Nobody wants to be the guy complaining about prices. But when a Padron Black is sitting at 55 dollars a stick and guys are dropping 78 bucks on an Opus X just to watch it canoe, the conversation has to happen. Episode 038 of Smoke and Steel went there. A warm March night in Gilbertsville, windows open, a table full of serious smokers, and nobody holding back. If you’ve been feeling like cigar prices are too high lately, you were basically there with us.

What We Were Smoking in Episode 038

The lineup was not exactly budget night.

Mark went with the Hallowed Hands by Avowed Cigars and was so into it he moved straight to round two without hesitating. Every vitola Avowed has released has been consistent, and the box-press robusto keeps pulling ahead as the best of the bunch. Smooth start to finish.

Eric was on a Padron Black, which became the cigar that launched the night’s main conversation. More on that below.

Aaron came back for his second appearance on the show and went with an Opus X 20 Years. Last time he was here he pitched an La Union early and braced for the internet to come after him. Turns out most listeners agreed with him. Tatuaje La Union is overrated, the comments said so, and he walked back in with full credibility restored.

Rob had a Montecristo Classic Series Churchill. He admitted mid-episode it wasn’t doing much for him, switched over to an Ashton VSG later, and immediately noted the difference. Sometimes you just need to make the switch.

Walt picked up a Placencia Alma Fuerte from Epp’s Beverage down on Ridge Pike for around 18 bucks. MSRP runs closer to 28. That store had the blue label Alma del Cielo versions in there too, around 19 dollars. If you don’t have that address, ask around.

Jim brought a Julius Caesar from the Fuente Toast of America pack, a birthday gift Rob identified on sight.

Officer Pinto showed up near the end of his shift with a La Flor Dominicana Airbender and slotted right in. Four weeks from going solo on the job.

Cigar Prices Are Too High – We Had That Conversation

This is the one. Eric’s Padron Black sitting on the table at 55 dollars a stick was the spark.

The Padron Black wasn’t always a singles purchase. For years the only realistic way to get one was through the CRA (Cigar Rights of America) fundraiser pack, which ran around 190 dollars and included 10 to 12 premium cigars from top manufacturers. Whatever the flagship picks were that year. At that per-stick price, the Padron Black made sense. It was part of something bigger.

Now it ships to shops in boxes and singles, and the math is harder to stomach. Is it a good cigar? Yes. Is it 55-dollar-a-stick good? That’s where opinions started splitting.

Where Does Price Gouging Actually Start?

The table landed on a rough consensus: ten dollars over MSRP used to sting. Now it’s basically the floor. Double MSRP is where people get loud and start leaving reviews.

The Fuente Toast of America pack came up as one of the only places a real price ceiling actually exists in practice. Two cigars, one Julius Caesar and one Opus X, for 50 dollars. Both are minimum 30-dollar smokes on their own. Guys who try to flip them at 70 get buried in the comments every time, and the community is right to do it. That pack was built as a thank-you to the industry, not a margin play.

The Opus X conversation went the same direction. We used to smoke one or two every Friday without thinking about it. Now you do the math, realize you could get two or three other excellent sticks for the same money, and the Opus X stays in the humidor more than it used to. That’s not a knock on the cigar. It’s just what happens when prices keep climbing and your patience for paying them gets shorter.

Someone mentioned watching a guy at a lounge smoke an Opus that ran 78 dollars. It canoeed on him. You hate to see it at any price. At 78 you genuinely feel it secondhand.

The Beer Distributor Honey Hole: Still the Best Kept Secret in Cigar Retail

If you’ve never bought cigars from a beer distributor, this is your sign.

Epp’s and Frank Smith were both mentioned as local stops worth knowing about. Both owned by the same people, both running different humidor selections, which is either interesting or confusing depending on how you look at it. Frank Smith is tight. If someone’s already in the humidor when you get there, you wait. But the prices make the inconvenience easy to overlook.

The real conversation was about Link Beverage up in Coopersburg. That place used to be the unquestioned honey hole for the area. Word has gotten out and prices have adjusted a little, but it’s still meaningfully better than most retail. The reason is simple and it never changes: they’re in the beer business. The cigars are a draw. If he makes a few dollars on a stick and you walk out with a case, that’s exactly what he was going for. He told us as much once: “I’m in the beer business.” That says everything.

Walt picked up the Alma Fuerte at 18 dollars when it retails closer to 28. That’s the beer distributor effect in real time. Our buddy Matt has been running the same play at Links for a while now, clearing the My Father Blues shelf every couple of weeks. If you go and they’re gone, that’s why.

Why Online Retailers Still Win on Volume

Cigar Page came up more than once, as it always does. The deals are real, the shipping is fast, and if you need customer service you should prepare for a conversation that is technically helpful and completely cold. No warmth whatsoever. But when you’re paying 90 dollars for a bundle of 20 Mercielagos, you’re probably not calling to chat anyway.

Eric and Eddie split a bundle of Johnny Tobacconaut that came out to about five dollars a stick. That’s one of the better smokes at any price and getting it at five dollars is the kind of deal that makes you feel smart for about a week.

Box Pass Update and the Cinco de Mayo Fan Appreciation Night

The community box pass is on the move. Eddie swapped his smokes, shipped it off to Sam Hopkins in Ohio, and it heads back to Pennsylvania next before landing with Dave West. There was some discussion about filling it entirely with Avowed cigars as a bit.

The bigger news: we’re filming a fan appreciation episode on May 5th. Cinco de Mayo. Matt already designed a Sir Stogie logo for the night, complete with sombrero, burro, and chili peppers, and it came out great.

If you’ve been listening for a while, or even if you just found the show, reach out. Facebook, Discord, wherever you can find us. Come on, talk to us, tell us how you found the show. That night is for you. It’s not going to be our usual format. Just us giving the people who’ve been watching and sharing a chance to actually be part of it.

Avowed and LA Cigar Collective: Two Brands Earning the Hype

Two brands kept coming up in ways that felt genuine rather than forced.

Avowed Cigars continues to put out nothing bad. The Hallowed Hands gets the spotlight tonight, but the conversation was about consistency across the entire line. When you smoke every size a brand releases and none of them disappoint, that’s not an accident. Mark going back for round two mid-episode is the kind of endorsement that means more than any review score.

LA Cigar Collective came up through Jim’s love for the Padre Elegido, a house blend that has quietly become a regular at the table. Kyle has both the Padre Elegido and the Gris Gris, and the honest version of the story is that the Gris Gris took off faster, which puts Kyle in the strange position of watching his first creation get overshadowed by his second.

The two aren’t comparable in any real way. Different wrappers, different profiles. Gris Gris is one thing, Padre Elegido is another. If you haven’t tried the Padre Elegido, start there.

Kyle has more house blends coming. We’ve had the early versions. We’ll leave it at that.

Two Cigars Worth Hunting Down

Hermanos de Aramas (HDA) has been getting talked about in our group for a while. Hard to find locally, but Eddie goes through Harrisburg often enough that he’s going to pick up a couple for Walt. The brand is connected to the lounge series on YouTube that a few of us follow, which is a decent endorsement on its own.

The JC Newman American Cigar is the other one. Everything made in the United States, grown and rolled domestically. There’s exactly one shop near Wilmington, Delaware that has two of them in stock right now. Eddie’s handling that pickup too. Some guys have all the range.

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