I have to disagree about the Viaje/Tatuaje small batches being all about the money. Think about it. All the production costs for a small batch cigar are HIGHER than a regular line stick per-stick because you don’t have as big of a run to spread out the costs over. Fortunately, Pete and Andy both uses only Pepin’s factory, which helps make small batches easier.
Let's take Tatuaje as an example because I'm more familiar with those sticks--let’s take the T110 as an example. 200 boxes of 25 cigars, $9/stick. Now, the retailer makes at least 50% of that msrp (probably more like 60%, but let’s say 50% to give the benefit of the doubt). So that leaves $4.50/stick.
Now factor in shipping, customs, packaging, labels, etc. Of course, there are the bunching and rolling costs (accounting for breakage, etc), and the cost of the tobacco itself.
Let’s say out of that $4.50/stick, Pete is somehow able to squeeze out a $3/stick net profit (I don’t think it’s that high, but just for fun we’ll call it that). That means he made a net profit of $15,000 off the small batch run of the T110. That has to cover all his time in thinking it up, preliminary testing, deciding on a final blend, marketing, etc. etc.
If you think $15k is "a lot of $$$" for that, I’ve got to disagree with you. I’m not trying to pimp for Tatuaje, Viaje, or any of the others who are doing small batch stuff these days, I’m just saying that the actual profits off these things are crazy small because the number of sticks released are so small. It’s much more about creating buzz than the actual money.
jmho
--Nate
