Cigar Hustlers Podcast Episode 334 For Sale By Owner

Episode Summary

Episode 334 of A Cigar Hustlers Podcast finds Mike "The King" Szczepankiewicz and Mike "BDP" Palmer, with engineer Squire Phil, opening with the usual banter from the Mike and Mike Productions studio in Deltona, Florida — new chairs and set gripes, flavored kids' medicine misadventures at Publix, hurricane-style roof and sliding-door repairs, youth football playoffs, and a $1,000-a-cake FFA awards banquet auction. Phil's Fun Facts covers cattle outnumbering humans in nine U.S. states, brought to you by Braze Ranch in Waldo, Florida.

The news block carries the real substance. The headline story: Robert and Sharon Holt publicly floated the possibility of selling Southern Draw Cigars via an Instagram post, citing personal and health factors plus industry change. The hosts use it as a springboard into an honest conversation about how brutally hard the boutique cigar business is — one-person marketing, sales, social media and retailer follow-up; broker networks versus real sales forces; how much a brand like Southern Draw is actually worth (their guesses range from a couple million to $18 million); the problem of a brand being inseparable from its founder; and whether STG (which already carries Southern Draw line extensions through CI) would be a logical buyer. They also compare relative company sizes, including Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, and talk about how a retailer picks which brands to champion — citing their own house lines under Poshik Distribution (Powstanie, Fosforo, Ceniza Fina, Fable, BDP), plus relationships with Michael Herklots and Matt Booth.

Two price-cut stories follow. All Saints Fine Cigars lowered prices roughly 10% across its portfolio just months after a February increase — and the hosts are blunt about it being a panic move and a bad look for retailers who must relabel and chase refunds, on top of their frustration that co-founder Mickey Pegg never returned their calls or texts before issuing a press release. Rocky Patel likewise cut prices 5% on the Vintage 1990, 1992 and 1999 lines (produced at STG Danlí), prompting a broader discussion of the $8–$9 sweet spot for cigars and whether over-priced blends should be discounted or discontinued.

Rounding out the news: Kingmaker Cigars created a signature Connecticut-wrapped 6x52 toro for WNBA All-Star guard Kelsey Plum, and the hosts weigh in on celebrity cigars and the WNBA's rising profile; Tatuaje opened a South Florida distribution center in Doral; and an Ohio judge ruled cities can ban flavored tobacco products. Shop of the Week goes to Hogshead Cigar, with Michael Herklots named Listener of the Week. Joshua Habusky is teased as next week's guest.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Studio Banter and Weekend Recap
   New chairs, set critiques, flavored kids' medicine at Publix, roof and sliding-door repairs, youth football playoffs and a big-money FFA cake auction.
2. 02
   Phil's Fun Facts
   Cattle outnumber humans in nine states, and the surprising shipping journey of Florida-born beef, presented by Braze Ranch.
3. 03
   Robert Holt Floats Selling Southern Draw
   Robert and Sharon Holt publicly consider selling their stake, prompting a frank talk on burnout, health, and running a boutique brand largely solo.
4. 04
   What Is a Cigar Brand Actually Worth?
   The hosts debate valuation multiples, whether STG would buy Southern Draw, and the risk when a founder IS the brand.
5. 05
   How Retailers Pick Which Brands to Champion
   Sales forces versus brokers, communication as a differentiator, and why a shop focuses on key brands like its own Poshik lines, Herklots and Matt Booth.
6. 06
   All Saints Cuts Prices 10%
   Three months after a price increase, All Saints reverses course — and the hosts explain why the refund process and silence from Mickey Pegg hurt retailer trust.
7. 07
   Rocky Patel Reduces Vintage Line Pricing
   A 5% cut on Vintage 1990, 1992 and 1999 sparks a discussion of the $8–$9 price sweet spot and when to discontinue rather than discount.
8. 08
   Kelsey Plum Signature Cigar and Industry Briefs
   Kingmaker's WNBA star collaboration, Tatuaje's new Doral distribution center, an Ohio flavored-tobacco ruling, Shop of the Week and Listener of the Week.

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

Everybody stand by. Industry is in the house. P. Make way for the King.

Another Mike and Mike production. In three, three, two, one, one, one, zero. Record. Recording now.

Welcome to the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, episode 334, recorded live at the Mike and Mike Productions Castle in Delatano, Florida. This is the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, the show where two guys share their passion for cigars, business, and life. Join Mike "The King" Stepankiewicz and his co-host Mike "Sir" BDP Palmer, as they talk about the latest cigar news, reviews, jousting, and interviews some of the most influential people in the cigar industry. And me, I'm the engineer and sound tech, Squire Phil.

Whether you're a seasoned aficionado or a Knight of the Realm-er, this podcast is for you. So sit back, relax, and light up that cigar. Cigar House is podcast. Knight of the Realm-er.

He's a Knight of the Realm-er. Knight of the Realm-er. Houston, we have a problem. That's replacing the...

I panicked. I had to do something real quick. Welcome to the Cigar House for Podcast, a show brought to you commercial-free. But a massive shout-out to our amazing patrons on Patreon.

Thank you to your unwavering support, we're able to deliver unfiltered, unbiased opinions in all things cigars and personalities in the cigar world. Your backing makes it possible for us to keep it real for our listeners. Cheers to you. com and search "A Cigar Hustlers Podcast".

That is a lovely cue cardboard. My wife wrote it out for me. Yeah, that is definitely not your writing. No, it's not my writing.

No, even I can't read my writing. It would look like Mandarin. Yes, exactly. It would actually be Mandarin.

Yeah. I can't speak Mandarin either. You can't? No.

Oh. I have people for that. And now Tyler has to drink because every time someone reference or I reference China, he takes a drink during the show. That poor guy's going to get shit-faced on a Tuesday.

Now I text him and just throw word China in there randomly sometimes. Oh, really? Yeah. He'll go, fuck, not going to have a drink.

I was randomly texting Jack Taranio, pack it. Because he's like, when you said packet on the Patreon, oh, it just drove me nuts. So then I was like, okay, cool. Why, why was it around saying packet?

Because it was, you know, it was the, bale or whatever the fuck it is. Oh, the tobacco. Yeah. Oh, the packet of tobacco.

It's not a packet. It's a packet now. Now we have renamed it packet. It's a fucking packet.

You never heard from Skip that you said it wrong? Oh, uh, no, he doesn't give a shit about that. Oh. But a reliable source has answered some questions, some statements that I made on the Patreon.

Yes. And I will rectify and correct and elaborate on some of the things that we spoke of on last week's Patreon. On the Patreon this week? Yes, on this week's Patreon.

Nice. You didn't start your timer. It's so hard to hardly get to. Oh God, hold on, let me reach here.

I threw out my shoulder. So we've gotten some mixed reviews on the new set? No, everybody likes the set, just basically I look uncomfortable. Yeah.

It's hard to get used to the chairs. Well, what we're gonna do is we're, you know, this, we've had some gut statements as well. Oh, yeah, there's been a lot of gut statements. We're gonna put you in some Spanx, buddy.

Oh, we're gonna get your Spanx, but I did, I did look at them, and they look terribly uncomfortable. Oh, yes, dude, let's do this. They look terribly uncomfortable. I could change the shirt, that would, that would do a tremendous amount of, uh, help for me.

Well, it's the tight t-shirt. Well, they have the dad bod shirts. Well, this is a dad bod shirt, but it only works when you're standing. Oh.

It doesn't work when you're sitting. I see. We can figure this out. Maybe a black poncho?

