Verifying boxes pre-2009

[Fumadoro]

Hello all,

I'm thinking about privately purchasing a box from a person on another cigar forum. As far as I can tell, the man is in good standing, but I am a paranoid man who absolutely hates cigar counterfeiting and does not want any of his money going towards helping that industry. The box in question is from 2007 so I know to expect the warranty seal to not have holograms or a serialized barcode, but I do know that the old warranty seal also has a unique serial number in red ink on the bottom of the seal (2 letters and 6 numbers). I also know the trick about the first letter to make sure it is in the 2007 range. Is there any way to track that serial number similarly to the current system? Also, should I be able to feel the Tabacuba seal under this warranty seal, or did that only start more recently?

Thank you for your help in this matter and all the best!

[Trevor2118]

Every thing you want to know is here:

http://www.cubancigarwebsite.com/info-packaging.aspx#Union_and_Warranty_Seals

In summary, the prefix for 2007 is either I or EZ (or XX or XY if it has been reinspected, in which case the original seal would be under the new seal). There is no other tracking available for these serial numbers.

The Tubacuba transit seal was only introduced between c2009 to late 2010.

Perhaps also reading the section on fakes might help:

http://www.cubancigarwebsite.com/fakes.aspx