ACHP Episode 381 A Third Term President and a Fire At AJ's Factory?

Episode Summary

Episode 381 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast — recorded on April Fool's Day — opens with the hosts and Boots running through trending news (Trump floating a third term and the 22nd Amendment, the Timberwolves–Pistons brawl and Isaiah Stewart's suspension, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Anderson Cooper's net worth, an alleged Elon Musk/DOGE data-recovery claim, and a rundown of current crypto scams) before turning to the week's big cigar story.

The centerpiece is the fire at the Tabacalera A.J. Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua factory in Estelí, one of the largest cigar factories in the world, which also produces for Altadis, General Cigar, Foundation Cigar Company and others. Reports placed the blaze in the packaging department, but the hosts push back with a detailed, openly speculative theory that Estelí factory fires are more likely tied to the post-harvest fumigation process — aluminum/magnesium phosphide tablets that release flammable phosphine gas. They argue for safer (if pricier) fumigation tablets, stricter on-site protocols, and a shared, well-funded fire department funded by the big factories, while noting the human cost: potentially thousands of rollers and bunchers out of work, and the risk of top talent migrating to other factories. AJ's second facility, the San Lotano factory in Ocotal (which makes Espinosa and Knuckle Sandwich), is unaffected.

Other cigar news includes El Septimo's $25 million Fabergé Egg–style humidors headed to PCA (and the hosts' running joke about issuing a fake $26 million humidor press release), Gurkha's Year of the Snake trio made at Casa Cordillo, Oscar Valladares Tobacco & Co., and Tabacalera Oliva de Nicaragua; the new AJ Fernandez Enclave blended by Eladio Diaz in the Dominican Republic; and Davidoff's Zino Nicaragua packaging refresh with new cardboard five-packs, 25-count boxes for the Half Corona, and a color change to orange. There's also discussion of the Cigar Medics Il Mestiero cutter as a much cheaper alternative to the Dunbarton cutter, plus Crowned Heads' Blood Medicine expansion and Sin Compromiso Word of Sucka.

The back half covers the pre-PCA price increase season: PDR Cigars at roughly 2.5%, Plasencia at about 3% effective April 21 (after the show), and Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust averaging 3.67% with Broadleaf-wrapped puros hit hardest at around 5%. Also mentioned: Michael's appearance on Prime Time with Coop alongside Artesano del Tabaco talk about San Andrés and the El Pulpo, a Padrón San Andrés history aside, Shop of the Week Cigar Castle in Tampa/Temple Terrace, Listener of the Week "Lightweight Heavy" Sean, and Powstanie's PCA appointment/sling-bag giveaway.

In This Episode

1. 01
   April Fool's Cold Open
   The hosts joke about job offers and fake announcements to kick off the April 1st episode.
2. 02
   Trending News Roundup
   Trump's third-term talk and the 22nd Amendment, the Timberwolves–Pistons brawl, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Anderson Cooper's net worth, and the Elon Musk/DOGE data claim.
3. 03
   Crypto Scam Rundown
   AI-driven fraud, pig butchering, dusting attacks, fake airdrops and fraudulent exchanges, plus tips for staying safe.
4. 04
   Prime Time with Coop Recap
   Michael recaps his PCA pre-show appearance and the San Andrés/El Pulpo conversation, noting Padrón has used San Andrés for decades.
5. 05
   Fire at the A.J. Fernandez Factory in Estelí
   Details on the blaze, which brands the factory produces for, and a long speculative breakdown blaming phosphine fumigation tablets and a lack of fire protocol.
6. 06
   El Septimo's $25 Million Fabergé Egg Humidors
   The company's latest jewel-encrusted PCA showpiece and the hosts' plan to counter with a joke $26 million humidor press release.
7. 07
   New Releases: Gurkha, AJ x Eladio Diaz, and Zino Nicaragua
   Gurkha's Year of the Snake trio, the Dominican-made AJ Fernandez Enclave by Eladio Diaz, and Davidoff's Zino Nicaragua packaging and color update.
8. 08
   PCA 2025 Price Increases
   PDR at 2.5%, Plasencia at 3% effective April 21, and Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust averaging 3.67% with Broadleaf puros up about 5%.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.

Transcript

Real quick, make sure I want anything important. Okay. Welcome to episode 381 of the Cigar Hustler Podcast, April Fool's show. April Fool's episode.

April Fool. So this is the last one I can do, Michael. This is the last one, what? Last one I can do, period.

Period. Period. I'm done. And it's over.

Well, Skip offered me a job last night. I'm moving to Austin. He did offer you the job. Well, the job part's not April Fool's, but no, we're still doing the show.

Well, you gave me that raving review on the spur of the moment, so. Me? Yeah. He asked you if I was meeting my goals.

What did I say? Palmer meets his goals every day. Yeah. And then he goes, well, I'd like to talk to him then.

Yeah. Well, you know. And they pay for the move. He covered the pay for the move.

Yeah, professionals and everything. Hey, you know, if... I wouldn't leave Mike. If you feel like...

I wouldn't leave. There are better opportunities, I would encourage you to go. You know what I mean? I wouldn't leave.

I wouldn't leave. I don't think you'd leave either, no. But I always want what's best for you. I understand.

I appreciate that. So... This show just got weird. What do you mean, just got weird?

All right, trending news. Trump went to third term. There was a huge fight at the Minnesota-Detroit game. game.

Game match? What's it called? Baseball or basketball game. It's baseball.

It's basketball. It was baseball. It's basketball. We're not doing that one anymore.

New crypto scans. Yeah. And of course there's always an Elon Musk scandal every week. This torch is on Megalodon.

The problem yesterday too. New Spider-Man movie is announced. Oh. And Anderson Cooper's Mike's net worth has been leaked.

You got a lighter? He's in trouble. I need a lighter. I got an extra lighter.

Thank you. No, he has an extra one. Oh, I take the extra one. One, two, three.

Don't drop that one. Oh, God. Oh, Gigi, hit the camera. That was a big cracking teleprompter.

That wasn't improper catching, that was definitely improper. Yeah, that was a bad throw. All right, in cigar news, a big story this week is the AJ Fire Nestle. Big news there.

I mean literally big news Yep There's a 25 million dollar humidor That we all have to have Yours is running rich too bro What is the air Are we going to blow up It's not AJ's factory No No no Gurkha has more steak knives coming Of course Our friend Eladio is making a cigar Well for AJ But that might not be It might be a necessary thing No. I feel like it's still going on, buddy, because it's not going to be at AJ's Factory. No. Xeno is getting an update.

Whoa. There's some PCA releases going on, and also some PCA price increase. Yes, we are officially, we're reaching the end of Q1 here, and this is where you start to see the price increases before PCA. Can you give it a title, like, what we, what's the...

Build the Wall? No, what's the thing when people change jobs? In the portal. Yeah, in the portal.

Okay, what can we tag PCA releases and PCA price increases? Fake discounts and deals at PCA. That's funny. All right, trending world news.

Trump wants to run again. Who else has served more than two terms? Hint, there's only been one. Yeah?

You can't guess today. I want to guess. No, because this is take two. Now you know.

I feel like I know. Yeah. President Donald Trump confirmed rumors he could seek an unconstitutional third presidential term, telling NBC News Sunday that he was not joking. A lot of people really want me to do it, he said in a phone interview.

So many people. But I mean, basically tell them we have a long way to go. You know, it's very early in the administration. S.

Constitution, president may only be elected for two terms. Trump teased methods he could have to do it, but did not elaborate on any plans, saying he wanted to focus on his current presidency. Yes. Well, here's why I don't like that statement coming from Trump.

Okay. What does a guy have to lose if he's only in it for the one term? Nothing. Absolutely nothing, right?

So, he can go in and... No, no, I'm, I'm, I just, it just clicked. He can go in and say, this is what I want to do, these are the changes I want to make, period, right? And make those changes.

If he's worried about getting in for another term, then he's got a backpedal, then there's all this fluff involved, there's all this other, you know. With anyone else, I would agree with you, I don't think he cares. I think he thinks he could be elected king if he wanted to. I nominate myself king.

Yes, I've decided I'm just going to stay. I will be king of this. They cannot get me out of here. Yeah, I mean, I don't, look, at the end of the day, I think the only way that, realistically, anybody can get a third term in is the same way that Barry did it.

Barry? Yeah. Barry Goldwater? No.

Barack Obama. Oh, Barack Obama. Yeah, yeah, you just get a, you know, you take your VP, a guy who's, you know, may or may not be... Was he, Biden, was that his VP?

Yeah. I'm not even familiar. Yeah, and you know... Oh.

Nobody really remembers that. Oh, God, what is his puppet regime in? Hello, I am president now. That's exactly what he's going to be.

D. Vance, we're going to. He's a perfect puppet. I don't think that he's a perfect puppet.

Oh. D. Vance and where he came from and how he went to Yale. I mean, he came from absolutely.

He's a little scary, too. He came from nothing. He seems angry all the time. I can appreciate that.

Yes. Oh, I don't mind. You know, I need someone with a little bit of an edge, you know? He's like the older brother, you know, you can't pick on him because then I'm gonna kick your ass.

Yeah, he's my idiot. Right, exactly. You don't get to call him an idiot. He's my idiot, right, exactly.

He's my idiot. Right, exactly. S. history has served more than two terms.

I'm not gonna ask you who it was today. Boots, who was it? Oh, Boots, who was it? We had Boots back this week.

Hello, Boots. Hello. Reagan? Bush?

I don't know. Reagan, Bush? Which Bush? He's Bush.

Junior. Junior. Junior. You think Junior did three terms?

Oh, no. I don't know. Okay. You think Reagan did three terms?

Maybe. Oh, we wish. I think second term, his wife was president. Oh.

That's the rumor. I don't know. That's the rumor? She was the puppet master?

Yeah, he was Biden'd. He was Biden'd before it was Biden'd? Yeah, he was hip before it was hip. How would somebody serve more than two terms?

