Richmond, VA—Serie R cigars invites its loyal legion of fans to celebrate their enjoyment of strength, refinement and performance through an exciting sweepstakes culminating in the giveaway in Las Vegas of a 2010 Lotus Elise sports car valued at more than $52,000.

Consumers of legal smoking age who make an online box purchase of Serie R cigars from Best Cigar Prices; Holt’s Cigar Company; JR Cigars; Mike’s Cigars, or Thompson Cigars between now and May 15, 2010 are automatically entered into a drawing to win a trip to the Serie R Performance Driving School which will be held on 9/17 to 9/19, 2010 in Las Vegas. No purchase necessary. For complete official rules, visit www.cigarworld/lotus.

A total of five first-prize winners will win a three-day, two-night stay in Sin City, round-trip airfare and professional driving instructions at the Serie R Performance Driving School time track. There, each first prize winner will be given an ignition key to start the Lotus. The person whose key starts the engine will win the grand prize Lotus Elise and return from Vegas as a big winner.

According to Debo Mukherjee, vice president of marketing for General Cigar, parent company of Serie R, “To spotlight Serie R’s artistry, exquisite construction and iconic status, we have aligned the brand with Lotus, a luxury automobile whose attributes mirror those of our critically-acclaimed cigar brand. When you factor in an extended weekend in Vegas, luxury accommodations and driving instructions, we are confident this promotion will fuel great excitement among premium cigar enthusiasts.”

About Serie R Cigars

Renowned for beefy ring gauges and a full-flavored taste profile, La Gloria Cubana Serie R is one of the hottest-selling cigar brands on the market today. A collection of seven cigars, Serie R boasts an amazing spiciness and powerful, refined taste, making this collection a favorite among today’s tenured smokers who demand the ultimate in flavor.

About General Cigar

Serie R cigars are produced by General Cigar Co. Inc., which manufactures and markets handcrafted cigars for the premium market. Committed to delivering cigars of the finest quality, General Cigar also produces Macanudo®, Cohiba®, Partagas, Hoyo de Monterrey®, Excalibur®, La Gloria Cubana® and several other leading premium brands. In addition, the company grows its own premium Connecticut Shade wrapper tobacco, as well as natural and candela wrapper in the Dominican Republic. General Cigar also operates Club Macanudo®, a cigar bar in New York City. Based in Richmond, VA, General Cigar sells through tobacconists nationwide. For more information, please visit www.cigarworld.com.

® Serie R, Macanudo, Cohiba, Partagas, Hoyo de Monterrey, Excalibur, La Gloria Cubana and Club Macanudo are registered trademarks of General Cigar Co. Inc.

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Thanks to everyone for participating and joining in on the fun. It’s always good to give away cigars. And for my past winners, I’m sure they’ll tell you it’s always great to get cigars.

Agent 86, you’re going to have to break your secrecy protocol to give me a location to send these sticks.

Check back in, y’all, we’ll eventually get something going around here.

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Only one entry per person, only for the 50 US States.  Must be 18 and older and all that other stuff that goes along with it.  Winner will be selected Friday, Oct 16th, 2009 around 6:00pm CST.

So, who wants some cigars “just because?”

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Congrats Dan.  Thanks for playing and can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the Cigamate.

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SE7EN_VANDALAY

Se7en had a total of 25 points.  The runner-up with 15 points, and getting most of them in the last days of the contest is Tobacmon, who’s gotten cigars from me on more than one occasion.  He’ll get a 5-pack of cigars from my stash for his participation.

Again, thanks to everyone who participated, and keep coming back to check in on me.

Se7en_Vandalay	25
Tobacmon	15
Kyle W.	12
JasonT	7
Mountchuck	4
Jim E.	3
Scott H.	3
Jeremy	2
Bob	2
Matt M.	2
Rob	2
ROTHNH	2
Regular Ron	2
beezer	1
Fried Bob	1
BradinBuffalo	1
Troy	1
tommymc	1
cigarfan	1
Cigar Inspector	1

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For the whole month of April, you’ll collect points with your comments, and the person with the most points at 11:59 CST April 30th wins!  I’ll get to the prizes in a second.

Scoring is easy.  The first comment on any post, past or present, gets you 2 points.  A comment on any post, other than the first comment, gets you 1 point.  It’s that simple.  You don’t even have to be registered to comment, just enter the information and submit!

Here’s some additional rules:

• contest is open to US readers above the age of 18 only
• only comments made in the month of April 2009 count
• no back-to-back comments on any post
• no spam or nonsensical comments – they must make sense and be related to the post in some manner
• you must use the same name and e-mail in your comments

Okay, so I’m sure you’re all anxious to know what’s up for grabs.  Well, the first place winner gets a Cigar Command polo shirt as pictured below.

The runner-up will receive a 5-pack of cigars from my personal stash.  So, what are you waiting for?  Get your first points by commenting on this post to let me know that you’re in!

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Congratulations to Mountchuck for winning the 5-pack of RP Decade Toros and RP torch lighter.  Charlie had 20 comments in the contest.

Now, before you go counting, I had to make a judgement call, because Mountchuck and Charlie @ NiceTightAsh are the same people.  Charlie used the same e-mail each time, but WordPress remembers the last thing you used, so if he commented on his blog as Charlie, it would remember it on mine, so if he didn’t remember to change it, it’d be different.  Now, before y’all go complaining or thinking it’s rigged, my reasoning is that I didn’t make it clear in the rules that the names had to be the same.  That’s my fault and not Charlie’s.  I did check IPs and other things to make sure no cheating took place.  Also, there were comments from other IPs in between his so he followed the rules as they were laid out.  Everything’s legit.

