Great cigars older codes question

[Winchester21]

A friend of mine just got 2 boxes of Monte 4s from another internet site. I was able to talk him out of one of the boxes. Great sticks with dark wrappers. Date code is Sep  15. Not 16. Last week he got some Bolivars from the same site with jun 14 date code. The prices were high but not secondary market aged price. Do you think the retail outlet is sitting on a ton of old inventory or do the factories sit on inventory. It makes no sense with worldwide demand being up at present. How many hands do our cigars pass through before we see them? I know nothing about the details of the Cuban cigar industry.  Thoughts/comments?

[Fugu]

Not really "old" codes. Pretty normal e.g. for European retailers, in particular if linked with a B&M and not a web-shop-only source.

And don't overestimate "worldwide" demand for CCs. Demand may be high for phat and bling - but not for standard production....

[Farani]

2 hours ago, Winchester21 said:

A friend of mine just got 2 boxes of Monte 4s from another internet site. I was able to talk him out of one of the boxes. Great sticks with dark wrappers. Date code is Sep  15. Not 16. Last week he got some Bolivars from the same site with jun 14 date code. The prices were high but not secondary market aged price. Do you think the retail outlet is sitting on a ton of old inventory or do the factories sit on inventory. It makes no sense with worldwide demand being up at present. How many hands do our cigars pass through before we see them? I know nothing about the details of the Cuban cigar industry.  Thoughts/comments?

I think I know the retailer you're speaking of, though the one I have in mind's prices are not high. I've made a lot of purchases recently from him of 2013-2015 boxes, as have others that I know, and I am extremely happy with every purchase I've made to date. In most cases, the price has been lower for a better box code/date, and in the times it's not, I'll happily pay the slightly extra cost for an older box of which I know the code.

[NSXCIGAR]

There's a lot of 2013 and 2014 stock still out there...