why buy a box?

[Toshi]

OK, so this is probably a silly question (first of many?), but one thing that's struck me since I've been browsing online suppliers is that cigars are no more expensive to buy in singles than they are in a box (per cigar). I would have expected that there would be a discount for buying a box (or to put another way, a premium price for buying singles as boxes would have to be split), so why do people buy boxes? Is it as simple as people knowing what they like and knowing they will get through them? or am I missing something obvious?

[daniel2001]

To keep them in order to add some age, and because when you open a box of cigars it is one of the loveliest sights and smells around.

[spirit_of_will]

What Daniel said plus for the reasons you've already identified, I find something I like and want a full box to work thru...

[Toshi]

OK, but there isn't an issue with keeping cigars long term as singles, is there? i.e. there's no advantage to keeping them in the boxes they shipped with rather than in a humidor amongst other singles?

[Simon-JG-hr]

In many ways cigars are like fine wine... When you buy the cigars when they're relatively new (i.e. from the shop) they can have young properties (slight notes of ammonia, harshness, or even lack of depth). If you buy a box, you can age them, allowing for the breakdown of ammonia (and the development and refinement of the flavours) in the same way that you lay down a bottle of good claret - because the tannins need time to break down and the flavours time to meld and balance. The same as with wine, you can buy them fresh from the store (or even en primeur in the case of wine), or you can pick up the pre-aged examples at auctions (or sometimes the stores will sell too) - but you will pay a premium for that. The only exception to the premium I have seen is when H&F released a few examples from 1997-1999, which were overstocks from a bit of a sick period of Cuban production - many, as it happens, have opened up and become pretty good smokes (certainly those I have tried).

There's also the case that if you have a favourite cigar that you smoke a lot of, you might as well have a store of them in your own humidor. A common train of thought is that cigars need a short period in your humidor to condition from the slightly lower RH of stores/warehouse humidors (plus the transit), so better to have a batch which are ready and waiting.

(Plus, as Dan says, there is no more beautiful sight to behold than that when you open a brand new box of cigars).

[Simon-JG-hr]

OK, but there isn't an issue with keeping cigars long term as singles, is there? i.e. there's no advantage to keeping them in the boxes they shipped with rather than in a humidor amongst other singles?

You can keep the box in your humidor - most people who buy by the box will have a humidor large enough to keep the boxes in. (Do a quick forum search, a year or so back there was a wonderful 'show off your humidor' type thread). Generally it is accepted that the cigars will age better in the box they ship in (they're surrounded by other cigars with the same oils etc, and there's less opportunity for those oils to escape into the atmosphere). Favoured by those who age in boxes, above all else, are the slide-lid box (SLB, aka cabs) - these have all of those advantages, keep cigars surrounded by cigars rather than the box, and allow a small amount of airflow within the box to help humidity regulation.

Example of an SLB:
Part_Lus_50__03486_zoom.jpg

[tippexx]

OK, but there isn't an issue with keeping cigars long term as singles, is there? i.e. there's no advantage to keeping them in the boxes they shipped with rather than in a humidor amongst other singles?

Mingle, mingle, mingle. Just not the done thing old chap, at least not for long term. And as you've possibly noticed humidors come in all sizes and it isn't always possible to accommodate some vitola. And cigars are a little bit like matches .... if you want to know precisely where they are and always have them handy .... best to keep them in the box.

[rokkitsci]

Some of the boxes are right purty, too!

[Toshi]

Ok, points taken

I understand the advantage of ageing, and in an ideal world it would be great to afford to buy cigars by the box, but I did have a cunning plan to buy 2 or 3 singles of a few different types, and pack them up in empty cases (same vitola together) before putting them into a humidor. Is this not a good idea?

[Sligub]

Another reason is when your away on holiday you can pick up at least two boxes at Much cheaper prices than the UK