EAR: Duty to disclose?

[El Presidente]

EAR: = Email Assistance Required. 

 

"You can imagine how excited I was to receive my granfathers cigar collection. There are some extraordinary cigars dating back to the early 70's. With his passing, their storage between 2014 and 2019 was less than ideal. I have spent 18 months bringing them back to what I consider a perfect state and they smoke fine to me. While I smoke cigars I am no affcionado with little experience of these cigars.  You have advised me that i will not be able to sell them on BR due to a provenance issue and I can respect that. I can move them through a local retailer or other online medium but I wanted to ask, what is my duty to disclose the storage circumstances? How would you handle it?"

This one is cut and dried to me and I responded as such. However you are "buyers" of cigars....and plenty of you are "sellers" of cigars. What would you advise? 

[Bijan]

As a buyer I'd definitely want to know.

But most online vendors don't (or didn't) really disclose when they got each of their vintage boxes or how they were stored from production date until the present (except for FOH and one or two others, you're really rolling the dice on past storage conditions).

[Fuzz]

I would be honest about it and let the buyer decide.

"Storage conditions not ideal for a few years. Cigars have been re-conditioned and smoking fine."

[TBird55]

Easy, just be straight up and tell it like it is.

[chris12381]

Best to always be honest so a prospective buyer can factor any negative into their decision making process or price.  If one chooses not to disclose, at the very least an offer of refund to the buyer if they are not happy with the appearance/of the cigars they purchased is called for. 

[Ford2112]

Honesty is more important than cigars or money .

[RichG]

“Stored 65/65 in an Aristocrat humidor, country of origin, Australia”.

But in all seriousness if you have to pose the moral quandary to others, chances are you already know what the right thing to do would be.

[Hemclas]

Since cigar storage is a critical component when it comes to cigars, I can't imagine not disclosing it.

[BigGuns]

2 hours ago, RichG said:

But in all seriousness if you have to pose the moral quandary to others, chances are you already know what the right thing to do would be.

Beat me to it, and I’ll add - forgive me for being cynical - if you have to ask, you’re already leaning toward the wrong thing and looking for, hoping, someone will back you up.  Why were you so excited about receiving the collection?  To have an incredible connection to your grandfather for years to come, or for the opportunity to make a buck?  If you don’t see yourself smoking the collection because it’s not your thing, take pride in the fact that you honored your grandfather in restoring the collection and wish to impart what that may be onto someone who might appreciate the history.  Tell the full story and see where it goes…

[La_Tigre]

The need to even pose that question is a concern….wouldn’t buy from this person on general principle. 

[LordAnubis]

Disclose to the person you are selling to (shop or whatever), what they do with the information is up to them. Most retailers or auction houses will not give a crap.

[BrightonCorgi]

I would disclose.  If someone were looking to buy the whole Lot, I would offer them a cigar to try for free if they are on the fence. 

[rcarlson]

Life's too short.  Don't be a chump.  Disclose.   

[Greenhorn2]

Ask yourself this, would you want to know?

[Puros Y Vino]

I believe i am familiar with this collection.  Several well respected, long time smokers inspected the collection and basically declared them dead/unsmokeable.  Curio items at best.  It's a real shame.  Not disclosing such conditions is IMO a cardinal sin in this hobby.

[BrightonCorgi]

28 minutes ago, Puros Y Vino said:

I believe i am familiar with this collection.  Several well respected, long time smokers inspected the collection and basically declared them dead/unsmokeable.  Curio items at best.  It's a real shame.  Not disclosing such conditions is IMO a cardinal sin in this hobby.

The seller may not be into the hobby.

[Corylax18]

54 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

The seller may not be into the hobby.

That's just not an excuse. What would be the justification? "Sorry, I'm a complete moron who cant read or work a computer?"(but can send emails apparently?)

If his grandfather had left him a collection of vintage "barn find" cars, it wouldn't be ok for him to lie/omit the truth about how they where stored either. Or to spend a year with a California duster cleaning them up, then selling them as "Numbers Matching, Frame off Restorations."

[Puros Y Vino]

37 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

The seller may not be into the hobby.

In chatting with him, I really don't think he is.  He's a casual smoker at best.  BUT. He's sought counsel from many experienced smokers and they all agreed, the collection, while interesting, is "dead". At this point, he has no excuse whether he smokes or not. 

[BrightonCorgi]

43 minutes ago, Corylax18 said:

That's just not an excuse. What would be the justification? "Sorry, I'm a complete moron who cant read or work a computer?"(but can send emails apparently?)

If his grandfather had left him a collection of vintage "barn find" cars, it wouldn't be ok for him to lie/omit the truth about how they where stored either. Or to spend a year with a California duster cleaning them up, then selling them as "Numbers Matching, Frame off Restorations."

How can you tell a car salesperson is lying?  Their lips are moving...  One reason why a buyer may be want to use an auction house as they shoulder the burden of an accurate promotion.

I sold several boxes of vintage cigars about 15 years ago with a couple of friends.  People flew in from around the country to see the cigars.  We let them each smoke one (~$150 a cigar they went for).  They were stored in wine cellar since the Embargo.  Hard to validate the story either way, but that is the pretense I believed to be true.  The cigars were an afterthought of considering the amount of wine in the cellar my friend bought.  

I hope to bring another 20 boxes a friend has in storage from that cellar to BR at some point.  The value has gone up considerably since then and it may be time to start auctioning boxes; both pre-revolution  and pre-embargo.