First time buyer paranoia, is this real

[adler_yeo]

So this is my first time buying online and am paranoid so would like to ask if these are genuine or not, thanks. What made me question it was the uneven burn marks on the inside of the box and not centred date stamp on the bottom

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[weirdneighbor]

Try posting here:

http://www.friendsofhabanos.com/forum/forum/6-newbie-introductions/

http://www.friendsofhabanos.com/forum/forum/3-suspect-cigar-forum/

[SaintMickey®]

Do you trust your source?

I have never seen a fake that nice with all the bands, ribbon, proper stamps, stickers, labels, inner, outter box, hologram.

Let them sit for a 45 days and smoke one.

[TomF]

I know these well and they look fine. If you want you can send them to me for evaluation, or just put them down for a month or two and try one. I don't think those are good candidates for counterfeiting. They more often go for the global marcas; Cohiba, Montecristo, etc. They get better and better with time.

[adler_yeo]

Thanks for the replies guys, put my mind at ease somewhat. First time with this brand and there was some gold shiny flakes on it, is this common?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Hurltim]

Thanks for the replies guys, put my mind at ease somewhat. First time with this brand and there was some gold shiny flakes on it, is this common?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Somewhat? What else do you need to be sure?
That box goes for around 150 ish retail.
To counterfeit the ribbon, box, paper, cardboard, seals etc. Would leave them making about 3 cents.

Buying Cubans online takes a little trust on the buyer's part. To me, constantly (not saying YOU are BTW) worrying that you may have recieved fakes really sucks the enjoyment out of smoking them.
Feel free to PM me the source and I will do my best to answer.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

[Smallclub]

13 minutes ago, Hurltim said:

Somewhat? What else do you need to be sure?
That box goes for around 150 ish retail.
To counterfeit the ribbon, box, paper, cardboard, seals etc. Would leave them making about 3 cents.

True. And you can add the iron with the french text. Actually I believe a fake box of Médailles d'Or would cost much more than a real one.

[sactochris]

They look pretty spot on to me.

[bman75]

2 hours ago, adler_yeo said:

Thanks for the replies guys, put my mind at ease somewhat. First time with this brand and there was some gold shiny flakes on it, is this common?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think the tiny gold flakes on the cigars comes from the bands, which have some gold coloring.  I have seen it on several vitolas that use gold in the bands, and this one in particular. 

[bwgan]

Ha ha!! Not centered stamp?? I've had labels on the wrong side of the box and not questioned their provenance

[NSXCIGAR]

34 minutes ago, bwgan said:

Ha ha!! Not centered stamp?? I've had labels on the wrong side of the box and not questioned their provenance

Even a code missing altogether isn't necessarily a problem:

As others have stated, no one would produce a fake box of MdO4. It just wouldn't happen. Just like no one would produce a fake box of SC El Principe or PL Montecarlos. Cigars like this are pretty much immune to counterfeiting. 

With Cuban fakes, you're usually going to find something that rules out a simple oversight by a factory lackey like the wrong font, wrong paper stock, wrong materials, wrong color. I'd rather have a missing date code than one in the wrong lettering, for example, or wrong color. I'd rather have no bands than bands with the wrong background color.

Remember, a human being stamps (or forgets to stamp) the code on the box. A machine makes the bands, labels, ink, etc., and these machines are usually not in Cuba. There should be no variation regarding those items, but surely a human can make a mistake on a genuine box. As far as the words burned in to the varnished box, depth and definition variance from letter to letter can happen. If it were the wrong font, or not burned in, for example, that would bother me. But when it's simply a matter of degree (quantitative), I err on the side of genuine. A quantitative error is usually fine: no band, extra band, two codes, burned in too deep, not enough, etc. A qualitative error is usually a bad sign: wrong font, wrong color, wrong size, printed and not burned in, etc.

[subport]

Looks totally fine. 

[Laxman]

Looks fine to me, best way is to smoke one! Plus as stated, if you always trust your source you never have to worry.

[SaintMickey®]

Can you imagine if our new FOH'r received this box the Prez posted???! 

Enjoy your cigars my friend!

 

 

[Cep]

Trusting your source, ahhhhhhh, it's the best feeling in the world. I learned the value of that very early in my Cuban career.  

First time paranoia is super real though.  I had it.  It's funny I was soooo worried about losing a few hundred dollars on a box of fakes.  That was before I'd spent like 20k Lmao!  

[stogieluver]

100% confidence in that box.

[Jimmy_jack]

I have a box of these from our host. There are gold flakes on them from the bands. Yours look fine.