[T.G]

I don't think he is lying to you, but he might be misinformed or accidentally confusing cigars.

One of the things about seconds is that there is NO cigar manufacturer on this planet that sets out with the intent to make them, and when they do have some, they immediately react to correct the problem. This all occurs within hours at the factory. QC is everywhere in the factories, walking up and down the lines, inspecting cigars, testing cigars, smoking cigars constantly. Usually problems are caught very early on. Leaves are sorted and inspected many times to weed out the blemished ones from the high priced lines. Rollers check ring gauges before applying the wrappers, and they can discard damaged or blemished wrappers if they see fit. The trimmers have stops in them which lock to specific length, you really have to not be paying attention to get the length wrong.

What does all this mean?

Means that there shouldn't be very many seconds. If there are lots of seconds, people tend to lose their jobs, and a cigar factory job is typically a well paying job (outside of Cuba that is). Because if make too many $10 cigars that end up as seconds for $2, you go out of business.

So, if there are lots of seconds, they probably aren't really seconds. And everyone and their competitor sells FdOs.

FdO's might have less than perfect capas, but that's not because they are seconds, but because the better leaves were sorted out for use in the more expensive lines. They might not be exactly identical from cigar to cigar nor look like the model perfect cigar, this is not because they are rejects, but because they are made by the more junior rolling teams who have less experience. You don't put your best rolleras and buncheros on the line making $3 cigars. You put them on the line where the product must be perfect because it's a $15 cigar.