I'm not too worried. Maybe I need one of those TV trays in front of me on my own little mini desk. Somebody recommended that. Maybe get him a little desk in front of his chair.

Yeah, put something in front of you. Yeah. I can put the cue card in front of me. There you go.

Cheers to you. Fucking huge. There you go. I like that.

A cigar apron? Yeah. Cigar. Oh, yeah.

The $280 cigar apron. That's right. Put you in a fucking blanket. Fuck it.

You know what I mean? Just get a Mexican, what's that thing there? Oh, like a poncho? Yeah, poncho.

Is it a poncho? A jalapa. A jalapa. I thought it was a jalapa.

I had one of those for dinner the other night. A jalapa? A jalapa is a tobacco, right? It is tobacco.

Yeah, it is tobacco. Cover me with a big tobacco leaf. That'd work, too. Yeah, that'd be perfect.

You just hang a curtain here in front of me from the ceiling. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Palmer, what's your reaction? And then we zoom on this curtain.

Right, exactly. It'd be wonderful. It'd be fantastic. Great.

So, how's the lawn? I'm trying to think when I did it, because we had a busy weekend. I started it Saturday afternoon, and I finished it Sunday morning. Oh.

We went to the beach Saturday. And how did that go? We had a beach day. Well, we couldn't find him, we couldn't find Steve Hippelhauser there anywhere.

Oh, no, he wasn't there. No, we lucked, we lucked, didn't see him, didn't see him. Guy's always there. You know, that's what, when I pulled in, I asked for him, and they're like, no, no, he's not.

He's not holding court. That was a few weeks ago. Oh. Phil, you're close with Steven Hippelhouser.

Has he been going to the beach as of late the past couple of weeks? Uh, not the beach. I mean, he's been by the beach. He's been by the beach?

Oh, that's right. He's a hefe DJ. So, anyways. The beach is probably, it had to be super hot.

It was super hot. And it was super low tide, so the water kept getting further and further away. Oh, Lord. Like a desert.

Yeah, right. That's what it looked like. I'm high. You want to go to the water?

I can see it still that way. It's over there. Right. Well, we were going to do a little Volcano Bay action this weekend.

Right. Teddy got sick again. The stomach thing? Yeah.

Uncle Greg's got a stomach thing. I think, yeah. My daughter got sick too. He thinks he has botulism or something.

Like the vomit and stuff? She had an ear infection. Ah. And then when she took the medicine, she vomited.

That's bad for the beach. Bad for the beach. That's bad for the beach. Yeah.

And when she took it, what? Go ahead. Then when she took the medicine, she vomited. So maybe she had a stomach thing too.

Well, maybe the medicine was a little strong. Yeah, just one time. Yeah, she probably just didn't like the medicine. There's nothing better than you giving a kid medication and then...

And then they get sick. No, and then them throwing it up. Shortly thereafter. Because then you're fucked.

You're right. It's not like you hit them with another dose. Right. You do that in your head though.

You're like, how long has it been? Son of a bitch. Can I do it again? What care of the one?

Probably not. So is it only if you say Chinese or anybody? Just me. Oh, okay.

Just me. Because I was going to tell you why the medicine was bad. It was, camera two please, camera three, whatever it is, Chinese medicine? Yeah.

No, so I went to Publix to get the medicine. Yeah. And you know how for like kids- You mean, Steven Hibbelhauser went to Publix. Right, yeah.

And you know how you can pay extra money to get it flavored or whatever? Yeah. Oh, those don't work. Well, they work if you do it correctly.

So I go there, first of all, if you ever go to Publix on the weekend, They get medicine. You can't get it if they first open up. You got to wait 30 minutes no matter what. Yeah.

Okay. So I wait 30 minutes. Then he gives me the medicine. And he asked me, he goes, hey, for $2 more, I can make it whatever flavor you want.

I said, okay. Can you a peach crown, please? Well, I would like for it to be cherry. Apple.

Sour apple. Sour apple crown. Can you make it taste like Jack Daniels? So then he goes.

Kids got a problem. Yeah, no problem. Charges me the $2. Right.

goes back, brings it back up, and he goes, he had already flavored it, and he goes, all right, here you go. He goes, well, and he opens it in front of me. Takes a swig. And he smells it.

Right. Right? And he goes, well, it's going to be like a bubblegum cherry. I'm like, why would it be bubblegum cherry?

I asked for cherry. He goes, well, because we kind of already flavored a bubblegum before I asked you about flavoring it. Oh, damn. So he wasn't going to charge you then?

He still charged me. Well, bubblegum is your standard. Oh. Yeah, that's the standard flavor.

So it comes in a flavor. Yeah. You probably should have mentioned that up front. Yeah, bubblegum is amazing.

I loved that back in the day. I love that. Well, I don't mind it. Give me those antibiotics with a bubblegum flavor.

I was like, yes. My kids are bougie. Grape, or booze's kids are bougie. Grape, cherry, apple.

I'm like, I just take the medicine, man. Yeah, I mean, it's not going to be in your mouth that long. Yeah. Two bucks, though, is not a lot of money for your children to be.

Well, it only costs you two bucks for them to fuck it up. Right, exactly. Right, yeah. You paid a premium to get it fucking destroyed.

Right. She threw up the first time when she took it. Oh, she didn't like cherries. Yeah.

No, she don't like bubblegum. She doesn't like bubblegum cherry. Bubblegum cherry. Yes.

Cherry bubblegum or whatever. Another combo. So, and then I'm still dealing with this house. The roof thing, yeah.

Oh my God. It's a disaster. Yeah. Are they finished?

They're finished, but... Okay, are you enclosed? I'm enclosed. Okay.

They still need to do-- And have air conditioning? I do have air conditioning. Three out of three? The drywall's fucked, though.

Right, right. So that's all cut open and stuff, which is a disaster. And my AC unit, like the ducts, were flooded. Oh, because they were shower heads.

Yeah, they're fucked up. They're gonna rust. I gotta deal with that. No, it's not rust.

Well, I mean, eventually. No, it's like a fiberglass square that needs to be replaced. So it got wet, fiberglass got wet? Yeah.

That doesn't seem good. No, it's no bueno. So I'm dealing with that. Oh, it's right.

It's got the foil around the fiberglass. Yeah. And then my sliding glass door broke. The one going out to the smokey patio?

It always breaks, yeah. So I went to go and replace that with a replacement to get the part. Right. I finally got this thing.

I was doing this. You're right. We're not calling Kenny anymore, right? Well, we can't.

Yeah, he's gone. He's gone. Well, there's a cease and desist order. Well, I'm like, we're fucking doing, we're doing this.

So, Brittany and I, we put our heads together and we got there. We got to the point where everything was apart. Okay. It's not as easy.

Like, I can't just pull mine out. I have to remove the whole frame. It's fucking crazy. Okay.

And I'm like, fuck, this is not the piece that I bought. So, I went to go look for it. They didn't have it. I checked everywhere else.

They didn't have it. Oh. So, I had to call Bezos and he said... Scott Bezos?

No, Jeff. Oh, Jeff Bezos. Scott's his brother. Yeah.

Call him. And they said that it would be here before 10 o'clock tonight, so. Oh. m.?

Yeah. m. So what is broke on it? Like you can't open it at all?

Well, the wheel broke again. From the slamming? When you're angry? I think that the frame is actually a little bit tighter than it's supposed to be.

Too much pressure? Yeah. And it just fucking wears out so fast. And you got a pretty heavy one, too.

