Quote Originally Posted by ggiese View Post
...that's how I usually get my Masterpiece maddie's for a buck or two over retail (not bad, with Illinois taxes the way they are). The store I buy them from gets them from a retailer that buys directly from Fuente. The "host" likes that he's always making a huge order to Fuente. They look at the relationshiip as a "win-win" - bigger orders for the host, leading to bigger shipments of the hard to finds... That should work as long as the food chain exists. It will be interesting to see what happens if/when the end buyers shut down.

And I've seen the opposite as well. Out in Salt Lake City - a cigar shop I stopped in was selling Anejo's for HUGE prices (i.e. $45.00 each). He tried to tell me they were they were so richly priced because Anejo's were the "Cadillac" of cigars. Further investigation with Fuente revealed that he was not an authorized retailer - and was purchasing his Fuente's from an authorized retailer - which literally allowed him to price them however he felt, with no fear Fuente would shut him down. Fuente said they discourage the practice and that they would refuse to ship to authorized retailers engaged in selling to gougers - though they admitted it would be difficult, at best, to go after the original source of the heavily marked up Anjeo's.
Ah yes, like my good friends at tobacco world.