robertsccr5 wrote:I don't doubt that many industries have similar practices, it still doesn't make it right. We should have some type of list so those of us who care can avoid them.
It's not all that difficult. If the cigar is only available here, CI, the 3rd cousin site, or any of the many CI owned web sites, it is either a CI owned label, or a CI exclusive. Other places have name brand exclusives that are made just for them, to their specs. The difference is, most of those places let you know that it's their exclusive. CI makes you guess.
Here's another clue. If a premium cigar that disappeared a couple years back, all of a sudden shows up here as a $3 smoke, you can pretty much be assured that it's now a CI licensed product, and a mere shadow of the original.
Now don't get me wrong, as many of CI's exclusive cigars are fine smokes. It's when they resurrect an out of production name brand label, and try to pass it off as the original, that gets my blood boiling.