Because it's law that you can't, right? Well, let's read on and find out. America's first president, George Washington, voluntarily stepped down after two terms, creating an unofficial tradition for future presidents to follow suit, because he didn't want to be king. Yeah, he's like, I don't want this.

Yeah, no, no, if I do more than two, then we might as well have kept George. Right. Right. President Franklin D.

Roosevelt was the first and only president to break that tradition. The country was still recovering from the Great Depression and the dawn of World War II. He was re-elected to his third term after leading the country through the global war. He was elected again in 1944, but died the following year.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt. So he had the third term, but he didn't get to finish. It was in the paper. Right.

It didn't happen. Okay. So can Trump run for a third term? Under the Constitution, as it stands, no, no, no, he can't.

It's just silly. Yeah. Changes to the Constitution are extremely difficult and rare, as requires two-thirds majority vote in both the House and the Senate. There's no way he's going to get all that.

He's gonna get all that. Do you think that this is a little more theatrics than anything? Oh, yeah. I mean, he loves theatrics.

Right. What do you think? Smoking mirrors. Uh, maybe.

I mean, isn't the majority in the House and the Senate Republican? At this current moment, but in two years, you're gonna have... They get reelected more often. Right.

They get reelected more often. So I guess it just depends on when he tries to move it. Do you think in two years, you're gonna see a little bit of blue come back, or...? Hmm.

I don't know. That's a good question. Those are actually votes that count, right? That's the votes that count, right?

When you vote for the House and Senate. Like the President's Electoral College, there's all that debate about who really, you know, picks the president type thing. Right. But in the House and Senate, there's not that kind of situation.

It's basically the votes. Right. I don't know. You don't know if you're going to see after that whole diatribe?

No, I don't know. At this particular time, because the people obviously elected him. Right. I mean, even though the Electoral College- Popular vote as well.

Well, that's what I mean. The popular vote was for Trump. Right. So I don't see them wanting to put more Democrats in.

" Well, you just need a handful to change. Yeah, it's gotta be two-third majorities, so, I mean, that would be hard to do. Okay. Yeah.

All right. Next. Legislatures to call a Constitutional Convention and three-fourths to ratify it. So, seven.

Seven. Ejected following a scuffle in Minnesota, Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons game. This is that baseball game where all the fights were. Baseball game, you're covering.

Baseball game, we're covering. It might have been cold outside of Minneapolis on Sunday, but it was pretty heated inside the Target Center. Five players and two coaches were ejected from the Minnesota Timberwolves-Detroit Pistons game after a scuffle broke out in the second quarter. You're out of here.

B. Bickerstaff. Head coach got ejected? Yes.

This is where we need boots. For the sports. Yes. Center, Isaiah Stewart.

He's the culprit. Forward, Ron Holland II. And guard, Marcus Cesar, were tossed out of Detroit with Minnesota forward, Naz Reed, and guard, Dante DiVincio. Oh, and their assistant coach, Pablo Prigoni, were also lost for the game.

DiVincenzo, there's only one that you got wrong, I think. Oh, I got it right yesterday, I think. With the Pistons up 39-30 and about eight minutes to go before halftime, Holland fouled Reid while he was driving to the basket. Reid then pointed a finger at Holland, which led to DeVincio getting between the two.

A skirmish started between the players, which spilled all the way to the first row of the crowd behind the basket. Refs and security were able to calm down the situation and assess the penalties afterward. The Timberwolves would go on to win 123-104. After the game, Bickerstaff commended his team for sticking to one another, obviously, things went too far, what you see if guys looking out for one another, guys trying to protect one another, trying to have one another's back, and that's that, Bickerstaff told reporters.

Bickerstaff, who is the first-year coach for Detroit, added the team is frustrated after the incident and the loss. Did you see the fans in the crowd, where the fight kind of squirmished? Yeah. Were they into, were they fighting too?

No, they weren't fighting, too, but none of them really looked upset. Yeah, no. Everybody, they were like, yeah, fight, fight, fight. Oh, they love fights.

It kind of got out of control because, yeah, the guy pointed the finger at him, but when Di Vincenzo gripped the guy up, because he grabbed him with both hands at the jersey, it was kind of like out of, that was real out of control how he gripped him like that. So he's on Detroit? No, Di Vincenzo's on the Timberwolves. So the Timberwolf guy really kind of ignited the physical.

Yeah, when he gripped them up, that was immediate. Everybody started coming over. I love that. Cleared the bench.

I think that we should let them fight. Don't you think we should? No, that's hockey. Hockey is where you get to fight.

I want to see brawls on every single sport at this point. Why? Because. Well, the last, like, really bad brawl, right, was the Malice in the Palace.

Detroit. Detroit's always involved. Yeah. And that one got really bad because the fans really got involved and the players were punching fans.

Oh! I mean, it was out of control. That's fantastic. Okay, if they're going to fight with the fans?

I think fans should get involved. I'm okay with that. I mean, no holds barred. Yeah, sell tickets for more money down there.

That's the fight zone. Pass out gloves, headgear. Look, if you let these guys say, hey, look, we're going to let you fight, I bet you half of them, maybe even higher, they're like, you know what, that's okay. Yeah, no.

They back it off. If it's allowed? No, I don't want to. How does this start a fight?

I don't know. I'm going to tell you right now, you pointed at me twice, and I want to charge you. There was probably some words, you just can't hear them down there. Yeah, there's a lot of smack-talking in basketball.

There was a white guy and a black guy. There was probably some words that he didn't like. Oh, they're probably dropping some words. That hard R was probably flying around.

There was an exchange. All I'm saying is, I remember, there was a movie back in the day where, man, I gotta figure out what it was. " And he was acting like he wanted to fight somebody, and he needed somebody to hold him back. I feel like that's what happens here.

" Is that Chuck and Larry? What's that? Chuck and Larry? It might be.

Yeah, maybe Chuck and Larry. That happens in a lot of movies. In the same scenario, these guys know that it's not going to get too serious. Right.

And then you bring on the real killers. You bring on two or three guys. You have players that are just fighters. Yeah, you know what, dude?

Ride the bench unless there's a fight. You can't make a rebound. You can't make a shot. You're terrible at assists.

You can throw a punch. But here's what happens. If it goes sideways, I want you taking out the point guard. It's like, okay, no problem.

So the guy from Detroit, Isaiah Stewart, actually is banned right now from the NBA. Indefinitely. As of right this second until investigation goes further. From the fight?

From the fight. Was anybody injured? I don't think anybody. Black eye, bloody lip, anything.

I don't think anybody was injured. The main guy that got fouled in the beginning was actually on the bottom of the pile when they went into the crowd. And then Di Vincenzo was on the bottom while Isaiah Stewart was grabbing him. There's some pictures that are floating around right now that aren't that great because he's grabbing him in the lower section.

You can say penis, it's okay. No-no square? He went for the no-no square? Yeah, he went for it.

No-no square. I mean, he was really dirty fighting there. He grabbed him in his privates. Hey man, no holds barred.

So that was DiVincenzo, the one for the no-no square? No, that was the one that got his no-no square grabbed. Isaiah Stewart was the one that grabbed him. He went no-no square.

Yeah. I would say that's banned indefinitely. You know what I mean? Yeah, no dick grabbing.

There should be some, yeah, exactly. That's the line. There should be some integrity here in the fight. You know what I mean?

Look, look, you can fight. Just don't grab anybody's dick. No, no shots below the belt. No biting, you know.

No biting? I don't want biting. I'm not biting. Because, you know, it takes me back to Tyson.

You know what I mean? I'm thinking the ears. Yeah, exactly. It's one of the best things that ever happened to boxing.

Yeah, it is, when you bit that ear off. I mean, but you could permanently maim somebody. Yeah, Vander was mad. Well, I can stick my thumb in your eyeball, too.

Yeah, no thumb in the eyeball, no eye gouging. Like, keep, be, again, be reasonable. Those are kind of hard things to remember when you're in the middle of it. But who's fighting and says, "I'm gonna grab his dick"?

Apparently, that Stewart guy or whatever his name is, I don't know what I'm going to do, I'm going to grab his wiener. You know what I'm going to do? This will really injure him. This will show him.

All right, next story. Well, getting on to grabbing wieners, Tom Holland's Spider-Man 4 gets official title, Spider-Man, brand new wiener. No, no, Spider-Man, brand new day ahead of summer, brand new day is the name of the movie. Yes.

They've announced the movie and the title, but they've not started shooting the movie yet. I thought they ended Spider-Man in the last one. Well, they had the whole multiverse thing, where they had the other Spider-Mans get involved. Right.

It was a little weak. Oh, I liked it. You liked it? I liked it.

Well, the reality is that no matter what movie you produce, if you throw Spider-Man in, it's an instant blockbuster hit. Right. It's very popular. Like Snow White, If you'd have just dropped Spider-Man in the middle of that movie, it would have been a billion dollar hit.

You could have done all the other stuff, the free Palestine and all these, you know, everything that she stated. If you just put Spider-Man in the middle of it, like, he was the prince, if you made Spider-Man the prince. He undid the mask and made the kiss. Yeah, undid the, like, came down, you know.

It's not part of the story, but did you see the documentary on Stan Lee? No. Apparently, there's some guy who kept him propped up for years and dragged him around to all these personal appearances and stuff. And manipulated him to stole money and extrovert him?

Yeah. Yeah, I knew about that. That's very sad. Yeah.

I was fortunate enough to meet him. Did you see the guy there? Maybe. It was a big Iranian-looking guy.

Middle Eastern. Let's say Middle Eastern. I don't know what the correct is. He can't throw an Iranian out there.

Well, that's the way he looked. I don't know what to tell you. They have a specific, you know, like we're a specific American-looking. Yeah.

So, go ahead, though. It's possible that I saw that guy, but I got Jackson Justice got... Didn't somebody, didn't Stan say no or something, and somebody said, no, no, you can go up or something? Yeah, I had bought the wrong ticket.

