Authorized Retailers

[pnoon]

Originally Posted by Felixcigar

Gee, seemed like an innocent question(?). Non-cuban (don't want to go to jail).
Strictly legal (again, don't want to go to jail). It has recently come to my attention that some manufacturers sell their products through authorized retailers (e.g., Davidoff). Just wondering, how this impacts (helps/hurts) the manufacturer, retailer, and customer. Any additional info you could provide about the typical supply chain for cigars would be most educational. My particular interest is in the pricing structure for cigars. I see many retailers who advertise very close to MSRP (and these coincidently) may be more apt to be "authorized" retailers, and then I see others (seem to be much bigger operations in most cases) that advertise at a much lower price point, and in many cases, are not "authorized" by specific manufacturers.
Bottom line: I know almost nothing about all this, and more knowledge is always a good thing, right?

It has nothing to do with jail. It has to do with respecting and understanding our rules.