BlueWaterStogie
Young Ape
After getting back into cigars 8 or 9 months ago after a 10-year hiatus (this time, it's for real 
), I found a couple of solid B&Ms and a great online source, and then learned of the existence of this teflon-coated slope called C-Bid. Watched from afar for awhile and finally decided to take the plunge last week. Actually, last week, this week, and next week for a 3-week C-Bid experiment, but one thing at a time.
The humidor was almost empty so it was beyond time to restock. So after bidding here and there and after receiving hundreds of automagically-generated emails telling me that I was a cheap bastard (or that others chose to pay too much, depending upon your perspective), the first week came to a close last Wednesday with probably a 10% 'win' rate - which I would like to be the max going forward. Am completely fine with a 3%-5% success rate over time, given that the parameters I've set are pretty tight. The idea is to stockpile an ongoing annual supply of everyday cigars with a lesser number of other cigars. Anyway, an invoice/processed order email arrived early Thursday, and my stogies were in transit on Friday with tracking number in hand. I like DHL's tracking options - got emails in a timely manner and the box was delivered 2-3 days ahead of schedule. UPS has not been as fast as a rule.
Below would be the first haul from last week (week 1): 105 cigars, which fills up the humidor about 33% - 40%. I'll work on the image quality for future uploads. As you can sort of tell, I'm partial to the medium-full side of life in an RP and DPG kinda way. Clockwise, there's a mix of Nestor Vintage, Legends Pepin, RP OSG, RP OWR, RP Fusion, ITSF maduro, and Sol Cubanos. More Oliva is on deck along with a couple of specially selected entries that probably are not going to get photographed.
This week's damage (week 2) was limited to a net of 25 more cigars (RPV90 & Vega Talanga), and for next week (week 3) am at the moment in the running for another... 220 cigars so far (which might net out to another 30-40 if I don't press it).
Fallback options should another humidor become necessary include either a spare 154-quart Costco special, one of those footlockers, or with a whole lot of rationalization, maybe a Trivoli in cherry. The original plan was to cycle 450 cigars/year, but storage for 1000 just seems like the right thing to do these days. After all, who knows what one might come across that needs to rest for a year or three. Also for the humidor(s), I liked the toothbrush case idea someone posted here, but of course the local MegaloMart was out of them. So Plan B resulted in the acquisition of some travel (bar) soap containers, which will be drilled at some point and filled with silica crystals. 62%-65% RH here I come. Ah, more second humidor rationalizing...
Well, that's pretty much it - midway through a 3-week foray into C-Bid to fill up the humidor for winter and spring. Looking forward to trying lots of different stuff over time from all over the place - just missed out on those $1.80 Punch Rothschilds (cabinet) and CAO chaser, for example.
Things aren't getting any easier around here with regard to consuming cigars, I might add. A friend was just warned that smoking (anything with the possible exception of medicinal marijuana) on local docks is now a misdemeanor. Niiiiice. But at the risk of hijacking my own thread, just suffice it to say an O3 generator is now firmly on the list as well.
Thanks for looking.
BWS
), I found a couple of solid B&Ms and a great online source, and then learned of the existence of this teflon-coated slope called C-Bid. Watched from afar for awhile and finally decided to take the plunge last week. Actually, last week, this week, and next week for a 3-week C-Bid experiment, but one thing at a time.The humidor was almost empty so it was beyond time to restock. So after bidding here and there and after receiving hundreds of automagically-generated emails telling me that I was a cheap bastard (or that others chose to pay too much, depending upon your perspective
), the first week came to a close last Wednesday with probably a 10% 'win' rate - which I would like to be the max going forward. Am completely fine with a 3%-5% success rate over time, given that the parameters I've set are pretty tight. The idea is to stockpile an ongoing annual supply of everyday cigars with a lesser number of other cigars. Anyway, an invoice/processed order email arrived early Thursday, and my stogies were in transit on Friday with tracking number in hand. I like DHL's tracking options - got emails in a timely manner and the box was delivered 2-3 days ahead of schedule. UPS has not been as fast as a rule.Below would be the first haul from last week (week 1): 105 cigars, which fills up the humidor about 33% - 40%. I'll work on the image quality for future uploads. As you can sort of tell, I'm partial to the medium-full side of life in an RP and DPG kinda way. Clockwise, there's a mix of Nestor Vintage, Legends Pepin, RP OSG, RP OWR, RP Fusion, ITSF maduro, and Sol Cubanos. More Oliva is on deck along with a couple of specially selected entries that probably are not going to get photographed.
This week's damage (week 2) was limited to a net of 25 more cigars (RPV90 & Vega Talanga), and for next week (week 3) am at the moment in the running for another... 220 cigars so far (which might net out to another 30-40 if I don't press it).
Fallback options should another humidor become necessary include either a spare 154-quart Costco special, one of those footlockers, or with a whole lot of rationalization, maybe a Trivoli in cherry. The original plan was to cycle 450 cigars/year, but storage for 1000 just seems like the right thing to do these days. After all, who knows what one might come across that needs to rest for a year or three
. Also for the humidor(s), I liked the toothbrush case idea someone posted here, but of course the local MegaloMart was out of them. So Plan B resulted in the acquisition of some travel (bar) soap containers, which will be drilled at some point and filled with silica crystals. 62%-65% RH here I come. Ah, more second humidor rationalizing...Well, that's pretty much it - midway through a 3-week foray into C-Bid to fill up the humidor for winter and spring. Looking forward to trying lots of different stuff over time from all over the place - just missed out on those $1.80 Punch Rothschilds (cabinet) and CAO chaser, for example.
Things aren't getting any easier around here with regard to consuming cigars, I might add. A friend was just warned that smoking (anything with the possible exception of medicinal marijuana) on local docks is now a misdemeanor. Niiiiice. But at the risk of hijacking my own thread, just suffice it to say an O3 generator is now firmly on the list as well.
Thanks for looking.
BWS
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