Yesterday was the 13th Annual Customer Appreciation Party at Tobacco World in Marietta, Georgia. This is the biggest event in the Atlanta area every year. For $10, they provide food, beer, wine, and a band. Everything in the store is also 25% off, and you receive raffle tickets depending on how much you spend. They do a drawing every 15 minutes or so, all day.
So a friend and I ended up going. I picked up a box of Oliva V Maduros 2011, a DE Undercrown, and a 601 La Bomba for $85. Not a fantastic deal, but pretty good for a B&M. Then we hung out, drank a few beers, ate, and just had a good time with some good cigars.
Tim Podwika (Podman) ended up stopping by for an hour or two, which was really cool. We talked about his new venture, cigars, and the people in the industry. He is very knowledgeable and has great taste in cigars. He also ended up gifting me some test blends and a pre-release BOTL cigar! Very generous!
After he left, I talked with Jonathan Drew for a couple of minutes about some of their new releases. Then the Drew Estate rep gave me a MUWAT, which is now resting in my humidor. There were a ton of manufacturers and sales reps there, along with some bloggers and BOTL I know from various events. I met up with Excel (whodeeni) for a couple of minutes and wished we could have had a cigar, but we left shortly after he arrived. We ended up doing a trade for some hard to find smokes, though.
It must have been my day - I ended up winning two raffles. One was an Camacho ashtray and Excalibur Golf notebook, and the other was a San Cristobal humidor made by Savoy. It was amazing since there were folks buying hundreds of dollars worth of cigars that had a ton of tickets.
All in all, I had a blast. If anyone is ever in the area around this time of the year, it is worth it to stop by just for the atmosphere.
Here are my purhases and my end of the trade with whodeeni:
Here are my raffle winnings and the freebies from Podman and Drew Estates.
Nice haul and I am so jealous.....congrats.
I like the humi...congrats on the wins and glad to hear you had a great time!
Sounds like a great day. Nice little haul too. :shades:
Sounds like a really great day. I'm a bit envious. :biggrin:
Sounded like a great day, nice to meet some other Geeks I'm sure.
Sounds like a great time!
Sounds like you had a very nice day.
That just awesome...glad you had a good time.. I'm overdue for a herf...
Sounds fun,great stuff!.
Lucky Man that was awesome enjoy!!!!!
Looks awesome! Lucky you!
Nice!
Last cigar event I went to was a 2 for one sale on Swisher Sweets at the Quickey Mart.
Almost as fun as my concert !! Seriously wow nice stuff !!
My ears are still ringing !
Brian