It was him. It was probably him. We need his money, Stan. Just suck it up and shake the kid's hand.

Stan was awesome to the boys, you know, and for as old as he was, he picked up Justice like, whoop, and put him right on his lap. Wow, he's a superhero. It was incredible. And we were, Brittany and I were both sick that day.

It was a rough day. But we got a photo now that will remain. It's worth millions. It's not worth millions, but it's worth a ton to me.

It's worth a million memories. And it's going to be worth a ton to the kids as they get older. And then we had them sign it, too. But Teddy didn't get that signature because she wasn't there yet.

She wasn't there yet. Well, she might have been there in spirit. I mean, she was kind of there, I guess, to some degree. All right.

Peter Parter's next cinematic outing is officially titled Spider-Man: Brand New Day, The Fourth Quill, is that a word? Fourth Quill? The fourth pole? Fourth Quill.

Fourth Quill. Like sequel? Fourth Quill. The fourth Quill.

We'll begin filming this summer according to director Destin Daniel Cretan. Okay. Or Cretan, if, you know, maybe he's French. Cretan.

Who announced the production timeline at CinemaCon, though Tom Holland wasn't on hand at the annual convention for movie theater owners, which is currently taking place in Las Vegas. The web-slinger sent a video to tease the upcoming superhero adventure. He said, "I am so sorry I can't be with you, and I'm halfway around the world shooting a movie," said Holland, who will be seen next in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey with Matt Damon, Zendaya, and Anne Hathaway, I like Anne Hathaway. "I know we left you with a massive cliffhanger at the end, massive cliff," it's supposed to be cliff, but it says "clip," maybe he said "cliphhanger," maybe that's the phrase they use.

At the end of No Way Home, so Spider-Man Brand New Day is a fresh start. Exactly that. That's all I can say. Well, Venom has to meet Spider-Man at some point.

Yeah. You think so? Well, that's how the comics went, right? Yeah.

Who was the guy? I love this guy. Tom Hardy. Yes.

Yeah. Cigar guy. Yep. Yes.

If they don't integrate him into this movie. Well, I think Tom Hardy said he was done playing... Yeah, I heard that too. For the last one.

The last one. Oh man, that's too bad. Because I think that's why they kind of like ended it the way they ended it. But he did a clip at the end of Venom 2?

How many was there? There's three. Three, okay. Where he was looking at Spider-Man on the news or something.

Yeah. Oh, was that when they're on the island or something? Venom? One of the Venom movies, I thought of the name.

It was on a beach or something. Yeah, Beach. Yeah, so, I mean... Well, there's like, there's one point where Venom does meet Spider-Man and then Carnage also comes into effect as well.

Well, Carnage is dead though, I think. The way that the... That's the way that... Is anybody really dead in the movies?

That portrayed. No, apparently Black Widow is very much dead because she never came... Oh, well, maybe that. Yeah.

She never came back at all, but... Look, here's the reality... Her sister is, though. Oh, yeah.

But here's the reality when it comes to Spider-Man. The storyline can be weak, it can get 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, it'll still make a billion dollars. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

It just doesn't matter. Everybody loves Spider-Man? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. You know who else loves Spider-Man?

Who? Anderson Cooper. Anderson Cooper loves Spider-Man? CNN salary and net worth has been revealed.

He's in trouble. Before, Before becoming one of the most recognizable faces in journalism, Anderson Cooper already had a claim to fame, being the son of the late Gloria Vanderbilt. I was not aware of that. Me neither.

Hmm. And a direct descendant of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Who's Cornelius Vanderbilt? I have no idea.

He's a glorious father? I mean, that would make sense. Probably. Hmm.

Oh, he's the American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. Oh. Railroads and shipping. Oh, Vanderbilt.

Oh, okay. I got it. There you go. I recognize it.

Okay. Wow, you recognize that name now? Well, with the railroads. Isn't that the guy's name from Varsity Blues?

I have no idea. Cornelius? Or Vanderbilt? No, Vanderbilt.

Could be, but I don't think there's any relation. He could be a descendant. Yeah, in the movie? Yeah.

Could be, I guess. You'd think he would have gone to like private school or something. You'd think he'd had more money. Yeah, but you know.

However, despite coming from a wealthy family, Cooper's net worth comes primarily from his work as a broadcast journalist, not his inheritance. In fact, the CNN anchor once opened up about his family's spending and how he was was told not to expect a trust fund. Oh, my mom's, my mom's, oh, do you have two moms? Maybe.

My mom's made clear to me that there is no trust fund, Cooper told Howard Stern 2014 interview per Business Insider. There's none of that, I don't believe in inheriting money, who's inherited a lot of money that has gone on to do things on their in their own life. So, he's not an only child? No, he said, who has inherited a lot of money and gone to do things?

Most people, I think he is saying most people that have inherited money just live off the money. I think that that's fair. Yeah, it makes sense. And it sounds like that's great parenting.

You know, like Shaq does the same thing. Yeah, I've heard that about him. I've heard stories about Deion Sanders determining which one kid would sit first class with him, the other ones would sit coach. That's amazing.

From the time I was growing up, I felt that there was some pot of gold waiting for me. I don't know that I would have been so motivated. Oh, if I knew there was a pot of gold waiting for me, I would not have been motivated. I love that you don't know how to read.

It's fantastic. I'm doing this on my glasses because there's a glare, Michael. Leave me alone. Okay.

So what is Cooper's net worth? Want to guess? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll guess this.

Hold on. Okay, we have two numbers, so I'll give you anywhere in between. Okay. Boots, what are you going to suggest?

I'm going to say $120 million. That's pretty good. I think he's a little more. I think he's $250 million.

All right. Estimate a net worth of $60 million. We're not even close. However, this is disputed, as USA Today estimates is 2021, that it's closer to $200 million.

It's quite a variance there, $60 million to $200 million. Somebody wasn't doing a TurboTax. He has to carry the one. Well, how do you honestly look that up?

You know what I mean? Yeah. Unless he tells somebody. Yeah.

And then how do you back that? It's not like he owns anything where his books are open. No, but I'm sure they can look up like there's a record of cars bought, houses bought, bank account information, tax returns. Sure.

And maybe like proof of a contract, you know, hey, you got a five year deal for 200 million or something like that. Go ahead. Everything else is kind of speculative. I wonder what the combined wealth is because he's, I guess, married to Andy Cohen.

Is that his name? He's married to Andy Cohen? Andy from The Housewives? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. They have a child. I didn't know that they were... Oh, you haven't seen that?

Oh, yeah. Well, you don't watch Andy's Where Are They Now or whatever the hell that other show is he does. Are these two guys? Live with Andy Cohen?

Yeah. Sometimes he shows a picture of the two of them with their baby. First of all, of course I see that show. Yeah.

Okay. That's always on. It comes on right after the Housewives. You can't help it.

You always roll into it to see who's on. You're like, I don't like that person. Yeah. You know, right now though, like 90 Day Fiance is...

Oh, we don't watch that. Oh my God. It's just going on. It just never ends.

We do Summer House. This time of year, we're doing Summer House and the one from Charleston. I can't remember what that's called. I don't see either one of those shows.

Oh, those are good. If we can get a 90 Day Fiance. I don't watch that. Yeah.

And I've refused to watch the Housewives. I just don't. Those are just stupid. You've refused to watch the Housewives?

She's got them on. I'll sit there with her and I'll TikTok or something while she's watching those. Right. But the St.

Charles and the Summer House people, I watch those. Do you have the volume on your TikToking when you TikTok? I have a headphone in. Oh, you have a headphone in?

Yeah. Maybe I should move to headphone. Yeah, because I don't like the Housewives. It's the same thing.

The people are arguing and then they go, you know what would be a great idea? Let's all take a trip. Yes, there's always a trip. And that never goes well.

And then there's always a big dinner, and then they do some weird thing at the dinner where it's like they attack each other or something. I do like the end where they do a still pause of them, and then they'll put the little words on like, you know, "Betty divorced Tom" right after the end of the show. That's so sad. " Right, throw a glass, flip the table.

Why would you do that? Well, that was the, that was Jersey. Yeah. Oh, well.

It's scarier than I know all that. Uh, you know, Teddy from, Teddy Mellencamp? Yeah. She's got brain cancer, apparently.

There was a trending story when I was looking those up today. Oh, that's not good. Yeah, she's preparing her children. So, I don't think it's going well.

Yeah, no, that does not, that can't go well. Yeah. As of April 1st, 2025, you know who also watches The Housewives? Elon Musk.

Really? Oh. As of April 1st, 2025, there is no fully substantial Elon Musk data recovery scandal. Aha.

Based on credible news sources, however, a narrative is emerging on X, because that says, ooh, I'm hungry, sorry, it's my stomach. That's the free platform. Right. S.

S. Institute of Peace, USIP. Right. Supposedly deleted to cover their crimes.

m. " Well, that's pretty self-explanatory. m. just hammering away.

But they don't understand technology, so we recovered it. Nothing's ever deleted anymore. What does a terabyte of financial statements look like? That's gotta be huge.

That would be huge. That's a big pile of paper. I mean, if you think about this. So we record this.

Right. And this is, we record in 4K quality. Right. And how many gigabytes is it when it's all done?

When you get this file, what does it look like? Oh, I have no idea. It's like eight gigs? Don't we have a terabyte hard drive?

We do have a terabyte hard drive. We never come close to filling it up. How? And this is video.

Right. And sometimes it could be five episodes on that thing. After that, I sort of delete it because we get nervous that it's going to get full. But I don't think it's even close.

So what does a whole terabyte of financial statements look like? Yeah, of pieces of paper. Well, I mean, how much money does this company allegedly bring in? Boots, if you could Google how many pieces of paper and a terabyte of information, if that's a thing.

Let's see how fast you can Google that. The comment was in response to an allegation from Amuza. The Doge uncovered USIP contracts linked to Afghans former chief of protocol, reportedly a Taliban member, and the Iraqi League for Youth, there's an Iraqi League for Youth that we're giving money to? Yeah.

