C.I.'s "MAKE ME AN OFFER"-JOKE or LEGIT?

I am putting this idea out to all forums I hit daily. Keeping it brief, I have placed bid after bid on cigar after cigar only to have them deny my bid as COLD.

What P.O.'s me is my bid's rise all the way up to the daily C.I. price for that cigar and are still kicked back. The reason, from what they say in the intro, for posting these cigars is to deal away over stocks, old inventory, that they WANT to part with BELOW C.I.'s already low prices. After two dozen rejected bid it seems to me this is just a crock of SHI^!

I sent them two boldly worded notes saying if they have no intention of giving me at least $5 below the C.I. price to cover shipping why post hundreds of SUPPOSED cigars to sell with NO INTENTION of doing so. I also asked if they believe the customer to be a stupid idiot, who spends hours going over 400 FALSE SALE OFFERS, with C.I.'s intention of having them submit 3 bids that will be rejected, hoping by then they want the stick so bad they will just go to C.I. and buy it?.

Any comments from anyone that has tried this MMAO would be appreciated, weather your bids were successful (maybe you could tell me what to do) or just dozens of rejects. Thanks, Rich H.

[chand]

I suspect that it is a complete joke. I have bid near the CI price (which is lower than the MMAO price sometime by a bunch) and have been rejected many, many times. Its my opinion that it they are using a marketing gimmick to to instill auction style excitement in order to get buyers who bid more than they want due to competitiveness or a lack of shopping around.

[Goldie]

I've had good luck with cigarsatyourprice.com. Check em out.

[T.G]

Originally Posted by rah0785

I sent them two boldly worded notes saying if they have no intention of giving me at least $5 below the C.I. price to cover shipping why post hundreds of SUPPOSED cigars to sell with NO INTENTION of doing so. I also asked if they believe the customer to be a stupid idiot, who spends hours going over 400 FALSE SALE OFFERS, with C.I.'s intention of having them submit 3 bids that will be rejected, hoping by then they want the stick so bad they will just go to C.I. and buy it?.

Two "bold" notes like that and no responses yet? Gee, I wonder why...

I think you should call up CI and challenge SteveR to a mano-a-mano out in the parking lot to settle things.





There are plenty of other places out there to buy from if you are that dissatisfied with CI/Cbid.

[Dunkel]

I have never had a problem with MMAO. I have had offers rejected, but they were very low offers.

[Bageland2000]

Can't imagine why they wouldn't just post those "overstocks" at a cheap price to move them. It's not like cigars go bad, most get better with age so there's no way this is legit!

[maninblack]

Originally Posted by Goldie

I've had good luck with cigarsatyourprice.com. Check em out.

Ding ding ding!! Winna!! Love this site!

[Brutus2600]

I've had fairly decent luck with MMAO. Everything I've bought has been between 25-50% off the normal CI price, some have been in the accepting low offers category, some haven't. Seems to be the luck of the draw if there is something you're interested in and can get it for a good price.

I second taking a look at www.cigarsatyourprice.com because you can just increment the price up until it accepts it and then get cigars at a pretty dang good discount.

The only other place I can think of getting a better discount off cigars is off the cigar auction sites, which are just going to depend on how many people are bidding on it whether or not you get a good price.


P.S. Totally unrelated, I love your userpic Bagel...freakin epic

[kafreeman]

Originally Posted by Goldie

I've had good luck with cigarsatyourprice.com. Check em out.

Another recommendation here... great place to buy.

[Devanmc]

Originally Posted by maninblack

Ding ding ding!! Winna!! Love this site!

[Bageland2000]

Originally Posted by Brutus2600

P.S. Totally unrelated, I love your userpic Bagel...freakin epic

I'm assuming that you recognize Herman Toothrot then!? Haha It was an animated gif file but I can't get it to animate... only admins can upload gifs I guess. Dude monkey Island is my all-time favorite game!

Any comments from anyone that has tried this MMAO would be appreciated, weather your bids were successful (maybe you could tell me what to do) or just dozens of rejects. Thanks, Rich H.[/quote]


I had informed C.I. I had requested so history from a few forums I frequent and the response was hands down bad when it came to anything said about their MMAO section.

