London Cigar Auction Fetches Almost $400k for Charity

Cold weather and ever-present cigar nannies were no match for the 50 plus heavy-handed cigar buyers who attended one of the biggest cigar auctions in history. The auction, which featured rare humidors and pre-embargo Cuban cigars, took place on the outdoor Cigar Terrace at Boisdale of Belgravia in London and raised a whopping total of $390,000 for several charities.

Bidders from all over the world—the U.S.A., Japan, Hong Kong and several countries in Europe—braved the cold to for a chance to take home some vintage Habanos. The determined bunch relied on fine scotch, blankets, heat lamps, and (of course) more scotch, to keep them toasty in the 26-degree weather.

Among the cigars that were sold were a box of 1980s Dunhill Selection 150 Partagas, which fetched $12,000, a cabinet of 50 Belinda candela-wrapped cigars from the 1950s which sold for $5,700, and a box of just 10 Dunhill Selección No 779 Romeo y Julietas, which sold for $18,000. Imagine lighting up $1,800 on your front porch—the guy who won that one won’t have to imagine anything, because he’s probably going to do it.

There were also a couple of lucky cigar buys; a box of Partagas Presidentes from 2000 went for a reasonable $327, and a box of figurados, which were reportedly rolled in the U.K. in the 1920s from Cuban tobacco, sold for just $468.

Some of the humidors that were auctioned off were an Elie Bleu Presidencia Humidor, which fetched $37,000, a humidor made in honor of Winston Churchill, signed by Jennie Churchill (Winston Churchill’s great granddaughter) and the late Cuban tobacco farmer Alejandro Robaina, which sold for $24,000, and an Elie Bleu humidor featuring an image and engraved signature of Che Guevara, which sold for a whopping $14,000.

Now that is some serious coin being spent on some serious smokes, and all for a great cause. I wish I had that much dough to throw around on something I was just going to light on fire! But there really isn’t a price that can be put on the ultimately perfect smoking experience, and we all only get one shot at life, so we might as well make the most of it. To the obscenely rich folks who plunked down the big bucks at this auction, I say congrats and smoke ’em if you got ’em! I hope they all enjoy the hell out of them. And I also hope they really smoke those things, it’d be a shame for them to just sit around being “collected” and valuable forever with no one getting to experience them.