If You Are Buying McClelland on the Secondary Market, You Might Get Rooked!

I posted up in the TAD thread about a week ago and mentioned the loose labels on all of the 2018 40th anniversary tins. This seems to be a thing, as all of mine have them. Personally I don't care one way or the other. I bought mine from SP, not some shady person on Ebay, and I never plan to sell them, and I don't need to buy any more. But, if you are buying tins of 40th on the secondary market, you should be aware that the '18 40th labels slip right on and off, AND I have been hearing other people complaining about this happening with other McC blends tinned in 100g tins in 2018. So, it stands to reason that some people are going to be switching them around and screwing people. The bottom of 40th just has the date. No batch or blend code like the olden days. But, I did notice some stampings on the side of the tin, once I slipped the label off. Perhaps this numbering is blend-specific. So, if anyone else is concerned, you might want to start documenting any blends that have these loose labels and posting up the codes on the sides to see if it gives a definitive way for people to tell what is really inside. Again, I am not complaining about this, and I personally don't care that it happened, since my 40th is staying with me forever, and I probably have enough to last me. I figured that some of you might want to follow up on this though, to see what could be determined by those numbers on the side, if anything. If you have any '18 100g tins of anything McClelland with loose labels, it might be interesting to post up what you have, and what numbers are underneath the labels. I have only noticed this on my '18 tins of 40th, and I have heard others complaining about this happening to their 100g tins of other McC blends.
Normal:


Upside down. That's fun!


Nekkid!


Blend code? Who knows?


Don't get rooked!
::

oldgeezersmoker

...they key numbers are stamped in ink on the bottom. Those have the blend number and year.

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They used to do it like that. Tins of 2018 40th just say "2018" on the bottom. Not sure what is on the bottom of the 2017 40th since I have not checked, but they don't have the loose labels. The first time that I posted about this in the TAD thread a number of days ago, I was joking around about it, but I also thought that it was only limited to new 40th. Then I read at least one post elsewhere on the internet complaining about loose labels on another new McC 100g tinned blend, and I started to think a couple days ago that it could actually be a problem if someone wanted to easily switch labels around for whatever reason. If most or all of the 2018 100g tins just have the year and loose labels, then there is more room for shenanigans. Probably not going to be an issue most of the time, but I would not be surprised if I read about it happening in the future.

mso489

...filling old tins with inexpensive bulk or bag leaf, etc. etc.

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Well, that might be getting a little carried away mso =) , I'm not sure how that could even be done. Honestly, I'm probably getting carried away here myself. But I agree with your second point. I am not worried about any real tobacco retailers switching labels. I'm primarily concerned for people buying on the secondary market, especially Ebay, since people are "only buying on there for the collectible empty metal tin and the collectible paper label", which they would have received. Customer complains to Ebay and Ebay might shut down the seller for moving actual tobacco, but I doubt that Ebay would give the buyer a refund for receiving the wrong tobacco, since they would have received the correct label for their "empty tin and label collection".

Out of curiosity, I just checked my '17 40th tins, and they say "2017" on the bottom. The label seemed to be affixed to the tin with glue, but I was still able to pop it off and replace it without damage, and there were no numbers at all on the side of that tin. It was still a tighter fit than the '18 labels. The '18 40th labels just slide right off, which might give bad people bad ideas.

If anyone has McC 100g tins from 2017 and 2018 that are not 40th Anniversary, please report back with what is on the bottom. I've basically been buying 40th and nothing else lately, or I would check myself. I have a 100g tin of newer #27, but it's packed away in my closet somewhere already. Perhaps 40th is only getting "2017" and "2018" on the bottom since it was a limited edition blend, and the regular blends still have more info. I want to say that there is less info on the newer blends. That tin of Latakia above has "91 2017" printed on the bottom, which sounds like a blend number and year. I want to say that I have newer 50g tins of Yenidje Highlander from 2016 or 2017 that only have the year on the bottom, but I would have to check on that and could be mistaken. Maybe there still is a way to discern 2017 and 2018 40th from other blends, if all of the others besides the 40th are getting a blend number or anything else stamped on the bottom, in addition to the year. :puffpipe: :puffpipe: