Grey market Blues

After checking the batch code on a Calandre I picked up from a perfume outlet franchise, I've begun to wonder if its real - because the code isn't.
Has anyone else had similar experiences, and any thoughts on grey market 'bargains' ?

Sorry to hear that WildGardener. I believe there is more then one place to check for codes.
Try another one with your fingers crossed.

Thanks Clincy, I tried Checkfresh.com Can you suggest another place? The bottle may be quite old and its possible that the code format has changed. It smells quite coarse textured which may be oakmoss, but really not much like Rive Gauche after an hour or so.

Damn that sucks.

You could try www.checkcosmetic.net , though I've never tried it.

Well I've never been really ripped off. But I did get one bottle that got me doubting because it smelled differently from a decant that I received earlier.

On which site did you get the dubious bottle of Calandre?

The bottle came from an outlet situated inside a department store. I think they are a local outfit, so nothing to worry about unless you go to the Shires shopping centre!
Still, their supplier would be the next suspect, and they could be anywhere between here and Peshawar...

heheh

Well if you wonder about a batch code you could also search this blog:

raidersofthelostscent.blogspot.nl/

The blogger loves old bottles and often writes about different batches and reformulations, including numbers and pictures.

Appreciate that Sleuth. No luck on checkcosmetic.net either. The code on the box is 90f58 or 00f58, hard to tell because its printed over the bar code. But the formula for Paco Rabanne is 5 numerals.

I was also going to suggest Raiders of the Lost Scent. I've bought Calandre from an online discounter here in Australia and there's no doubt that reformulation has weakened the scent.
Interestingly, I wore Calandre during the 80s and I never thought it smelled as much like Rive Gauche back then as it does now (my sister wore the latter). Likely my faulty memory, though.
To be honest, I wonder how much of a market there would be for fake Calandre?
Bar codes were introduced in 1990 so your bottle is no earlier than that.

It did become a bit like RG in the drydown, I'm only going on the word of Luca Turin here.
Many of the codes on vintage fumes aren't recognised by checkfresh and I guess its a case of reformulated batch codes as well as reformulated juice. I will check out the site you suggest, and let you know what happens.

I had a look myself (at Raiders site) and couldn't see specifics for the Paco Rabanne brand but I'm sure if you contacted Andre he would be able to help.

Will do. It looks a classy site, thanks for the feedback Triffid. I think you're right, it isn't fakes that are the problem here but the ever smaller materials budget that each progressive reformulation is squeezed into. I'm thinking Cabochard...