How Price Reference works.

What Price Reference is

Price Reference compares the current per-cigar prices we have observed on retailers’ own product pages for one cigar. It describes the market as it stands now. It is not a price history, a forecast or a rating of any retailer.

Comparable packages

A single cigar, a five-pack and a box of 20 are priced differently, so prices are only compared within one package class: singles (one cigar), packs (2 to 9 cigars, including tins) and boxes (10 or more). Samplers and bundles are never compared, and only offers with a known package quantity count. The class used is the one the most retailers currently offer. The per-cigar price is the package price divided by the number of cigars the retailer states; a count is never inferred from the price.

One value per retailer

Each retailer contributes one value: its lowest current per-cigar price in that class. With one retailer we show that price per cigar; with two or more, the lowest and highest prices as a range. With three or more, we also label the median. The retailer count and package class appear beneath the price. Equal prices appear once. We use the median because a single unusual price would distort an average.

Available packages and retailers

Available lists the packages a cigar is currently offered in: singles, tubes, each pack size, tins and boxes. Each package count is kept separate, with its own lowest package price, its lowest per-cigar price and the number of retailers offering it; prices are never combined across counts. The retailer count is every retailer with a current offer for the cigar in any package, so it can be higher than the number compared in Price Reference.

Last update

Last update is when a retailer’s listing was most recently checked. An offer that has not been checked for 72 hours is no longer shown as current and does not count towards Price Reference. Offers that a retailer lists as out of stock are shown on the cigar’s page but do not count towards Price Reference.

What is excluded

Prices exclude shipping and sales tax. Coupon codes, email sign-up, first-order, loyalty, membership, cart-only, bundle and subscription prices are never applied. A sale price counts only when the retailer shows it as the price of that offer.

Independence

Prices are observed independently from public retailer pages. Retailers do not pay to appear, and no payment or business relationship affects which prices are shown or how they are ordered. Links go to the retailer’s product page as we observed it, with no affiliate tracking.

What we do not claim yet

We do not yet mark any price as unusually low or as having dropped, and we do not compare it with past prices. Those need a longer history of our own observations, and a retailer’s “was” or list price is never used in their place.