• Hi Guest - Come check out all of the new CP Merch Shop! Now you can support CigarPass buy purchasing hats, apparel, and more...
    Click here to visit! here...

The Case of the eBay Chili Peppers

jlada said:
By the way, the internet is a scary thing... have fun!

His name is Craig D. Mandell, he's 52.

CRAIG MANDELL
edit -address and contact info removed

His neighborhood area:

edit - image removed

His city, the yellow dot is his house:

edit - image removed

A good shot of his quaint little house:

edit - image removed


Don't do anything stupid! This is all taken from publicly available records.

Edit: Who in that area wants to knock on his door and get a picture for an Opus X RdC?

Edit2: Someone with really good connections -- feel free to forward that to the Fuente family courtesy of me.
Click to expand...


Tapewormboy said:
I don't think posting his personal information on this forum will be productive. Nor is it in good form...
Click to expand...

X2.

By posting his personal information (although it can be secured through public channels) can be seen as a form of stalking. Even you posting to offer a reward for a photograph is a form of harassment, or encouragement of. Should someone do something stupid, I wonder how this would look as evidence? Accomplice? Premeditation? Throw me some words.
 
Another thought is that the wronged parties now know where to find this person so that he can be prosecuted more swiftly.




Oct-30-07 said:
FUENTE OPUS X CHILLI PEPPER BANDS(9)EXTREMELY RARE !!

Item number: 200168173759​


You are bidding on ON MY LAST NINE eXTREMELY RARE FUENTE FUENTE OPUS X "CHILLI PEPPER BANDS"! THESE BANDS WILL COME OUT OF MY BEST DANEILLE MARSHALL HUMIDOR SO BID ACCORDINGLY. IMPOSSIBLE TO GET.All of these cigar bands are LEGAL in the US. These items are impossible to buy in any retail setting and are considered invaluable to collectors.​
​
Click to expand...
​


Nov-01-07 said:
FUENTE OPUS X CHILLI PEPPER BANDS(9)EXTREMELY RARE !!

Item number: 200168173754​


You are bidding on ON MY LAST NINE eXTREMELY RARE FUENTE FUENTE OPUS X "CHILLI PEPPER BANDS"! THESE BANDS WILL COME OUT OF MY BEST DANEILLE MARSHALL HUMIDOR SO BID ACCORDINGLY. IMPOSSIBLE TO GET.All of these cigar bands are LEGAL in the US. These items are impossible to buy in any retail setting and are considered invaluable to collectors.

​
Click to expand...
​

Nov-23-07 said:
FUENTE OPUS X CHILLI PEPPER BANDS(9)EXTREMELY RARE !!

Item number: 200177341846​
Ended:

Nov-23-07 18:10:58 PST​


You are bidding on ON MY LAST NINE eXTREMELY RARE FUENTE FUENTE OPUS X "CHILLI PEPPER BANDS"! THESE BANDS WILL COME OUT OF MY BEST DANEILLE MARSHALL HUMIDOR SO BID ACCORDINGLY. IMPOSSIBLE TO GET.All of these cigar bands are LEGAL in the US. These items are impossible to buy in any retail setting and are considered invaluable to collectors.​
​
Click to expand...
​
 
Great sluething Shirlock!

I would love to hear his side of the story.
 
From CF:

In one auction he sold 13 chili's for $217.50 = $16.73 each.
don't know where you can get them at this price. ???
Click to expand...

The answer is, you can't. The guy sold someone 29 Chili Peppers in one sale, and told him that he had 30 more he could sell him. Think about that for a moment.

So it's really one of three things:

1) Completely fake cigars rolled into a Chili Pepper vitola by some third party individual, and affixed with Opus X bands from other cigars post facto

2) Cigars rolled by someone at Fuente, possibly even using similar tobacco, taken from the factory along with bands and then sold through to this individual

3) Chili Pepper "seconds" (ie, rejects) that are taken out of the factory somehow, and with bands affixed post facto

I'm thinking that 3 isn't likely, because I can't imagine it'd be easy to smuggle this many cigars out of the Fuente factory. The cigar did not smell or taste like any Opus X cigar I've ever had... it was nasty. 2 doesn't seem quite that likely either, for similar reasons.

So I'm left with #1, according to Occam's Razor. It's just a guess, of course, but these certainly are not sanctioned released Fuente Opus X Chili Peppers. I'm not aware of any regular production cigars that leave the factory without cello on them, unless they are in special Prometheus packaging (and they leave the factory in a tube or a coffin in that case).

Many people here have been to the Fuente factory, and seen them banding Opus. After the cigars are color sorted, bands are affixed, and then cellophane is immediately put on the cigars.

It's hard to imagine how hundreds of Opus X Chili Peppers could have no cellophane on them, given Fuente's modus operandi for packaging these cigars.
 
I think the only way to get the "real" story is to have Carlito answer to how many chilli peppers have been rolled. I'm sure they have a count and I would bet that they are not as rare as suspected. Still, I would suspect these are not real, for the reasons moki posted. The cilli pepper has been rolled for many more years than some people think. If I'm not mistaken, the one I traded to moki some years ago, was from around '99.

