The Final Word on how to Setup your Humidor

Congratulations on the purchase of your new humidor! Your humidor will easily store and properly maintain your cigars for a lifetime with very little maintenance. Simply follow these instructions…

1. The first task is to “Season” your humidor. Soak a new dish sponge in water and wipe down the entire cedar interior (you can also use a spray bottle if you have a larger cabinet humidor). Apply the water liberally as this will ‘kick-start’ the humidor into properly humidifying your cigars by impregnating the wooden interior. Let the cedar dry for only a couple of minutes so that you do not lay your cigars on a wet surface.
2. Submerge the humidifier(s) into a container holding enough water to completely cover the humidifier. Leave it submerged for at least 5-10 minutes. Remove, shake off and wipe excess water away and place into your humidor.
3. Often the humidity level is fine, but the hygrometer isn’t. This is because analog hygrometers (those that come stock) are only accurate to +/-10%, whereas digital hygrometers are highly accurate. These can be purchased on Amazon for under $10 (just search for “digital hygrometer”).
4. Humidity should be at approximately 70%. Anywhere between 65-75% humidity is acceptable. Refill the humidifier once humidity falls below 60-65%.
5. Put your cigars in the humidor, and that’s it, your humidor is now ready!

Frequently asked questions

My humidity will not reach 70%, what can I do?

This is the most common problem with humidors, and most of it can be attributed to extremely dry climates or simple fixes. There are several reasons why this may be happening.

• Your humidifier in insufficient for a dry climate. To remedy this, simple add in another humidifier. This is the problem about 95% of the time. Boveda packs (which we carry) are a simple and effortless way to do this.
• Certain humidifiers take in water more easily than others. This can be resolved by submerging your humidifier for closer to 30 minutes and in a deeper container. This will exert more water pressure on your humidifier-forcing more water into it.
• If you have a cabinet style humidor you should consider installing simple weather stripping available at any hardware store around the edge of the door. This prevents humidity from leaking out.
• If you have a cabinet style humidor it might be time to upgrade your humidifier. The industry standard is made by Cigar Oasis. We sell all of their products at wholesale so let us know if we can help.

Happy selling!

The 5 Best Ways to Sell your Slow Moving Cigars

It's bound to happen. You are bound to have a few slow moving cigars in your selection. Fear not because they don't have to go to waste. In fact you can use them to make even more money! There are of course dozens of ways to get rid of your slow sellers, but we have narrowed down the 5 best ways that will sell them fast, and make you good money in the process! So when you buy wholesale cigars you don't need to fear having slow movers!

1) Start a discount bin

Invest in a small (and very inexpensive) countertop humidor and put a prominent label on it with your offered discount. We like 30% off, but you can choose whatever amount makes you comfortable (but no less than 20% if you want people to notice). You can slowly put your slow moving cigars into this discount bin and customers will happily snatch them up. One trick we've learned over the years is to limit the selection in there. Don't give your customers too many options in there or they will start shopping exclusively from your discount bin. Only put 2-4 different brands in there. That way your customers will take one or two cigars from the discount bin and the rest from your full price selection.

2) Promote a pre-packaged selection of cigars

One method has worked particularly well over the years. In a cigar baggy, put 4 different (or however many you want) of your slow moving cigars together. Print a label on the bag that says, "Buy 3, get 1 FREE" and people will jump on them! This method is particularly nice because you will only be giving away the least expensive cigar, but you will be selling 3 more in the process. It's a great way to quickly move through lots of slow moving inventory fast and without giving up much profit. In fact, it should be considered a great financial move considering you're selling 3 cigars to each customer. 

3) Use them as bait to sell full boxes of cigars

If you carry full boxes of cigars for sale (which everyone should to dramatically increase revenue!) then this is a great tool to bump sales and get rid of slow moving cigars at the same time. The idea is to announce that you are offering 5 free cigars (of your slow movers) with every box purchase. Say hello to several hundred dollar sales on each transaction.

4) Use them to get people to write you reviews on online review sites

Obviously online review sites like Yelp and Google Places are huge. People use them every day to find stores like yours. Research has shown that for every additional star you have online, that your sales will go up by 10%. Needless to say that's enormous. So use your slow moving cigars as collateral to get people to go online and write you a positive review. Ask your customers to write a good review and come in and show you the review on their phones to claim their free cigar. You've just now spent a couple dollars to get a positive review which will bump your stars online and drastically improve your customer count when they see all of those positive reviews. 

