Fakes??

[Ryan]

For full disclosure I have already written to the auction house. Not their fault and probably not the fault of the seller. But who can tell me what is wrong with this box? Remember, I created software for BondRoberts to help weed out fakes..

https://www.southdublinauction.com/catalogue/lot/18463139d0d0cddebe7bd937247ab2df/4a88e3eb2a50737af954046bbac54891/this-is-a-long-8-day-general-timed-auction-we-are-clos-lot-103/

[liles]

Too many fingers in the joints?

That green on the label is pretty dull, too.

[Ryan]

Too many fingers in the joints?

That green on the label is pretty dull, too.

Good guess, but dull labels can happen. There are at least two aspects that show that the box cannot be real, rather than might not be real.

[Hookmaker]

For full disclosure I have already written to the auction house. Not their fault and probably not the fault of the seller. But who can tell me what is wrong with this box? Remember, I created software for BondRoberts to help weed out fakes..

https://www.southdublinauction.com/c...-clos-lot-103/

Impossible to tell without seeing cigars.
Box looks ok, tax stamp ditto and so does box code. BUT I was under impression that these were only rolled at El Laguito, but the box code is not El Laguito.


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[Stevieboy]

The box code is formatted incorrectly
There are two seals and as they are numbered/lettered sequentially, they can't match

[Ryan]

Cohiba Sublimes were rolled at El Laguito, Partagas and La Corona but not Carlos Baliño which was "JNL" at that time.
The warranty seal number starting with "H", wasn't used until mid-2005. That's the big giveaway.
Also the font for the box code "JNL DIC 04" is wrong.

The warranty seal number makes this box impossible to be real.
A rule of thumb I had at Bond Roberts, sometimes there can be things that might indicate a fake, such as a slightly off-colour seal or poor executed stamps, or incorrect seal placement, or rare font.
One of these raises suspicions, more than one (unrelated) issue and that box is 99.9% certainty fake.

And then there are things like the warranty seal number on that box that make the box 100% fake. Even if the box is real, and the cardboard outer was swapped over the years by mistake (this can happen). This makes the box impossible to sell to a collector who knows their stuff. And makes the box as good as fake.

This box would never go for auction while I was at Bond Roberts.

[Bigdog]

The Dominican Republic produces every Cuban cigar brand/box produced by Cuba as near to identical as they can, some will be identical, their rollers are as good or better than the Cubans, the only thing different is the tabacco used, it’s all aimed at the American tourist/cigar smoker, the only way to be sure is buy from a tabacconist you have 100% faith in, if your in a foreign country go to a LCDH, but I would never spend crazy money with them, in the uk we have quite a few legitimate Cuban suppliers but you will pay for it, but at least you know you get a original product.

[PeeJay]

In the DR the licensed souvenir sellers walk the beaches with backpacks full of fake Cubans and they even have card readers tp pay for them. I was tempted to look out of curiosity but didn't want to get drawn into a transaction

[Bigdog]

To be completely accurate there not actually fakes, Romeo y Juliette, Monte Cristo all the big brands actually have factories in DR so they are actually producing good quality legitimate Cuban branded cigar’s, there just not made with Cuban tabacco which is the bit they don’t tell you, cohiba only has legitimately made cigars in Cuba but they do make fake cohiba’s in DR, so they are real fakes, the airport duty free is full of fakes for American tourists, crazily there are Cuban tabacco cigar’s there also but they’ll question you to make sure your not going back to the U.S if you purchase them

[liles]

To be completely accurate there not actually fakes, Romeo y Juliette, Monte Cristo all the big brands actually have factories in DR so they are actually producing good quality legitimate Cuban branded cigar’s, there just not made with Cuban tabacco which is the bit they don’t tell you, cohiba only has legitimately made cigars in Cuba but they do make fake cohiba’s in DR, so they are real fakes, the airport duty free is full of fakes for American tourists, crazily there are Cuban tabacco cigar’s there also but they’ll question you to make sure your not going back to the U.S if you purchase them

There is a General Cigar Company Cohiba brand made in DR, but the branding is notably different with various trademark battles over the years. Altadis makes the others, without infringement afaik.

[ha_banos]

To be completely accurate there not actually fakes, Romeo y Juliette, Monte Cristo all the big brands actually have factories in DR so they are actually producing good quality legitimate Cuban branded cigar’s, there just not made with Cuban tabacco which is the bit they don’t tell you, cohiba only has legitimately made cigars in Cuba but they do make fake cohiba’s in DR, so they are real fakes, the airport duty free is full of fakes for American tourists, crazily there are Cuban tabacco cigar’s there also but they’ll question you to make sure your not going back to the U.S if you purchase them

You can read about the migration of the Cuban brands after the revolution https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba...an%20producers.