Well, this is a bit of a tangent, but if I were to give one piece of advice to a new stogie smoker it would be to pay dogged attention to the storage of your cigars. Many new to smoking don't bother to do this (I know I didn't), so I'll point out a few things that I think are important (wonder if any of these will be controversial
):
-Get a reasonably good humidor (better yet, get a couple of them). You can get good enough ones on Ebay for $50 or less. Get a new one as a used one could have mold, contamination or other problems. Those humidor bags that the tobacconists sell are all well and good, especially for traveling, but they don’t do justice to a good cigar the way a true Spanish cedar humidor does.
-Remove the plastic wrappers from the cigars you store in the humidor (this may be the controversial part as I know not everyone agrees with this). I find that if the temp/humidity is right the wrappers aren't necessary. And by having the cigars open you allow them to mingle with each other and with the wood of the humidor. In my opinion this helps to mellow out the cigars and improve their taste -especially with age.
-Don't be afraid to buy cigars you don't plan to touch for at least a few months. At least a few weeks in a good humidor will usually make the sticks smoke noticeably better than when they first come out of the wrapper.
-Everyone knows about humidity. Opinions vary about the amount of relative humidity, but the general starting point is 70%. But remember that temperature is equally important. In my experience it should be no less than 60 degrees, but the absolute critical thing is that the temperature should not vary much. I used to keep my humidors in my office, but the temperature there can vary from as low as 55 degrees to as high as 70 degrees in the same day. That's not good. I now keep them in the basement where the temperature is constant at about 58 degrees. That's a bit colder than I would like, but the constant temperature is the more important factor. (Constancy in humidity is also probably more important than the exact humidity itself, within reason. Just bear in mind that cigars don't like to go through swings in anything -temperature, humidity, light exposure, etc. Think constancy.)
If, like me, you are too lazy to constantly condition your humidor think about getting a Cigar Oasis or another electronic humidifier. Once you get them set they keep the humidity constant more or less on their own.
-Think of your stogies as an investment. Lord knows they're expensive enough to qualify as one. That said put some time and money into making sure they are stored properly and you'll get a much better return on your investment.
Hope that helps!
Ben