I would make the assumption that this guy is probably selling "fakes", just as most would. But, I would also not draw a comparison to the Scumbag List and posting an almost complete life profile for someone on an internet bulletin board. Putting his name and/or internet bulletin board screename on a list is one thing and it is a warning to others in the know, to stay away. I think sometimes we go overboard on the whole protecting the cigar world, thing. JMHO
 
Matt R said:
I think the only way to get the "real" story is to have Carlito answer to how many chilli peppers have been rolled. I'm sure they have a count and I would bet that they are not as rare as suspected. Still, I would suspect these are not real, for the reasons moki posted. The cilli pepper has been rolled for many more years than some people think. If I'm not mistaken, the one I traded to moki some years ago, was from around '99.
Click to expand...

Well, I do know that it's only one roller at Fuente who makes the Chili Peppers... and he left Fuente at one point, so there was a gap during which another roller had to be trained. He also made some of the other unusual vitolas.

Carlito has been experimenting with various cigar vitolas for years... all sorts of whacky stuff, and they always do numerous iterations before they end up with something that they can produce consistently for any kind of public release.

I suspect that the Chili Peppers are actually still pretty rare... because other than one-offs that Carlito personally keeps, they generally do not keep large stockpiles of these type of cigars, especially unbanded ones. Opus X cigars stay unbanded only during their time in the aging room... then they are re-inspected, banded, and cello is applied, and they are put into packaging.
 
"Yes I have Opus X i have not posted on EBAY cuase on am very busy with my regular Opus X customers i preefer to do business OFF EBAY. The chillis are 25.00 each I have some super Belacosos 16.00 and robustos 15.50 and some #5 small opus $12.00 each. Thanks let me know what you want to do."

Wow, CC would tear into him! :sign: This is an e-mail I received when I asked if he had any Opus he'd like to sell.
 
KayakinBoy said:
"Yes I have Opus X i have not posted on EBAY cuase on am very busy with my regular Opus X customers i preefer to do business OFF EBAY. The chillis are 25.00 each I have some super Belacosos 16.00 and robustos 15.50 and some #5 small opus $12.00 each. Thanks let me know what you want to do."

Wow, CC would tear into him! :sign: This is an e-mail I received when I asked if he had any Opus he'd like to sell.
Click to expand...


PM me the email it came from.

I'm about a mile from his office...I'd be glad to stop in and see if he has some.
 
Thanks for the insight. Has anyone tried smoking one of them to see if they at least taste like OpusX? As mentioned in the article the tobacco has the same color...
 
Danforz said:
Thanks for the insight. Has anyone tried smoking one of them to see if they at least taste like OpusX? As mentioned in the article the tobacco has the same color...
Click to expand...

See the link in Moki's first post. I believe he tried the Chili Pepper and it tasted like ass (paraphrased).
 
Indeed, one must wonder why he is hustling so hard to sell these cigars, given that they are in such demand. Stinks to high heaven. From another site:

I obviously didnt read it thoroughly and i apologize deeply.. However I have been in contact with this seller. He lives two towns over according to his ebay profile, and have spoken with him on the phone because he lives relatively close and we were going to arrange to meet up for a transaction.

However, when i never called him back he would repeatedly call and leave messages etc., i knew right then that this was a scam. He was too hungy for a sale!! I was thinking "why is this guy bothering with me, if there in such high demand"??(My B&M had some in stock recently after this so I had no need to purchase them anymore, which is why i was avoiuding his calls)
 
Sounds interesting. Someone should pick up a couple of each vitola and see if they are fakes as well. Either than or ask for a huge order, something no one could really put together without them being fake. From the sounds of it, this guys operation is bigger than most of us think.....
 
IanHummel said:
Sounds interesting. Someone should pick up a couple of each vitola and see if they are fakes as well. Either than or ask for a huge order, something no one could really put together without them being fake. From the sounds of it, this guys operation is bigger than most of us think.....
Click to expand...

If I had to guess, he probably does know someone that works at Fuente... and is doing something equivalent to the rollers who hang out outside of the factories in Cuba, selling crap they rolled.
 
So are we doing a group buy on these or what? :sign:

Wow this is making the rounds all over.
 
Moki - are the bands real then? It sounds like they are.

From your smoking experience Moki - they are not Opus. If it is a Fuente roller, then why wouldn't they roll an Opus blend. I imagine then he / she stole the molds & bands and is using their own tobacco (?). I would imagine it would be hard for a roller to walk out of the factory with any of those things.

Very strange.
 
sgates said:
Moki - are the bands real then? It sounds like they are.

From your smoking experience Moki - they are not Opus. If it is a Fuente roller, then why wouldn't they roll an Opus blend. I imagine then he / she stole the molds & bands and is using their own tobacco (?). I would imagine it would be hard for a roller to walk out of the factory with any of those things.

Very strange.
Click to expand...

Yes, the bands are real. A lot easier to smuggle out or otherwise obtain bands than it would be to obtain or smuggle out bales of tobacco used to make Opus X cigars. Hell, the rollers don't even know the blends, they are just given the piles of tobacco to use every day.

What specifically is going on, I'm not sure... but it stinks to high heaven whatever it is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top