Is that a sports team? Yeah, that's their soccer team. Oh, okay. I've got it.

How many? It equates to 75 million pages of text about 1,300 filing cabinets full of paper. 75 million texts. I don't know, man.

That sounds like a whole bunch of... Repeative? Repetive? It doesn't make a lot of sense.

Nothing's ever deleted. Nothing is ever deleted. Yeah. Well, this is a cover page, and this is the...

How to spend money in Afghanistan. Iraq. I thought it was Afghanistan. No, it's Iraq.

It's close. And the League of Youth. And the League of Youth. Musk's remark implies his team recovered the data due to the government's technological incompetence.

Various posts on X are amplifying the narrative. m. that Musk has exposed illicit activities while Dustin Kuhn's 0420 raised skepticism, calling it a scam alert. m.

today, there's no concrete evidence that as the recovered data itself was released by Musk or doged. So we got a guy that says he found it. We got a guy that says he didn't find it. We got a guy that says the information never existed.

Okay, so you got a guy that releases the information at 1:37 in the morning. He says he found it. He didn't release it. He says they found it.

Okay, he says he had it. Probably had to go to sleep at some point. There had to be a payoff. The guy, minimum six hours of sleep?

No, I don't think he's a six-hour guy. I think he's like four to five, maybe. I don't think you're functioning at that high level at four hours. Oh, he is.

He does. Okay, so I'm going to stick with six, because I could have easily gone to eight. He's not an eight-hour. Okay, so let's call it six.

He's got issues. So he does the post-137, he may be on wines, he has some, I don't know, ginkgo biloba tea or some shit like that. He's been on Joe Rogan. He partakes, I believe.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. OK.

So, you know, he smokes him a dube and he relaxes. Right. , right? Let's say he gets up at 8:00, you know.

He's up at 6:00. If he goes to bed at 2:00, there's no way he's up at 6:00. Yeah, I think he's up at... OK, I'm going back to 4:00.

Let's just split the baby and say 7:00. OK, so he's up at 7:00. He putts around the... Google how much sleep does Elon Musk get.

I'm just curious if it's out there. Yeah, that's got to be entirely speculative. How much sleep does Elon Musk have? No, no, he logs it.

He probably just recharges. He's got OCD, he logs it. Do you think he's battery operated at this point? I think he puts on one of those red light masks, like my wife has.

Yeah. And he just sleeps like he's in a coffin full of oxygen or something. Yeah. That makes sense.

Or his Iron Man suit. m. the next day, you're not going to see too much information just from off the one tweet. I got it.

Go ahead. What you got? Elon Musk aims for about six hours of sleep per night. Boom.

That's what I said. All right. Six hours of sleep. Okay.

Aims for. So a bed at two, up at eight, walks around the house in his bathrobe or whatever, you know. Probably silky. He's just porky-pigging around the house.

He's just porky-pigging it? Porky-pigging around the house with a hat. m. and you're not going to have any answers.

m. Somebody's not sleeping. That's fair. Think someone got paid.

Delegated it? Right. Look, I need to go recharge my batteries and plug in, so I need you to figure this out before I wake up. Right.

Hey, just so you know. Hey, Bob, get busy. Bob, I just uncovered an entire terabyte, 72 million pieces of paper that shows the overexpenditures of Iraq from the US, what was it called? I don't know how this was facilitated.

I don't know if it was properly used or not, but I'm going to make a flat out statement of, hey, this is over, this is ridiculous. We funded terrorists, allegedly, and I want it solved. Good night. What's Iron Man's computer called?

When he talks all the time? Not the girl now, the original one. No, no, no. Oh, God.

Oh, God. Jeb? No. You're close.

Jarvis. Jarvis. Jarvis. Thank you.

He doesn't have a person, he has a Jarvis. Jeb, Jeb Bush. He was so close. He's got a Jarvis that he just talks to.

Jarvis? Jarvis, run that, you know, like, Iron Man would go, okay, paint the car, or paint the suit. Paint the car? Well, that car had fireballs on it, so you go, put some fireballs on the suit.

Put the fireballs on the suit? S. Institute of Peace, which promotes conflict resolution, is allegedly at the center of this claim. " Well, they're not going to say anything.

I think they fired everybody anyways. They're not going to say anything. I don't think there's anybody there. Who's in charge of the deleting?

Bring him forward. I like, the first guy was like, "Don't worry, check this out. Control-Alt. Carry this.

Trash. " I'm going to empty my trash can. And it's gone. It's gone.

Look, they'll never know. Great idea. Musk has not clarified why this would be considered criminal, especially since the Iraq League for Youth is a recognized peace organization. Any potential Taliban connections may relate to Afghanistan's current government rather than illicit activity.

The narrative also fits into Musk's broader efforts under DOGE, which, so we're waiting on the smoke to clear so I can see the screen. I apologize. Auditing federal spending in 2025 raised concerns over privacy violations and government inefficiencies. Critics argue Musk's unelected role lacks oversight, which some see it as a necessary push for transparency.

Given the date, this claim could also be an April Fool's Day stunt. Oh, it's not an April Fool's Day stunt. He doesn't have a sense of humor. No.

I feel he tries. Yeah. But he doesn't know. No, it doesn't travel well.

No. Like you go to check your DMV record or something and you've been deleted, And he's just over there giggling. I think that, you know what? What happened?

I deleted you. Maybe we should have just fired everybody. Like every single, just ground zero. Just level all of it.

We don't have the story today, but the head of the FDA just got let go from cutbacks. Yeah. He was forced out. Well, the writing was on the wall because he was from the Biden administration.

Right, yeah. Anybody, anybody, you mean Barack? Oh, he was from Barrie? Well, yeah.

Oh, that's right. According to you. From the third term. The puppet regime.

The very third term. Right. All right. Until more evidence is provided, it's too early to confirm whether this is a scandal or just another unfolding claim.

We'll see. To be determined. There's a lot of as of April 1st stories. Here's a quick rundown of current cryptocurrency scams gaining traction.

AI-driven scams. Oh, sorry. There's a colon there. So here's a rundown of the current cryptocurrency scams.

Number one, AI driven scams. You don't have to wave it away, just a big poof went across the screen, I couldn't see it for sorry. AI powered fraud is on the rise with scammers using AI to get convincing phishing emails, deep fake videos and fake trading bots that mimic legitimate platforms, notably AI generated celebrity endorsements like fake videos of Elon Musk, Promoting Fake Crypto Projects and Tricking Victims Reports highlights significant financial losses already in the millions. Pig butchering scams.

Pig butchering. That's what they're called. Interesting. I haven't read this yet, but I don't believe they involve pigs.

These long con schemes remain a top concern with the FBI reporting nearly $4 billion lost to them in 2023. Wow, this is a good one. We need to get involved in this. This is a good one.

Scammers build trust over weeks or months through dating apps or social media, then pitch fake crypto platforms. If you're getting, please click this link. Right. Well, this one is people like, hi, you get those messages on Instagram all the time or Facebook or something from somebody who goes, hi, can you, you know, I see you like cigars.

Can I ask you a question about cigars? Next thing you know, they're going, well, I'm in some country that needs money. Can you send me your crypto stuff? I got to be honest.

Yeah. It's never happened to me. Really? Yeah.

Oh, I don't usually answer them, but yeah, you get that kind of stuff. It's usually Asian women for some reason. Really? It is a minor list.

You got to type. It's probably because you've flown to China a couple of times. It could be. Victims see fabricated profits on rigid dashboards, but lose everything when attempting to withdraw.

It also, AI is also being used to enhance the realism of these scams. Okay, so do you have a crypto account? No. You don't have a crypto account?

I don't even know how it works. Do you have a crypto account? Yes. Okay.

What crypto have you purchased in the past? SRP, Doge, and there was one other one I forget. Bitcoin? No, not Bitcoin.

Solana? Tua? No, not Tua. You're right, though.

He would buy a Tua. No, Shiba. Shiba. Shiba, okay.

Shiba, no, or whatever. Have you bought anything recently? So, have you bought anything recently? Trumpcoin?

I switched all the Shiba to the XRP. Okay. Would you like to switch to the PalmCoin? It's a new one coming out.

So, what makes you invest? What made you invest to XRP? Let me ask you that. He liked the letters.

I think it was just a lot of the hype about it. Like, it was always in the news and people were talking about it. And I'm also in like a little day trader group on Facebook with my buddies. So you do get your information for crypto purchasing from social media?

Yes. Okay, so I mean, it is possible to you for you to fall into that? Yep. Based on how they do it, yeah, that's what they're saying.

Some of the social media information could be faked. But you only buy on your current crypto wallet. You log into your site, right? Or whatever the case may be?

Yeah, use Coinbase. Right. Could you give us that login? What's your log in and password?

Don't do that, don't do that dude. Boots 01, password 12347. I get them with the seven. For some reason they got changed that Keanu is the best one.

Keanu, I love Keanu. I love Keanu. Because nobody would ever think you'd put that on anything. Who loves Keanu?

You know, like I buy some crypto, I buy a couple of them. You know, your Bitcoins. I have had Doge from a hundred years ago, you know, when that was cool. Cool.

Right. Now everybody hates you because he's finding out that the government's just been giving money away. Right. " Right?

Yeah. If there's some kind of a, you know, when you start to see that you have an emotional response and you gotta jump in on something, you're about to get screwed. Sure. Everything's too good to be true.

Right? Yeah. If it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true. You know, I will tell you this, as far as emails are concerned, I'm seeing more emails that are more aggressive scams that I can easily identify, but I could see how people could get fooled, right?

Oh, yeah. So, you got to get, you better be smart. You better make good decisions. I at one time made a fake LinkedIn account so I could get information, you know, look people up and stuff.

So you could message these Asian women? No, no. So I could look people up and get information for different things for one reason or another. Da-da-da.