Before I posted in my cigar forums my bid of $25 for 10 LA PERLA HABANA COBRE'S was to COLD! This morning I found my "P.O.'d wise ass bid of $25.01 APPROVED!!! The one cent breaking point? Doubt that.

LOW AND BEHOLD, another 5 bids get approved for me this morning as well. After 100% rejection I was shocked to shi^!!! Maybe the unwanted attention from my posts I let them know about broke the ice. I would be interested to here from anyone who wants to try them now and what the results are? Let me know, please. See if I am a one time wonder or a change in policy is legit. To be honest I was very surprised about the negative routine they had going. I like them above all retailers, not saying JR or FamousSmoke are bad, but for the low budget, decent tasting cigar selection, CI is the best. Here is what I won and what I saved off the CI daily price. Hope they ship them all at once and not bill me $5 for each individual bid to make back some money lost.

C.I. DAILY PRICE compared to MY APPROVED BID, the first is just TO MUCH!
LA PERLA HAB COBRE BEL-10 $35 $25.01, up from $25
MARK TWAIN-20 $60, won with $40
REPOSADO '96-10 $30, won with $20
MILD AND MELL SAMPLER #2(12) $40, won with $30
PUROS INDIOS SPEC. AGED-6 $20, won with $15
CI LEGENDS GRAYCLIFF-10
(box of 20 is $70 so I still made out) $50, won with $32

Like I said elsewhere the $25 to $25.01 bid approval just makes me laugh and laugh. Again, if anyone tries then again, or for the first time shoot me a note back as to the results. I will be bidding next month and will let you all know if this was a one time fanny slapap, or if CI has changed their colors and back up what they say when it comes to taking our money for their product.

P.S. My order is just being shipped and should arrive Saturday.

I saved a total of $73. They did ship my order all in one box, good move on their part for sure. After S&H($9)&tax($11) I saved over $50. Not bad. Still looking for the BIG savings though. They put sticks on sale for 50% or more most times and make it a great buy. That would also make the time and effort of bidding over and over worth while. Thanks again. R.H.

[Brutus2600]

Andrew - Yes, Monkey Island is in my top 5 games of all time for sure.

Rich - Glad to hear that your bids were approved. The way I usually go with MMAO is start at 50% the price and work my way up in small increments. Not a penny, but usually anything between a few dollars and $10 depending on the total price. You're lucky they're shipping everything together, I've bought stuff same day and they ship it seperately, not sure how that saves them time or money or me money, but they do it.

I have gotten a few of the MMAO to go through. I certainly make sure I am not going over their normal price though. I start low and raise up a few dollars. If no luck then I find them somewhere else. I have had a few that I tried the $5 shipping under their regular price and to no avail. I just figure at that point it is a marketing thing to make you think you are paying what you want...

Sorry you have had such bad luck with them. Try shopping elsewhere!

[cmitch]

My Brother in law has dealt with Famous Smokes for years and he put me on to their auction site: cigarauctioneer.com. There's some pretty good sticks that come up on there that you get for 40% off or better. I have a load shipping out next week. It remains to be seen how great they are since it is my first visit. But Doug swears by them.

always seemed like a waste of time to me.

[Ratters]

Famous has a Make Offer on their cigarmonster site. I've only ordered once but I got a box of Ambos Mundos toros for $65 which I thought was a pretty decent price.

[Bageland2000]

Originally Posted by Brutus2600

Andrew - Yes, Monkey Island is in my top 5 games of all time for sure.

Rich - Glad to hear that your bids were approved. The way I usually go with MMAO is start at 50% the price and work my way up in small increments. Not a penny, but usually anything between a few dollars and $10 depending on the total price. You're lucky they're shipping everything together, I've bought stuff same day and they ship it seperately, not sure how that saves them time or money or me money, but they do it.

Always glad to meet a fellow fan!

[Bill86]

I no longer purchase NC's but if I did as everyone else has mentioned "CigarsAtYourPrice.com". I've done about 4 orders from them. Fastest shipping, best prices, one can go broke at that place.