And it gets multiple use. Yeah, because that door open and closes a lot. 75,000 times a night. Right.

So it's like, pfft, done. So, yeah, got to deal with that. We had football. Patriots, they didn't.

Wait, sports was over. No, it's not over. No, Patriots didn't. It's never over.

Patriots didn't make the playoffs, so they're done. Okay. That was last week. Which child is the Patriot?

Justice. Justice, okay. So the younger one's done. The younger one is done.

Okay. So now it's just Jack's. Older one's in the playoffs. He's in the two seed, so.

Oh. Interesting stuff. Dude, this team has really come such a long fucking way, man. These kids are just, they really have gotten better.

Really have come together. Yeah, you know, I've learned that kids are very responsive to push-ups. Oh, they don't like them. If you drop the ball, you get the push-ups.

Oh, yes. Wow. Up-downs? Sometimes up-downs.

Not a lot of up-downs. Not a lot of up-downs. But I'm looking forward to this Friday with that. With the push-ups?

With the playoffs. Oh, this is the last game? It should be. It should be the last.

If they win or lose? Yeah, so they should have a bye, and then if they win, they'll have to play two games. This weekend? Yeah, back-to-back.

Oh. Yeah. So that should be cool. Seems like the cards are stacked against them.

Yeah, that second game is going to be hard. Well, some teams have to do three games. Oh, you want to play one of them? Well, that's usually how it works.

They play, and then you play them, and then whoever wins that plays in the championship. Is there one team that only plays once? No. No.

The first and the second seed can play a maximum of two games. So they pack it in? I mean, we could play one if we lose. No, no, no.

I would just, like, two and three play each other, and then the winner of that plays one. One and two get a bye, so I would assume that three plays six and four plays five. He plays five. Ah, okay, I gotcha.

I gotcha. There's six teams. Yeah. Okay.

The real question is, I want to see who we have in the lineup. Right. So we can work on their game strategy. Oh.

Shut 'em down. Oh. 'Cause I'm that guy. It's tricky.

Yeah. So, yeah, so it was kind of a chill weekend for us, man, just trying to work on stuff around the house and get that back up to par. We, uh... Fucking nightmare.

We went to the FFA Awards banquet Sunday night. Sunday night. Yeah. They do this cake thing.

All the kids bring in cakes, and then they do this cake auction. Well, first, it's a silent auction. You're over, you're right. You know, I'll pay $6 for the cake.

It's never enough money. So then they do an auction. They brought an actual auctioneer in this year. Ah, it's got $1,000 for $1,000.

What? What kind of cake was it? Regular cake. I don't know.

Was it the Golden Purveyors? No, it was some guy kept buying all the cakes, and he was like, he'd just yell out $1,000, and then they go, oh, he's got the cake. That's it. That's the ringer.

The guy's like, I'm dropping 10. Adrian says he owns like over half of Deltona or something. He owns all the cake. He's probably about your age.

He's a younger guy. And his daughter knows my wife, obviously. I had a $200 brownie last night. Wow.

Cheesecake brownie. She brought it around. Mrs. Palmer, would you like one of these?

It had no gold flakes. No, no. I had cheesecake on the top of it and then chocolate brownie. Nice.

Doesn't sound like 200 bucks. I didn't pay for it. Yeah. Sounds like 10.

Adrian had a $200 cake pop. Shaped like a little cow. Oh. $200 cake pop.

Well, that was $1,000 for the cake pop still. Yeesh. They raised $10,000 last night. Not just in cakes, but they also do.

From the one guy. Yeah. He might have spent like six. Easy.

Easy. Yeah. Hmm. King of the Deltona.

The parents in FFA are very involved and very nice people. Yeah, well, that water runs thick. Future Farmers of America. That again.

What'd you say over there? That water runs thick over there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That water runs thick?

It's a tight organization. Yeah. And it's been generational. Yeah.

They do all the catering for everything that the school does all year. They run the concession stand. I mean, they run everything over there. Oh.

They're like the mafia at the school. Ooh. Yeah. Like, their kids are going, and then their kids will go, and their kids will go.

Right. Oh, that sounds serious. Right. Okay.

Well, hey, I'm glad you- All of Maryland, all of Maryland people. Well, it's the second year I went. Because I do the judging for the- Yes, I know. Yeah, well, that's why I get invited.

So you get a $200 kick pop? No, no, I had a $200 brownie. Yeah. My wife had a $200 kick.

$500 kick. Did you go to sleep after eating the brownie, or? No, no, regular brownie. What are we doing for the Patreon?

I don't know, what do we got over there? We have- Blood Oranges! Blood Medicine. Blood Medicine.

From Crowned Heads. Have you tried this yet? I have not. I haven't either.

I'm intrigued. I sold one on Friday. How new is this? It just came out.

It came out Thursday. Yeah, it just came out. I'm hoping I don't upset anybody on the Patreon, but if I do, don't share it, god damn it. Well, this is not, it's not.

Well, this is what they should do. " Make that person sign up. And then send them the link. Yes, we would like Jon Huber's money.

To make the purchase for the Patreon. God damn it. They can listen to us, do whatever the whole time on the venture. I'm really surprised he hasn't bought in yet just to keep track of us.

Yeah, right? Right, for ten bucks. So, keep my eye on you. So, we kind of got snubbed with the whole Mickey Pegg yada yada.

I seen, was there a post or something? Oh yeah, because he did a press release. Yeah, there was a press release. Yeah, via Coop.

Right, yeah, Coop is the only one that got it. Fun guy never called us back. He texted you and said there was something else going on. He was going through some personal issues or whatever.

Right. And then I said out of respect for him, I don't know. I meant to ask you what that was, I was curious, but no, it's really not important. Unless you wanted to shout him out now.

Yeah, I mean, hey, listen, the guy didn't bother to call back. So now you'll say what it was? No, I won't do that to him. Oh, okay.

But, but, you know, look. I will. Look. He got hair transplants.

I like Mickey. And they're not taking. I like Mickey. I like Mickey, too.

He's a very nice guy. Yes, Mickey is a nice guy. He's a fucking mess when it comes to everything else, though. We have a story, a story came out on All Saints.

Oh, really? Oh, with the price deduction? Right. Yeah.

Well, that was a mess. Oh, that's a mess. So, we'll continue to elaborate on that, too, when we get down that road on the news. Sure.

And the other big thing, which might be on the news, it's probably on the news. Maybe I should just shut the fuck up. Yeah, why don't you just... Is it about Southern Draw?

Certainly. Why don't I cover that? He loves Southern Draw. Robert Hall's my friend.

There's some good shit going on in this industry. And that's really about the two top stories right there. Those are two very big stories. Show's over.

That was the news. I look at some of these other podcasts, and they're talking about shit that's from like the fucking dark ages. Yeah, I know. I just don't understand.

Like, what are you guys doing? Like, fucking stepping up. Romeo and Juliet comes out with new course. Some of the shows are having people on their shows, some of the shows, or having guests.

I don't even know who the people are, let alone the cigar brand. I enjoy the redundancy, like the same shit over and over again. Well, right, but that's not happening now. Not everybody's like, I've got, no insult to you, Phil, I've got Phil from Ijax Cigars, and we're like, I don't know who Phil is or Ijax Cigars.

Well, it's kind of a big deal. Well, apparently, yeah, Ijax's a big thing. Wasn't all those shows are like, they're like in a group, right? No, no, no, that's Coops.

But each one of his shows does something different. Like he's got the music show, he's got the cigar show. He's got the show where they drink because it goes with the cigars, and then is Developing Palates part of his show? What?