5) Use them as a prize for a raffle that makes you money

This one is a modification of #2 and #3. You will modify #2 by not giving away the 4th cigar. Instead only put 3 in the bag and put a raffle ticket in each bag. With #3, don't give away the 5 cigars, just give the customer a raffle ticket. Then a month later, either host an event or just do a drawing online where you announce the winner on social media. The winner will win a box of your slow moving cigars. You can increase your purchases by offering a 2nd and 3rd place price too. Just give away 5 cigars for 2nd place and 3 cigars for 3rd place. 

Try them, they all work great!

Let us know when you try these and what you think. Every month we aim to educate you, whether you are already selling cigars at your business or if you are just came across the holy grail of cigar distributors. We can help you buy wholesale cigars online easily and profitably.

How to Never Get Stuck with Cigars that don't Sell

Our biggest goal is to make sure you only have cigars that actually sell - so you can actually make money. When you buy wholesale cigars from us, we do several things to make sure this happens. 

1. We learn about you, your business and your customer demographic
2. We carefully put together a proposal of cigars specifically tailored for your business
3. We back it up with our No Risk Exchange Program.

Our No Risk Exchange Program really sets us apart from any other competitor because we stand by our product selection so confidently. There are no other wholesale cigar distributors offering this level of customer support.

If it's not selling, we'll exchange it for another type of cigar that will sell - so there is never any risk for you!

Just carry at least 12 different boxes of cigars that we propose and you qualify. We are so confident in our selection of cigars that we back them up 100% since we carefully select them for your customer demographic.

If any of our suggested cigars are not selling as well as you'd like, we will take them back and you can swap them out for a different cigar that will sell better! See details.

No other wholesale cigars distributor offers this, period.

The 3 Best Cigar Humidors for your Business

Deciding on the perfect cigar humidor to display your cigars for a retail presentation can be a bit daunting. The 3 options are to purchase a wholesale cigar humidor, build your own cabinet style humidor, or build a walk-in humidor. We will address the pros and cons of each. 

But first let's define what a cigar humidor even is shall we? A humidor is simply a humidified space. That's it! As long wherever you display your cigars is properly humidified (read more about that here) then that space is technically a humidor!

Purchasing a cigar humidor

This is a great option if you plan on stocking fewer than 100 boxes of cigars. Especially if less than 30 or so. Unless if you know any good, affordable wood workers this will be your most cost effective way to go. They are all lined with Spanish cedar and have tight fitting doors to seal in the humidity. The largest style cases are approximately 6' tall and 4' wide and will hold up to 50 boxes. They are ready to go right out of the box. 

Building a cigar humidor

This is a nice option if you, or someone you know is adept at cabinetry. This allows you to customize the cabinet to your exact specs and colors. All you need to keep in mind is a few items.

1. The interior should ideally be lined in Spanish cedar to get that traditional cedar smell. It's not totally necessary though, it's just customary. You just won't get that nice smell otherwise. 
2. The doors should be tight fitting and have good weather sealing strips applied to any loose areas to keep the humidity sealed in. You don't need to overdo this, just do the best you can.
3. Make sure the shelves angle down so your customers can see your cigars.
4. Adjustable shelves are nice because it allows you to move shelves around for unusual shaped cigar boxes and extra room on the bottom for humidifiers (that can vary quite a bit in size based on what you choose).

Building a walk-in humidor

This can be a very cost effective project if you plan on stocking more than 50 boxes of cigars. It is definitely more cost effective than building or buying individual cases. A walk-in cigar humidor is a fairly simple project. Usually it is placed in the corner of a room and then 2 additional walls are built out with a door for access. Craigslist and Angie's List yields plenty of qualified dry wallers that can handle the entire project. 

Otherwise, there are a couple things to address when building a walk-in cigar humidor.

1. Refer above to items 1, 3 and 4.
2. Understand how best to humidify your walk-in humidor (read more about that here)
3. Don't build shelves too low as customers won't want to bend all the way to look at those cigars. Try to keep the shelves all higher than your waist. You can use shelves lower than that to hold back-up cigar boxes so you can sell full boxes of cigars.
4. Build an island in the middle of your room that has a top large enough to display stuff. This is a great place to promote other items, events, complimentary items like humidors, ashtrays, hats, etc.
5. Make your walk-in well designed with nice design elements like well chosen art on a wall or two. You want your walk-in cigar humidor to be a place where people want to linger. 

If you need any more advise or want to bounce ideas off of us feel free to give us a call any time!

The Top 10 Ultra Premium Cigars Every Store Needs

There are some ultra premium cigars that you should carry if you plan on carrying any higher end cigars. These cigars are rare, they are pricier, they are delicious and they will be tough to find at your competitor's store. 

