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Home > What's New > Perdomo Brings Back Tobacco Cards
Perdomo Brings Back Tobacco Cards
Posted: Tuesday, May 13, 2003
By Michael S. Marsh
In the late 1800s, into the 1920s and 1930s, nearly every box of cigars contained tobacco cards featuring images of Caribbean pirates, cowboys of the Old West and such baseball heroes as Honus Wagner and Christy Mathewson. The cards were synonymous with cigar smoking, but the tradition eventually died, relegating the cards to pieces of history sought by collectors.
Today, Tabacalera Perdomo is bringing back the tradition, with a twist. The Miami-based cigar manufacturer is now including tobacco cards with every "wheel" of its Perdomo Fresco line. Each wheel, a group of 50 cigars held together by a piece of fabric, will include a card of the person that crafted those specific cigars. Along with the photograph and name of the torcedor, the cards also give the roller's vital statistics, a short biography and the date the cigars were rolled.
"It's a return to the days when baseball cards and tobacco went hand in hand," said Albert Argenti, chief marketing officer of Perdomo. "Also, cigar torcedores are some of the most unheralded artisans in the world, and this is a way to bring more attention to their talents."
According to Nick Perdomo Jr., the president of Tabacalera Perdomo, the tobacco cards are also a way to forge a closer relationship between the smoker and the cigar.
"We wanted to create an entirely new dimension of intimacy between our cigar rollers and our customers," Perdomo said. "How many cigar smokers know the name or background of the person who created their cigar? Or when it was made? I view our Fresco line as a new way of breaking old barriers and establishing a deeper and more meaningful relationship with our customers."
The Fresco brand, which translates to "fresh," had its beginnings in Perdomo's numerous in-store promotions, which feature Perdomo rollers making fresh cigars. The line comes in three sizes: Robusto, which measures 5 inches by 50 ring and has a suggested retail price $3.75; Churchill, 7 by 50, $4.25; and Torpedo, 6 by 54, $4.75. (A wheel of each size retails for $188, $212 and $237.50, respectively.) They are made from a blend of Nicaraguan and Dominican filler and binder, and Corojo '99 seed wrapper from Nicaragua. Also in Cigar News:
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