JR Cigar Catalogs!

[woodsroad]

Who remembers the JR Cigar catalog from when Lew Rothman still owned the company? I thought that I had saved some, but apparently not. I recently bought an 1980 copy of Lew’s Cigar Almanac, and it reminded me of his genius sense of humor and salesmanship. The man could sell dog rockets to the SPCA. I remember buying two boxes of cigars because he said “These suck, but they’re $7 a box”.

If you have any old copies of pre-2003 (or whenever he sold the company and stopped writing the catalog) that you are willing to part company with, would you please PM me?

Thanks!

 

[daveinlax]

He was a guest a few times on Kiss My Ash Radio Podcast years ago. They were a great listen. Loved the catalogs and going into his shops. Cut rate cigars next to pots, pans and aftershave.

 

[khiddy]

Oh man, those were the days. I loved Lew.

 

[anotherbob]

Who remembers the JR Cigar catalog from when Lew Rothman still owned the company? I thought that I had saved some, but apparently not. I recently bought an 1980 copy of Lew’s Cigar Almanac, and it reminded me of his genius sense of humor and salesmanship. The man could sell dog rockets to the SPCA. I remember buying two boxes of cigars because he said “These suck, but they’re $7 a box”.

If you have any old copies of pre-2003 (or whenever he sold the company and stopped writing the catalog) that you are willing to part company with, would you please PM me?

Thanks!

I still don't know why I got those. Never saved them. Kind of felt like they seemed a touch shady.

 

[woodsroad]

I still don't know why I got those. Never saved them. Kind of felt like they seemed a touch shady.

I got some great deals from JR back then. Loved his JR Ultimates and El Rey’s. I still have a couple of unopened boxes of those from when he ran the place.

 

[anotherbob]

I got some great deals from JR back then. Loved his JR Ultimates and El Rey’s. I still have a couple of unopened boxes of those from when he ran the place.

I certainly am a fan of cigars that are on sale. Feels like the right price.

 

[woodsroad]

I certainly am a fan of cigars that are on sale. Feels like the right price.

Those $7 boxes turned out to be pretty good little cigars. A bit smaller than an 8-5-8, rough EMS wrapper, in an actual wood box. Enjoyable! But I did get some duds from him, not that I wasn't warned. He would say "I have a thousand boxes of these dog rockets that I have to dump on someone, even I won't smoke them, but the price is right!" and poof!, they'd be sold.

 

[irishearl]

A couple of decades ago was a regular customer of the JR Alternatives. Pretty good cigars. Loved his catalogues and writing.

 

[woodsroad]

A couple of decades ago was a regular customer of the JR Alternatives. Pretty good cigars. Loved his catalogues and writing.

The Alternatives were good, for the most part, and there were dozens of them to choose from. Cheap enough that if you got some mediocre ones you didn’t feel bad passing them off to that friend that would smoke anything.

 

[AreBee]

Oh man! His stories were so funny! The one that sticks in my memory was about a killer scorpion in his Florida home which turned out to be a fish! I also remember him writing in JFK's accent and talking about "Cuber".

JR was my vendor of choice back in the '90s-'00s. I bought a couple Belinda ammo boxes and really enjoyed the JR Ultimates which were solid smokes.

I still buy from them on occasion but it doesn't feel the same. Sometimes it's hard to turn down a 35% code and free shipping and if you like anything made by Altadis, it really is the place to get them.

 

[woodsroad]

Didn’t Lew end up buying back the company and reselling it? The man is shrewd!

 

[agnosticpipe]

I loved those old catalogs! His stories about buying cigars from various makers and vendors were full of humor for sure.

 

[tirefire]

Oh man! His stories were so funny! The one that sticks in my memory was about a killer scorpion in his Florida home which turned out to be a fish! I also remember him writing in JFK's accent and talking about "Cuber".

JR was my vendor of choice back in the '90s-'00s. I bought a couple Belinda ammo boxes and really enjoyed the JR Ultimates which were solid smokes.

I still buy from them on occasion but it doesn't feel the same. Sometimes it's hard to turn down a 35% code and free shipping and if you like anything made by Altadis, it really is the place to get them.

Oh man! His stories were so funny! The one that sticks in my memory was about a killer scorpion in his Florida home which turned out to be a fish! I also remember him writing in JFK's accent and talking about "Cuber".

JR was my vendor of choice back in the '90s-'00s. I bought a couple Belinda ammo boxes and really enjoyed the JR Ultimates which were solid smokes.

I still buy from them on occasion but it doesn't feel the same. Sometimes it's hard to turn down a 35% code and free shipping and if you like anything made by Altadis, it really is the place to get them.

Oh man, what a blast from the past . . . JR Ultimate petit coronas and habanitos were all I smoked for about a 20-year period. Great sticks.

 

[driftedshank1]

Prior to Rothman becoming a giant in the mail order business, he had a few retail stores in Manhattan. First one was on the corner of 45th St and Sixth Ave. He must have been in his twenties back then. His pretty wife worked in the store. His inspiration came from his father who owned a "candy store" on Pitkin Ave in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Cigars were a common part of the inventory in stores of that kind way back in the day. Shrewd dude that Lew.

 

[woodsroad]

Prior to Rothman becoming a giant in the mail order business, he had a few retail stores in Manhattan. First one was on the corner of 45th St and Sixth Ave. He must have been in his twenties back then. His pretty wife worked in the store. His inspiration came from his father who owned a "candy store" on Pitkin Ave in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Cigars were a common part of the inventory in stores of that kind way back in the day. Shrewd dude that Lew.

That would be LaVonda, the woman he credits with his success in business and in life. I loved his stories about her that frequented the pages of the JR catalog in the 80's and 90's.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

A couple of decades ago was a regular customer of the JR Alternatives. Pretty good cigars. Loved his catalogues and writing.

The Alternatives were good, for the most part, and there were dozens of them to choose from. Cheap enough that if you got some mediocre ones you didn’t feel bad passing them off to that friend that would smoke anything.

I went into my archives and dug out some stuff from the ’90s that I thought you might enjoy. Here’s a J&R Alternatives Catalogue from when I used to shop at their 45th Street location. I’m including some catalogues from 1995 and 1996 from some places that will be familiar to many of you.

 

[driftedshank1]

JR Alternatives- Early on I believe Rothman bought a lot of product from Dan Blumenthal and Frank Llaneza owners of a company called Villazon. Villazon acquired US rights to some Cuban brands. It was eventually absorbed by one of the giants. If I'm not mistaken, the majority of those JR Alternatives came from Villazon. There may have been a smidge of Cuban tobacco in Villazon products when Rothman was starting out as Blumenthal and Llaneza managed to legally acquire a considerable amount of Cuban tobacco prior to the embargo.

 

[woodsroad]

I went into my archives and dug out some stuff from the ’90s that I thought you might enjoy. Here’s a J&R Alternatives Catalogue from when I used to shop at their 45th Street location. I’m including some catalogues from 1995 and 1996 from some places that will be familiar to many of you.

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Thank you, Jeff!
How much was a box of Fuente 8-5-8’s in those 90’s catalogs?

 

[TheIronMonkey]

Thank you, Jeff!
How much was a box of Fuente 8-5-8’s in those 90’s catalogs?

You’re most welcome!

The Winter 1995 Georgetown Tobacco Catalogue has a single box of twenty-five Arturo Fuente 8-5-8 Maduro Cigars at $48.70 ($46.10 if you bought multiples). Those days are long gone.



Georgetown Tobacco today:

 

[woodsroad]

OK, I must have hit some crazy sale, because I remember paying $27 for a box in the early 90’s.