My name is Mike Robbins and I began selling Tobacco pipes, cigars and lighters at the Orange County Marketplace Space F136 in 1980. My specialty for the first decade was Meerschaum pipes considered to be the finest in the world. Meerschaum is a pure white stone mined in the mountains of Turkey. The stone is then hand carved into smoke-able works of art and for 100’s of years was the pipe of kings. I traveled to Istanbul to import Meerschaum pipes in the 80s and I had the largest selection of Meerschaum pipes in the world available to the public. I even customized pipes to make them truly unique, something no one else in the world did at that time. I changed the stems and drilled out the shank of the pipe and the stem to allow for a better draw. Working on 10's of thousands of pipes gave me an intimate knowledge of the Meerschaum.

I learned about cigars from the manufacturer of Romeo y Juliet cigars. The distributor was in Los Angeles and I would go there once a month beginning in 1981 to buy cigars, briar pipes, and all the pipe accessories. In their giant humidor with 10,000 boxes of cigars I was invited to smoke any cigar from broken boxes and there were 100’s of broken boxes. So I smoked and learned from the best in the business. They also taught me about the correct storage of cigars as they kept their warehouse at 65 degrees and 73% humidity.

In 1990 I added a Zippo distributorship to the expanding business. As the West Coast Zippo distributor we supply retailers in Southern California.

As the cigar industry began its boom in the early 1990s I built my first refrigerated mobile humidor with the help of at least 12 refrigeration experts.

This sounds like a ridiculous number but no one really knew how to build a mobile refrigerated cigar facility. Originally I was advised by 2 owners of Refrigeration companies. After building the refrigerated trailer it would not maintain the right temperature and humidity. I had at least 7 different experts come and try their hand at fixing the problems. Finally it took 3 experts working together to come up with the answers that solved all the problems.

After 2 more years, business had outgrown my original small trailer and required the next step. In 1995 I designed and had built the largest mobile refrigerated cigar humidor in the world -

The truck is custom designed with a state of the art humidor built in. Double insulated and thermal grade windows protect the cigars. 2 refrigeration units designed on a computer circulate air in a perfect cigar environment. 100% Spanish cedar interior is the perfect place to age fine cigars. Powered on location by a 5,000 watt generator to always maintain 65 degree 73% humidity this is the ultimate cigar humidor and it is mobile.

Today I am pleased to enjoy a business partnership with my wife Jeanine and my friends Ken and Brian.

Our goal is to always be the best informed source and supply you with the finest products at the lowest prices.

We have a continued and respected enterprise at the Orange County Market Place since 1979 and have expanded to the internet to bring our expertise and fine products to all.