No. Okay, I remember him having one, and then you guys told me he had the second one. Now he has a third one? Yeah, yeah.

He's got like 75 shows. Yeah. It's the coalition. Yeah.

That guy's crushing. Yeah. He's got a silver helicopter. He was in Dubai.

He was last week. Yeah. Is this why he gets the press releases? He's not giving a fuck yet.

He's in Dubai spending his coalition money. Oh. Yeah. Saccas in Italy.

Oh, I saw that this morning. Lovely photo of him and his wife. Meanwhile. Well, lovely photo of his wife.

It's half of his head. Us slapdicks are fucking just still here. Still here. We have new chairs.

Yeah, we got these new chairs. So there's that. I had to check the balance today to make sure we could pay the rent. Pay for the fucking...

Well, no Italy for us. You gotta love it. Yeah. Greg goes, you paid the rent yet?

I go, no, we bought chairs. Yeah. Ridiculous. He goes, can you Monday?

I go, I'll let you know. I don't know. Yeah. That all depends.

You're doing your job. You asked me about the rent. That's right. I go, you mentioned it once, and then you never said anything again, so I'm not going to remind you I owe you money.

Yeah. Is there a late fee or something? Well, technically, we're not paying it. Fuck you.

We're getting a rent reduction. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Oh.

He said substantial. Really? Something the government did. Listen, Greg said the word substantial.

You're right. Does he know what substantial means? You can't spell it. I don't buy it.

I don't buy it for a second. You don't buy it. Greg making less money? Doesn't make sense to me.

I don't know. We'll see. I think because we said small square footage. To be determined.

Something with the-- Substantially means half. Something with the-- That's right. Substantially means half, Greg. I don't know if you understand that.

Yeah. How about this? How about you pay us? We're going to go the other direction this year.

We would like some type of-- We would like you to give us some money to talk about your shop upstairs. Yeah, your amazing store. That'd be fine. That'd be fine.

It'd be perfect. Yeah. Cigar Hustler, by the way, in case you guys are wondering. Cigar Hustler.

com. All right, ever feel fun fact? Oh, yeah. Are you got anything else?

We're at 18 minutes-ish. Probably closer to 20. I think that's it, man. Had football, dealt with shit at the house.

Cut the grass, went the FFA. Yeah, you had more of an exciting week than I did. I cut down, I trimmed down a stomp in my yard. You grinded it?

I just used a chainsaw. I used my neighbor's chainsaw. Oh. Get it up out of the ground?

No, it's just less. Oh. What sense is that? It's not as high, it doesn't look as bad.

But if it's high, you can put a little piece of wood on to make it a table. Oh, it wasn't that high. Make it a footstool. In the middle of the yard?

It sounds silly. You put a chair next to it, don't you sit out there and watch your roofers? Can't say I do. Your wife said you sit out there and watch them.

Oh, yeah? Wasn't it after the first day waiting on them to show up or something? Oh, that was when I cut the bolt. Oh, that's right, that's right.

Yeah. Waiting on them to give you an invoice for the bolt. Fuckin' around. Yeah.

That'd be funny. Yeah. So, there's that. All right.

Let's go. Phil's Fun Facts. Welcome to Cigar Hustlers' podcast feature, Phil's Fun Facts. Hello, peoples.

Oh, my mustache is falling down here. Uh, just like Phil's beach days outnumber his work days, cattle outnumber humans in nine states: Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. Strangely, a lot of these cattle were born in other places and shipped there for finishing. So that steak you got from Costco, it's definitely...

Could have some real miles on it. Fairly commonly, cattle are born in Florida, shipped to the Dakotas for backgrounding and finishing, processed, and shipped back to Florida for consumption. Wow. That wasn't really a fun fact.

Well, listen. Hey, I appreciate them helping me, and I don't have to do it. They need to step it up. Well, half the team has been deployed.

Oh, that's true. Right, they're down to one person. All right, fine. Good job.

Can I have three, please, so I can read their five? Good job. Bill's Fun Facts brought to you by Cigar Hustler Podcast Patreon and brought to you by Braze Ranch in Waldo, Florida. Follow them at Braze Ranch on Instagram or Facebook for regular ranch updates and news on beef availability.

Beef availability. You can go to two now. Thank you. Bam.

Bam. Gotta go to work. Bam, you gotta go to work. to go to work.

I'm going to bring that back. It's still on here. Is it? No, it's not.

You haven't hit that button in a while. There's no way it's still on there. Nope. Told you.

He probably didn't label it bam. No, it was labeled bam. It was labeled gotta go to work. No, we added...

Yeah, you know what? Fuck Alfredo. Oh, yes. Oh, that's just about...

That's a bell. It's handmade in Estelini. We had some better ones come up. I don't know what this one is.

This is Garrett Robinson, formerly of, how about... But we do still have... Who's number one? Cigar Hustler, the podcast...

There you go, David Robinson. He confirmed that. I'm killing time. In that picture.

I'm killing time. We're a little ahead of schedule. What gives a fuck? Alright, ready for the news?

Go! Now look, now look at you. A button don't work. From the four corners of the world.

Hey, that sounded pretty good, Michael. Thank you. From the four corners of the world, all the cigar industry news you could possibly need. The Cigar Hustler Podcast Report with Mike Two.

I need to change that, I guess, because I'm not really called Mike Two anymore. You're not? Cigar Hustler News with BDP. Oh, you're pressing hard with the BDP.

Robert and Sharon Holt float selling Southern Draw cigars. This past Thursday morning, Robert Holt took to Instagram to publicly announce that he and his wife, Sharon, are considering selling their steak in Southern Draw Cigars. Holt said that the post was not an alarm, but that a combination of personal factors and change within the industry have nudged him to begin discussing possibilities for the next chapter of the company. Just throwing that out there.

Yeah, just throwing it out there. He got real sick, what was it, right after COVID, where he got caught in some foreign country or something? 2 grams, by the way. - Okay.

- I don't have a pen over here. - It's okay. - I got it. - He got sick?

- It's in the candle. - He got sick, he found himself in the candle. - He was in a house? - Yeah, somewhere.

- But that was years ago. - Well, right, but he does state the health concerns are one of the reasons. Maybe there's some after effects, like Greg can't go up and down the stairs. - Look, let me tell you something.

- Let me tell you something! - Here's what people don't understand. Okay, we'll do that. You want the other one?

Here we go. Here's what people don't understand. This industry, it's fucking hard. It is so tough.

You can have the best cigar on the planet, it doesn't fucking matter. You gotta market it right, you gotta sell it right, you gotta follow up with retailers, because a lot of retailers suck, they don't do their job, they run out of stock, they don't fucking refill it. So, when you're constantly running, when you're constantly running, and running, and running this business, I don't know how big a staff he has, I think it's just him, his wife, his son, it's hard to other guys, that seems like a normal company, it is, yeah, but no, they need a sales force, right, they need a sales force, cause so he's a salesman, he's the promotion guy, he's the social media guy, I mean everything, yeah, I know what that feels like, sucks. Why are you giving me squinty eyes?

Because you're the social media guy? Right, like you don't do everything by yourself. How are you social media guy for Postanya? Oh, there we go.

Breaking news. Let's see. When we were at the convention, I did press releases every single day, took photos every day. When we do events, I come with you and take pictures every day.

So at least I have a social media guy. So there's that. Right, he didn't have to do that. He has to do those videos at his house in the middle of the night.

He used to. He doesn't even do that anymore. At least not that I see. We're talking about Southern Draw?

