Over the weekend I shared with you a ten step process to saving you time and money while buying cigars. The objective today is to help you save a little more cash while the holidays are fast approaching. Last weeks tips were good if the items you are looking for are on sale, but what do you do if that box of Oliva Serie G’s hasn’t hit any of the deal sites in months?
The first thing you are going to want to do is get a general idea of what that box is going to cost you at full price. This isn’t too hard to do if you jump around to a few retailers and check out the pricing. But there is a faster way, after all, time is money.
Save time comparing prices:
Rather than hop from site to site trying to find which e-store has the lowest price, why not hit up a one stop shop? If you are familiar with the brick of a pocket sized book entitled, “Perelman’s Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigar”s, you may already know about Rich Perelman’s extensive website.
On CigarCyclopedia.com you can find a comparison shopper that features regularly updated pricing on a large number of cigars. The prices displayed cover ten popular internet retailers and is very easy to follow. If a price has increased or decreased since the last update, that price will be color coded to inform you of the recent change.
Save money at auction:
Not too long ago I shared a few common sense tips for becoming a cigar auction rock star. Armed with those tips, hit up some of the popular auction sites like Cigar Bid and Cigar Auctioneer to try and find yourself a bargain. Remember to be patient and learn to walk away if the price isn’t right.
Auction sites aren’t your style? Check out a new feature from Cigars International entitled “Make me an offer”. The feature operates just as it sounds. CI gives you the opportunity to offer them a price for select merchandise, if you make a reasonable offer the item is yours. Offer too little, too many times, and you are locked out of purchasing that item for a 24 hour period.
Buy in bulk:
If you know that you are going to be purchasing a couple of items from the same place, wait until you can order them all at once. If an item is advertised as “Free Shipping” your entire order will receive free shipping. Often times ordering over a certain dollar value will entitle your order to free shipping. While you may only save a couple of bucks going this route, it adds up over time.
Do you have a suggestion to save some cash that you would like to share with the readers?
I have been to cigarcyclopedia.com a couple of times but I never noticed the
comparison shopper, this is a great tool to have.
Thanks for the great info, Walt!!!
Lots of internet retailers have coupon codes and discounts that are advertised through various means. If you look around, lots of people share these codes online. One of the more popular ones is the CI free shipping code, so you can always get your CI order shipped free. This makes it really convenient to just pick up a 5-pack if you aren’t in a spendy mood.
These articles are really awesome Walt. I’m falling in love with this site man. It does a smoker good!
Ryan,
Thats music to my ears, I’m glad you enjoy the site. If you even want to see a topic covered in this type of article, feel free to shoot us an email and let us know.
Robert,
You are absolutely right, forums are an excellent place to find free shipping codes as well as special deals.
Tony,
Cigar Cyclopedia is a massive site. I’ve been using it every now and again for a couple of years now and I stil don;t think I’ve used it to its full potential.
Thanks for the comments, keep them coming.
-Walt
I definitely will if something comes up Walt, thanks again.
I’m lucky that my local shop is cheaper than most online prices even. 🙂
Cigar Cyclopedia is a fantastic resource I use it at least once a week.
The problem I have with Cigar Bid is that I end up buying more than I intended or stuff that no one should EVER buy. I bid $2 on a 5-pack once and one. I paid $5 too much for that 5-pack.