I got a fiver of the CAO Black 'VR' Full Fathom for $13.00....I've enjoyed every CAO stick I've smoked so far and am hoping that continues.

http://www.cigarsinternational.com/proddisp.asp?item=CS-WWA&stext=CAO%20black 

I'm not the biggest CAO fan, but if you enjoy them $2-$3 each isn't a bad price at all... here in California they probably sell for $13 each...

I am trying to take advantage of the shipping saver program by having it set to ship weekly right now. I've got a couple other bids out there that close this evening, so we'll see!

Not sure which one's are newer other than the Concert, which I thought was mediocre at best. The MX2 is by far my favorite though.

I'm only a year into cigar smoking, but I'm finding out it's pretty common for cigar manufacturers to release a great stick and then a year later they're making it again but only the name is the same... the high quality tobacco leaves have been swapped out for cheaper stuff...

Foremost its an organic product so it's not going to be the same year from your from here. Another factor is whether or not the blend has changed. In some cases yes I do think that they start to use cheaper tobacco but I do think that's the exception not the rule.

In the case here with CAO their quality started to drop before General Cigar purchased them. The old man was a tobacco man, his kids seemed more like a marketing team.

Hickory or oak?

+1 on what ZRX said. Same thing seems to have happened to Camacho after Davidoff bougth them, but to a lessor degree.