I get offered jobs for my fake account. Really? A lot recently. How much do they pay?

I don't know. I don't ever, you know, go that far, but I mean, how do I prove I'm Jim Donlin or something, you know? I mean... So I recently am back on the LinkedIn to promote the podcast.

It's very popular. Yeah. And I saw that I... We're enough friends on LinkedIn.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'll work on that. I just go on, I post it, and I go away. But I saw on my, like the...

I'm working it. From the front three that I had three potential jobs. Yeah. Yeah.

Two of them were like some kind of tech company thing. Oh, nice. And the other one, general manager at McDonald's. Ooh.

That's right. How much do they make? So, 67k annual. A lot of work at McDonald's.

So, I'm thinking to myself, what was the algorithm to determine these two tech positions, and then, hey, GM at McDonald's? You seem more qualified for McDonald's, to be honest. I'm well more qualified. Yeah, I could tell you about the double four pound cheese.

Yeah. Well, the third one was a fallback. Just in case? Yeah, just in case.

I don't really see the tech jobs. Where were the tech jobs? Yeah, I couldn't. I mean, it took us three weeks for how to work a wireless microphone.

I don't think that I'm hireable at all. That's true. Are you kidding me? That is true.

There's just no way. If you hired me, you better be ready for the debates and the arguments and all these other I'm gonna have questions. You know what I mean? Certainly.

So I don't know if there's a CEO intelligent enough to understand that and grasp that concept. We're gonna bring him on because he's gonna be... He has such good ideas. He's gonna be counterproductive.

I don't know. Like, he's just gonna be... I'm gonna say he's gonna be judged and taken apart. It should be more argumentative, I guess.

Hmm. All right. Dusting attacks and dusting scams. Fraudster...

Fraudsters. Oh, you've got more. There's more. There's six of these.

Fraudsters send tiny amounts of crypto from fake wallet addresses to the That resemble legitimate ones. When users copy and paste the address, they may end up sending funds to the wrong place. A recent case involved a user losing $304,000. How do you lose 300k?

For such an attack. Because they really wanted the extra 10 the guy was going to give them. Oh my god. Always manually verify wallet addresses, fake airdrops, and giveaway scams.

Nobody's giving away anything. Fake airdrops, yeah, nobody's giving away anything. Scammers promise free token or NFTs through the unsolicited messages, luring victims to click malicious links has become more common with the popularity of NFTs, with losses reported across platforms like Discord and Telegram. Fraudulent trading platforms, fake exchange websites mimic legitimate platforms.

Alright, we can move on from this. That's kind of hard to just move on. Go ahead and scroll down. You let it scroll, and we'll continue talking about it, and I'm going to try and get Boots' wallet, crypto wallet info, and I'm going to copy and paste a link, and it'll work out great.

Alright, you want how to stay safe? Verify everything. Don't click the links. Avoid urgency traps.

Scammers pressure victims that quickly. Yeah, anything, act now. Run out of time. Keep hardware wallets.

Is that so you keep your crypto in an electronic wallet of some sort? Yeah, and you can detach that. Oh. So a hardware wallet is like on a hard drive.

Like a zip drive or something. Right, and then you disconnect it and your money is on that hard drive. Add two-factor authentication, but beware SIM swap scams. Report suspicious activity.

Oh, I guess there's a big rush today because April Fool's Day. Stay vigilant as crypto scams continue to evolve. Interesting stuff. All right, Michael, in social media, You just did Coop's part one pre-show for the PCA.

I did. And you were number three, I believe. I was, thanks to you. Well, if you would have answered faster, we might have got you a number, could have been the lead story.

I don't think he would have made us a lead story. No, I don't think so either. He wanted a bigger name. Yeah, he opened with...

He could have got you two. He opened with Tatuaje, Pete Johnson was good. I'm glad that I wasn't number two because I got an entertaining show before I went on. Oh, and then when you're in the green room, you can see the other, you can see the show going on?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, there are these two guys, and I'm going to screw up who they are, Artisan...

They are the, sorry, Del Taco, or Del Tobacco, but it always looks like Del Taco when I see it, I can't remember. And they made, they were going on this diatribe about the new cigar they released called the El Pupo. Wow. We've talked about it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've talked about the pupo. Yeah, we've talked about the pupo before. They originally made, well, the pupo is the one that we're going to talk about, right?

Yes. Okay, but they were actually promoting the La Vida, Connecticut. Viva La Vida, Connecticut. Viva La Vida, Loca, Connecticut.

So they were talking about the pupo, which is Spanish for octopus. Oh, they had a pupo. And it's got this octopus on it or whatever. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, right, right. They were talking about how they were having a conversation with AJ, and they were pre-fire, and they really wanted to make San Andreas, and AJ was like, "No, Connecticut Broadleaf is the way to go". And when they made this cigar, after three or four years, San Andreas finally caught on. It's a big thing.

Yeah. So, I found that extremely entertaining, because I don't know if you know this company. The Del Taco people? No, no.

Great Tacos. They're called Padrón. Oh. Yeah.

They've been using San Andreas since the 60s. Is all this stuff San Andreas? I don't know. Maybe.

Oh. It's very possible. Well, they're fine. They're lighter ones, right?

Well, they have a natural and a Maduro. They can both be San Andreas. Right. So, it's, uh, they're one of the biggest, are you okay?

Yeah, sorry. They're one of the biggest names. I'm trying to cover a yawn with a cough. They're one of the biggest names in this industry.

By a long... Whoopo? Padrón. Let me talk before I can just easily eject myself out of this chair.

I was asking a question. There's nothing that's gonna stop you from coming against you. Are you going back and forth as we argue? Yeah.

Padrón's one of the biggest names in the industry. Yes. And they've used San Andreas this entire time. Entire time.

Do you have any other things to add before we move on? I love Padrón. Yes, they need, they, I couldn't think of, there was something I was going to say. Can I have my camera for a minute?

Yeah, it's on you. Okay, guys, when you, when you use your camera like this, it gets half your face. So if there's two of you, turn it this way. Oh, as far as how they were on the Zoom.

Yes. This is, this is the way for two people. And both your faces are on the camera that way, not just half your face. You know what was amazing too is as, if you go, you got to go back and watch this show.

You gotta go watch Primetime with Coop, because they're both talking, and they'll go on for a long period of time, and you can see that the other one, the other brother, I think they're brothers, the other brother wanted to speak, and he'd be like, you could see that he was getting aggravated when one brother would speak, the other brother would get mad, and vice versa. Maybe they should just choose one of them to do it next time. Well, they looked the same. They did, didn't they?

It was so weird. Same glasses. One was slightly taller. Oh, yeah?

Maybe he was just sitting up and then one was slumped over. Right. But there was, yeah. Dude.

I hope they're twins. I want to go meet him at the PCA. So when I just started, we instantly started talking about the San Andreas. So I had to comment.

I was like, you know, after all these years, we finally feel like the market is ready for San Andreas. It's ready. That's why we just came out with ours. Yeah, just released.

Because we heard that the Pupo was out. Yeah, we were competing directly against the Pupo. Wrestling against the Pupo. So they have the best poop.

They have the best poop, oh. All right, on to cigar news. We got a lot of cigar news today. Bam.

J. Fernandez factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. J. Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua.

What's the essay for at the end of the end? We talked about this before. I don't remember. Satisfaction always?

Satisfaction always. J. Fernandez operation. Video shows a large blaze in one of the buildings with firefighters on scene, so I can't stop yawning, I'm sorry.

Dude, get it together, man. I've been very tired, lady. You embarrass yourself. Video show a large blaze in one of the buildings with firefighters on scene, so they had firefighters.

They do, I mean... Did you see the video? Are there firefighters in the video? I didn't see the firefighters.

Do they look like our firefighters, or are they like doing the bucket brigade? I didn't see, but there's probably buckets involved. I think so. Yeah.

They had helmets on, I saw that. Those are plastic, like the motorcycle helmets in China. Multiple sources told Cigars or Podcast that the fire appears to be in the packaging department, it's unclear how much of the rest of the building has been damaged, but workers have been seen taking bales out of the building, not looting, they're actually moving them. Right.

Okay. Dude, there's no way, you're not going to loot there. Oh, that's right. They got the guns.

They have the guns. That also keeps Luciano out of the factory. Oh, it does? The guns.

They call it the Luciano Task Force. Oh, these guys are serious over here. This is mine. Oh, now he's walking in and going, this is mine.

Look at it. It's beautiful. Oh, it's burned. Never mind.

This is not mine. The factory is one of the largest in the world producing cigars for a long list of companies, including some of the world's largest, like Altidus, General Cigar. And then smaller brands like Foundation Cigar Company, Artizio, oh, they make the Del Taco guys. Well, yeah, AJ told them not to use the same drinks.

Oh, that's right. Well, now you can if you want to. Fire-Cured San Andres. Fire-Cured San Andres, yeah, no, everything now is Kentucky Fire-Cured.

We're making fun of this. I'm sorry, it's not funny. It's not funny. It really isn't funny.

But he has a second factory, the San Latino factory in Octal, about 40 miles north of Esteli. The factory is known for producing cigars for Espinosa premium cigars and knuckle sandwich cigars, so those are safe. Okay. That's a relief.

That's a relief. Okay. Do you think, I know that, you know, you're obviously tired because you moved, it's been an eight-day move for you. Yes.

Right. Well, you're finally done. And the fatigue is finally sitting in, I get it. Apparently, as we record this show.

Yeah. Do you think that the fire actually happened in the packaging area? I've seen one photo. Yeah.

And there is a lot of paper and stuff on the floor. Okay. So, I'm guessing yes. Okay.

What do you think, Boots? No. I don't think so. No?

I don't think so. I think that, you know, look, here's my disclaimer: this is entirely speculative, and I could be way off base on this. But, I think that fires like this occur, and they occur too often in these countries, due to the fumigation process. Him yawning off camera is not helping you.

Jeez Louise, guys. Come on, stop. Dial in. Okay.

