Found a thread on the CBID forums that said CBID will be pulling all General/CAO cigars for the time being.  Here are some quotes:

"The purpose of this email is to inform you of a situation with one of the lots you were winning. Due to a change in pricing structure, General Cigar / CAO directed us to immediately remove their products from our website."

"This is being worked out as we speak. CAO and General products were pulled while we work it out. With regards to RP product, RP has made a movement to increase in sales in the brick and mortar market, thus hurting the catalog / web business. We can no longer promote the products in the same ways that made them succesful in the first place."

http://www.cigarbid.com/Forum/c/posts/604087/CAO-products-pulled

Wow! That's a big change.

Hmm . . . I just clicked on CBid, plugged in 'CAO', and came up with lots of active CAO auctions.  However, I was not able to find a Punch auction.  

BTW - the more I read about Rocky, the more I don't want to give him any business.  It seems like many people's experience meeting him was like my own.  He seems completely arrogant when you meet him in person, and unlike most reps/owners, he seems like he doesn't want to give the average consumer his time of day...

QuoteBrlesq - 3/14/2011  12:55 PM

Hmm . . . I just clicked on CBid, plugged in 'CAO', and came up with lots of active CAO auctions.  However, I was not able to find a Punch auction.  

Were they CAO Blacks?  Those didn't change since it is a CI exclusive.

No CAOs on C-Bid?



 

QuoteBob Cordell - 3/14/2011  9:56 AM

No CAOs on C-Bid?



 

Ditto!

Since I have what I consider a good supply of cigars (between 200-250), I have not been very active online or on the auction sites lately.  In the last 6 months I have been buying more at the B&M and less online.  I do this to support the lounge as well as to try singles without commiting to a 5 pack.  Though I spend more money at the B&M, it is those online purchases where I can more bang for the buck when I need to reload.  So while this doesn't affect me now, I know that down the road when I'm looking for a specific stick I'll be annoyed when I can't find it for a decent price online, when in the past I could.

Interesting.  I'd noticed that there were a LOT of CAOs on closeout (Holts, Atlantic, etc.) and wondered what was up.  Must be trying to unload existing inventory before new pricing structure goes into effect.

No more CAO's ??? must be a dispute on price increases or something.

When new "models" of cigars come out a manufacturer has the opportunity to list them for whatever price they want...... but take existing models and raise the prices, that's how the fight start.

I'm a fan of them  

Makes me glad I loaded up on CAO's at the Holts sale and I loaded up on RP Vintage 92's at the RMR going out of business sales....

Fortunately there are a ton of cigar labels out there that aren't affected.  I will miss the opportunity to get the CAO Brazil or Gold at a good price and I'm not personally going to miss many of the RP's out there.  However, there are other fish in the sea....

Well, it'll be interesting to see how price increases work out for them in a down economy, seems kinda crazy to me if that's what is going on with CAO  

Personally I like the idea of Xikar cigars...lower prices in a down economy...sounds like a win-win

 

Next we will probably see reserve price auctions!

 

Just a note - from the sounds of it, this won't be permanent.  They are just pulling products until the negotiations come to a conclusion.

Quotejharrisx5 - 3/14/2011  1:50 PM

Next we will probably see reserve price auctions!

 

They've been doing that at CigarAuctioneer for a long time now.

I didn't know that...actually I'm not sure I've been to Cigar Auctioneer..

I guess I'm a deal snob...If I don't get it for a great deal then I'm too good for it  

I don't remember which auction site I had visited once before, but I remember that the cigars seemed to sell way to close to retail for my tastes

I'm glad I have stocked up like I did (mostly in 2009, but a decent amount in late 2010, too)... the auctions aren't as good as they used to be and the deals used to come at us so far and in such great quantity that I found it hard not to want to buy something every week (or more).

It's interesting that they pulled those from the auctions.  However, I did notice that the normal online and in-store prices have come down a decent amount on CAO's (especially the La Traviata which is my favorite).  Not sure what the deal is but it may just be to limit super low prices on auction sites.

Quotenwb - 3/14/2011  11:55 AM

BTW - the more I read about Rocky, the more I don't want to give him any business.  It seems like many people's experience meeting him was like my own.  He seems completely arrogant when you meet him in person, and unlike most reps/owners, he seems like he doesn't want to give the average consumer his time of day...

Sounds just like my experience with Rocky. I have heard some not so nice things about him in general that would make anyone think twice about him.

Sounds like some of these manufacturers are trying to establish pricing agreements to make the B&M owner's a little happier.

Sound like there'll be some wrangling for a while to come...

Disappointing.    Sounds like they just want to make sure they keep the prices at the level they want them at.  

Well that sucks. Those are the two main brands i bought off cbid.  

Bummer!.

Ahh see I knew I wasn't going crazy!

For awhile I was looking on C-Bid for LGC's and or CAO's and nothing was turning up; now I know why!

That is a real bummer though!