Bender's "Le Grand Cigar" found

[The Man]

Giant cigar that costs $185,000 sold to collector | HeraldTribune.com

"Well, as you can see, its wrapper is a piece of the original U.S. Constitution. It was hand-rolled by Queen Elizabeth during her wild years and was buried with George Burns until grave-robbing space mushrooms... uh, well, you know the rest." -Hacking Jack

[Tigmafuzz]

The cigar is 19 feet long and three feet wide. It's covered in 16,000 wrapper leaves - enough to make 25,000 regular size cigars - and weighs 1,600 pounds.

DAFUQ

[Chris]

Humanity.

[sharkythesharkdogg]

While I'm happy that this exist from the aspect that it is indeed Bender's cigar, I still can't understand how a collector would be interested.

Is it being stored in a climate controlled environment and all that? How are they keeping it properly moist? Does it even matter to a collector? I'd be concerned if it was that much money.

[Ouch!]

My guess would be that whoever has $185,000 to blow on a giant cigar probably regards $185,000 as a drop in the bucket.

[Raistlin]

I am a little concerned about the mental health of whoever made it in the first place. As well as the person who paid $185,000 for it.

[Jowy]

If you just break off little chunks of tobacco and roll your own cigars, I'm sure that would last for a lifetime. God forbid that thing ever suffers through a hurricane. Hope he's got that kept behind some air/water tight glass.

[NorthernChaosGod]

I want to smoke it. And blow the smoke in some faces.

[The Man]

Nah, you can't blow the smoke from such a majestic stogie in just anyone's face. I'm saving it for the fancy-pantses at Zapp Brannigan's black tie reception.

[Shorty]

The cigar, called El Gigante (The Giant), comes in its own carrying case - a 900-pound round wooden crate.

This keeps on getting more and more ridiculous.

[sharkythesharkdogg]

My guess would be that whoever has $185,000 to blow on a giant cigar probably regards $185,000 as a drop in the bucket.

My point was that even if it is not much money to them, rich collect it's who typically "belly up to the bar" for this type of thing do so because its a prime example and hard to come by. Like art, cars, antiques. They're either rare, pristine, or both. The car needs to be perfectly stock and functional, the art needs to be unrestored, etc. The good cigars are mostly regarded for things that need to be kept in a climate controlled environment. If its not, is it actually still worth something to the connoissuer? I'm just curious how it works in the cigar world for this situation.