Cigar Auction Absurdity

CigarAuctioneer.com just completed an auction of Going...going...going...crazy with auction overbidding 40 five-packs of the Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story, a neat perfecto of four inches long and 48 ring.

Bidding started at only $11.95, and Famous Smoke Shop (which owns and operates the CigarAuctioneer.com site) sells the Short Story in a five-pack for $21.95 when in stock. Of course, there are no five-packs in stock now since they were all sold at auction!

A total of 20 bidders won lots, with the highest bid at $30.00 for one five-pack and the lowest at $25.00. The big winner (?) in the auction was one bidder who bought eight lots – 40 cigars – for $204.00 or $5.10 per cigar . . . or $1.28 an inch!

There were nine bidders who won more than one lot. The total of the winning bids was $1,045.36 for 200 cigars or $5.23 each. Famous normally sells a box of 25 Short Story cigars for $108.95, or $4.33 each.

This week’s auction slate includes the Padron 1926 Series 40th Anniversary cigar, which has gone for around $40 each for most of the past 18 months. There are 40 individual cigars available (one box worth) in this auction, which will end on Monday, June 19 at 9:59 p.m. Eastern time.

I just want to re-emphasize what Rich mentioned in his story: every single one of these cigar five packs sold for more at auction than the everyday price that Famous regularly sells them for!

The direct retail price of the cigars at Famous is $21.95 per pack. The lowest price paid by bidders in the auction was $25.00 per pack. The “winning” bidders paid $30.00 per pack.

The folks at Famous should be very happy with the results of the auction.

This is of course exactly why people sell things at auction to begin with. When “auction fever” hits, people will often bid without thinking and get caught up in the moment. They want to make sure that they win what they’re bidding on, and don’t stop to think that they’re paying more for their auction “bargain” than they would pay if they simply ordered direct after a little research on prices.

In this case, the “winners” paid about 37% more for the cigars than they would have paid if they’d simply placed an order direct from Famous or one of their like-priced competitors.

This is just…plain…crazy.

In the words of Dennis Miller, I don’t want to go off on a rant here, but I’ve heard “explanations” for this kind of behavior that are equally crazy. Some people try to justify over-bidding by saying that the bidders involved live in California, or some other place where punative taxes tack fifty to one hundred and fifty percent onto the price of cigars purchased locally. Therefore, the prices still seem cheap even when above regular retail.

That is an absurd excuse.

Haven’t the folks in California heard of Google?

Type “Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story pack” into Google and at the top of the page you will come up with a couple of online retailers with prices for the five pack. The second one listed on my search has an advertised price a dollar or so less than the lowest price paid by any of the lucky winners in this auction. Not that this auction is unusual in that regard. Stories like this are becoming more and more common.

Folks, use some common sense.

Keep your head when you’re bidding at CigarBid or CigarAuctioneer, check the current retail and street prices of what you’re bidding on before you bid, and set a limit for your bids that you won’t go above unless there is a very good reason to buy at a higher price.

Your wallet will be fatter, and the cigars will taste a whole lot better to you.

By the way, if you would like to sample some of the Short Stories yourself, don’t let the fact that Famous is sold out of the sampler packs stop you. You can get a five pack at Holt’s Cigars for $21.75 now. Another place to check is Atlantic Cigar, which is currently running a special on them for $23.80 per five-pack. In fact, many online retailers offer them at similar prices — although with the popularity of the Hemingway line they are often out of stock.

I only know one major onliner that sells them at a higher price, and I’ll save them the embarassment of listing their name since they’re currently retailing them at $36.95 for the five pack.

Maybe all of the bidders on the Famous CigarAuctioneer auction were customers of this one higher-priced retailer and thought that the price was a bargain and the best they could get.

It wasn’t.

Posted on Thursday, June 15th, 2006 at 12:22 am.

3 Responses to “Cigar Auction Absurdity”

jcruz
June 15th, 2006 06:54
1

The moral of your story is right on. The problem is with availability. I think cigar smokers have come to find certain cigars hard to come by. For example the link you provided to Holt’s, is sold out and there are so many online cigar retailers these days whose inventory changes from day to day or hour to hour or the occassional you place an order online only to get a “we’re out of stock” reply in your e-mail box. So being able to find a particular cigar on a consistent basis plays a factor.

But I agree with the main point of your story about paying attention to what and how much you are bidding.

Sadly, I was outbidded on that auction.
Jeffrey
June 15th, 2006 14:34
2

Thanks for the info and perspective.

Just to update with a couple of other links for those looking for the Short Story:

Atlantic is running a sale on them at $23.80 per five pack (they list their regular price for them at $30.00). I’ve updated the article to include that as well. Of course, with the way the Hemingway series sells, they’ll probably be sold out almost instantly as well.
Frank
April 4th, 2007 12:57
3

I don’t know what happened to the comment, but I previously noted that both Famous & JR will “pop-up” a warning that a bid is exceeding their retail price.

Auction fever is something that happens; QVC has built a nice little empire on this idea.

Availabilty is as noted another consideration.

Another consideration is shipping. famous does not allow combination of auction and retail orders and although they have a good shipping rate, it very much changes the price perspective.

If the bidder already had any items coming from the auction, he or she was already paying the shipping freight.

To order the cigars retail from famous adds 5.95 to the price - it costs $28, not $21.95 to get a 5-pack of these cigars. Last time I checked, $25 was less than $28 (keeping in mind the idea that the buyer had already incurred a shipping charge). Nor is $30 that much more than $28.