Super high quality suspected fakes.


Joshtupps

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Ladies and Gents,

Around 10 months ago I purchased a box of CoRo from and online vendor that I had used many times before.  Having received no suspect items from them before I decided to pull the trigger on a box of CoRo.  On arrival I first noticed that a screwdriver had been taken to the Warranty seal to remove the hidden codes, however I was able to read one and the code matched the box code and vitola on the Habanos website.  The stamping on the box also seemed more crude and basic than other Cohiba Boxes I own and the wood seemed a different colour but I told myself it was most probably Cuba being Cuba.  The cigars themselves seemed to smell right, and they certainly have real bands on, but when it came to smoking one I was appalled.  it wasted like a cigarette, so I opened it up and was shocked to find 100% long filler.  Putting it down to a bad cigar and an age issue, I left them to rest for a few months.  Upon trying another one last week I can confirm that they taste horrendous.  My tastebuds say fake, but everything else seems to be ok.  So I thought I'd post and see if anyone can see anything I've missed.

 

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The above photo has a real CoRo box for comparison on the left when viewed in the correct way.  The bottom box if viewed as displayed.

All comments welcome guys and girls!

 

Tupps.

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I don't have enough experience with Cohiba packaging to give you a definitive answer on legitimacy. But, it only took me a couple times of receiving something similar from grey market vendors before I started looking elsewhere for suppliers. I have a box of Mag 46s that I feel the same way about. Nothing fake about the packaging or bands, long filler, but more green leaf than I've ever seen, and they taste like garbage, even 18 months after receipt they are bitter, harsh and acrid. That was the last grey market purchase I will ever make.  

My guess is that we both got very poor examples of said sticks, I once received some Monte 2s that were essentially cardboard in color. The high quality stuff is picked from mastercases and sold straight away to discerning buyers or kept by vendors to age, then the remnants are passed along to second tier vendors and eventually the grey market guys. When you buy grey market you are essentially getting a random box from the lowest graded boxes in the market, the stuff Rob wont even sell as seconds. Off these boxes there are some that are truly worse than others, possibly what you have here. Real, but the very bottom of the barrel.  

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Thus sounds almost exactly like what happened to me. It was beyond bad. Beyond gray market. I can't believe they would put the Cohiba name on these for any market. Fakes couldn't be this bad.

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Isn't this the box you tried to flog to Me??? ???

 

(just messing)

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Grey market vendors get the exact same stock as regular vendors and there is no such thing as a "second tier vendor". I don't know why this myth keeps getting propagated. Same thing as "H&F gets better stock". Some vendors like Rob select specific boxes, most do not. Grey market ONLY means that it is sold outside of the allowed territory by a distributor and in order to protect the distributor they often remove the barcodes which would allow tracing. Some of the best boxes I've ever had came from grey market. Some of the worst boxes I've had came from official LCDH.

Couldn't of said it better. I buy from here and there. Depends on the mood and what I'm looking to purchase. For historical value the most I ever paid due to it's past value was here... a 09'cab of Lusis at 600 when they could be had for 450 in 2010. It all depends on what I'm sourcing at the time...

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11 hours ago, Lotusguy said:

Grey market vendors get the exact same stock as regular vendors and there is no such thing as a "second tier vendor". I don't know why this myth keeps getting propagated. Same thing as "H&F gets better stock". Some vendors like Rob select specific boxes, most do not. Grey market ONLY means that it is sold outside of the allowed territory by a distributor and in order to protect the distributor they often remove the barcodes which would allow tracing. Some of the best boxes I've ever had came from grey market. Some of the worst boxes I've had came from official LCDH.

This.

Don't blame a crappy tobacco blend on a legitimate vendor, whoever he is. You're just as likely to get that from anyone, as the vast majority of vendors simply sell what's given to them, there's no selection whatsoever.

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Did you contact the vendor?  Sounds like you either got a bad Batch of Cigars, cigars that were not properly maintained for a long period or fake cigars in real packaging. It is possible that the vendor is not complicit in the act of selling fakes and did so unknowingly. 

And as has been said, don't blame grey market vendors here. That's plain wrong.

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Looks Genuine to me as far as what I can see the colour on the sticks look great to.

I recently purchased a box of medio siglo cohiba looked great smelt and tasted fairly average, couple months later (3 months) was a great smoke.

Some times you just get average batch happens even at lcdh stores, unlucky I guess let them rest for a few months and then try again. 

Also take into consideration have you been smoking other great sticks limitadas or something higher end and then going back to robustos can be a bit bland.

Happened to me 

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