Show us your whisky! Vol 2

[eein]

Pflanzgarten said:

eein said:

Both https://whiskyauctioneer.com/ and https://www.scotchwhiskyauctions.com/ are the primary auction players and highly reputable. I've used both extensively for both buying and selling at drinker and investor level, and have visited both physically and talked to owners and staff.

I'd avoid all other auction platforms - some are dodgy and some just don't get the traffic to get good prices on selling. Same issues with too many upstart auction websites as with the above discussed cask investment upstarts.

Why oh why, do they always stiff you a fiver to bid on auctions before you start? Surely if you register a card you have to pay their fees regardless?

Unfortunately as much as there are many unscrupulous whisky auction sites, there's even more unscrupulous people willing to try and mess about with the auctions. The whisky auction sites are just not big enough to use verification methods like ebay can (although I recall my original ebay registration required two charges of under £1 which were not refunded).

[NRS]

eein said:

Pflanzgarten said:

eein said:

Both https://whiskyauctioneer.com/ and https://www.scotchwhiskyauctions.com/ are the primary auction players and highly reputable. I've used both extensively for both buying and selling at drinker and investor level, and have visited both physically and talked to owners and staff.

I'd avoid all other auction platforms - some are dodgy and some just don't get the traffic to get good prices on selling. Same issues with too many upstart auction websites as with the above discussed cask investment upstarts.

Why oh why, do they always stiff you a fiver to bid on auctions before you start? Surely if you register a card you have to pay their fees regardless?

Unfortunately as much as there are many unscrupulous whisky auction sites, there's even more unscrupulous people willing to try and mess about with the auctions. The whisky auction sites are just not big enough to use verification methods like ebay can (although I recall my original ebay registration required two charges of under £1 which were not refunded).

Yes, it’s supposed to stop people making a second account and shill bidding on their own bottles. In reality I'm not sure it has much impact, £5 is just one bidding increment for many bottles, so unless you’re only selling a bottle or two then the type to ‘cheat’ will do it anyway. Or get a friend to help out.

eein said:

Both https://whiskyauctioneer.com/ and https://www.scotchwhiskyauctions.com/ are the primary auction players and highly reputable. I've used both extensively for both buying and selling at drinker and investor level, and have visited both physically and talked to owners and staff.

I'd avoid all other auction platforms - some are dodgy and some just don't get the traffic to get good prices on selling. Same issues with too many upstart auction websites as with the above discussed cask investment upstarts.

I’d agree with this, they also have the best range of bottles per auction. I have had a few small issues with WA so would slightly prefer SWA but it might just be luck which way round it was. I do use some of the small auctions as you can sometimes get a bargain, but often they are full of reserve prices. There’s actually some people who trawl the small auctions for bargains to resell at a bigger one after and make money on the difference.

Just be careful with the fees, they can add up a bit. Typically 10-12.5% for buying, a little bit of VAT and then postage is often around £10 (good to buy a few bottles and share postage). These days are good for many cheaper drinkers, some you can get close to 50% off rrp before fees etc.

Eein, thanks for the mention of the whisky broker post, I had seen the original but didn’t check the comments so will do that.

[Pflanzgarten]

I missed the only U.K. bottle on whisky auctioneer last night as every time I went to log on the website crashed. Not a great start.

[eein]

NRS said:

eein said:

Pflanzgarten said:

eein said:

Both https://whiskyauctioneer.com/ and https://www.scotchwhiskyauctions.com/ are the primary auction players and highly reputable. I've used both extensively for both buying and selling at drinker and investor level, and have visited both physically and talked to owners and staff.

I'd avoid all other auction platforms - some are dodgy and some just don't get the traffic to get good prices on selling. Same issues with too many upstart auction websites as with the above discussed cask investment upstarts.

Why oh why, do they always stiff you a fiver to bid on auctions before you start? Surely if you register a card you have to pay their fees regardless?

Unfortunately as much as there are many unscrupulous whisky auction sites, there's even more unscrupulous people willing to try and mess about with the auctions. The whisky auction sites are just not big enough to use verification methods like ebay can (although I recall my original ebay registration required two charges of under £1 which were not refunded).

Yes, it’s supposed to stop people making a second account and shill bidding on their own bottles. In reality I'm not sure it has much impact, £5 is just one bidding increment for many bottles, so unless you’re only selling a bottle or two then the type to ‘cheat’ will do it anyway. Or get a friend to help out.

The £5 registration is going after people who would otherwise register, place silly bids and then not pay. For bidding on friends lots to drive them up, they monitor activity and its usually fairly obvious if one account mostly bids on one other seller and never wins.

NRS said:

eein said:

Both https://whiskyauctioneer.com/ and https://www.scotchwhiskyauctions.com/ are the primary auction players and highly reputable. I've used both extensively for both buying and selling at drinker and investor level, and have visited both physically and talked to owners and staff.

I'd avoid all other auction platforms - some are dodgy and some just don't get the traffic to get good prices on selling. Same issues with too many upstart auction websites as with the above discussed cask investment upstarts.

I’d agree with this, they also have the best range of bottles per auction. I have had a few small issues with WA so would slightly prefer SWA but it might just be luck which way round it was. I do use some of the small auctions as you can sometimes get a bargain, but often they are full of reserve prices. There’s actually some people who trawl the small auctions for bargains to resell at a bigger one after and make money on the difference.

Just be careful with the fees, they can add up a bit. Typically 10-12.5% for buying, a little bit of VAT and then postage is often around £10 (good to buy a few bottles and share postage). These days are good for many cheaper drinkers, some you can get close to 50% off rrp before fees etc.

