Buy Single Cigars Locally, and Boxes Online

Good cigars are expensive and really up to the personal taste of the smoker. So you want to make sure you try out plenty of cigars before you make a commitment to buying online from a wholesale cigar dealer or discount cigar dealer. The idea is to make sure you find the cigars you like by trying them out at your local discount cigar store. Then, once you make your choices, seek out the best deal for that exact brand and model online. There are much better deals online, especially if you want to commit to buying a box. But you don't want to pay hundreds of dollars online unless you're sure it's for cigars you really like.

Comparison Shop on Cigar Sites

If you're shopping for your favorite cigar brand online, you can spend a lot of time paging through the sites of wholesale cigar dealers and discount cigar dealers, looking for cigar sales. An easy way to cut down your comparison shopping time is to find a web site that offers up-to-date comparison shopping of the major cigar discounters on a single page. Visit comparison shopping sites online and search "cigar" to find information on your favorite brands and pick from your choice of sites.

Pay for Quick Shipping

If you find a quality place for wholesale cigars or discount cigars, put some of the money you save back into obtaining quality, quick shipments. You're going to want your cigars as soon as possible for smoking. And it makes no sense to buy a bunch of premium cigars and then let them sit in a shipping box for a week or two. Bite the bullet and pay for overnight or two-day shipping of your cigars and make sure you use a dealer that will ship your cigars the same day your order them.

Save Money by Buying Other Brands

If you're searching for discount Cuban cigars, do yourself a favor and take the money you were going to spend on the cigars from Cuba and buy good discount cigars from the Dominican Republic, Honduras or Nicaragua at a cigar sale -- or even from boutique US manufacturers that sell hand-rolled wholesale cigars. You'll be saving money, likely getting better-quality cigars, and not exposing yourself to potential criminal action if you get caught trying to buy Cuban cigars.

Just a 'Segundo'

You might buy clothes or even a car that's considered a "second": merchandise that's considered defective for some minor reason. Would you buy a "second" cigar? That's what you're doing when your discount cigars or wholesale cigars say "segundo." Segundo means second in Spanish. In terms of cigars, it means your cigar was considered defective. It might mean a slight blemish that wouldn't affect smoking.

Strategies for a Discount Single Smoke

Say you want a single smoke. You don't want to buy in bulk and you don't want to wait for a shipment from an online or catalog dealer. Head for your local smoke shop with a little time to poke around for the perfect discount cigar. If you're in an adventurous mood, try to find a lesser-known brand you've never tried before but one gets a good recommendation. If you're not paying for the brand name, you can save. Otherwise, stick with the big, trusted names and try to find a cigar sale with a cigar that appeals to you.

Too Good to be True is Probably Not So Good

Remember, the idea is to buy good cigars cheap, not cheap cigars. So beware of discount cigar deals that seem too good to be true, especially when buying online, from a catalog, or anywhere you can't see and touch the cigars before purchasing. A deal on wholesale cigars that seems great isn't so good if the cigars turn out to be counterfeit, which is an especially prevalent problem when buying Cuban cigars. Even if they aren't counterfeit, some dealers sell older, low-quality or segundo (second) cigars as first-quality cigars. So search for good deals on discount cigars, but be very wary of super deals unless you know the dealer or the dealer has been recommended to you by someone you trust.

Buy Direct from US Boutique Manufacturers

One way to get quality discount cigars is to buy direct from the manufacturer. The easiest way to do this in the US is to buy -- in person, by catalog or online -- from US cigar makers. You won't get big brand names like Cohiba or Montecristo. But do some shopping and you can find boutique cigar makers, including Cuban immigrants in Miami, who make hand-rolled cigars equal in quality to the best brand-name cigars. But since you're not paying for the brand name, or the shipping and middleman costs, you'll be getting a deal.