Originally Posted by Sally  More than likely that is why they are not allowed to advertise on this cigreviews web site, I know I would not buy from a bootlegger, they are whom gives the legitimate online tobacco stores a bad name.  |
You are so right. Some people DID give legitimate online smoke shops a bad name. But, the government over-reacted (and is still doing so) in the name of "Kids" and "House Fires".
Shops that actually were "Jenkins compliant" got shut down in 2003-2005 along with all the ones that were not.
Some shops that already took every conceivable caution to prevent minors from getting cigs was shut down also along with all the ones that were not (Non-native sites).
They weren't shut down because of an updated Jenkins Act, they were shut down through force and intimidation. Jack boot thugs that call themselves ATF kicked down doors, stole tobacco products and threatened to lock people up to get all those 300 or so Domestic webstores to close.
Getting back to the conversation about bootleggers:
I can't say for sure that not having tax stamps means a shop is a bootlegger because like, the Indian Nations don't let nobody push them around. I believe they manufacture their brands. They don't put no FSC on it IF they don't want to. They don't put no tax stamp on it either if they don't want to. I'm sure they will put FSC on it if we smokers can't get FSC chemicals removed. I believe most of them already put tax stamps on or "ink through" stamps
Most of the time cigs that don't have tax stamps on the packs just means that somebody in the distribution point is keeping a record of all the packs that go out with no stamps and "Inking through" a book of tax stamps (that comes from whatever states' Dept. of Revenue) to coincide with those unstamped packs. Then, once or twice a month, the Revenue official comes by and picks up a check for the taxes of all stamps that were "inked through" since the last visit. Most people are unaware of this and they assume that no tax stamps means it is bootlegging. If they are NOT inking the tax stamps as I just said AND sending cigs out to fulfill online sales, then that IS tax evasion
With native shops, it could be either/or because they are sovereign. They believe (and are probably right) that they don't have to follow the white man's laws so, whether its got tax stamps or not don't matter. I think most of the Native peoples in the tobacco business, if they do do tax stamps, they only do it to get along and not because they think they have to.
I very rarely get an unstamped pack from the Native shops and I been ordering online from Native American sites for almost 5 years now. Everything I got this year from the sites on CigReviews had a tax stamp on every pack (a total of 17 cartons).
One thing I started doing three years ago is I keep every pack I empty. I keep all my empty cig packs just in case someday my state sends me a letter for back cigarette taxes claiming that all the packs I bought were unstamped. They did that one time to me (state of NY and state of FL). The vast majority of every pack I have EVER smoked had a tax stamp on them. I always look for the tax stamps on packs ever since I got those tax bills. They can't try to collect nothing from you if you have all the packs for the time period in question and they all have tax stamps on them. I figure I have around 3000 empty packs now stored in trash bags. Maybe somebody will have a contest for empty cigarette packs and make the grand prize a trip to Acapulco. Yeah!