Because this industry will burn you the fuck out, man. Well, there's only so many times you can sit out there and drink coffee and smoke a cigar and talk to people. Southern Draw. I don't know.

I like my videos on Powstanie Mafia. I think that's pretty cool. Yeah, but you're not interacting. You're just doing them and then posting them.

He would sit there for three hours. Oh, hey, look. Mike Palmer's on now. Hi, Mike.

How you doing? And then, you know, he's got a story that he's telling or something. For three hours? Oh, yeah.

It was weird. Oh, Lord. Well, he stopped sleeping before I stopped sleeping. Yeah, that's tough, man.

It is tough. So, what do you think it's worth? What do you think it's worth? I have no idea.

No idea. Guess. What, do you know? No.

How much was Caldwell bought for? We don't know. Yeah, I have... I thought it was a number.

What's Caldwell bought? Yeah. Oh, yeah, it was. I think we did know the number.

I have no idea. I don't know how many stores he's in or any of that kind of stuff. I don't know any of that. I'll guess.

Okay. Okay, you go ahead. I'll throw out a number. 18 mil.

Ooh. Jesus Christ. Is that low? I think it's high.

I was going to say 10. I think you're both high. You think so? You think 5?

10, 18, what do you think? I think it's less than that. Less than 5? Yeah.

Oh. Maybe a couple mil. What's the multiplier for cigars? 17.

It's just like any business. What is it? I don't know. It's either like 2x the gross or 4x or 5x the net, depending.

Depending? Well, if you, so say you, I mean, if you 5x a million, yeah, I guess it's 5 million. The problem is, he is Southern Draw, though. I think here's the, here's the, yeah, that's a big issue.

Yeah, how much is it worth without him and Sharon? Right. Well, nobody ever buys a company and throws them out. Yeah, he would, he would probably stay on board.

Well, I would imagine for a short time, but he's wanting out. I'm sorry that we're not, I'm not close enough friends where I can't call him. I don't know him. No, I.

Well, you know. I have his number, but I don't know him well as it goes. So how much are you asking? We all got our wallets out here, Robert.

I mean, we didn't know Scott, and we asked him the questions. Scott Pierce? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

And we have Joshua Habersky next week. Oh. I'm sure... On his first day of being king.

The Southern Draw guy would love to be on. Well, he was on here on the show a long time ago. He's been on here before, yeah, a long time ago. The one time he came in the shop.

Because he almost hired me. And then when he didn't hire me, Mikey, you went, never again. I think what he's doing is very smart, like doing a press release and saying like he's up for sale. It wasn't really a press release, it was a social media post.

Not like a formal press release. " He should've went the Ferrari route. Did you see how Ferrari did that shit? Did you watch it?

I didn't watch the movie. Oh, it's great. " Mike, I need you to fucking send out the rumor that Ford is looking to acquire us, and then he denied it. No, Ford didn't buy it, Fiat bought them.

He could have called us, we would have made it up, what do we care? We heard a rumor that Robert Holt might be selling. We heard a rumor that you're selling, are you selling? No, no.

To STG. To STG. To STG. It's hard, man.

How big of a company do you have to be for STG to buy you? I don't know. They could buy Southern Draw. There has to be an advantage for them.

That's the... Right, I mean, he's got a lot of stuff in CI. Southern Draw. And they are CI.

Right. So, I mean, they've already got some of his stuff. He does some line extensions. So is it a level of vertical integration.

Like, that's how Alec Bradley became so successful. Right, yeah. Right. They've got line extensions of his stuff that you can't get except from CI.

Mmm. So it would make sense for them to buy them because then it would, their margins would increase. Okay, but I'm going to tell you this, I'm going to tell you this, here's, look, I think that there's this huge illusion in this industry as far as how big a company actually is. Sure.

That's what I was asking. Like when you start to kind of figure out how many, what are your numbers for, you know, these three states, and you hear numbers that are, you know, 200k, And if you have 50k, annual, or lower, you're like, holy fuck, how do they pay for you to be on the road? Yeah, you're multiplying, you know? If you have an in-house person, they're making 50k, right?

Right, yeah, if you have a salesman out there. Like, if you're making less than 100, shit, dude, he grows in less than 100, you know? Do you think Dunbarton's bigger than Southern Draw? Uh, yeah.

What? Yeah. I think Dunbarton is bigger. Well, just because he's got a salesman, he's got...

He's got a sales force. He's got Lafferty. Does he have a sales force or a sales guy? He's got brokers.

Oh, brokers. Oh, well, Southern Draw has brokers in areas. Do they? Yeah, yeah.

I've never seen them walk in here. No, well, we're on the do not disturb list. Oh, are we? Yes, yes, we are.

We're on the do not disturb list? We're on the do not disturb list. Don't talk to those people. Don't talk to them, they don't like me, I didn't hire Palmer.

Southern Draw. I wasn't, we don't, we don't not like Robert? No, no, not now. But then, you can ask if you're going to carry it and you go, no, you didn't fucking hire you, so no.

Yeah, that makes sense. I would say that. Yes, you would. Yeah, exactly.

I support my people. Right. You think he would hire you now? You should call.

I don't want to. I don't want to now. Hey. I'm not getting on a second, Jeff.

No way. I'll tell you what. Plus, I tried that. It is not fun at all.

I don't want to do that. Look, when it comes to a retail store, you focus on key brands, right? Right. And that's just not a brand that I'm focusing on.

No. To bring him in now, we would have to build it up. There was a time when his brand was more known to hire up the food chain, let's just say. Yeah, I mean, obviously, our own stuff, everything's under Poshik Distribution, Postanya, Phosphoro, Ceniza Fina, Fable, FQ, BDP, Sometimes Shogui, I consider BDP under like the Poshik Limiteds.

Oh, fair enough. But yeah, BDP, you know, and then obviously, Roma. Right. Right.

So like those things are already kind of well established and those continue to grow kind of naturally at this point. Right. Yeah. So then you kind of gravitate out and you kind of pick some horses, like you just establish a good relationship with Herklots, right?

Right. So you're like, all right, well, let's start focusing on that a little bit. And, you know, we've developed a relationship with Matt Booth. And because of that, his numbers have definitely excelled in this store, you know, I mean, his sales force is fucking terrible.

I had no idea about it. Does he even have one? Yeah, it's STG guys. I had no idea about...

Wait, so Ryan? No, John is the guy's name. Oh. Yeah, I don't know if he calls Greg or something, or what.

I don't know. Oh, yeah, Greg, yeah, we'll tell Greg he does something. " Yeah, I mean, if he walked in, I wouldn't know who he was if he was on fire. Near with Greg.

Oh, I know who he is. He's a nice guy, but, you know, being a nice guy doesn't necessarily make him a great salesperson. Right, exactly. " I'm like, I know.

You know who we see here the most? I don't go. We see the Ashton guy, I think, more than anybody. He's doing a great job.

We don't carry a lot of Ashton stuff. But we carry Ashton now. Yeah, they didn't carry Ashton before. Right.

Well, we did back when there was somebody else who did it. Yeah. The guy with the bow tie? Yeah, Jose Ortega?

Yeah. The seventh? Yeah. Yeah.

Jose Ortega, the seventh. Well, you know, same scenario. I mean, that's a brand that, you know, it had its heyday a hundred years ago. Right.

They're working on, I don't know what the fuck they're working on. Reinventing the way up? They're trying to figure it out. And I think that they're doing some things right.

I just think that a lot of that is they got to catch up on some specific things. Certainly. Right. It's hard when, you know...

It's more old man's brand. Well, it's not only that, but, you know, they're directly, I believe they're directly attached to Holtz. Okay. And Holtz is a big discount online store.

Ah. So, I was like, eh. Ashton's an old brand, right? Ashton is an old brand.

Yeah, that's what I was saying, an old man's brand. Also, you know, when you have that kind of dynamic things are difficult. Like the Romeo and Julietas and the Monte Cristos. Yeah.

Yeah. There's all that. All that stuff. So, hey, but, you know, I hope it all works out for Robert.

Yeah, best of luck to Robert. I hope it works out. Dude, I fucking get it. That's all I can tell you.

I know that it's hard. I know that family and physical and all those personal things can get in the way as well as just life and business. And, you know, I hope that if you do wind up selling that you sell it for the number that you're happy with. You know, I wish you the best.

We, we, we wish you the best. If you'd like to come on the show, give us a call. Yeah, if you want to talk about it. Sure.

You can just call in. I love call-ins. Call-ins are so fucking fantastic. Yeah, Monday between three and four.

There you go. Just call. We don't care. We'll answer the phone.

So somebody send Robert that clip. All right? You guys send clips to everybody else for fuck's sake. Yeah.

Oh, you can pull that one for a short or something. Yeah. This is weird. Now I got to put it over here.

All Saints lowers prices by 10%. All Saints Cigars has lowered its prices by an average of 10% across the company's entire portfolio products. The company says the changes went into effect last week. As our industry navigates through the persistent price escalation post-COVID, we at All Saints Fine Cigars has decided not just to hold the line, but to draw a new one, said Mickey Pegg, co-founder of All Saints Cigars, in a press release that we didn't get.

We stand firmly behind our cherished retail partners and devoted consumers, ensuring that they receive nothing but the best from us. According to the press release that we didn't get, All Saints will work with its retail accounts to make sure they are compensated for any recently purchased inventory. This is in parentheses, recently, so we don't know what recently is. Right.

This is the second price change at All Saints in 2024. In February, the company did a price increase, but now they're doing a price decrease. So the increase, do we know what the, did you research any of this? No, we don't know, we don't know if it was more than 10.

Right, that's what I was gonna wonder, like, is the decrease gonna be below? That would make sense, it's what you would think, that they're gonna, you know, maybe they raised it 12, so we're driving at 10, we're still making an extra two. Right. You know, it sounds like he's making a series of really bad decisions.

Yeah, I wouldn't have, I mean, you know, I don't know. You think he's making that decision because of the split? I don't fucking know. It doesn't matter.

I don't think any retailers are going to drop there. " It's just no, we make more money now. Right. He would have done a better job of making a new cigar at a lower price point.

Right. Introducing something completely new. Yeah, and start kind of focusing and developing that way. This is the McAuliffe "Fuck You" cigar we're going to call it.

Yeah, instead of just saying, "I don't know what's going on," and, uh, reduce prices. Like, wait, what? You know? A panic move.

It's not... Did you guys read in the comments? " Well, they were like, "Oh, well, what if I didn't follow Coupe on Facebook? " Right.

So how do I know how to ask for the money? " And then he recanted with, well, we're given the refunds, if you read the article. If you read the article, yeah. Yeah, you have to go to some special email and send in a request and something.

Which I think was good because he's, I mean, at least he's taken care of... It's still a bad look. I mean, it is, but trying to... You're asking retailers, and a lot of them aren't good at their job, to go back and, for one, lower their prices, and for two, get a refund, whether it be in cigars, They're being cigars, or whatever the case may be.

Right, now they can figure out what they did buy him when they bought it. And they're not gonna, they're not gonna fucking do that. " Right. You know, we're just gonna...

Right, this is just too much trouble. Right, we're just gonna clear out his shit, and he can fucking, he can just move on. So, realistically, what he did, I think, is that he really fucking hurt himself, for one, by lowering his price, for two, not calling me the fuck back, because now I'm gonna go hard in the motherfucking paint. Oh.

Uh-oh. Want to try to call him again now? What? No, I'm done, huh?

Now we're done with it. Yeah, I don't even talk to him. Oh, now you're dead, Mickey. I'm sorry.

You know, look. Hey, he didn't even take me back. You're gasping for every once in a while. Are you okay?

No, I'm fine. All right. No, he's getting ready to go hard in the paint. Hold on, just a little bit.

I kind of just did want to go hard in the paint. No, the second thing you were talking about where you gasp for air in the middle. What are you talking about? He was...

He was... You didn't even notice you did it. Yeah, he was doing a big talk. But you were talking about...

I started to build up there. Yeah. I started to kind of go, go, go, go, and as I was talking a lot. Just make sure you're okay.

Listen, Palmer, don't alert the anxiety in all of us, okay? I'm not alert the anxiety, I'm just checking on my friends. I'm fine, but look, we can't throw anything out into the audience. I'm not going.

You know, I just feel, now that you've brought me back down, I just feel that, look. I just don't want you to pass out here in the chair. As an industry, like my nose a little stuffy, I guess. Oh, it could be.

So you're talking and breathing through your mouth at the same time? Yeah, okay. As you know, I don't, here's what fucking drives me nuts. If someone fucking calls you.

Right. And they're concerned about you. Right. And they want to know what the fuck is going on.

Sure. You should probably call them back. Well, you called two, three times? Yeah.

I texted and emailed. Right. Nothing for any of them. Because we obviously have some concerns.

Right. We've supported the brand. Right. I could tell you right now that I'm not going out of my way to fucking make more shelf space for All Saints.

Like, no, I'm not doing that. Right, no, no, we're not. It's not like this guy's fucking, if somebody calls me or texts me and I can't get to them, hey, I'll call you right back. I'll call you back in a little bit or whatever the case may be.

Right, something you'll follow up. Yeah, I will let them know what's going on. Right. I will keep communication open.

Right. I won't fucking say, hey, I got all these personal issues and then go somewhere else and then fucking make an announcement. Right. Yeah, apparently Scott Pierce is almost dying in a hospital.

" Right. There's a difference there. I'm sorry it's been a couple of days, but... I almost died.

Yeah, I almost died, but... I'm doing better, I'll reach back out to you in a day or so. Right. It's fine.

So, like, is that the fucking, is that the brand that you want to champion? No. If you take all the other bullshit aside, all the other fucking chaos with McAuliffe and then the fucking price reduction, the fucking carry the one... Right.

I want to deal with the fucking guy that's going to get on the goddamn phone, whether you're going to get on the phone, or you're going to have somebody get on the phone, something, there is this fall off with companies that lack fucking communication, and then they wonder why things have imploded and why their businesses have failed, because you couldn't fucking get anybody on the goddamn phone, you could have a great product, it's not that fucking hard, here's the phone number, call this fucking guy, hey, really sorry about that. Whatever, Mickey can't call you right now, my name's Bob. Right, Bob, do me a favor and fucking, you know what, even the sales force that's no longer with you, I bet you could have reached out to some of those guys and said, hey, you know, so-and-so has questions and I can't really respond, do you mind picking up the slack for me on this? Yeah, we still don't know the breakup, like what?

It doesn't matter how bad the breakup is with the company, because there's still probably people that liked Mickey in that company that would have helped. Right, it depends on his relationship with the individual sales guys. Right, even if they're not... We know our guy would have.

Right, even if they're not in that company. Mickey's been in the business for over a fucking, who knows how long, 20 fucking years. Right. He could have called anybody and said, "Hey man, I'm fucking, dude, shit has hit the fan for me.

