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How Can You Tell if a Second Is a Second?

FractalFractal Posts: 11
in General Discussion
I've heard that a lot of what you get when you order cigars through mail-order catalogs are really seconds.  Is that the case for ordering online too?  Even through well-known stores (such as here (Cigar.com), Famous-Smoke.com, etc.)?

Comments

  • jihiggsjihiggs Posts: 469 ✭✭
    if you order cigars from any store that ship you seconds, without telling you they are seconds, I wouldnt shop there anymore. you will not get seconds here, unless they are marked as such. generaly seconds dont have bands, and might come in bundles instead of boxes. mind you, there is nothing wrong with seconds, most of them were separated out simply cause of color oddities or blemishes. I have smoked many rocky patel vintage 90 seconds and they are all top shelf, just a little ugly.
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    Fractal:
    I've heard that a lot of what you get when you order cigars through mail-order catalogs are really seconds.  Is that the case for ordering online too? 
    you must be talking about that lizard place....


    cigar.com will only send you firsts, unless you order seconds.
    Kuzi's Forum Links Page
  • Matt MarvelMatt Marvel Posts: 930 ✭
    A lot of places online probably do that. Which is why CCOm reigns supreme over them. To answer your original question, you'll just see little blemishes or spots on the cigar. Sometimes you have to look really hard to find why it's a second. I've ordered seconds from here that I couldn't figure out why they were seconds.
  • LasabarLasabar Posts: 4,472 ✭✭✭
    I'd say if the website is somewhat reputable and the bands on the cigar look legit, then smoke 'em...

    I haven't really heard of "Fake NON-Cuban" cigars before, so I don't think there's a real big market for fake non-cuban cigar bands...

    Especially if you are buying seconds and then designing and printing and embossing your own bands, and you have a national website to sell them, AND after paying SCHIP I don't think you'd hold a big profit...

    BUT if anyone is willing to try to start a fake website and see what happens be my guest... just let me know which one it is!
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    ive heard of fake fuentes and believe it or not, fake macanudos


    and then there is the entire controversy over what altadis is doing... but i wont go there.
    Kuzi's Forum Links Page
  • rwheelwrightrwheelwright Posts: 3,296 ✭
    kuzi16:
    ive heard of fake fuentes and believe it or not, fake macanudos


    and then there is the entire controversy over what altadis is doing... but i wont go there.
    That's interesting. I have never heard of fake non cubans.
  • jihiggsjihiggs Posts: 469 ✭✭
    oh sure, must be really easy to fake a macanudo. just take some leaves from the garden waste pile in your backyard, some old newspaper, roll it up and you got a macanudo!
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    well...
    the story goes that it was at a large golf outing where many inexperienced smokers would have been. the name "macanudo" is known to many even outside the cigar world. so when the non smokers saw that they were willing to buy it.

    its easy and cheap to fake a mac. make bands. buy very cheap cigars. charge mac prices. many people never suspect it.
    Kuzi's Forum Links Page
  • FourtotheflushFourtotheflush Posts: 2,555 ✭
    kuzi16:
    ive heard of fake fuentes and believe it or not, fake macanudos


    and then there is the entire controversy over what altadis is doing... but i wont go there.
    Go there. Is this that they are buying brands up and reblending them?
  • bbc020bbc020 Posts: 1,422 ✭
    Fourtotheflush:
    kuzi16:
    ive heard of fake fuentes and believe it or not, fake macanudos


    and then there is the entire controversy over what altadis is doing... but i wont go there.
    Go there. Is this that they are buying brands up and reblending them?
    or the crap about how they are suing Pete Johnson for the his use of the Fleur de Lis on his bands?
  • divemttdivemtt Posts: 3
    Fractal:
    I've heard that a lot of what you get when you order cigars through mail-order catalogs are really seconds.  Is that the case for ordering online too?  Even through well-known stores (such as here (Cigar.com), Famous-Smoke.com, etc.)?
    I have heard the same comments from cigar industry people. And while I am sure the people at CCom are happy to hear their customers respond so positively on their behalf, I have not seen/heard anything in this thread from AlexS or a CCom representative. If some places are selling seconds in bundles, then the manufacturers are themselves complicit in the deception, because they are selling those cigars with labels to the mail-order houses. But there is a simple solution for manufacturers and sellers to get around this. They do not have to designate those cigars as "factory seconds" (they do that too for another market niche). They can give it some other industry term, to identify is as not-boxworthy, and sell them at reduced prices in bundles, with labels, on to mail-order houses. They are therefore not seconds, just another sort grade of cigar. And I believe the proof is in the pudding. Whenever I get a daily deal from CCom or sister CI, I check each cigar, and there are often imperfections that might have caused these to be sorted out. They still taste great, they don't look as good as the ones that I get in boxes, and isn't that what you expect when you get Seconds?
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