[Stephen]

Originally Posted by T.G

I think the point that Humberto was trying to get across was that if you were going to buy those cigars from Famous, you can buy some bids at cigarsniper instead, use the bids to try and get the cigars for less, maybe having a bit of fun in the process as some people enjoy these type of auctions, and, if you are unsuccessful at winning them in the auction, you can apply the money from all the bids you entered against the purchase price of the cigars, so you aren't out anything really. Basically, if you only bid on what you were going to buy anyway, you're gambling odds are quite good - you might win, and at worst, you'll break even.

Also CBid is proxy bidding, so you just enter in your max bid and walk away, the software does the rest, from an excitement point of view, it's up there with watching paint dry. CigarSniper is live bidding, so you actually have some level of interaction with the other bidders, sure, it's not quite the same as being in the same room and having an auctioneer call bids, but it's certainly more interactive than the proxy bid system, and some people find this interaction enjoyable.

Say what you will, but at the end of the day, these things are nothing more than human Skinner boxes.