Rare Partagas 150 Cigars to Be Auctioned For Hurricane Katrina Relief

CigarAuctioneer.com is holding an online auction starting tomorrow that will feature an extremely rare ten year old box of Partagas 150 Signature Series Don Ramon cigars. The cigars, made in the Dominican Republic, debuted in 1995 to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the famed premium Cuban cigar brand. CigarAuctioneer is a division of Famous Smoke Shop.

This particular box of Don Ramons was was presented by cigarmaker General Cigar Corporation to Famous Smoke Shop president, Arthur Zaretsky, in honor of his mother, Rose Zaretsky, who died in May of this year at the age of 95. Mrs. Zaretsky, who along with her late husband David, opened the original Famous Smoke Shop cigar store in 1939 in New York City, was affectionately referred to by customers as “Rosie”.

“She was a very compassionate woman,” said Mr. Zaretsky. “General Cigar and I couldn’t think of a better tribute to my mother’s memory than by donating this very rare box of cigars to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.”

Only 1,000 boxes of the Don Ramon cigars were made in 1995, which makes them virtually impossible to find today. The cigars are presented in a varnished humidor hand carved to look like a large book. The “book” holds ten 7″ x 52 cigars individually encased in cedar boxes inscribed with the signature of Partagas’ renowned master blender, Ramon Cifuentes.

Making these cigars even more valuable to cigar collectors is the wrapper Señor Cifuentes used on the Partagas Signature 150 Series. It comes from the last remaining bales of African Cameroon wrapper harvested from a seminal 1977 crop, which now makes them 28 years old.

The auction begins at 6:00 A.M. eastern time. The opening bid on the Don Ramons is $1,000.00. Proceeds from this auction will be donated to The American Red Cross to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina. Due to the nature of this special CigarAuctioneer.com auction, Mr. Zaretsky hopes the bidding will far exceed the current estimated value of the box, which is somewhere around $2,000.00.

The Partagas 150 Signature Series Don Ramon cigars auction will run from Thursday, September 15, through Thursday, September 22. The winning bidder will not only receive a very special, once-in-a-lifetime box of cigars, they will have the added reward of knowing they helped The American Red Cross assist thousands of displaced people during this extraordinary and historical crisis.

For more information and to place your bid, visit CigarAuctioneer.

Posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2005 at 7:12 pm.