Some of the cigars we are referring to are:

Padron Aniversario 1964 
Padron Aniversario 1926
Ashton VSG
Ashton ESG
Graycliff
Montecristo #2
Fuente Don Carlos
Diamond Crown
Diamond Crown Maximus
Cohiba Robusto
Gurkha Grand Reserve (infused in Louis XIII)

By carrying certain ultra premium cigars you accomplish several great things. 

1. You differentiate yourself from your competitors that all carry a lot of the same inventory.
2. You give your customers access to extremely rare cigars that are otherwise nearly impossible to buy wholesale. We are one of the only wholesalers in the country with access to these brands.
3. You will draw a niche clientelle of affluent customers that will quickly become loyal to your business. 
4. They will tell their friends where they just found these hard to find gems.

If you think that your customers aren't affluent enough to purchase ultra-premium cigars you would be wrong. You are wrong because cigars are an affordable luxury. Even when times are tough, people can afford to spend $20 to spoil themselves. Even if you don't make a lot of money, $20 is not too much to live the good life. So you will be amazed at how many people will be drawn to these high end brands and come back over and over again to spend the money. 

Further, you have to consider the power of perceived value. This is the idea that higher priced items must be better since their are priced according to their quality. So often you will find customers choosing the most expensive cigar solely because of the price tag. All of the cigars above are over $20 and that price tag will cause your customer to subconsciously think that that particular cigar must really be exceptional!

For example, some of the Padron 1926 Family Reserve cigars can retail for over $50 a cigar. You will be shocked how many people will want to try one just to say they've had a $50 cigar. You'll be even more amazed when they come back to buy 2 more!

Give some of these cigars a try, even if it's just one or two and you'll be amazed at how many you sell! 

You will find most of these on page 7 of our catalog on the page titled "Luxury Brand Cigars".

The Perfect Starter Selection of Cigars

We've all walked into that little mom and pop liquor store and have seen that little countertop humidor next to the register that holds around 4 different brands of cigars and thought to ourselves - "are they actually selling any of those things?"

Your guess is right if you guessed that they barely sell anything. We have seen so many of these types of customers come to us asking for different brands thinking that will solve their problems - when sadly it won't. The problem is that of perception. When customers see such a small selection of cigars, their subconscious thoughts tell them a few things:

1. They have such a small selection that they probably don't know anything about cigars.
2. They have such a small selection that they probably aren't very good cigars.
3. They have such a small selection that they are likely dried out.
4. They have such a small selection that I will just wait until I go to my regular cigar shop or a larger liquor store with a better selection. 

You will notice that the common denominator is that "they have such a small selection".

Would you buy beer from a liquor store that only carried 4 brands?

The solution is simple and affordable. You have already found the premium wholesale cigar distributor with the highest level of customer service in the industry. By utilizing a humidor that holds 12 brands you now erase all of the 4 concerns above. There is further reasoning behind the number 12. Let me explain. There are 4 major flavor profiles of cigars - Mild, Medium, Full and Flavored. Each of these profiles should have 3 different price points - inexpensive, mid-priced, higher end. This comes to 12 selections.

The beauty of this is that now you will have something to sell to whoever comes into your establishment! Even better, you have something for them to come back for again and become a repeat customer. Also since the humidor is tall and noticeable it makes a much better first impression. It tells the customer that you have a respectable selection; that you know what the quality brands are; that since you have a respectable selection that they must be well maintained.

Additionally, using the proven sales techniques we provide you as a client - you will know how to sell each customer at least 2 cigars per visit as well have them buying the most expensive cigars in your case!

If you are ready to have us put together a proposal of a highly targeted selection of cigars designed for your type of business, your demographic and your clientelle specifically simply fill out this form, or call us today toll free at 844-63CIGAR and we can have a proposal ready for you usually the same day. We are the premier distributor to buy wholesale cigars online - easily and profitably!

The Official Guide to Humidifying your Cigars

Humidifying your cigars sounds challenging at first but is actually quite simple. The temperature should be normal room temperature. The humidity level should be 70% humidity +-5%. So just try to keep it between 65-75% humidity. 

There are various types of humidifiers you can use depending on the size of the space you are trying to humidify. 

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SMALL HUMIDIFIERS

For small cigar humidifiers that hold anywhere from 4-6 boxes, one simple humidifier should do the trick. But if you want to make it extra simple we suggest the Cigar Oasis II.

