Elite Perk
Pre-release allocation
First look at limited-edition releases before public availability. Place orders before the cigars hit the open market.
Elite Perk
Free product
Rotating samples and complimentary full boxes paired with qualifying orders - real product, not marketing swag.
Elite Perk
Elite pricing
Tiered discounts that compound over the calendar year as your volume grows. The longer you're Elite, the better the math gets.
Elite Perk
Priority service
Front-of-line on custom orders, rush shipping, and inventory questions. You have a dedicated rep - not a support ticket.
Elite Perk
Free commercial humidor
For qualifying account sizes. We provision, deliver, and calibrate a commercial-grade humidor sized to your program - no capital outlay.
The Path
How retailers become Elite
Elite Access isn't a checkout upgrade. It's what you earn when you've proven you can run a real cigar program - consistent volume, sell-through on allocated stock, retail pricing discipline, and a working relationship with an MDC rep who knows your floor.
- Open an account - the only starting point. No application fee, no tier purchase.
- Run your first 90 days - we watch how the humidor moves, what sells, what stalls.
- Review at 90 days - your rep proposes an Elite path based on what's actually working. Could be 6 months out. Could be faster.
- Hit the criteria - volume, sell-through, retail-price discipline. You're in.
We'd rather have 50 Elite accounts that genuinely qualify than 500 paid-membership tiers that don't. The rarity is the point.
The Elite Stack
Everything Elite Access earns you - laid out plainly.
Elite isn't a discount card. It's a full-program partnership that compounds over time. The total annual value on a qualifying account typically lands north of $20,000 - and the boxes you'd otherwise never get your hands on are worth more than that alone.
02
Valued at $4,000+/year Pre-Release First-Pick
First look at limited-edition releases before public availability. You place orders before the cigars hit the open market, which usually means you sell them before your competition even sees them.
03
Valued at $3,500/year Complimentary Full Boxes - Not Swag
Rotating free product paired with qualifying orders. Real boxes of real cigars - full product for guest programs, staff samples, and events. Not marketing gimmicks.
04
Valued at 5-12% off list Elite Tiered Pricing
Compounding volume discounts that improve as your calendar-year throughput grows. The longer you hold Elite status, the more favorable the math gets.
05
Valued at $4,200/year Priority Service & Quarterly Program Review
Front-of-line on custom orders, rush shipping, and allocation requests - plus a full humidor walkthrough every 90 days. Turn-rate analysis, slow-mover rotations, upcoming allocation opportunities, menu-design adjustments. A dedicated rep who knows your floor, not a support ticket.
06
Valued at $4,000-$8,000 Complimentary Commercial Humidor
For qualifying account sizes. We provision, deliver, and calibrate a commercial-grade humidor sized to your program footprint. No capital outlay from you.
Total annual program value: $20,000+ for qualifying accounts
Elite Access: $0. Earned, not paid. Starts with an MDC wholesale account and 90 days of clean sell-through.
See If My Account Qualifies Is Elite Right for You?
Elite Access is built for a specific kind of retail partner.
This is for you if…
- You run a qualifying retail or hospitality venue - tobacconist, cigar lounge, casino, resort, upscale steakhouse, private club - with serious throughput and the retail discipline to match.
- You've been an MDC wholesale account for at least 90 days with clean sell-through and retail-price discipline.
- You understand allocation is earned, not bought, and you're willing to steward rare inventory (not flip it on the gray market).
- You want a long-horizon partnership with a distributor who treats your humidor like a program, not a purchase order.
Not for you if…
- You want to pay a membership fee and skip the track record. Elite is earned. There is no checkout upgrade for it.
- You're looking to flip allocated cigars on secondary markets. That's the fastest way to lose allocation for every retailer in the category - we won't risk it.
- You haven't opened an MDC account yet. Elite starts with 90 days of clean account activity; opening is step one.
- You want discount-driven volume buying with no program conversation. That's not what Elite is. Elite is a relationship tier.
Concierge Service
The depth, the cadence, the phone line.
Quarterly business reviews. Priority on every release as it lands. On-site consulting when the floor calls for it. The same direct phone line whether it's a Tuesday inventory question or a Saturday night rush. That's what Concierge Access actually buys you.
Performance Relationship
MDC Promise
Since 2012
The Elite Guarantee
If Elite ever stops earning its place on your P&L, we step back to regular account status - no penalty.
Elite is a performance relationship in both directions. If the allocation, the free product, the priority service, and the quarterly reviews aren't moving the needle for your program, we drop you back to standard account status with zero drama. No clawback. No penalty pricing. No awkwardness. Elite is earned in both directions - and so is the exit. That's the only fair way to run a tier that isn't behind a paywall.
Peter Roth
Founder & CEO
MDC Wholesale Cigars
Start the Path
Elite starts with an account. The account starts with a call.
Book 15 minutes. We'll look at your venue, your current cigar program (if any), and the throughput your floor is capable of. You'll walk away with a clear read on whether Elite is a 6-month path for your account, a 12-month path, or not the right fit - and what to build toward either way.
Cost of Waiting
Allocated SKUs that sell out for the year in February aren't coming back until the following season. Every quarter your account sits outside Elite is a quarter of rare-brand inventory you can't get on the shelf.
P.S. We'd rather have 50 Elite accounts that genuinely qualify than 500 paid-membership tiers that don't. The rarity is the point - and it's why Elite retailers outperform.
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Join our affiliate program: refer a business to MDC and earn 10% in store credit (or 5% cash) on every order they place for a full year.