" Mike hair transplants didn't take, can you call this guy back for me? Do you mind taking the, can you just fucking make some calls for me and just say, hey, look, really sorry, he's having a hard time, he's going through a transitional period, he doesn't know all this shit, whatever, whatever the case may be. Stop with the hair, what's wrong? No, he said transitional.

But not answering, but not answering, leaving it dead aired, and then going somewhere else and saying, oh, here's my announcements, cool, no problem. I'm not saying that you got to reach out to the fucking podcast. Right, right, he's going to reach out to you personally. He said, "Hey, this is what's going on.

Here's what I'm thinking. " I'm probably going to reduce my prices. Like, you know, I want to get ahead of this. How do we make this work?

In your store. Whatever. It's just something, something. Instead of just fucking...

Do you think he felt, by telling you whatever the personal problem was, that he has placated you for the moment? Placated, explain. Satisfied him for the moment, you know, like... Like appeasing me?

Yeah, appeased you briefly, like, okay, this has bought me another week or something. That was two fucking weeks ago. I understand that now. I meant at the time he did it.

That was probably three weeks ago now. Do you think he told Koopa what was happening? Whatever the personal thing was? I don't know.

You think you told him about his hair? That's all right. Or the transitional? The transitional thing, whatever that was.

Look, if he decided to be a woman, he would be a very tall woman. " That's all he had to call and say. Oh, you're really excited about that. It's perfect.

" Oh, no. I'd have to change things again. I'm not doing that. I'm not hitting those buttons.

So, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at. And, you know, unfortunately for Mickey, I think it's going to fucking impact him big as far as his overall sales. Yeah. I think he was doing really good before the whole merger of McAuliffe.

He was. Well, even when he did it, he was doing good. The guy had a hustle. I don't think the McAuliffe merger helped him at all.

No. But the guy had a hustle. I think he got a little more exposure. And he was putting in the work, he was flying around, he was doing all these things, and then he just fucking crashed and burned.

Yeah. Nowhere to be found. I think he was hoping the McAuliffe thing took some weight off of him, and he didn't have to go all the time anymore. I think it helped out McAuliffe more than it helped out him, 'cause McAuliffe was like, it's like a dead brand almost, like, I'm sorry, I mean, I'm just saying as a consumer.

They, well, what is, what is it, they, something they did no longer, I can't remember, was either they only sell brick and mortar or they're not selling brick and mortar. I didn't remember which way that went. I can't remember at this point. But, like, you never heard about them, but you're hearing a lot about All Saints.

And then when the news happened of them merging, like that kind of re... Invigorated him? It reinvigorated McAuliffe, yeah. Right.

Uh, it gave them something to talk about, or some reason for us to talk about them. I think McCallup is doing well because they hitched, um, they hitched a wagon to, uh, Garofalo. Oh, that's right. Yeah.

And the number two block ass. The toilet, the toilet plunger thing. Right. Yeah.

That guy. It's like he doesn't even watch our show. Toilet plunger. I don't watch it.

I live it. Well, you don't pay attention. Is that Mickey or are you talking to Mickey on the phone? No, I got a couple of things.

All right. This wraps up the show. Michael has some things. Oh, no, we're still going.

I mean, but those are two big... Well, Rocky Patel has also reduced prices, Michael. Oh, yeah? Really?

Yes. Yes, he has. On which ones? Most of the time when cigar companies announce changes to their pricing, it typically heads in one direction, up.

But on a small twist, Rocky Patel Premium Cigars, Inc. has informed retailers that it will reduce prices on three of its lines. Effective June 1st, the company will reduce the price of its vintage 1990, vintage 1990, vintage 1992 and vintage 1999 lines by 5%. All three of these blends are produced at STG Donnelly.

Donnelly? By 5%? Yes. Was that 60 cents?

Well, on a $7 cigar, it's a lot of money. There are only seven? Oh, I thought it was like that $100 one or something. No, no, no.

The vintage 1990, 92, and 99 are offered in their $8 cigars. There we go. Same sizes and price, same as the Petite Corona. So 40 cents.

50, these changes will not affect the Vintage 2003 and Vintage 2005. All right, here's some Patreon intel here. Uh-oh, for free. If tobacco costs are going up.

Right. If labor is going up. Right. If shipment and transportation has gone up.

Right. And your price is going down. Right. You've probably been overcharging this entire fucking time.

No. Well, I don't know. Call me crazy. On these, it is the "we went up 10, now we're down 5" type thing.

I don't know the exact number, but they did go up on them before, and now they've come down a little bit. It's a bad look. It sure is. So either it's a mathematical error or the Richie Richie effect.

All right, raise these up, and then we'll drop them again after six months. You know, there's still a sweet spot for cigars. Sure. Right?

I would say that it's below your average price. It's somewhere between $8, $9. Right. Those cigars move faster at a faster rate.

Certainly. Especially when they're quality cigars. Right. So you now have these cigars that were probably at that price point originally that have now shot up to this $13 or $14 range that aren't doing well.

Sure. They're not moving at the level that they needed to move, so they're trying to bring that pricing back. You're seeing the consumption level coming down, so you're trying to up that now, but when in all reality, if you just did the fucking price right off the rip, you'd still have been moving a ton of them. Yeah, so what happens when it still doesn't move in a year?

Do you decrease the price again? To be honest, I think you discontinue the whole thing, and you just start going another direction, but those blends, your vintage stuff has been around for so long that... The one that just has a little colored foot band, right? Terminating that blend, that brand, is fucking hard.

As a brand owner, right, say you did increase your price too high, would you make the move of decreasing your price, or would you just kill it and do something new? Well, for one, I probably wouldn't increase my price too high. You know, there's that factor. I'm just saying, like, if for some reason you did.

You know, I've had some pretty dramatic price increases over the past few years because I've had to. You know, I wouldn't go back and say, well, now the battle's a dollar less. You know, if I can't move it at the prices that I'm having it at, that means that there's need for me to move on. Right.

Cigar's not working. Yeah, whatever the case may be. Right. Or you could not be working.

Like, maybe whoever, does, like, Rock Batel have a person that does each type of line? I mean, Patel's got a fucking Learjet. He's doing all right. He's got a whole team.

Does he really have a Learjet? Because, like, we thought Herklot's had a jet. No, I don't know. I mean, you know.

He has to use points to get it to Economy Plus. Fucking Patel is up there, man. He is up there. He's one of the guys.

Wasn't he an attorney originally or something? Yeah. Yeah, he's still got all that money. He was the originator of the event.

Oh. Of the cigar event? Allegedly, yeah. Oh.

He would do events. I thought Saka invented the event. No, well, I mean... Along with the cigar.

Yeah, Saka creates cigars. Right. Yeah, totally different. I mean, we might as well just blast everybody on this episode.

Holy shit. We always blast Saka. He takes it well. He does.

He doesn't mind at all. As long as you're talking about him, that's all. Right, it doesn't matter what it is. WNBA star Kelsey Plum gets signature cigar.

Oh, my lord. Kingmaker Cigars has created a new signature cigar for... She's a very pretty girl. For Kelsey Plum, an All-Star Guard for the Los Angeles Aces of the WNBA, Plum has garnered attention in recent years for lighting up cigars during the Aces' two WNBA Championship celebrations and could now be lighting up her own cigar should the Aces with their third championship this season.

The Kelsey Plum. They should win. You're right. The Kelsey Plum Signature Cigar is a 652 Toro.

