cigar auctioneer vs. cbid?

[d'am]

Originally Posted by forgop

I don't know that a "feature" is needed to do that. If I'm on any auction site, whether it's ebay, CB, CA, etc, I ALWAYS shop around online to see what I can buy it for. Amazon, shopping.google.com, etc. are great. Specifically for cigars, I'll price shop the top 5 or so retailers I look for pricing and then decide what I'm willing to pay under the prices I've found. IMO, even if you get it at MSRP, I think you've paid too much.

I worked in procurement for 10 years of my life, so I might know a trick or two.

I don't think it's intended for your benefit though. I'm sure Famous/CA make money from it.

Without the alert feature, they sell one box for over sticker price.

With the alert, the would-be high bidder instead goes to Famous to buy his box, and the original bidder wins a box at auction. This way, Famous/CA sell two boxes.

Assuming that all boxes are sold at a profit, I'd wager that Famous/CA make more money in the long-run with the "price alert" feature. While a few auctions go way over msrp, most are close enough in price that selling two boxes near msrp probably nets more profit.