Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

I got a call from a local vendor that they had these so i stopped by after work to check them out. i had been looking for the opus sharks (found a few in st augustine and got what i could) so they called me to say they had them. i was kind of shocked when i got there. here is what they had....

Opus Sharks??
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...1-02185346.jpg

Maduro Fuente Fuente
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...1-02185323.jpg

the sharks were in bundles of 20, they also had a bundle of 10. the fuente fuentes were in packs of 12. i had my doubts so the owner gave me a buy back on them and i picked up one of each just to document them. they were not in their humidor but stored in a locker. he is a opus x dealer and gets regular shipments and deals a lot with the special sets from prometheus. i just really doubt these are real, he wanted 25$ each for them.

i have more pics but i can't post more than 5.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

The single Opus shark i purchased from our local shop were in a box, and didnt come with the band on the foot:confused:

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

the only thing that throws me off is the lack of gold embossing on the cello.... but who knows, these batches could have been a last minute decision?

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Apparently a rare Fuente release:

http://www.vitolas.net/thumbnails.php?album=1

:ss

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Nice pick up. The maduro X is very very limited.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Weird. They look legit, but that seems really odd.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

just to put it out there, i haven't really picked them up yet. i'm trying to verify their authenticity first. the sharks look exactly like the ones on vitolas, even the caps on them. they do look similar to the box release sharks i have. this is the box release opus shark

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...r/P1020013.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...r/P1020015.jpg

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Did the sharks smell the same? As you know, Opus smell very unique.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

i have a cold and can't smell much of anything right now. once this clears up that would help. moki, on another site, said he thought they looked real.

he also had perfexcion x maduros. if these are real that would be great.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Go to Tampa Sweethearts and ask them.
If they don't know, then nobody knows.

If you got them from Tampa Sweethearts
they are real.

Chemyst :cool2:

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

nope, not from there. they wouldn't know either, i need to send this to a rep and have them check it out. gonna do that now.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Something that kind of raises an eyebrow for me is the seemingly large quantity of these rather rare and HTF Opuses that this vendor has. The FFOX maduro which should be over 7 years old now, and was never officially released, the orig OX77, very limited release 7 and 5 years ago, yet this vendor seems to have at least 50 of the old Sharks and 24 of the FFOXM.

Unless Fuente is opening the doors to the humi-vault and having a clearance sale, these large quantities seem rather odd.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

i emailed drew newman. we shall see. moki from vitolas.net fame seems to think they look real.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

very intriguing. I hope that they are real. Might be just a situation of someone who is looking to share something special with another fellow BOTL.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Moki sighting?

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Being the maduro whore I am...I gotta find one of each of these bad boys. :D

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

so drew responded and sent it to the local FN rep to see what the deal is. hopefully i hear back soon.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Hmmm... if they are real, you may have just lost your chance to buy them if you get the B&M in trouble.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

if they were real they wouldn't get in trouble :tu

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

What is the verdict on these? Any word yet as to their authenticity?

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Unless the deal is that they weren't supposed to have them to sale in the first place, thus why the rep you emailed needed to investigate further. :tu

I'm hoping that's not the case. It'd be cool to score those.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

I seriously doubt the authenticity.
A) I have RARELY seen opus with no gold emboss of the cello, occasionally they miss the gold part, but the emboss is there.
B) Opus Sharks with the foot band are the original release only found in Opus22 Boxes and Humidor release. The current box release OX77s are unbanded at the foot.
C) Bundled Opus, while sometimes sent to B&Ms to fill their singles boxes, are almost never of the rare varieties like the MADURO opus.
D) If they are legit, I must try one of each to verify authenticity.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

:r:r:r


If they are in fact real, awesome score :dr

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Confirmed what i suspected. These are fakes, here's a copy of the email from Drew Newman.

leaving out the cigar shops name. if anyone buys from this region you can PM me first if you need to confirm they didn't come from this shop.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

With all due respect, if this shop is an authorized Fuente dealer as you indicated in your OP, then I feel that being more forthcoming with their name would behoove the community as a whole. as who is to say that their fakes end with these HTF fakes?

Not everyone buys locally.

If this were a CC vendor, they'd be tarred, feathered and lynched by now, but to protect them in this fashion because they are in the US is, IMO, BS.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

wow, that is interesting. :(

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

i believe the forum has a no bashing policy. if a mod clears it i will post the info.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Fair enough, although I wasn't aware of such, and I seem to recall at least one recent thread which one person slammed a humidor vendor and the thread is still up.

On a personal viewpoint note, I don't see outing an NC vendor who sells fakes as bashing, but rather a public service, but I can see how the thread could quickly degenerate into chaos. Of course, this isn't my site, so what I think doesn't mean dick.

