Can someone help me out with this photo?

[Shelby07]

A friend just bought a couple of boxes of Cohiba sublimes and asked for my opinion. The first thing I noticed was that the green warranty seal was attached to the wooden box, not the outer cardboard box as I expected. I mentioned this to him and he sent a photo he found on Cubancigarwebsite.com that shows a photo of the seal attached to the box.

 

https://www.cubancigarwebsite.com/image/photos Under cohiba, 4th row 2nd column  

did the sublimes come this way or is the photo on the page in error?
 

I’ll get some additional photos and post in the appropriate group, but am I mistaken that sublimes always came in an outer cardboard box and the seal was attached to that?

[Colt45]

Don't have / never had any myself - the pics you've posted are from a member gallery. Alex's / Trev's site packaging pic shows the same. Any other pics I've seen also show the same, and I've not seen an outer box ever mentioned.

On a side note, and just thinking out loud, I am a little curious as to provenance, as I think I recall these "showing up" some years back after they were all long gone (or maybe that was the DC)

[danny]

I’d be super wary for your friend, unless your friend in question is a serious collector (or very wealthy). But given that he’s having to ask after the fact post-purchase, I hope things work out either way.... especially since intact boxes of Sublimes (with provenance) easily fetch a few grand per box — at a minimum.  First EL to get massively counterfeited, from very good knock-offs to extremely bad, and are still sold today.
 

As for the box, I’ve always seen the seal on the box itself.  Confirmed it in a few Lot photos from past auctions.  Hope that helps. Good luck!

 

[NSXCIGAR]

All the images I can find of genuine Sublimes show the warranty seal on the BN box itself, so that appears to be legitimate. 

That being said, Cohiba Sublimes are one of the most sought after cigars made since 2000 and sell for many thousands of dollars. I would want full provenance on cigars like that. Fakes of these are sold online all over the place and it would be highly profitable to get the highest quality fakes for these cigars. Genuine bands for 04 Cohiba are easy to obtain.

Basically, if you're wondering if your Cohiba Sublimes are fake you probably bought them from the wrong source.

Here's someone who bought what are quite likely fake Sublimes in 2010:

 

[Shelby07]

Here are the photos I’ve gotten so far. Still have not seen pics of the actual cigars, just the box. 

[stogieluver]

The placement of that seal is a huge red flag to me, but I'm no expert, by any stretch of the imagination.  I've just never seen anything like that.