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Partagas Torp
mold or plume?
left and right hand roller
box tattered, looks recycled
Tripple-cap too far down
No EL date

Partagas D3
left and right hand roller
photo image inconsistent with others

HdM Torp
Mold or Plume?
rough and inconsistent T-cap
left and right hand roller
battleworn recycled box

None of the bands show age

What did I miss? :popcorn:  :beer:  :popcorn:

Yeah, I'm not buying that TDV factory code for Party Piramides either.  Especially how it looks.

Only factories I ever saw on Partagas Piramides were: OSU, PAS, ECA, SUA, and SCO.

I have seen 2003 Cohiba Double Coronas with TDV factory, but that's 2+ years after the last Partagas Piramides production should have been.

Oh, and if anyone actually wants to pay 2x London auction prices for those, I have some real boxes I might be willing to part with at those prices.

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with what's been posted but first year ELs did not have a year shown on the EL band.

How can you tell if the roller is right or left handed? What are normal rollers supposed to be?

I literally know nothing about this lol

The TDV also threw me off, but at the top of my head I couldn't think of all the Partagas factories. Right/Left hand rollers are easy to distinguish. You will notice that the wrapper moves to the right or left as well as the triple cap. It is not impossible that both rollers could have been involved in the same batches but highly unlikely that you would have left and right hand rollers on all three vitolas from different factories and time frames. Remember these would have been made by selected rollers with some rank, not a bunch of jabronies put together. The second picture does not look like it was taken by the same camera used for #1 and #3. It looks as it was a factory pic. You will notice the D3 has a slight box press, which indicates the pic was taken a while after rolling. Something you might see after a few months. The two torps have no box press, which indicates the picture was taken shortly after being rolled. Most cigars with 15 years on them should have a very noticeable box press.  :popcorn:

[quote author=burnem link=topic=36812.msg156024#msg156024 date=1453817824]
I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with what's been posted but first year ELs did not have a year shown on the EL band.
[/quote]
That is correct. But, I think John was pointing out that the bands have no wear or patina, which one would expect to see on vintage sticks.

those are the cleanest old EL bands I have seen, the one on my 05 "d" look horrible and these are older than those.

can someone point me to the thread ?

I don't know whether they are real or not. I just wanted to point out that the rate of oxidization is related to the exposure rate to air and oxygen. It is possible that the bands stays pristine, if for example, the boxes are shrink wrapped or wrapped in air-resistant material like glassine.