Here's an example backfire. I tried to upvote this post right away but there was a delay from @smartsteem for like 20 minutes. Now vote sellers will receive the curation from this post. BOO! Clearly, it's a much safer play to not be greedy and simply support your followers instead of yourself. Obviously if you are constantly pumping up your organic votes with artificial curation they'll appreciate that and have more incentive to upvote you.

Upvoted for 7 SBD. Received 7.928... wow so I think I got screwed over twice. Hm... never mind SmartSteem is just bugged. I'm 90% sure I paid for @alexis555's vote but it's not appearing...