Another vendor selling fakes - the majestuosos and the scratched out serial.....

[ha_banos]

The fact that a vendor would sell an item like this without the serial numbers. And the fact that someone bought it. Basically its a bit dim. I know the grey markets have been ok as well as a bit shady for a very long time. But an item like this? All a bit dim if you ask me. 25 years relationship between the buyer and seller too. Its currently in legal land....

https://youtu.be/Gxj3Zn_6euA

[BullittBoy]

Not sure he will ever get todays market value from the vendor. They will only be liable for the price he paid. I agree Banos, if you are buying such a box then checking the serial number has to be a must.

Also I still don’t understand buying a box to just keep.. surely you have to smoke one right? What would Castro do?

[ha_banos]

These guys build up huge collections of shiny humidors and HTF to sell off as a collection or something later.

[Ryan]

Many people have cigars that they bought 3, 5, 10 years ago and have seen the value go up 5 fold and more (Cohiba, Trinidad, some LEs, REs etc.). I don't think any one can blame them for wanting to sell some of that stuff. Bills have to be paid, more cigars bought, etc. Some people who bought $15 cigars, now don't really want to smoke them when they might be worth $100.
Sometimes these boxes will have had the serial numbers scratched off. No big deal there really. Behind the scenes, cigars move around between distributors and retailers more than most of us know.
However, to buy something like a Majestuoso humidor with a view to selling it on later, that has had the serial number scratched off, that shows an unfortunate lack of foresight.
Those humidors were at least $4,000 at launch and went up in value quickly. A very attractive opportunity for fakers. Good fakes with a good story behind them will have some retailers dropping their guard when they too sniff an opportunity. That is, retailers who do not get all of their product from their official distributor.
Retailers everywhere have had it tough too for the last few years, with many getting 5% - 10% of their order from their distributors.
Kudos to that guy for following up though and going to Havana for answers, as well as sharing his experience. Seeing what Habanos and Vrijdag did for him, it all adds to the knowledge base.