Experiencing CREED Paranoia! Please Help!

I'm new to the world of high-end fragrance, and the other day I stopped by a Perfume Palace at a Mall near my town and purchased what is ostensibly a genuine CREED Original Vetiver. It's a 4 ounce that cost me a mere $130. Which seems a little fishy, considering these go for more than twice that (the $130 price range is usually for CREED's 2.5 oz atomizer).

However, I am a little familiar with some of the hallmarks of a fake, and did some checking, especially on the bottle itself. From what I can gather, this is the real article. The juice smells really, really nice. Not harsh or synthetic, although a bit overly smooth and linear, very green and fresh, slightly citrusy and soapy, with a little woody, bitter thing going on somewhere in the middle.

Anyway, I thought I'd post links to pictures of my purchase, and I want to ask you all - from what you can see here, does it look like this is a real CREED? You can see where they snipped the serial number off the box, and I didn't include a photo of it but the number on the bottom backside of the bottle has been filed off, leaving a scratched spot where it used to be. Also when I bought this some of the fluid seemed to have been used - there's maybe an eighth of an inch missing off the very top there, so perhaps I'm not the original owner of this. But let me know what you think.

Also, if anyone knows this - what are the actual dimensions of a genuine 4 oz bottle of CREED? Basic width and height of the glass part only, excluding any measurements of the atomizing unit and the cap.

Thanks!


http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.ro...98343135130370

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.ro...99355114430354

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.ro...00645682069602

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.ro...01038863258722

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.ro...01390873549058

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.ro...01671356337074

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.ro...01992309388642

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.ro...02832661556098

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.ro...03116576154642

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.ro...03535709458162

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.ro...03867684871954

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.ro...04218131730546

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.ro...04493721134386

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.ro...04994825258050

Geikamir -

I totally agree, that's also what I thought when I was buying it.

DocmanCC -

Thanks for the information, it's a big help. I've heard about the "grey market", but never really knew what it was. I'm guessing based on what I've read here that the CA printed on the back of my box stands for Canada. Overall, this makes perfect sense.

BTW, today was the first day wearing this, and I feel pretty stupid now - I know cologne well enough to recognize a cheap fake, and this is light years away from that. It's just about the most beautiful fragrance I've ever owned.