Probably less than 10 threads have been yanked in the last 2-3 years. Sometimes we get complaints, other times the thread has run its course, other times it's gone off topic, other times the topic becomes focused on a competitor(s). The forum is here for the benefit, education or entertainment of all us cigar guys, but not here to promote other sites even if unintentional.
cooldude - as far as special handling or picking up shipments: As a customer I'd probably think it seems ridiculous too. But CBID depends on automation to survive. By processing the number of orders we need to ship on a daily basis, it halts the whole system to manually pull 1 order out of the stream and make sure it gets handled separately. I know - the customer is always right, but to offer more and more lots every day, process the orders, consolidate many of these into weekly shipments, and get them packed and shipped as fast as possible (some of which close under cost - yes I've read about overbidding, but believe me, "underbidding" is a bigger problem from our perspective! :), we need to be as efficient as we can to stay in business. Anyway, that's why it's called an online auction. Imagine asking an online site like priceline to stray from its policy on something. Besides, come visit our store!
plabonte: sell your info? Hell no. Catalog companies do new customer prospecting all the time. Probably a coincidence.
See ya