Well, I'm not doing it on purpose. Tobacco farms commonly use fumigation methods to control pests, particularly during storage rather than in the field. And one of the most widely employed fumigants is phosphine. Phosphine is typically released from fumigation pills or tablets made of aluminum phosphide or magnesium phosphide.

When these tablets come into contact with moisture in the air, they react to produce phosphine gas, which is highly effective at eliminating pests like the tobacco These tablets are not applied directly to growing tobacco plants but are used in post-harvest scenarios such as in warehouses, silos, or shipping containers where cured tobacco is stored. The process involves placing the tablets in a controlled environment with tobacco allowing the gas to penetrate bales, bags, or bulk storage and kill infestations. Doses and exposure time vary depending on temperature, humidity, and pest resistance. But guidelines from organizations like Coresta often recommend specific protocols, for instance, around three to nine grams of phosphine per cubic meter for five to seven days under atmospheric pressure.

So, I think, here's the real question. Are these tablets combustible? Well, that's why I was waiting for you to say it was highly flammable or something, which was not mentioned in the story you read. Probably, but they're not going to tell you that.

So realistically, the tablets themselves aren't combustible. But the gas probably is. However, this is all I ask Grock both of these questions. Okay.

Aluminum phosphate and magnesium phosphate tablets themselves are not inherently combustible in their solid form under normal conditions. They don't easily catch fire when exposed to a flame or spark. However, they become highly dangerous when they react with moisture acids as the reaction generates phosphine gas, which is both toxic and flammable. 8% by volume or roughly 18,000 parts per million.

This auto-ignition can happen at temperatures as low as 100 degrees Celsius, 212 degrees Fahrenheit, though external ignition sources like sparks or flames can set it up. So if this fumigation process is happening, and it's not controlled or regulated, like somebody is potentially in there and they light something, you can have the fire ignite. What's the temperature inside of these places down in the... It's not 212 degrees, it's not that hot.

Isn't everybody walking around smoking cigars? Well, okay, yes. So the guy walks into the room smoking his cigar, and next thing, in a fumigation process, with these tablets, could be what's causing this problem. Now again, I'm not an Esteli, I'm not a Phosphine expert, I'm not a Phosphine expert, I'm not an AJ's factory, however, it doesn't seem likely to me that the fire would occur in packaging.

I feel if it did occur in packaging, I don't know, these fires are just kind of weird how they keep happening, and if it's an outside source, maybe. Right, so what's protocol for this in order to make it so that it doesn't happen? Well, you would take away that, you would minus that variable. If we're assuming that it's a fumigation in these tablets.

Yeah, you would minus that. Well, you have to do the fumigation process. The fumigation process. Yeah, the fumigation, or probably one, it's not going to leave.

Why does it have to be inside? Can't it be outside? No, well, everything's in bales and kind of encased, right? Well, yeah, I think for the gas and the insecticide to go through the tobacco, it's got to be in an enclosed area.

Right, so you have to do that fumigation, right? And then you have to air it all out, right? Why can't they just do like, okay, so like, let's say you're growing plants at your house. If you have bugs, you can hit it with soapy water.

Soapy Water. Okay, well, so we're not fumigating the actual plants being grown. Okay. This is happening after the harvest.

Yeah, these are the bales. Okay. Right? So, because...

I guess you wouldn't want to wet it then. What's that? I guess you wouldn't want to wet the bales. Well, not with soapy water.

No, so you would fumigate, right? But now, I've heard rumors about different tablets that are less combustible, and there's obviously There are some processes there that people are being negligent on one way or the other, right? So, number one is I think that, you know, you need to initiate some form of protocol where the, when the fumigation process is occurring, there's more protection for it, right? I mean, it makes sense, but it's, it's a third world country.

I mean, you know, you don't have a lot of policies. With millions of dollars on the line. Oh, certainly. Right.

That doesn't mean Juan, who's supposed to be in charge of airing out the fumigation area, is not standing there with a, you know, like you're doing right now, standing there smoking a cigar while he's cranking the fan up. Right. So that needs to happen one way or the other. Or two, I've heard that there's a tablet that is less combustible.

Sure. But it's more expensive. I was gonna say, it's probably not as cheap, though. Right.

So I'm not gonna go with that. Well, you should. I mean, how much money do you think was lost right now in this fire? It's huge.

They have insurance down there type thing? I'm sure they do. Not only that, but I'm sure the government would get involved as far as, I would guess, that they would help rebuild if need be, you know? Well, AJ, probably, but a lesser factory, like if the Del Taco guys had their own factory.

Right. But more often than that. The government might go, eh, we're not even a big fan of tacos. Yeah, but more often than not, when you hear about these fires, these fires.

Oh, it's the big boys. They're always these big factories. Yeah. Right.

Number one, okay, so here's the second thing, why isn't there a really efficient fire department in SLE? Why hasn't, not the government, but why hasn't the big factories gotten together and say, hey, listen, this is an ongoing issue. It happens every few years, time and time again. Why don't we have, why don't we all pull in and make this awesome fire department system?

Are the factories close enough together where one fire station could cover everybody? In Esteli, 100%. So in Esteli, okay, so they would have to do it by city, let's say, or whatever they're called. Yeah.

It'd be like a reactionary force team. Yeah. Maybe they have, but it's not, because, I mean, it does happen, but it's not like it's happening every day. I mean, it's, but it's in the news about every four, five months.

But this is catastrophic. Yeah. But then, you know, for four or five months there's been no fires, so what am I paying the, what am I paying the firefighter for? I don't think it's every four or five months.

I would say a fire, well, first of all, a fire, we, I don't think we've ever really seen a fire of this magnitude. Like, AJ's is the biggest. Right. But the reality is that it happens enough, I mean, even here, hurricanes, right?

Sure. Okay, hurricanes are a natural disaster, unavoidable, right? Right. And they're inconsistent, but you can prepare for those things.

Sure. Okay. So, first of all, a fire is normally negligence on some- Somebody did something wrong. On some level.

Right. Something happened where there was negligence involved. Right. It just happened.

Right. Unless the building was struck by lightning and then a fire caught. Sure. But I would say 90% of the time, especially when it comes to these factories, these fires Fumigages are occurring because of some form of negligence.

Somebody did something wrong. Right, okay, so number one is identifying the negligence, and I think that it's these tablets, I could be wrong, but I think it's these tablets, and whoever's handling the fumigation process. So you need to fix that, number one, if it means, I mean, if you can avoid the problem by getting a better tablet, then get the better tablet, right? Number two is instill some protocol so that there's safety measures there, right?

And number three is maybe maybe get everybody together and have a system where there's a fire department to help the entire town, you know, if the government's not going to do it, then the people that are making all the money on the entire town, right, should instill that safety for the entire town. Well, the story says there were fire, that it showed firefighters. Yeah. So there probably is some type of fire department, but it's not, you know, it's not like you're in America where the guys are there all the time.

It's Est-a-Libro. I understand that, but what I'm saying is those guys are working at the factory, when the fire comes up, they all have to run to the fire station and get the truck and bring it back to the factory. Do these fires ever have a follow up of what the cause was or no? I don't, you look to see who's no longer working at the factory.

I'm going to tell you right now, we're covering this story because of the fact that, and the way that we're covering it is going to be bigger than anybody else has done in this industry. No one else will cover it with these speculations. They will just, the company will feed you something and there will be the response. Where did it happen?

Oh, it happened in the boxing. We may never hear anything again about this. So how does it happen in boxing? Oh, like what's the excuse?

Yeah. Right? Just make it make sense. Well, someone packed a cigar that was on fire from testing.

Right. Before we know it, the whole place is up in smoke. But what happens is, no one wants to challenge and ask these questions because everybody's afraid in this industry. Sure.

Everybody's terrified. So, I think that I have a legitimate argument as to what's going on. Right. Now, is anybody going to answer that?

Probably not. No, none of your questions are going to be answered. And even if they did answer it, I would want them to prove it, and they're not going to. No.

So you would hope that this gets better because I don't want to see anybody suffer. You know how many jobs people are out right now? A lot, yeah. It's got to be staggering.

AJ's got one of the biggest factories in the world. He might have the biggest factory in Esteli. All those people that would go in and enroll are right now unemployed. They're unemployed.

I don't know what that looks like. Is AJ going to pay them? You know, is the company going to... I don't know.

I don't know if he's paying piecework or he's paying... Hey, I'm out of work. Are you going to cover their expenses? Because here's what happens.

Your best rollers, your best pairs, they go to another factory. Oh, sure. They'll get picked up somewhere else. Yeah, so you said it, they said it started in packaging, so no tobacco got burnt up, right?

The entire building was engulfed. We don't know what the losses are at this point, but they did say people were moving bales of tobacco. Yeah, I saw videos of guys pulling bales out of the, look, you know, even if it only hit the packaging department, which I don't believe, you know, I believe that it ignited where there's tobacco. It could be right next to each other.

Yeah. Smoke is going in that entire establishment, right? Right. So if it's, if the packaging isn't sealed and removed right away, like you're going to have huge losses of tobacco.

Right. And, you know, astronomically, a lot of people are going to be unemployed. Right. So what does that do for our side of things?

As far as what aspect? Like, like supply. The poopos aren't coming. Well, as far as AJ's stuff is concerned, it's going to be less.

Right. So, I don't know. It's going to be interesting to move on and see what it looks like. All right, go ahead, jump to the next story.

All right, El Septimo creates Fabergé Egg Cigar Humidors, teasing that it's $25 million. A Fabergé Egg? Fabergé Egg Humidor. For the third time in four years, El Septimo will bring what it says is a multi-million dollar cigar accessory to the annual PCA Convention and Trade Show.

The company has created humidors that are designed to mimic the iconic Fabergé Egg and store cigars That for the top of the egg is lifted via some sort of automatic mechanism. A post on social media indicates that there are 475 carats of diamonds, rubies, and other stones. The post also indicated that the cost is $25 million. $25 million.