BTW, to make things perfectly clear - I have no issue with you or your actions brother, I actually wanted to edit the last sentence of my previous post because I thought it sounded too harsh and might have given the wrong impression, but I was past the time allowed for edits once I had thought about it.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

"squirrel!!!!!"

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Please mods clear the policy on this up. I know I would certainly like to know who the former seller of fake Opus is/was! LOL !

Jay, If the mods OK this would you please post the name/adress of said shop?

It could save another BOTL some trouble.:tu

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

I Should have looked more closely to this post when I first saw it and not from my IPhone. When the Opus Shark made it's way to DFW, I believe that they were in boxes of 30, and not bundles of 20. Honestly, I should have just bought the whole box and be done with it. Doug is correct in that they had the gold lettering on the cello and the foot was unbanded.

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...usXSharks1.jpg

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...usXSharks2.jpg

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

the box was actually 36 and had gold lettering. the kind the vendor was selling looked exactly like the ones on vitolas.net which is the old set style that you can only get in the fuente promeuthus humidors (sp).

someone had one on ebay recently

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Thank for the clarification. The box was opened when I got there, so I didn't get a full count. I really should have picked it up. The EBay listing price is really much higher than what I would have paid for the box.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

MSRP is right at 15 i believe.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Hi Jay, are you willing to post the name of the shop since drew newman himself stated these were fakes? I mean he is the highest authority on opus and if he declared them fakes then IMO this vendor needs outed. I think alot of botls here would benefit by knowing who this slimy shop is.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

as i posted earlier if a mod clears it then i will post it. none have spoken and i'm sure at least one of them has read this.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

no problem and I completely understand. I feel that it could save guys here potential trouble but will defer to the mods on this one. at least you got a conclusive answer though on the cigars :)

mods can we please get a yea or nay on posting the name/address of this confirmed seller of fake HTFs?

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

It will be discussed somewhere along the line today.Until then,keeping it to PM is perfectly okay Jeremy.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Its bad enough tht he is charging above MSRP, but he is charging 66% above MSRP on fakes and does not deserve protection.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

I'm really surprised these turned out to be fake. I've never seen a fake Opus before but those looked pretty good. They sure went to a lot of trouble too with the cedar sleeve, ribbon on the foot, etc... If they had taken the extra step of including the gold celo lettering and done some more believable sizes/wrappers, we would have all been fooled.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Come on, "you can do it".
Man I love this clip.:r
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wbSBxTLe40

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

bump

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

bump yourself, you're one of the ones making the decision....or did someone forget. ;):D


just having fun Peter, everybody knows you're the awesomeness. :tu

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

to stop most of the PM's about this, if you only shop in tampa you are fine. this shop isn't in tampa. that still leaves about 50 b&m shops in the area to guess from. if you are from the area i will talk to you about this over PM if need be until instructed further.

i for one will not frequent this dealers stores. i feel that anyone from this area should do the same.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Pardon my harshness here, but this whole thread reminds me of a bunch of sorority chicks gossiping about who was under the bleachers with whom. This dealer needs to be outed in order to protect others. Let's go mods. Release the name! Just my :2

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Just another followup. Went to the shop to get my money back.
The owner cussed me out banned me from his stores. Just reaffirms to me that he knowingly sold fakes.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

No offense taken, Seth. Just wanted to remind everyone that we are discussing it. Practically speaking, it may take a day or two to have more than one or two admins chime in and discuss different sides (perspectives).

For now, Jeremy can decide who he wants to answer via PM.

It's all good (except for the fakes ;))

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

If it were that simple of a decision, it would have been made immediately. There is more to it than just this issue. It can/will have an impact on how things are handled in the future. Decisions like this are not taken lightly by the TOE. Besides, it is as much an issue for Jeremy to decide if/who he shares it with. We're just deciding if it should be something posted publicly.


I think there is a paralell here with purchasing Habanos. Trust your vendor. Should you really be buying uber premium cigars from a retailer you don't know/trust or haven't been referred to by someone you do trust?

Just my :2

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Guess I'm not one, and honestly could give a crap. I pass through the area quite a bit but always have my herfador pretty well packed.
Curiosity killed the cat and that's all most are who are reading this are; curious. I was curious but won't buy into the apparantly self created hype surrounding rare Fuentes.

Re: Maduro Fuente Fuente opus x and opus sharks?
 

Not to mention that similar "outings" have caused Mob mentalities in sites I have moderated in the past, and sometimes it was found that the OP was the mistaken one, while the retailer was taken to task for something they were falsely accused of (not saying that is the case here at all).