I have
Points:141,640
But I have no clue wth to do w/ them. So you bid on stuff? why cant you just redeem them for something?
Because, in theory, those 141,640 points are worth $1,416.40; but they don't want you to be able to get that much value out of them. That is to say, they don't want this rewards program to cost them that much (or near that much). So they don't want you to be able to just redeem them at that exchange rate (i.e. 100 points for $1 worth of stuff). With auctions, since the points are basically free to use - if you don't use them they aren't of any value, the bids (in points) can go pretty high. What do people have to lose? They aren't actually spending money. A $25 item might go for 60,000 points instead of 2,500 points.
And for the non-auction stuff, stuff that has a set price, you typically can't use all points to buy it. For example, a pair of sunglasses that normally costs $200 might be offered for $100 and 10,000 points. The 10,000 points is paying the other $100. If you want those sunglasses in particular and you can't find them discounted elsewhere - then great, you've saved yourself some money. But it isn't really worth buying them just because they're cheaper now. And from Verizon's perspective, those sunglasses aren't costing them $200 - they probably aren't losing any money on the deal.
Then you have the gift cards. For most of them you can buy down the face value of the gift card by 10%. So, a $100 gift card costs you $90 (and postage if it's being mailed to you) and 1,000 points. They offer gifts cards from quite a few stores and restaurants, and once you've bought the gift card it's pretty much as good as cash. So that part of the program might make sense if they offer gift cards from stores you shop at or restaurants you eat at anyway. (Oh, and Verizon probably isn't being charged $100 for that gift card, they likely have a deal so that it doesn't end up costing them much, if anything.)
What a stupid program but yet addictive. 
I had to wear that dude down though! 