Though it also says they are not for sale. But it's not for sale. Can't buy one. You can't have one.

It's unclear if the $25 million figure refers to both humidors shown off on the video. So now you can get the, oh, we'll get into this. This is hardly the first time the company has made headlines for bedazzled accessories with the eye-popping prices. In 2022, the company created lighters that had 250 carats of stones.

5 million, a steal compared to the $25 million. A year later, they were ashtrays that weighed more than 17 pounds and contained 400 to 500 carats of stones. These ashtrays were priced at $10 million. Who's doing these?

Jacob the Jeweler? I mean, I'm not understanding. El Centimo. Prince Abubah.

Look, once we're done with this podcast, we need to whip up, real quick, a $26 million humidor. Yeah, let's bedazzle it. I'll go to Walmart. We'll throw a bedazzler on there, and you need to do a press release.

One of your daughters have a bedazzler, Boots? No, no. " You can't AI a bedazzled humidor? Yeah, we don't have to make it.

Will AI a humidor? I got a picture of a house up on my Facebook. Everybody thinks I moved into a mansion. I know, I saw that.

It was a beautiful house. I couldn't believe the comments on that. It was supposed to be the old house. Yeah.

" Yeah. - I got a mansion. - You looked amazing. - It does look great, I'm moving there.

- So, listen, we need to counter, we need to counter this press release, okay? - Send it just to media. - We need to send a media press release announcing a 20, we do, please, let's do this. - Oh, certainly.

- 26 million dollars, one million more than the most expensive humidor ever created. - Put that in the press release. - Yes. Yes, 100%.

- It's a million more than the bedazzled humidor of Fabrizia. 5 million lighter and an $11 million Ashton. No, we're just going to cover the humor. Just the humor.

I want to see if the media picks it up. Right. Okay. And, I mean, it's April Fool's, so it works out perfectly.

Oh, that's right, perfect. It works out perfectly. We're going to release this. It's got to go out before the video that goes out.

We're super excited to release this. $26 million. However, it's not for sale unless someone really wants to buy it, is what I want you to say. Valued at $26 million, and however many carrots they have, you got to state slightly more.

One more, 451. 451 bedazzled jewels on the humidor. And when you spell carrots, spell it C-A-R-R-O-T-S. All right.

We are known for our misspelling. You know, oh yeah, we'll chat GPT to sucker up as soon as we're done. Yeah, okay. Say, we poke a lot of fun at Prince Alba Blanc.

Yeah. The guy is... Is this Aladdin? The guy...

What the guy does, though, is absolutely remarkable as far as marketing, because he just had an ashtray with an ice cube in it. Right. That was two weeks ago. That was huge.

And then he has this Fabergé egg humidor. Fabergé egg humidor. Whatever it is. And guess what?

We're all talking about it. Certainly. So... Prince Abubi, he's got a lot of carrots there.

Prince Abubah. Prince Abubah. Not Prince Booby. Sorry.

Different Prince. It's absolutely fantastic. You got to give the guy credit, man. You got to give the guy credit.

See, he's always doing. Yeah. Does he? It's working.

Who bought it? Well, he, the Prince, he has it himself. Oh. An email sent to El Septimo on Saturday was not immediately returned.

Big shocker. Big shocker. I said what I said. You got my press release.

You got the press release. Move on. I'm... You cover that.

And you're not allowed to look at the fibers ahead. Gurkha begins... Oh, I'm sorry. We're moving on now?

Yes. You know who also has things I like to give away? Gurkha likes to give stuff away. Gurkha's begin shipping the trio of cigars that makes up its year of the snake release, which celebrates the current year of the Zodiac calendar.

For the release, Gurkha worked with three cigar factories: Casa Corilio, Oscar Valladares Tobacco & Company, and Tabla Calera Oliva de Nicaragua. Each of these are crafted a different blend. That means the release has roots in three different countries. All sounds real nice, but what swag do I get to convince me to buy this stuff, Michael?

Steak Knives. Please be a Ninja Star. And by crap, I mean, except the one by Oscar Valladares, 'cause I'm scared of him. 'Cause you don't want Oscar Valladares.

I don't want Oscar mad at me, he's a very scary man, and I'm sure he makes excellent cigars. If he comes for you, you will be buried. Don't come for me. Allegedly.

We will have the water line fixed by the end of the day, and we will put the bodies in there. Allegedly. Do you want to skip this other AJ story? It seems kind of bad form now.

AJ Fernandez's newest Enclave Blend is produced by Eladio Diaz. Ah, yes. Eladio. Eladio.

AJ's Fernandez has quietly soft launched a new version of its Enclave line, and it's cigar blended and produced by Eladio Diaz, Mike is the former director of quality for Davidoff, who also served as the blending team and fire chief for the company. Oh, bro. I had to slide one in somewhere. Oh, dude, that is harsh.

The company has declined to comment on the new line or the fire prevention process with a spokesman saying in February that the company is simply not ready to disclose any details yet. If you're scared of Oscar... I'm not scared of Eladio. You should be terrified of AJ.

I don't know, he doesn't, he's done this too. AJ is Esteli, man. I love AJ Cigars, this is Boots. I love AJ Cigars.

Please, please don't hurt the bike, your twins are the best. Please don't hurt my old friend, he knows not what he says, okay? He's just kidding, it's just jokes. He speaks no English, he doesn't even know what he says.

He speaks English. Oh, Lord. He did when we saw him that time. He prefers not to.

There's a difference. I wish I didn't some days. Yeah. Like right now.

Like right now. One retailer, Smokin' in South Florida, listed using a Corojo 99 wrapper from an undisclosed country, while the binder comes from Ecuador and the filler comes from the Dominican Republic, because Abe knows everything. Abe does know everything. Smokin' currently lists the line as being available in three sizes, all available at Smokin'.

Already? J. J. J.

Fernandez Enclave Eladio Diaz Gordo. J. Fernandez's portfolio is made in Nicaragua. Well, this is not the first time the company has had a cigar made in the Dominican Republic.

J. decided to link up with Eladio and make a cigar with Eladio? Boots, first. S.?

I don't know. Is it the Dominican Republic? What do you think, Palmer? Well, in 2018, he announced that he was working with Jose Blanco.

I think these guys just like to work with each other. You think they just like to work with each other? Yeah, you know, mix it up a little bit, do something different. I mean, AJ's got one of the biggest factories, well, in the world, had, until it gets fixed.

It's still there. It's still there. Square footage-wise. And this deal was prior to the fire.

Or was it? It was prior to the fire. I don't, I don't think, so who do you think needs who? Does AJ need Eladio or does Eladio need AJ?

Eladio needs AJ. I think Eladio wanted to make one with AJ. I think so too. I think that realistically, AJ is working with Eladio in this scenario to help Eladio.

Sure. He's only got the birthday cigar. Well, yeah. No, he really, he did a few cigars that we carried.

Yeah, but that does any good though. Yeah, the problem is that none of it really tracked. The price points were really high, and the flavor profile for us, at least, was subpar, so I think that by doing this unification, it almost seems like AJ's trying to help Eladio get more established on this aspect of the industry, because he was never that part of it. He was just blend, right?

Or whatever he did at Davidoff. Now, his cigar, this one that we're talking about, it doesn't say whatever the name is. Is it Enclave? Is that what we're saying?

Yeah, it's AJ's Enclave by Eladio Diaz. I mean, it's got everybody's name in it. Okay, so it says AJ's name on it. So yeah, so I mean...

It's the first name actually. Yeah, so it's probably, you know, him trying to help out Eladio Diaz. Well, yes. Because anything that says AJ on it, people gravitate towards.

Right. Okay. That's just what I think. I think that...

The original Enclave he made with his father. So maybe this is just a cigar he likes to make with other people. AJ made with his dad? Yeah.

Oh, that's interesting. I didn't know that. I don't know what Enclave means. His father Ishmael.

Oh yeah, call me Ishmael. Right. Completely different Ishmael. That's a totally different Ishmael.

He was not hunting a whale. He wasn't hunting the white whale? I don't believe so. No?

No. You don't know that. Good point. Maybe from Cuba to...

Maybe. You know? " I want to hunt a whale. There is a big white whale out there.

I saw him on my way here from Cuba. I must catch this whale. I would like to hunt him. I would like to hunt a whale.

Abdel, you run the factory. I hunt whale. I will hunt the whale. And then make a cigar in my name.

They can call me Ishmael. Call me Ishmael. I don't know. You know, I think, honestly though, I think that AJ is helping Eladio establish his name on this side of things.

Could be. Yeah. Okay. Maybe come and look, AJ, I need some help.

Any more stories? Other than my birthday cigar, no one really knows who I am. I need to make a mousse cigar, please. Where's father?

Oh, he's hunting whales. Oh, yes, I'm sorry, I forgot. Davidoff's updating the Xeno Nicaragua line to change in colors. Now law's got to get all new clothes.

Davidoff's made some minor adjustments to its Xeno Nicaragua line. The company has announced that its Xeno Nicaragua Robusto and Toro Vitolas will now be offered in cardboard packs of five cigars because apparently plastic is just too expensive. We're cutting costs that means both fatolas are available in three different packaging options fresh packs cardboard packs and boxes of 25 cigars in addition to Zeno Nicaragua half Corona will now be available in boxes of 25 notably the 25 cigars that come in the wooden box will have a cap previously the half Corona has only been offered in metal tins of five but the cigars have been pre-cut dabbed off with both capped and pre-cut options for this fatola though the packaging is different. The cigars are pre-cut?

Yes, they're smaller, half-corona, so they're like, you know, a little bigger than a cigarello, but they come pre-cut. So, would you prefer the cigar to be cut already so that you can smoke it, or do you want it capped? So, this has always been kind of a question for me. Does that have any effect on humidification when I store it in my humidor or anything?

I don't think, I don't think it'll be... I don't think so. a gigantic difference. Is it...

