cigar auctioneer vs. cbid?

Originally Posted by d'am

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.

There's a method to the madness.
cigarbid has a base price for shipping around $4. But then they charge you either 25 cents or 50 cents for each additional item you've won. Even singles. So you can end up spending $8 for shipping.

On CA, it's a straight $5.99. But to make sure you never pay more than that, you must consolidate your winnings so that it ships once a week. If I win one or five bundles or 5 packs, it's only $5,99 for all of that.
But if I win three items in one day and don't have consolidation, they will charge you $5.99 three times, for one day!
I chose Tuesdays.
So you have to be strategic about your bidding. Switch to once a week...you can pick the day... and it just doesn't matter how much you win, it's a static shipping cost of $5.99. You need to go to the consolidation section under My Account on CA.