Come on, "you can do it".
Man I love this clip.:-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wbSBxTLe40
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bump
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bump yourself, you're one of the ones making the decision....or did someone forget. :-):-)


just having fun Peter, everybody knows you're the awesomeness. :-)
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to stop most of the PM's about this, if you only shop in tampa you are fine. this shop isn't in tampa. that still leaves about 50 b&m shops in the area to guess from. if you are from the area i will talk to you about this over PM if need be until instructed further.

i for one will not frequent this dealers stores. i feel that anyone from this area should do the same.
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Pardon my harshness here, but this whole thread reminds me of a bunch of sorority chicks gossiping about who was under the bleachers with whom. This dealer needs to be outed in order to protect others. Let's go mods. Release the name! Just my :-)
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Just another followup. Went to the shop to get my money back.
The owner cussed me out banned me from his stores. Just reaffirms to me that he knowingly sold fakes.
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No offense taken, Seth. Just wanted to remind everyone that we are discussing it. Practically speaking, it may take a day or two to have more than one or two admins chime in and discuss different sides (perspectives).

For now, Jeremy can decide who he wants to answer via PM.

It's all good (except for the fakes :-))
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If it were that simple of a decision, it would have been made immediately. There is more to it than just this issue. It can/will have an impact on how things are handled in the future. Decisions like this are not taken lightly by the TOE. Besides, it is as much an issue for Jeremy to decide if/who he shares it with. We're just deciding if it should be something posted publicly.


I think there is a paralell here with purchasing Habanos. Trust your vendor. Should you really be buying uber premium cigars from a retailer you don't know/trust or haven't been referred to by someone you do trust?

Just my :-)
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Guess I'm not one, and honestly could give a crap. I pass through the area quite a bit but always have my herfador pretty well packed.
Curiosity killed the cat and that's all most are who are reading this are; curious. I was curious but won't buy into the apparantly self created hype surrounding rare Fuentes.
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Not to mention that similar "outings" have caused Mob mentalities in sites I have moderated in the past, and sometimes it was found that the OP was the mistaken one, while the retailer was taken to task for something they were falsely accused of (not saying that is the case here at all).
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i did PM you back =P
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I can see how the mob mentality could take over. But it appears as if Jay posted this on multiple forums and has said that Drew Newman himself declared them fakes. Also it seems that a larger than normal amount of maduro opus have been for sale on ebay. This confirmed retailer of fakes could easily sell a fake on ebay and nobody would be any wiser as they sure looked real to me!! Jay has said he'd ge glad to post the name and address of this shop which could at least be a small victory for opus lovers. I mean if I was sold fake opus and had Drew or similar declaring them as such then I would have no hesitation to out the retailer.

Negative feedback is just as important as positive feedback. I mean heck, there are some GREAT retailers here who helped me get some opus at great pricing (including Jay himself). I think this is simply a matter of protecting our own. Then again my opinion is worth about :-) :-)
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Andy, my answer wasn't the definitive one, the TOE are actively discussing the matter...it is a decision we don't take lightly, in part to reasons Peter and I outlined above. I would hope that the inmates who read this thread would be wise and wary enough not to buy any of these cigars on eBay based on what we already know here. There will be plenty of other suckers who don't belong to an on-line cigar board lining up for purchase. And those inmates who don't read the thread wouldn't see the name anyway.

Your points are all well taken, and we will consider them in our discussion. :-)
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Wow - so did Drew actually visit the store? Did the owner say anything about them stopping by to check out the cigars?
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I respect that and am glad to hear that the TOE is taking this seriously. :-)
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Well lets put a little perspective here. The newmans are all based out of tampa so when i contacted drew by email he contacted the local rep (i'm assuming they see a lot of each other). the local rep (mike, who i've never met but know because of all the shop owners calling him all the time) went to the shop to investigate. drew then communicated it back to me that they were fake. today i went to the shop and got my money back, while the owner was cussing me out and threw the money back in my face. I did contact mike (the local FN rep) and let him know about my experience. he expressed his disapproval of their behavior but he cannot talk about what their consequences were for them.

this place was an authorized fuente dealer and authorized opus x dealer. since the owner banned me from their stores i won't be able to go in there to find out what happens in the long run. thankfully i'm sure that some of the other people from our area who have already PM'd me about this shop will drop in and check in on them from time to time.

at the very least i hope that the people who were ripped off got their money back.
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True, but how far down the line does this vendors Faux X supply go?

Some of us buy regular production Opus X cigars from out of state due to the ridiculous taxes incurred when buying locally.
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I am not sure I would believe that a store has an Opus Maduro anyway, never mind 20 of them...there are only like 300 known to exist of each size (as far as I know, and I am obviously talking about the ones that were not sold commercially, like the xXx Maduro)...And they are worth quite a bit more then $25 each...

~brooks
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true but the shops that usually get these kind of things are gifted them and can charge what they feel like. i see where you are coming from. either way these shops need to be reported.

i feel really bad about the guys who were taken by this shop, i was contacted by a few locals who had bought some stuff. i really hope they got their money back.
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Thanks for bringing this fraud to light. I personally do not need the source as I dont buy Opus or Anejo's. But its always good to bring these things out. How a legitimate dealer would feel the need to increase his profit by dealing in counterfeit's is beyond my comprehension. :-)
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