For slightly larger humidors that hold up to 12 boxes of cigars, we suggest going with the Cigar Oasis Plus, which is a very simple electric humidifier that takes all of the guess work out. 

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MEDIUM TO LARGE DISPLAY HUMIDORS

For medium to larger cigar humidors holding 13 to 100 boxes you will need an electric humidifier. The specific humidifier we carry is the Cigar Oasis Magna. It is very convenient because it has a float valve that tells you when the water is running low. It also a digital remote gauge that tells the unit to turn off at any humidity you set it to. So for example, once it reaches 75% humidity it will shut off until the humidity falls below 70%. This is an extremely convenient feature that you don't want to do without unless you want to constantly check the humidity manually (which we do not recommend).

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WALK IN HUMIDORS

For these larger displays you will need a whole-room humidifier. We do not sell these but you can easily purchase them from Amazon or any home accessories store like Bed, Bath & Beyond. A simple home based humidifier is all you will need. However, make sure to spend a little extra and find one that has it's own internal humidity gauge that will tell the unit to keep the ambient humidity at your specified humidity level (65-75% humidity). 

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Also, be sure to avoid a warm mist, steam humidifier. These are the type of humidifiers you might give to a sick child with a cough. However they release a warm steam that is overpowering and will ruin your cigars. It simply gets too wet, too fast. Avoid these period.

You will want either a cool-mist humidifier or an ultrasonic humidifier. Ultrasonic humidifier are generally more expensive but produce more humidity and usually have more features since they are pricier than their cool mist counterparts. But ultimately either will do. Our favorite brand of ultrasonic humidifier is Airoswiss.

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We hope this takes a little mystery out of the humidity equation. Just remember that you get what you pay. So don't leave your investment of cigars in incapable hands. Spend a little extra on quality brands and you will save yourself numerous headaches!

The Most Proven Way to Market to your Customers

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of any successful business is keeping in touch with your existing customers. Your existing customers are your best source of revenue because they already believe in you. Your job is just to remind them that you exist and that you are their favorite place to buy premium cigars!

Don't believe us as to just how important it is to constantly reach out to your customer base? Well here are some fascinating statistics that will make you a believer:

• The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20% – Marketing Metrics.
• A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10% – Leading on the Edge of Chaos, Emmet Murphy & Mark Murphy.
• It costs 6–7 times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one – Bain & Company.
• Typical retail spending for new customers is on average $24.50, compared to $52.50 for repeat customers – McKinsey.

So get started today. There are many ways to reach out to your customers. Start making a list and you will be surprised as to how many you can come up with. Here are some of our suggestions to get your premium cigar smoking customers back again and again - spending more and more...

1. Start an email list. We will talk more about this in an upcoming blog post but this a huge one! We personally use MailChimp and we love it. Plus it's free for the first 2,000 subscribers so you have no cost to get up and running until you are already successful. 
2. Advertise within your store. Create posters to hang around your store advertising that you carry cigars. We'll even help! Just email us your logo and anything specific you'd like it to say about your new selection of premium cigars and we'll create a cool poster for you and email it to you. You can have them printed for 99 cents each at Office Max or a similar competitor. Just print them at 11 x 17" for the best prices.
3. Use that same poster image and start promoting on your social media outlets. But don't just do it yourself, ask your employees to share all of your posts on their own pages too. Do this consistently for 4 weeks and watch what happens!
4. Create a punch card or any type of loyalty program you want. This will encourage existing customers to come back time and again.
5. If you're a liquor store, create shelf talkers that cigars naturally pair well with. We can help with this too! But basically a simple little shelf talker that tells your customers that darker cigars will work great with some of your bourbons and Single Malts and some of your lighter cigars work great with Irish Whiskeys and Ports, etc.
6. If your business has a menu we will gladly create a cigar menu for you. Make sure your customers see this menu regularly!

Contact us today for your wholesale cigar needs at MDC Wholesale Cigars and let us help you build your business!

The Official Guide to Pricing your Cigars to Sell & Profit!

Pricing cigars correctly for your establishment depends on 3 variables: Business Type, Demographic, Cigar Cost. I will break down all three of these to give you a better idea.

BUSINESS TYPE

• Convenience Stores: These are store where people generally expect a bargain so you should expect to markup cigars around 2-2.5x from what you paid.
• Liquor Stores: 2-3x
• Golf Pro Shop, Bars & Restaurants: 2.5-3.5x
• Steak Houses & Strip Clubs: 3-5x

DEMOGRAPHIC: If you cater to more budget conscious consumers then use the lesser markup above. So a restaurant for example, would markup their cigars 2.5x. And respectively, use the larger markup for more affluent areas.