Then cut it. Cut, or is it just made with no cap? It's gotta be chopped at some point. Like, the leaf has...

Well, they have to clean up the end, right? Yeah. But it's not like they're making it with the cap and then somebody comes by and cuts the cap on it. No, that would be ridiculous.

That'd be silly. Yeah, that kind of makes it easier for the consumer. With the smaller ones, those are usually for quicker smokes anyway. Yeah.

You don't have to carry a cutter, just a lighter. So why make the cigar with a cap too? Yeah, that doesn't make much sense. Some guys like to bite the ends off like they're a cowboy.

I am a cowboy. Pooey. Southern draw. Pooey.

Haktui. By the way, Isaiah Stewart just got suspended for only two games. Yeah, it just came on my watch. Oh, so now two games, if you grab somebody's wiener.

Wiener grab, two games. That's it. No wiener grab, one game. Put the new law in effect, plays two wieners.

We would like to see. One wiener, two games. The NBA would like to state, if there's a wiener grab, you will be suspended for two games. So it has been written, so it shall be done.

Edward Simon, Chief Marketing Officer for Audenburg Davidoff, in a press release: "We have also added the option of a handy carton pack of five Forever Busos & Toro cigars. " So they're trying to mimic cigarettes? I don't know, this guy's big marketing thing was, now we're going to put it in cardboard boxes. Right.

So they're making small-- I'm a genius. They're making small packaging, easier for you to carry. Oh. And they're smaller little-- You can roll it up in your t-shirt sleeve now.

Ooh, yeah. Yeah, white, white t-shirt. And then you can slick back your hair. Right, grease it back, that'd be nice.

Get a black comb, you know what I mean? Put that in your back pocket. Ooh. Get an "I Love Mom" tattoo.

I Heart Mom. I Heart Mom. Alright, these new Xenos will be available on April 17th. And it's all going to be orange now inside of yellow.

All going to be orange now, so the law's going to change all his yellow clothes. No more yellow. Or purple. I'm glad you said that.

You're just kidding. Purple is the big color now. Purple's very in right now. Everything's going purple.

Yeah. Purple. Alright, now we've got some PCA releases. Perdomo Legacies debuting at PCA 2025.

Oh. Cigar Medics is debuting Il Mestero Cigar Cutter at PCA, We're better known as the Cheaper Dunbarton Cutter. Ah, yes. Oh, did you guys cover this in last week's, or no?

What's that? The Cutter? You didn't watch? No.

No, we just talked about it now. So, you don't watch? You're not on the show? I watch the Gloves.

You don't watch the show? I watch the Gloves. So I understand, you say you live it, so maybe that's why you don't watch this one. Yeah, I didn't watch the show.

Right. Did you guys talk about it? No. We talked about you the entire time.

Yeah, we said, we love Boots. Oh, nice. We missed Boots. Well, we took a vote.

I have questions about this, Connor. Okay. What's your question? Why?

Why what? Why create something that, I feel like it brings the value down to the other one. Ah. Of the original?

So you're saying the brand owner that made the Dunbarton Tobacco one. Yeah. By releasing this is devaluing. Yeah.

The Dunbarton one. Well, do you think that maybe the Dunbarton Tobacco one was overvalued? Oh, I definitely think it was overvalued, but now it's way overvalued. I would like to see the two cutters together.

Yeah. Is there any difference other than the other one says Dunbarton? I'll tell you what we're going to do. Yeah, the color.

When it's released, we're going to purchase one, and we'll cover it on the Patreon. Is there a difference between the Dunbarton tobacco, whatever it's called, cutter, and what's this one? Cigar Medics. Cigar Medics, yeah.

It looks exactly the same. Right. And it does say in the release that it's the same blades, the same metal used for the blades. But maybe the casing is different?

One's plastic, one's metal. Is the Dunbarton one metal? I've never even touched it. Yeah, I think so.

After we had the whole fiasco, I'm not touching it. You've never touched the cutter again. I'm not getting any blame. Nothing's happening there.

That one doesn't get the 3D rule. But the estimated value from the Dunbarton to Cigarmatics, the Cigarmatics one is... You can buy 10 of the Cigarmatics ones. I thought it was like three or four X, the Dunbarton ones, three or four times worse.

Yeah, I think the Cigar Medics one is selling for like $125 retail. And then the Dunbart one's like $400, right? I did say on the Dunbarton social media post that we had one, but Greg sold it. We had one, but Greg sold it.

For only $150. Right. Crown Heads expanding the Blood Medicine for 2025. Blood Medicine's a limited edition cigar from Crown Heads will return for 2025.

This time offered in three different Ventolas. Sin Compromiso, Word of Sucka, debuting at PCA 2025, Silly Maduro is debuting at PCA 2025, and now we got some price increases also coming out right before the PCA, what are we calling this again? Bad pricing and fake specials or something? Fake discounts at the show or something like that?

There you go. PDR Cigars announces a price increase. This is the first time we've heard from PDR Cigars, I think, since the last PCA. Oh yeah?

There have been no releases from them in the last year. PDR Cigars has joined the list of companies that are increasing their prices this spring as the company has announced a, ooh, don't look at the screen, Michael, let's see, you were doing good on this last year. What is their percentage of increase? Ooh, I love this game.

Yes. Okay, so who are we doing? PDR. PDR.

PDR. Pretty darn reasonable. As of right now, given the economy, I would say that the increase is going to be less than it was the year prior. So it's probably about...

Do you know what it was last year? Well, the going average was about 7%. So now I'm going to say the going average is going to be between 3% and 4%. And when it comes to PDR, I'm going to say 4%.

5%. That's even better than I thought. Plasencia is increasing prices for 2025. Plasencia Cigars has announced that it will be increasing prices across its portfolio on April 21st.

He emailed the retailers, the company said that the price, so that's right after the show. So at the show, you don't have to pay the higher price. Okay, so here's Placencia's strategy. Placencia's strategy is, hey, we're going to have a price increase after the show, so make sure you buy heavily now.

Right, buy heavily now, exactly. We may possibly also have a price increase after the show, so if you should buy heavily on Posania before. Really? Yes.

Interesting. The company said the price increase amounted to an increase of an average of? 3%. Exactly on the money.

Ding, ding, ding. Dunbarton Tobacco has sent out an email today. The increase goes into effect on Tuesday, April 1st. Before the show.

Before the show. Correct. He needs the money. He doesn't need the money, but what he's doing is he's implying the discount, right?

So if you have a 3% or 4%. He says he doesn't give discounts. Oh, yeah. I guess he doesn't.

I read the entire email. It's usually package deals. Mike, you have to buy Package X to get this, Package this to get Y. Existing orders will be honored at the 2024 prices.

Across the increases were computed on a skew-to-skew basis. The hardest hit were all the Broadleaf-wrapped Puro's, which approximately, oh, we talked about this upstairs. Three and a half percent? Five.

Five percent. Five percent on Broadleaf. 67 percent. I figured at this point, this is from the email, I figured at this point, given that most companies have already waxed poetic in a million different ways about why their prices increase, I will not bore you with that again.

That's his normal schtick when it comes to price increasing. Yeah, I thought it was nice though. All right, we got a Shop of the Week and a Listener of the Week. m.

doing a cut and light with Powstanie Cigars. Nice. They've been advertising heavy. That's exciting.

It is. Alright, Listener of the Week, Michael. Do you want to do the Listener of the Week? You know who it is.

Lightweight Heavy. There's the man, Sean, Lightweight Heavy. Oh, bong! Formerly of Roma Craft Cigars, now with Tinder Box?

Is that what it is? The Box. Oh, just The Box. Yeah.

Is it the same one he was at before? Correct. Yes. He's there now.

We talked to him last week at the phone. He said some very nice things about the show. He's obviously an avid listener because he knew some details. Unlike you.

Unlike you. Unlike you. Don't listen when you're not on. Right.

One other thing for me to add real quick. Yes. There's going to be a Calendly link for any retailer. It's going to be a PCA.

If you set an appointment, you're going to get one small backpack. Powstanie backpack. Sling bag. Sling bag.

Sling bag. One small sling bag. If you do not book an appointment, you're not getting a sling bag. " You cannot just walk up.

We are going to bring as many bags as we have appointments, so there's not going to be any extras, so if you want to book an appointment with us and talk about Powstanie cigars, set the appointment on the Calendly link below. It's like a timeshare deal too, you don't get the bag until after we do the pitch. Yeah, one hour pitch. That's correct.

Yeah, it's one hour pitch. One hour pitch. There's a tour involved, there's a brochure. And no breakfast.

No meals, no food. I don't know. But Greg may tell you all about Japan because he's loving those Japan stories. Loves Japan.

Loves Japan. Anything else? It's my line. Anything else, Michael?

I don't have anything else. I guess that's it. So this has been episode 381 of Cigar Hustler Podcast. Thanks, guys.

Sorry it's late, but we had some changes. We had to redo. All right. We got to go.

Bye. Thank you. Bye. Welcome to the Cigar Hustler Podcast, the show brought to you commercial-free.

But a massive shout out to our amazing patrons on the Patreon. Thanks to your unwavering support, we're able to do unfiltered, unbiased opinions, all things cigars, personalities in the cigar world. Your backing makes it possible for us to keep it real for our listeners. Cheers to you.

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Show Notes

In Episode 381 of the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, Palmer, Mikey, and engineer boots sit down to discuss a range of hot topics. The episode covers Trump’s desire for a third term, a huge fight at the Minnesota-Detroit match, and the latest Musk controversy They also talk about the New Spiderman Movie titles and , social media's impact, and the El Poop-0 brothers' new San Andrés cigar.

In Cigar News, they dive into the latest Aj Factory Fire, a $25 million humidor, Gurkha’s latest steel knives, and Eladio’s new collaboration with AJ. The guys also cover updates on Zino cigars and more exciting PCA releases and price increases. Tune in for all the latest!

For retail PCA Appointments

https://calendly.com/pospiech/powstanie-pospiech-meeting