I call it being old, having no family and the more i owe when i die the more i win.
Cellar Building Method.
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Great movie at any time...but, yes, the kinetic enjoyment is greater when baked.Great movie when you’re baked
I thought a cellar building method was against the laws of physics and nature. I try not to buy much tobacco, but I buy tobacco. That's as far as I go with conceptualizing.
I have budgeted $100 per month or so for a number of years. The tins pile up even though I smoke several bowls a day.
In June of 2012 I decided I needed a 20 plus year cellar as I felt my favorites would be discontinued at some point and getting enough of the stuff I loved would be a bitch.
I had been testing all kinds of flakes and a couple of plugs to see if they made the cut. I decided I would build this cellar in one year or less. I had no budget and when I saw hard to come by blends, I didn't screw around. I bought anywhere from 25-100 tins at a shot as I knew with some blends they wouldn't last and be discontinued.
I also bought Samuel Gawith Best Brown, Full Virginia and St James in tins and bulk but mostly bulk as I had a guy selling me each flake in 5 pound lots and giving me a 10% discount. Pounds of these SG flakes were 52.00 and change. It only took me a few months to get all I wanted and the jars just sit aging the tobacco. Most of it is from July 2012.
I reached my goal in 2013 and didn't look to buy anything except an aged tin that came around once in a while from pipestud.
Fast forward to 2016 Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky came back on the market, I bought a test tin then I bought 100 tins for the cellar. I added a few other blends like Curly Block and Salty Dogs and Doblone d"oro and MC's Dark Stoved. That pretty much covered what I had been smoking to this point in time.
The last tins I bought from a retailer were those 2013 tins of Capstan Gold Ready Rubbed they found in the back of a warehouse. That was back in June 2019.
My original cellar which was mostly tins cost me around 18K. That was less than one year of smoking cigars so it seemed cheap. I only bought one blend without first buying a test tin and it cost me. I cannot smoke certain red Virginia's as they burn my tongue. I bought 25 tins of Samuel Gawith Cabbies Mixture without testing it and I never made that mistake again. It isn't a big deal as those tins will go up in value.
I was always looking for deals and there were plenty. I remember when Mac Baren Old Dark Fired came out. PC and SP both had deals. one was 9.99 for the 3.5 oz tin and the other was 10.99 for the 3.5 oz tin. It only came in tins back then which was perfect for me.
I remember sales on Dunhill I think it was buy 3 get one free. I loaded up on their Flake and their Deluxe Navy Rolls. PC had a deal where if you buy 5 tins of the same blend you got a break on the price. SP always had their buy 20 get 6% off. There were no limits back then so you could hit them hard. I also cut some deals with certain retailers if I bought 50 or 100 tins what kind of deal would I get.
There was also another site called smokersforum.uk that was busier than this place at the time and you could score some great deals from guys giving up the hobby. One guy sold me 2007 Stonehaven for 83.00 a pound. One guy sold me 3 pounds of 2006 Best Brown flake for 55.00 a pound. Another guy sold me 8 100 gram tins of 2002 Solani 633 for 18 a tin. The retail price at that time for the Solani was a buck or so less than the aged I got..
The two places to sell aged tobacco was here and smokersforun.uk and people did real well on the buying side of the deals. Social media didn't exist back then and the competition was far less making prices pretty cheap. Guys were looking to just get their money back, not send their kids to college.
Pipestud was also doing business and his prices were lower back then as he was competing with the other 2 sites. There was no Asian market back then driving prices to the moon.
I would not want to have to build my cellar in todays market. There is too much demand. I would have to be on the phone constantly.
I had been testing all kinds of flakes and a couple of plugs to see if they made the cut. I decided I would build this cellar in one year or less. I had no budget and when I saw hard to come by blends, I didn't screw around. I bought anywhere from 25-100 tins at a shot as I knew with some blends they wouldn't last and be discontinued.
I also bought Samuel Gawith Best Brown, Full Virginia and St James in tins and bulk but mostly bulk as I had a guy selling me each flake in 5 pound lots and giving me a 10% discount. Pounds of these SG flakes were 52.00 and change. It only took me a few months to get all I wanted and the jars just sit aging the tobacco. Most of it is from July 2012.
I reached my goal in 2013 and didn't look to buy anything except an aged tin that came around once in a while from pipestud.
Fast forward to 2016 Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky came back on the market, I bought a test tin then I bought 100 tins for the cellar. I added a few other blends like Curly Block and Salty Dogs and Doblone d"oro and MC's Dark Stoved. That pretty much covered what I had been smoking to this point in time.
The last tins I bought from a retailer were those 2013 tins of Capstan Gold Ready Rubbed they found in the back of a warehouse. That was back in June 2019.
