Valid points on both sides here. here is my take which most of you wont care about, but its a real slow day...
- Used Cbid off and on for a long time before recently started posting and there ARE cigar snobs on here that drive people away or keep them from posting to begin with. Don't understand that mentality. I like Morton's Steakhouse and also like White Castle. Different meat for different times and places and budgets (insert White Castle "meat" joke here....). My #1 overall preferred cigar right now is a Cuban Monte #2, followed by some other CC's as well. (Used to be an CC H.U Tubo fan - in the old days they were the best for bringing in from Windsor Canada - but perhaps Upmann is pushing too many out right now as I don't think they are as good as used to be). But I like cheap ones as well. In the boat where I'm going to get wet, I will often fire up a Marsh-Wheeling. I keep an emergency sealed pouch of Backwoods in the golf bag (with a great NASCAR lighter I got on the Mothership). All should be welcome here.
-To me the "Steals" on the lower-end sticks that some snobs look down upon are more important for me on Cbid than the higher end ones. Once I start getting much over $6 a cigar, I start thinking, "why don't I either spend just a bit more and get the CC's or save money and get the $3 ones I like?" Finding a $2-3 cigar that I enjoy is wonderful. For me the LPH Purples, Legends yellows, Ramon Bueso's, even some Olivias have all been good fairly inexpensive purchases that I enjoy (although Olivias have been moving up in price I notice) and I even like a FEW of the real cheap deals gotten on a couple of V.S and Grand H samplers or 5-packs - great for Golfing, while grilling or working outside for 50 cents per!!!!
- That being said, there ARE less bargains on higher-end stuff all over than there was at one point and that is a shame. Cbid may have a contract which they can't get around but, if so, that's too bad. I note other sites both discount and auction still have some of the brands that have disappeared here, how can the others do that? Some sites have a minimum starting bid which, while not rock bottom, is still lower than the normal on-line price -- is that how they are doing it?
-The loss of higher-end brand deals is short-sighted. I would not have even tried some brands and blends if I had not been able to get a 5-pack or sampler at a good discount here. Now I like some of them enough that I will buy them to sit alongside the CC's in the Humi and when need to pick up a few at retail from a B&M when out of town, I know what I will enjoy and don't have to worry about spending a lot on something I might dislike. Those sales would never have happened if it had not been for low-low Cbid deals. Cbid and the parent are big enough that they should be able to fix this if they really want to, IMO. Perhaps, however, they are doing so well with the margins on the lower end items that they see no need to try to push the manufacturers harder.
-Trish said something to the effect of "why would we not sell them if we could?" Well, if you make an overall 25% profit on a "low-end" sale and 5% on a "high-end" sale, well, that answers that question. Same reason Walmart sells $4.00 bottles of Australian wine but not $300 bottles of champagne. This would be true especially if your data shows you that you are losing sales from the Mothership on the high-end sales but not from the low end ones when both are on Cbid -- and that, I suspect, is highly likely as many of the high-end people are going to buy from SOMEWHERE. It would not surprise me to find that sales of higher-end cigars on Cbid cannibalize sales of those same cigars on the mothership (and affiliated companies) much more than do sales of lower end ones.
-This IS price-fixing. It may be LEGAL price-fixing, but its still price fixing. One way it could become illegal is if one company controlled almost all of the market, but that could never happen, could it?????? 🤔
- Even at full-retail, however, a lot of people were clearly not around in the late-80s early 90s. What we were paying for sticks back than was incredible! Retail was often way higher than it is now even when NOT adjusted for inflation. Add in the CPI and its much less expensive today then during the "booms." So some folks should lighten-up and realize we still have it pretty good.
Edited by user
12 years ago |
Reason: Not specified
