So the wife made it back from Mexico and the 5 RyJ Churchill's were actually real ones. I suspect she bought them at the shop you mentioned Paddy and will confirm when we go in March.........together this time..........lol..........as I'll be going to that same shop the day after we arrive to purchase some cigars to smoke while there. I plan on trying out as many different Mexican cigars as I can in hopes of finding a few I like enough to bring some home and stash in my humi.

On a different note.............a fellow I work with was just in Cuba. He had gone last year and after returning I mentioned to him if he went again and was willing, I'd like it if he picked me up some cigars. He remembered and bought a box of Cohiba Esplendidos from "a guy at his hotel"

ROFLMAO

As soon as I heard that I knew they weren't the real McCoy but since he went to the expense (he paid $60.00 for a box of 25 - again, FAKE ALERT!) I bought 20 off him (he was giving the other 5 away to someone else) for $50 and said thank you and wasn't going to bother him with the fact these weren't what he was told they were. He then mentioned his daughter is getting married there in a month or two and asked if I'd like him to bring me some more cigars back. I said "You bet" and asked him to get me two boxes of RyJ Churchills.

I also confessed to him his were fakes and why I knew it because I wanted him to go to a LCDH store to buy my Churchills.
Reasons I knew they were fake:
1) The box had nothing on the outside, no seal, no "Habanos" sticker across the top right corner, no hologram
2) there was a seal but it was inside the box
3) the Cohiba bands we all messed up. Some weren't on straight. Some only showed 2 rows of dots above the Cohiba name and on quite a few, the Cohiba name was off centered

However, as I said earlier in this thread, I would try them and I did. First I took them home and pulled out the one and only Cohiba Esplendido I have in my possession and did a side-by-side comparison. Color, texture, cap, and smell all matched up pretty darn good so I smoked one. It was goood!

Are they Cohiba Esplendido I wondered, perhaps seconds or rejects!?!? Beats the heck out of me. Having only ever had 2 of those before I can't tell. I do know I enjoyed it so I figure at $2.50 each I did ok..........at least I'm not making them into fertilizer or tossing them out, and they are decent and smokable........lol........just goes to show, sometimes you can get lucky!