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!

Choose the Right Cigar Packaging to Grow your Sales

You will find in many instances that there are two choices available in the way cigars are packaged. Some cigars are available packaged in just cellophane and sometimes the manufacturer will also offer that same cigar in a decorative metal or glass tube. It will usually cost just a few cents more for this fancier packaging but it is well worth it. The packaging will capture your customer's attention far quicker than the other cigars. 

There are also two hidden bonuses to tubed cigars. One is that they stay fresher longer since they are packaged in an air tight container. The other advantage is that they won't get beat up like unprotected cigars which can get knocked around. 

So now that you've found your obvious choice to buy wholesale cigars online from the most trusted name in wholesale cigar distributors, now you also know what the right packaging is.