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first, best, biggest!

Meh, never had good luck with seconds.

I got a decent batch once, but for the most part they were trash.

Even though it was "decent", they were still meh.

Curtains on or curtains off ?

Ya, but I don't buy the high quality firsts either:P

Oh, I know they come and go, and aren't available for long stretches of time, then suddenly become available for a short time, etc. etc. I've been buying, smoking, and watching their availability change for years!

My concern is, through all that, there's always been a page for them on the CI website, on the "sister site", on PAC, etc., and those pages always had a good number of blend/vitola options. They all showed "OUT OF STOCK" or "BACKORDERED" most of the time, but the page always EXISTED. and always had a good number of blends/vitolas.

Now, for the first time, the page doesn't exist anymore on CI and PAC, and only has 2 blend/vitolas left on the "sister site". I suspect the "sister site" will eliminate the entire page shortly, too.

This is what worries me. It looks like it's being phased out for good.
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I like them also, but it is very possible that they are early victims of the Federal Anti-cigar regs like the Blendlabs. Unlikely they would go through the long expensive approval process for these.

Need to push for congessional action ASAP because - even if the regs eventually get shelved - it could be too late for blends that getshut down.

#1 O.P.

That name sounds wrong?

What was their EXACT NAME AS LISTED
HERE
OR
C.I.???

Labels or no labels on gar?
What vitola? Or vittolas?

"Nicaraguan Ligero Laced Seconds"
^^^ really ??

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS ALL SPECULATION (WELL-SUPPORTED BY MANY HINTS), BUT NOT VERIFIED FACT.

These things are basically you getting Oliva Cains (Habano, Maduro and Habano F) for as little as under a buck each (I paid 86 cents each once!). Later they expanded the line to the Cain Inferno (see my post below this one).

Don't think of them as "seconds" because it appears they're simply not. They're just excellent cigars for dirt cheap, with a crazy-huge disconnect between quality and price. I've never seen one as large before or since!

It may be a case of Oliva wanting to make sales in two different strata of consumers, so they sell the exact same product at two different prices, with the fact that it's the exact same product obscured or hidden by B.S. This is common in other industries.

A pal of mine used to work at a tire shop, and a supply truck would arrive full of new tires and the boss would tell the workers to put three-quarters of them in the "new tire" part of the storehouse, and one-quarter of them in the "blem" (blemish, meaning "seconds") pile, to be sold at a discount. Key thing is, he didn't say WHICH three-quarters and one-quarter. They were the exact same product, grabbed at random from the same single truckload of identical tires!

This way, people of low-means buy the "seconds" because they have to, while well-off people turn their noses up at the "seconds" label and pay full-price for the supposedly "real" product.

If the item costs $X to make, and you sell the "real" version for $6X and the "seconds"/"blem" version for $3X, you're bringing in profitable sales from two different strata of the consumer market, and you're using the "seconds"/"blem" labelling to prevent the high-payers from converting to being low-payers.

It's a standard business technique, it's just not widely-publicized, so lots of consumers aren't aware of it.

I've had many dozens of these cigars, and I'm STILL WAITING to find my first "blemish" or other problem that would make them "seconds". I think it's another case of the tire shop game. Same item.
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They've been replaced by the Gurkha Warpig or so I heard.

Not that I know of. But, they could just be hiding it extra-skillfully!
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