switcheroo regarding cuban cigars.

[smll2]

I have been a member her for a reasonable amount of time. I have made many purchases on this site. I imagine half of my purchases don't show up on my feedback.  I check in multiple times a day to the battle zone for entertainment ( miss Taps) and the sales. I love the site. I'm not a seller.

Truth be told and I am guesstimating 50% of my purchases on the site have been cigars with draw issues ie dog rockets.

If you look at my history you can see the folks that have given me positive feedback. No negatives.

I have pretty much eliminated purchasing on the site as I feel it's 50/50 on whether I get dog rockets or great cigars unless i have previous experience with the seller. I know...buyer beware..and I beware LOL

The point of my post is that I really wonder if some the serial sellers and others don't buy multiple boxes and skim what appears to be the best for themselves and replace with cigars that any aficionado would guess are poor.

I think this happens more than we think. I want to buy here for the ease of CC's shipped locally but I have trust issues. Easier to go through the vendor shipping process for me unless I know the seller here.

I understand CC's are what they are and quality control out of cuba is what it is. With that said I would never send a cigar that didn't feel right to me (touch)to another that paid for it or that I gifted for that matter

Seriously..a fellow buys 4 boxes of PSD 4's....spends some time in Party Disneyland and you get some token good cigars but the rest suck.

Not to far fetched in my opinion.

[hp123]

You lost me at missing taps...

[smll2]

[quote author=hp123 link=topic=37288.msg157525#msg157525 date=1456893750]
You lost me at missing taps...
[/quote

Thanks for helping a fellow member get this discussion going.  You are awesome.

[hp123]

Anytime 😜

[mk05]

PM sent

[burnem]

I'm assuming these are not cigars from the '99-'01 timeframe that are smaller ring gauge sticks as we know these have draw issues.  Outside of those year, I've never had an overwhelming problem with draw issues (usually a couple in a box have a tight draw).  This has been true regardless of whether a purchased here on from a vendor.  Granted most of my purchases here are 5ers because I want to try a specific box code before a box purchase elsewhere.  Anyway, I think it would be hard to pick out the bad sticks from a box to resell here but anything's possible.  I certainly believe that there are some sellers here who would engage in this practice if buying multiple boxes and keeping the best for themselves. Sorry you're having such rotten luck, perhaps you should take your own advise and stick to the seller you know or buy from reputable vendors as you've stated.

[wabashcr]

I've thought about this quite a bit.  The way I envision it, someone buys a box for themselves, smokes a handful of cigars, decides it's a shit box, replaces the missing sticks from another box, and sells it on here.  It would be ridiculously irresponsible to accuse anyone in particular of this.  But sometimes you read a listing, and based on the seller, you kinda wonder if something like that is the case.

I will say every purchase I've made here has been pretty good, and I haven't been hit with any plugged or bad sticks.  The people I've bought from have all been stand up guys, from what I can tell.  But reading the BZ, especially when Taps was around, has me on edge for less than upstanding sellers. 

I kinda miss Taps, too.  Not necessarily the person, who I didn't know at all, but I definitely miss the character.

[vinnyvega]

I am always trying to learn about this hobby, and I do not know much. 

One thing I have learned and would like to share is that over 8 years of trading or buying from people here or on other boards, proper storage is very rare.  If you know someone who takes really good care of there cigars, become their best friend. 

It's always best to buy direct from a tried and true vendor.  Period.

[burnem]

^^ THIS ^^

Pretty well sums up good buying practices!

[CigarFreak]

i guess it wouldn't shock me if someone tried this. but i highly doubt its the high volume serial sellers. Doing the feel test on hundreds and hundreds of sticks doesn't sound likely. Obscure sellers with full boxes randomly would seem slightly more likely yet still highly unlikely.

Cuba being Cuba is 99% most likely the culprit