CIGAR COST: Less expensive cigars can marked up higher than more expensive ones. For example use the larger markup on your less expensive cigars, and the smaller markup for your higher priced ones.

And if you still have questions you can always call us directly for more guidance toll free at 844-63CIGAR

How to pick cigars for your store

Obviously your demographic is the most important element in determining what cigars you will bring into your location. But with that being said, a good array of various price points is the key to increasing sales. No matter how wealthy you think your clientele is, you will always have someone walk in who is just trying cigars out for the first time and won't want to drop $20 a stick. And even if you think your area is lower income, cigars are an affordable luxury and people like to treat themselves on occasion. So make sure you have some high end treats for them!

Packaging works!

Whenever you have a choice, find a cigar that comes in a fancy tube of some sort (glass or metal). These will always outsell cigars that are just in cellophane. Plus they make great gifts too so stock up heavy on tubed cigars around the holidays. But our suggestion would be to just have as many tubed cigars as you can find because they simply always sell better. 

Brand names exist for a reason!

Indeed they do. Even if you want more affordable cigars for your location let us help you find the ones that at least have good brand recognition. We all know big names like Montecristo, Cohiba, Romeo y Julieta, Macanudo, and Partagas so make sure your customers are drawn in quickly by the names they recognize. Now, if you stock a decent amount of cigars (like over 20 boxes) then we would definitely encourage you to spread out to more boutique brands and we are always happy to help you make those selections based on what's hot now.

How many boxes of cigars you should start with

Knowing how many boxes to start with can seem like the ultimate question when you're getting started. While the answer depends on many variables, hopefully this article will help at least guide you in the right direction. Let us answer this question by addressing each type of business that carries cigars...

Small business and cigars are small part of your business:

If you're a small neighborhood liquor store or convenience store you're probably thinking you want to start off small - and that's ok! To make it simple, 12 boxes of cigars makes for the perfect starter selection (hint: read this short article to find out why 12 boxes is the magical number that always yields the greatest success.) It's a small investment, the humidor itself looks attractive and is easily spotted from around your store, and there is exactly the correct amount of inventory to make sure you always have something to suit everyone's tastes. It's really a no-brainer selection. 

Cigars are a more prominent part of your business: Mid-Large liquor store, hotel/resort, smoke shop, etc

Now you need to appeal to a more serious caliber of cigar buyer - the aficionado. These people know their stuff, respect a nice selection, and will become a loyal customer if your selection looks right. First of all, you need the right brands. That's our specialty and we will help you with that - so you're not alone! Second, you need the right amount. A small countertop humidor won't cut it because it looks too amateurish. Loyal cigar customers only become loyal when if you pass their test of looking like a respectable cigar establishment. Having too few cigars on display will fail that test. You will want to have a floor display humidor like the Barbatus. That humidor holds anywhere from 20-35 boxes and is a good start if you want to look respectable but cigars are not your primary product. 

If you're ready to go beyond that then you can go for a double door commercial display humidor like the Bermuda. It holds around 40-80 boxes and your sales can easily be 2-3 times that of a smaller humidor. A larger selection simply attracts a larger crowd of customers and makes them that much more loyal. But most importantly, having that larger selection gives each customer a good reason to come back to try new cigars.  

Cigars are you primary product: Cigar shop, cigar bar, etc.

At this point you will need at least 2 of the Bermuda humidors, or you may want to just build out a walk-in humidor. Read this article for more info about that. If cigars are you primary product then you need to be prepared to look like it too. You can't cheat your way into impressing discerning cigar aficionados. Even a small cigar store will carry 50 boxes of cigars (and that is a truly small cigar store). Whereas the average cigar store will carry around 200 boxes. And a larger cigar store will have over 400 boxes. You can always start with 100 and slowly work your way up if finances are an issue. 

How many cigars can I fit on shelves? And how much money should I budget for?

Here's an easy way to determine your cigar budget and how many can fit on your shelves. It's actually quite easy to do the math. First, you'll just need to know the approximate dimensions of your display area. All you need to know is that average width of a box of cigars is 6 inches. This way you can determine how many can fit across easily.  The average depth is 7 inches. That way if your shelves are around 14 inches or more deep, then you can actually double your inventory by displaying one box in front of the other. You would just simple tear the lid off the box in the front. This is great because you can always start small by only starting with 1 box deep and then slowly expanding your inventory by going 2 boxes deep. 

Now that's how you impress those cigar aficionados!