I'm wondering how you all approach the pricing of your cigars for passes? 

 I know the etiquette for passes is to replace your takes with puts that are of equal value, how do you determine this?

 For me, living in Boise Idaho i have two B&M to choose from; one is the "everyday" store and the other is higher end, the issue I have is that Idaho has a 40% tax! yikes! This means any price I see on the internet is less than what I can find locally. That being said I split my business as equitably as possible so I'm sure I'm paying more than say the folks down South who have so many more venues to choose from.

 Thoughts?

 And don't worry, for the Curmudgeon pass. Will go pick up my extra puts from the backyard...that reminds me I need to go feed the dog.

I would say you should average the prices that you find on the net. Now if you know or think a cigar has been on cbid or a similar site I would use the street price. Another words a $30 gukura is actually probably a 5 dollar stick. If you have questions about a specific put and take pm one of the senior members on the site or the pass moderator. Hope this helps bro.

We had a discussion not long ago on this subject,,,consensus was that we not include tax as value of cigar but the average price say from CI or JR,,,,that way the value remains fair to all of us, not more because taxes in one state make a cigar purchased higher for that person....it's the only way to be fair, average it against online,,,, if I can buy a $30 gurkha for $6 online it's a $6 cigar not $30 paid at the local B&M....
Correct me of I am wrong !

^^  What he said  

 

When using on-line prices as basis for a  pass I also tend to at mimimum us the per cigar price from a five pack and in many I use the per cigar price from a box.  Most of us dont buy oon-liine less than a fiver at a time

It's really not hard for most sticks.  Just use CI, cigar.com, or Famous, as said above.   The tricky part gets to be HTF and limited sticks.  A LP Unico is a $15 MSRP, but you can't swap a regular, say, Diamond Crown for that,  even though MSRP may match.  Best to ask the mod or a veteran if in doubt, that way nobody ends up slighted.

some guys put it right in the pass rules and it clears up any bs right away.

QuoteStogieDad - 8/4/2014  7:55 AM

It's really not hard for most sticks.  Just use CI, cigar.com, or Famous, as said above.   The tricky part gets to be HTF and limited sticks.  A LP Unico is a $15 MSRP, but you can't swap a regular, say, Diamond Crown for that,  even though MSRP may match.  Best to ask the mod or a veteran if in doubt, that way nobody ends up slighted.

^ 100% agree with this. This is how I always price mine. It sucks if you buy most of your sticks at your local B&M because like my local, they are high as hell and you end up getting screwed a little. To me the fun of it being in a pass is getting a big choice of some sticks I wouldn't normally buy and not having to buy a fiver or a box to try. I only buy very little from my local B&M because of this. The online guys kick there butt.

I try to go by CI or Famous' regular 5-pk price.  If I have a problem determining a price, I try to err in the other guy's favor.

If you are new to passes, the #1 rule is: If there is any doubt, ask the mod or a FOG to check your Puts and Takes.  Even us FOGs will still, on occasion, run our P/Ts past the mod once in a while.  

The LAST thing you want to do is bad Puts.  That is one of the few things here that gets Geeks to start piling onto a guy, because it is completely avoidable if you simply check with someone else first.

What he said^^^

In pricing use the same source as comparison if possible, and sometimes it isn't. Search Padilla Signature 1932 in our database and you will see there were different issues of it.  To answer the question, the 2007 was a damn fine cigar and a Pepin blend

All good advice.

As a general rule, I use CI per stick price from a box, then move onto Famous, and then onto a general web search, averaging the per stick price I find among as many sites I can find.  Once you've done this for a while, you have a general idea of what cigars sell for.  As I stated before, using B&M prices is not the route you should take, as taxes, markups, etc. vary wildly among different states and even different shops.

For limited or hard-to-find cigars, I use MSRP, factoring in availability.  When all else fails, I check with another vet, the moderator, or both.

Not that I have that much experience, but err on the side of being generous on puts.

I'm with Nathan on this one.  I always use CI and use the box price.  If they don't have that particular cigar, I search Famous and Cigar.com.  Some moderators will post where to check pricing so everybody is on the same page.