Now, being that I’m the idiot who didn’t lay things out better, I’m changing things up a bit and picking another winner: Mikestous.  Mike, who had 19 comments, will receive a 5-pack from my personal stash.

So, there you have it folks.  Thanks to those who played.  I’ll try and think through all possible situations next time to make sure I’m not an idiot when thinking up a contest.  Look for the next contest starting April 1st!!

Thanks to Duque Cigars for sponsoring this contest!!

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LITTLE ROCK, MAR 7 — Margaret Walker’s angst is rising with the fall in business she says has been all too evident at the eastern Arkansas tobacco store she and her husband run since increases in state tobacco taxes went into effect last week.

Newspaper ads Mississippi tobacco stores are running inviting Arkansans to “drive a little and save a lot” just add to her anxiety, Walker said, because she feels customers are driving across the border to take them up on their offer of cheaper tobacco products.

Larry Cobb, retail operating supervisor of Forrest City-based Tobacco Superstores Inc. knows firsthand. His company owns some of the Mississippi tobacco outlets doing the advertising.

“We know that people have been doing it and are going to keep doing it,” Cobb said. “I’m losing money in my stores in Arkansas. But if they’re going to do it, I want them to go to my stores in Mississippi.”

Arkansas’ tobacco tax increased by 56 cents a pack March 1, and a correspondent hike in the levy on smokesless tobacco also went into effect as a result of Gov. Mike Beebe’s successful push for the tax hikes to pay for a statewide trauma system and other health program in his $86 million health care package.

Supporters say the programs paid for by the tax increases will save lives and improve the overall health of Arkansans.

But store owners and others statewide are complaining.

J.R. Thomas, director of the Tobacco Control Board, said the agency has been flooded with calls since the tax increases went into effect. Tobacco store owners say the tax hike is “killing their business,” he said.

Walker says her store could very well go under after a 61-cent federal tobacco tax goes into effect April 1.

“I live in a very poverty-stricken area,” said Walker. “Many of my customers are poverty-stricken, but now the cheap cigarettes cost as much as the premium products used to cost.”

At Little Rock’s Tobacco Superstore, store manager Brian Nobles said the business’ most popular and most purchased cigarette is Marlboro. Prior to the state hike, a pack of Marlboros cost $3.55 per pack and $34.91 per carton. Now they cost $4.17 per pack and $41.18 per carton. The federal tax increase is included April 1, the cost of a pack of Marlboro will be $4.79 per pack and $47.38 per carton.

Nobles said the store’s cheapest cigarette currently is the brand Shields currently at $28.66 per carton, while their most expensive brand is Benson & Hedges at $57.93 per carton.

Nobles agreed with Walker that the cheapest brands after the federal hike will cost as much as the premium brands cost prior to the state hike.

A Beebe supporter in his 2006 campaign, Walker said she feels she’s been blindsided by the governor.

“I’ve tried to get in touch with his office several times, him and (House Speaker) Robbie Wills,” she said. “I typically vote Democrat, and I never thought I’d say this, but I’m probably voting Republican from now on.

“I curse the day I voted for Beebe.”

The governor says the statewide trauma system and various health programs paid for by the tax increases will benefit Arkansans equally, smokers and the poor included.

“The governor wants to offset the high costs of taxpayer money that pays for tobacco-related illness with a program that will also deter smoking,” Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said. “From the business aspect, this is just another case in which a business requires adaptability in order to thrive, and is just another challenge.”

But Greg McGee, owner of the Pipe and Tobacco Shop in Little Rock, said the tax burden was too heavy, particularly on top of the federal increase to come.

“For every dollar we make, 68 cents of it is going back to the government. It’s criminal,” McGee said. “We’re definitely not against trauma systems. But such a dramatic tax increase will kill business.”

Smokers had mixed emotions about the tax hike.

Joseph Johnson, 27, of Little Rock, said cigarettes should be taxed to a certain extent, but he said the 56-cent increase is extreme.

“I just don’t think it’s fair to only tax cigarette smokers,” Johnson said. “I mean, I’m not against all taxes, but that’s a lot to just weigh on smokers. And it’s supposed to be for everybody.”

Longtime smoker Lisa Jones, 56, of Little Rock, said she is for the tax hike, not just for the health programs but also for the deterrent to smoking.

“A tax increase like that will make a lot of people think twice before buying cigarettes, myself included,” Jones said. “I don’t see why they don’t just make it illegal. I know they want the health programs, but (smoking is) just so terrible.”

http://www.cigarrights.org/news_AR.htm

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Alright, y’all, one of my favorite holidays is coming up: St. Patrick’s Day!!  Y’all better wear green and drink some Guinness.  But don’t worry, because if you don’t you can be sure that I will.  Anyway, it’s time to have this month’s contest and thanks to Duque Cigars, we’ve got a great prize for you.

Up for grabs this month is a 5-pack of Rocky Patel Decade Toros and a Rocky Patel torch lighter.  I know a bunch of you are RP fans.  Anyway, we’ll change things up a little bit in this comment contest.  The winner will be the person who has the most comments in this post by 11:59 CST on St. Patrick’s Day 2009.

Here’s the rules:

• You cannot post consecutive comments.  There must always be at least one comment from another user between your comments.
• You cannot post the same comment.  The content must be different each time and at least three words.  Comments don’t have to be cigar related, but should at least make some kinda sense.
• Any pingbacks/trackbacks from bloggers count as a comment
• Contest is open to those 18 or older only.

That’s it.  Now, you have just a little over a week to get as many comments in here as you can within the rules to win this great prize.  Be sure to thank Duque Cigars for putting up the prize by checking them out.

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The winners will receive an email from me in a bit. Cigars will go out this weekend.

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