Cigars on Ebay....

[Giulio]

Just curious to know....

I am no expert on cigars at all and was just surfing and came across the following on Ebay. Are those cigars fake? Is it normal in Cuba to get the certificate and the habanos strip not attached to the box like that?
Please educate me :P

Giulio

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Romeo-y-Julieta-Churchills-Untubed-Box-of-25-Cigars_W0QQitemZ230306514272QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item230306514272&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A10%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Montecristo-No-4-Box-of-25-Cigars_W0QQitemZ230306512406QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item230306512406&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A10%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

[Deano]

Usually ebay cigars are fake, but not always.
They look real from what I can tell - good fakes at least. But the fact the cert and strip isn't attached is a big big clue they're probably not. You can get boxes like this - but I've only ever seen them on fake ones up to now.

You won't find cheaper in the UK than from someone like Montesmoke, or by buying from a Swiss site, so just best to avoid ebay.

Btw Ebay will take them off the site as soon as they see them there. (They don't allow tobacco)

[Montesmoke]

Wouldnt bother with cigars on Fleabay

[SmokinCohibas]

Definitely fake.
You can tell by the pictures that show the underside of the boxes.

box codes.jpg

That is a genuine cuban cigar box with the relevant codes.
OSU stands for Partagas factory.Production date Febr.2003.

The 3 line stamp underneath is from Habanos SA.Made in Cuba and hand made.
If you buy a box of machine made cigars - the last line "totalmente a mano" will not be on the box.

Anyway that is all you should see underneath a genuine box, nothing else.
All that rubbish underneath those boxes show that they are fake.

Also, one of the official seals -the one that looks like a dollar note- is a photocopy in both boxes.100% sure.

Here is a genuine one :

cuban seal.jpg

There are two sizes (148mm x 49mm for boxes and 60mm x 20mm for cardboard packs), is manufactured with better quality self-adhesive paper, micro-printing, hidden ultra violet marks, with the larger box seal bearing a unique serial number printed in red ink. The smaller seal has no serial number.


Now look at those seals in ebay - you can see that they are fake.

[SmokinCohibas]

So,don't buy any of those.
Monte can sort you out with some really good quality cigars...

[Deano]

The stick-on certs look quite fake until you stick them on. The fakes are generally just as good as the real thing (some of them even have the UV marks), I wouldn't state they were fake 100%.

The bottom's of the boxes are fine SmokinCohibas - they have the correct stamp marks plus a couple of quality control/factory ink marks. Though I'm not sure I've seen any with a rectangle around it before.

[Willie1]

There's no point in bidding on cigars on evilbay anyways, as the mods will just pull the auction anyways, because it's classified as a consumable product and evil;bay doesn't permit consumable products to be sold on their site.

In other words, evilbay are awkward biggers

IMHO, the best place to buy stogies from, is from Monte, you simply can't get better service and prices anywhere else

Willie

[SmokinCohibas]

The stick-on certs look quite fake until you stick them on. The fakes are generally just as good as the real thing (some of them even have the UV marks), I wouldn't state they were fake 100%.

The bottom's of the boxes are fine SmokinCohibas - they have the correct stamp marks plus a couple of quality control/factory ink marks. Though I'm not sure I've seen any with a rectangle around it before.

Deano I have to disagree with you.
Those are fake seals and the bottom of the boxes aren't fine at all.
You can see that the cuban dollar seals are potocopies and they are not even straight the margin is different all around them.
And the cuban dollar seal is grey in colour since 1999 not green as one of those fakes on ebay.
It is visible that they are bad copies.

The picture I've posted about the bottom of boxes is the only way you'll see genuine cuban cigar boxes - no extra rectangle frames whatsoever....

I've been in 3 cigar factories in Cuba and our guide and the factory representatives tried to educate everyone about the difference between genuine and fake cigars.It is in their interest that you buy genuine cigars from them and not inferior quality fakes on the street.So I've seen many genuine boxes in the shops and the factories and many fake ones on the streets.

And Deano you saying that those stamp marks are fine although you haven't seen any with a rectangle around them.
I tell you why.Because there aren't any on the genuine boxes.
In fact you can find rectangles around box codes on fake boxes only and you can check it out yourself on http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk They explain that rectangle thing to everyone.

Here is another page where you can see the difference:

http://havanajournal.com/cigars/cohibas-box

Anyway it's a long post and I am not ranting just trying to save people from buying fake cigars mate.

[Willie1]

I remember reading before about the "Habanos" logo, where the genuine labels have got 2 reflective gold lines, whereas the fakes have 2 black lines on them, I think that's one of the signs of how to spot fakes, but I'm not so this is the case or not, perhaps someone may be able to correct me or ellaborate further?

Willie

[Deano]

The rectangle is a definite pointer then.