They use a Connecticut wrapper of undisclosed origins over an undisclosed binder and filler. The company says the blend offers an aroma of toasted nut, particularly almonds. Toasted almond nuts. Mmm.

Probably not the best. Subtle hint of sweetness and cream. It's like toasted nuts. Jesus.

And a bold peppercorn finish. Finishing calls the cigar a celebration of the finesse and focus, offering a refined experience that lingers long after the final puff. Nice. Oh, Lord.

Well, look. Who's the company? Kingmaker. Kingmaker.

In a related story, Luciano Morales was allegedly heard saying, Hey, I had dibs on basketball players. Well, look. I had to bring Luciano back. Listen, I'm all for this shit.

I'm not about to fucking shit on anybody, especially some type of person that has some level of fame that makes a cigar. Sure. Because the reality is, the more socially acceptable cigars become, the better off we all are. Right.

Right. So, hey. Do you think the company approached her or she approached the company? The company approached her.

Yeah. This girl's lighting up cigars at the end of the game. We should be making, you know, somebody brought her picture in and threw it on the conference table. Go get it.

Well, the WNBA right now is a, is a big, That's the platform that everybody is putting a light on right now. You gotta remember that, too. Why? What are they talking about?

Because of Kaitlin Clark? Because of Kaitlin Clark. But I heard she didn't do well. Not in her first game, but of course, you know, Jordan didn't do great in some games, too.

What's the big deal with Kaitlin Clark? I don't follow his points. She would just shoot at half-court and it would look fucking ridiculous. Oh, okay.

She's not like a guy that used to be a girl that pretended to be a guy or something? No, no, she's a good basketball player. She's a good basketball player. So she just became part of the WNB.

She's almost like the female version of Curry to some degree. Or Curry to some degree. Yeah, when Curry came in and everybody saw he could shoot so well, they're like, oh wow, and it revitalized the NBA. Yeah.

And now he makes great shoes. Right. Yeah. Great shoemaker.

Kirby. Kirby makes vacuums too. But now it's not just Kaylin Clark, like she revitalized it. No, now it's Kelsey Plum.

Well, you got a whole bunch, and then you got NBA players who are now buying their team. Yeah, that's been going on for a little bit. So, you know. Oh, the NBA players are buying the WNBA.

Yeah. Oh, they want to own their women. Well, it's funny because, you know, I mean, if you look over time, you see that these other organizations are worth fucking billions of dollars, right? The WNBA is nowhere near that.

So you can go in and get them for a song and then you're right. You're hoping that, you know, especially if you're a celebrity, there's an attract sequence because now you own it and you can kind of develop it, right? You know, sell it for billions of dollars the Shaquille O'Neal Aces or whatever happens. Yeah, right.

Well, you hope that's the case. I don't know, it's kind of to be determined. We'll see. Tatuaje adds South Florida Distribution Center.

Well, Tatuaje might be known as the Los Angeles-based cigar company and now has a new distribution center in Miami, Florida, suburb of Doral. Adding Miami-area warehouse gives the company opportunity to fulfill orders faster from Florida. That makes sense. It does make sense.

They should have did that years ago. There's a lot longer story, but let's get to the end here, another related story, Pete Hernandez is moving to South Florida where he will be adding warehouse manager to his list of titles in the cigar industry. Oh, really? That's a bit of a joke.

That was a joke, yeah. It didn't land well. Well, you know, the Murray Alice one landed, so I'm 50/50 today is what you want. Ohio judge says cities can ban flavored tobacco products in Ohio.

Another joke? No, no, that's true. And there's a list of cities that can't do it for some reason. Yeah, good luck with that.

Yeah. So that's it. That's the news. We had some alligators caught in Florida, but other than that, you know, that's everyday stuff here.

No Florida story? As I said, the Florida story is all about alligators. It's mating season. The alligators are everywhere.

Oh, they are? Yes. And what, the MacDill Air Force Base had one caught in the wheels of a plane. Oh.

That's never good. That seems like a crazy story. Yeah, that would have been a good Florida story. No, just the plane was parked.

He got between the wheels and sat there so they couldn't take off. Oh, so... Wasn't like he was, you know... On the runway.

Yeah, he was on the runway, so he just walked out there and sat on it, so... Here I am. Just alligators, Florida. Just kill the fucking gator and move on.

No, we don't do that. We kill gators. We eat 'em at the Swamp House. Yeah, only so many.

Huh. That's it. You got shop of the week, Michael? Oh.

Uh-oh. One job. That is your one job every week, Michael. I've had a rough one.

Your wife had a shop of the week when she did the show. Did she? Yep, and a listener, and a listener of the week. She did.

She did. I have a listener of the week if you want to just, if you, I'll take 50% if you work off of you, Michael. Do I have a shop? You know, because I don't do anything for you, but I'll take 50% of that off.

Uh-oh. Wow. You're the one who said it earlier, you're a one-man show. I said you're not social media.

You're a one-man show up there, Michael. And then I recanted. Well, I started saying the things I do. And I said, okay, I guess you're right.

Oh, I guess you're right. Uh, do I have a shop of the week? I don't know. Hogshead.

Oh, you know, it's the anniversary of us being there. Yesterday was. That's why I picked it. Hogshead.

I forget where they're at. In Virginia or somewhere. Yep. Sorry.

Because of Breast Pipe. There's a lot of posts from Breast Pipe lately. Mark Palmer is a beast. Yes, he is.

Well, he loves our stuff, so, you know. And the listener. And the listener of the week. Mark Palmer.

Michael Herklots, Listener of the Week. Really? Yes. Listener of the Week, eh?

Sure. You listen to the show now? I love that. Well, confirm that.

That was definitely you. Wasn't it? Yep. Sound like it came from over there.

Nope. That's 'cause you're deaf. I am hungry. Alright, anybody got anything else?

We're at 54. We're probably in just about an hour 'cause I started the clock late. 58. Yep.

Alright, it's been episode 334 of the Cigars Our Podcast. Thank you. We gotta go to the Patreon now. Yes.

I'll tell you some secrets. Bye. Houston, we have a problem. A Cigar Hustlers podcast, its owners and its sponsors take no responsibility for the opinions or statements made by the talk show host or their guest.

Statements or show topics are not necessarily the beliefs of Mike and Mike productions or the podcast providers and opinions between talk show hosts may differ. The show's may differ. It is not our intention to libel, incite, or hurt anyone's feelings. We invite you to write the show's host, Mike Szczepankewicz, with any feedback or suggestions that you have for their shows.

These broadcasts are presented and made public as entertainment in the hope that they will be entertaining to the audience.

Show Notes

In this episode of A Cigar Hustlers Podcast, we dive into the latest industry buzz and exciting news:

- **Robert and Sharon Holt Consider Selling Southern Draw Cigars**: We discuss the potential sale and its implications for the brand.

- **All Saints Lowers Prices by 10 Percent**: Find out why All Saints is making this bold move and how it affects consumers.

- **Rocky Patel Reduces Prices on Vintage Lines**: Learn which lines are getting a price cut and what this means for cigar enthusiasts.

- **WNBA Star Kelsey Plum Gets Signature Cigar**: We explore this unique collaboration and share a humorous related story involving Luciano Marcella.

- **Tatuaje Adds South Florida Distribution Center**: Discover the strategic benefits of Tatuaje’s new distribution hub.

- **Ohio Judge Upholds City Bans on Flavored Tobacco Products**: We examine the legal ruling and its potential impact on the industry.

Tune in for all this and more, including our usual banter and insights on the cigar world!