Quality question

[smokinpeace]

I am newish to the Cuban world and would love some clarity on a couple of questions. To be clear, I am not asking for sources or a discussion of any particular vendor.

Is there a considerable difference between the product quality from different sources? I am confident that the product I am receiving is genuine, however I have heard people speak in negative terms about some of the gray market vendors and their products. I have also heard people speak of invitation only vendors. What is the deal/advantage of these vendors?

Please understand, I am not asking for sources. I am simply hoping to understand the differences between vendors and make sure I am not throwing money away toward sub-standard cigars. Thank you for the resource this whole forum is to us less-experienced folks.

 

[smokinpeace]

Thanks you for all the info. That was exactly the type of information I was looking for.

 

[U-Boat Commander]

I think you will find that it's somewhat of a crap shoot. You can get mediocre looking boxes from an HSA authorized retailer and you can get amazing looking boxes from a gray market vendor. One particular vendor grades his boxes and you can pay more for a box that he deems of higher quality. But even that is a crap shoot (or marketing ploy) as I have seen boxes graded higher that didn't look as good as boxes without the higher grade. Generally speaking, you're very unlikely to receive a bad looking box (or to state that another way, you're highly likely to receive at least a medium quality box) from a gray market vendor. So if you're planning on aging your own smokes, might as well go with a cheaper gray market vendor. As AZ stated above, if you're looking for something particularly special or hard to find, then you probably want to go with an authorized retailer.

 

[zathan]

Great reply again Jim, thanks.