Hi Stephen – I’ll attempt to answer your questions. CigarBid is part of a large group of companies that share a fulfillment center. We have anywhere from 25-50 million cigars in our humidor at any given time. We also have thousands and thousands of cigar accessories in stock as well. When you purchase in these quantities, you get tremendous volume discounts – the type of discounts your local retailer can never achieve.
CigarBid is one of the outlets we use to sell this product. Because you can basically name your own price, you can get it much lower than at your regular retailer. You can’t do that with the other companies within this conglomerate which is what makes us unique.
Contrary to TJCobra’s post, this is not an outlet for only slow moving merchandise. Many of our top sellers, including Man o’War, Diesel and 5 Vegas are sold here. What you won’t find here is many national brands and many of the larger, popular boutique brands. They’ve put a moratorium on selling their cigars at a lower price though on-line retailers and brick and mortar retailers. This is called MAP, which stands for Minimum Advertised Price. Since you can name your own price here, it would be lower than MAP so we can’t sell it.
As for those no-band, lesser-known bundles, only you can say if you’ll like them. The quality will be the same whether you purchase them from us or your local.
Remember that all businesses need to make a profit. Your local may not be purchasing directly from the manufacturer as we are and therefore need to charge a higher price. As Puff said, there is also the convenience factor. You can stop in there to pick up a smoke when you’re low and not wait for your next delivery. You can share a smoke with other like-minded individuals – there’s nothing that bonds you like sharing a hobby that 90% of the world wants to obliterate! HA!
Welcome to our little world of AZZHATTERY. These guys can be jerks but they are also among the most generous and giving people I’ve ever had the pleasure of encountering. If you want to hang out, please check out the noob/vet thread on the trades board. Get yourself a vet who can answer your questions and guide you on your search for the perfect cigar. But be warned – you have to have thick skin to deal with these guys. Like I said, they are a bunch of azzhats!