My original cellar which was mostly tins cost me around 18K. That was less than one year of smoking cigars so it seemed cheap. I only bought one blend without first buying a test tin and it cost me. I cannot smoke certain red Virginia's as they burn my tongue. I bought 25 tins of Samuel Gawith Cabbies Mixture without testing it and I never made that mistake again. It isn't a big deal as those tins will go up in value.
I was always looking for deals and there were plenty. I remember when Mac Baren Old Dark Fired came out. PC and SP both had deals. one was 9.99 for the 3.5 oz tin and the other was 10.99 for the 3.5 oz tin. It only came in tins back then which was perfect for me.
I remember sales on Dunhill I think it was buy 3 get one free. I loaded up on their Flake and their Deluxe Navy Rolls. PC had a deal where if you buy 5 tins of the same blend you got a break on the price. SP always had their buy 20 get 6% off. There were no limits back then so you could hit them hard. I also cut some deals with certain retailers if I bought 50 or 100 tins what kind of deal would I get.
There was also another site called smokersforum.uk that was busier than this place at the time and you could score some great deals from guys giving up the hobby. One guy sold me 2007 Stonehaven for 83.00 a pound. One guy sold me 3 pounds of 2006 Best Brown flake for 55.00 a pound. Another guy sold me 8 100 gram tins of 2002 Solani 633 for 18 a tin. The retail price at that time for the Solani was a buck or so less than the aged I got..
The two places to sell aged tobacco was here and smokersforun.uk and people did real well on the buying side of the deals. Social media didn't exist back then and the competition was far less making prices pretty cheap. Guys were looking to just get their money back, not send their kids to college.
Pipestud was also doing business and his prices were lower back then as he was competing with the other 2 sites. There was no Asian market back then driving prices to the moon.
I would not want to have to build my cellar in todays market. There is too much demand. I would have to be on the phone constantly.
Cellar building on $too a month is doable project. And it will work for you even if you are in the older age bracket. Focusing on what you like is key. If you are willing to limit yourself to three or four blends that are available you will begin to see after a year a considerable amount tobacco. If your tastes change you can order a different 3 or 4 blends and sell off the stuff you have already acquired.
Great Mezcal maker in Oaxaca city Oaxaca , you can drink right from the barrel at the factory 10 pesos a glass , truly hallucinatory experience
That sounds delightful. I really love mezcal. There is something in scotch and whiskey that gives me an allergic reaction with my lungs. But, mezcal does not do that. I want to one day go to Oaxaca and tour the various palenques.Great Mezcal maker in Oaxaca city Oaxaca , you can drink right from the barrel at the factory 10 pesos a glass , truly hallucinatory experience
The truth is that the perfect cellar for me would be 100 kilos of tobacco, 200 liters of Whisky, 200 liters of Brandy, 200 liters of Cognac, 2000 liters of various wines. How much would this be in dollars or euros?
I just keep all my bills paid and money going into my investments and savings steadily. Also set money aside for vacation and surprise spending. Anything leftover goes to pipes and stocking up on my favorite blends. This may be weekly purchases, or I may go a month or two without a purchase. Depends on inventory and how hard a blend is to purchase. I also buy according to sales for the blends that are readily available. Sales help alot when buying 5+ lbs of tobacco.
What the $&#@ is a liter! I didn’t come here to do the maths
I had a little time to sit and think and do a little mental math this afternoon... at about 3g per bowlful, twice a day, I'd smoke roughly 5 pounds a year. Multiply that by maybe 40-50 more years, that's 200-250 lbs. Now these really-large cellars are sounding pretty reasonable! 
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I was waiting for the infamous Harris Cellaring Manifesto. It's balls to the wall but it's probably the best and most secure way to do it. Especially these days when you're probably not going to have the multiple decades a lot of the older cellar Titans around these parts had.
$100 a month is definitely doable, but I think the best way is to pick a handful of blends and cellar deep enough on them to last you to the end times. If that means buying ten pounds of Capstan Blue then so be it. I've yet to regret going deep on a tobacco I liked.
100 bucks a month is about what I spend on average and it does add up fast. I stick to tins as a matter of personal preference. I tend to buy like this one to smoke and a couple to stash for later. It’s been working for me so far. I’m at the point I know what i like and I’m now slowly but Shirley building towards my personal cellar goals.
This. I would never go into debt for a hobby. Gotta make sure my future is secured, first.
On other thought is to give some consideration to tracking the contents of your cellar. Otherwise you may find that you’ve purchased blends you already have. It’s also an easy way to keep track of things like tin age, investment, lbs in the cellar and other fun facts. I use an excel spreadsheet, there are some web-based options (e.g., Tobacco Cellar), a paper based notebook also works. It’s easier to do this from the begining than trying to reconstruct it later.
I second this. I made a simple spreadsheet with the blend name, manufacturer, tin date, tin or jar. It’s make it very easy to keep an eye on things and help plan new purchases. I also built in some formulas to keep a running estimates of many years supply I had at a couple of different smoking rates. My Excel skills are rudimentary, and it was no problem