Eein, thanks for the mention of the whisky broker post, I had seen the original but didn’t check the comments so will do that.

I also prefer SWA, and particularly enjoyed chats with the owner when they do bottle pick ups - he tends to go on the pickup runs around the UK, I suspect just to meet and chat to whisky people! Decent guy and gives you reassurance of being a genuine enthusiast business. Of course with SWA the selling commission being only £5 per bottle and not a %-age means I always sell with them, especially for >£1k bottles where the 4% selling charge at WA outweighs the slightly higher average hammer price.

Pflanzgarten said:

I missed the only U.K. bottle on whisky auctioneer last night as every time I went to log on the website crashed. Not a great start.

I think their Blair Castle auction was causing more traffic than their site could handle. I was bidding on them but gave up due to the website performance.

[LeighW]

NRS said:

These days are good for many cheaper drinkers, some you can get close to 50% off rrp before fees etc.

Yup, I picked up a couple of bottles in last night's WA auction, including an Abunadh for £47. Nice Christmas drinker sorted!

[jammy-git]

LeighW said:

NRS said:

These days are good for many cheaper drinkers, some you can get close to 50% off rrp before fees etc.

Yup, I picked up a couple of bottles in last night's WA auction, including an Abunadh for £47. Nice Christmas drinker sorted!

I remember when you could buy it for that in Waitrose!

[eein]

jammy-git said:

LeighW said:

NRS said:

These days are good for many cheaper drinkers, some you can get close to 50% off rrp before fees etc.

Yup, I picked up a couple of bottles in last night's WA auction, including an Abunadh for £47. Nice Christmas drinker sorted!

I remember when you could buy it for that in Waitrose!

Drinkers from auctions used to be almost anything non-collectable was cheaper. I've found in recent years that only some brands are still cheap drinkers in auctions and not others.

A couple of years ago I got 5x bottles of Glendronach 18 on a deal on Amazon and immediately flipped 4 in to the auctions to make enough across them to pay for the 5th that I drank. Don't know why people were paying (at that time) £150 including fees and shipping for a bottle that was £100 on amazon.

One brand I buy quite a few drinkers on auctions is Wolfburn. They have some excellent releases, but maybe a bit too many 'special' releases that makes it confusing for consumers. Their 1821 release is awesome and I am always the buyer of it if it's £55 or less, and similarly the Ukraine bottling they did. Their recent Klyver 12 I put a picture up here recently of is also well worth it, although in auctions it's hovering around RRP.

The best way to get the edge on drinkers is to avoid the shipping by collecting at SWA in Glasgow or WA in Perth. If you don't know anyone in those areas to collect them for you, then align your bidding to the month before you do a 'NC500/NE250' trip and grab them on the way!

[LeighW]

jammy-git said:

I remember when you could buy it for that in Waitrose!

Yup, before Aberlour hiked the price to £80.

[NRS]

Pflanzgarten said:

I missed the only U.K. bottle on whisky auctioneer last night as every time I went to log on the website crashed. Not a great start.

Sorry about that. It was a bit of a mess. Someone said they’d moved their servers and it clearly didn’t work. There was quite a few bargains I think as some gave up. I got outbid on the Ardmore 1987 just before it closed around 12:30 annoyingly after I had gone to bed. Or maybe a lot of the prices were a lack of money coming up to Christmas.

[LeighW]

NRS said:

Sorry about that. It was a bit of a mess. Someone said they’d moved their servers and it clearly didn’t work. There was quite a few bargains I think as some gave up. I got outbid on the Ardmore 1987 just before it closed around 12:30 annoyingly after I had gone to bed. Or maybe a lot of the prices were a lack of money coming up to Christmas.

I stuck my bids on in the afternoon and left it. I was surprised I wasn't outbid, maybe that explains it!

[Sheets Tabuer]

Drink Highland park last night which was lovely so the first two whiskies I've tried laugavulin and this were both superb.

[Gribs]

C70R said:

I can only assume that, having been and met the owners, it's a gamble that he's hoping will pay off. I paid not a million miles away from his cost per litre for my casks at very well-established distilleries.

Where is yours held, out of interest?

It's at Whisky Broker along with casks of quite a few other people on here. They seem very sensible with their storage costs and cask prices when they're selling.

[clarkmagpie]

Ad Gefrin Tacnbora

Has anyone tried the Northumberland whisky?

Thanks

[NRS]

Pflanzgarten said:

I missed the only U.K. bottle on whisky auctioneer last night as every time I went to log on the website crashed. Not a great start.

If you see this in time there is another one of the series here for £150:

https://nickollsandperks.com/p/secret-speyside-m-1...

[Pflanzgarten]

NRS said:

Pflanzgarten said:

I missed the only U.K. bottle on whisky auctioneer last night as every time I went to log on the website crashed. Not a great start.

If you see this in time there is another one of the series here for £150:

https://nickollsandperks.com/p/secret-speyside-m-1...

Missed this! Who are this lot and are all the bottles labled up like the website shows with generic packaging?

[NRS]

Pflanzgarten said:

Missed this! Who are this lot and are all the bottles labled up like the website shows with generic packaging?

I think they are originally a wine shop but do spirits too. They’re an old company, I’ve bought from them before once or twice. The picture seems to be a generic image when they don’t have a photo, it’d look like all the other Signatory versions I assume.

[Hoofy]

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/302...

Note the Clubcard price. Bought a bottle today. Resisted buying two.

[Pflanzgarten]

Quite often available on Amazon for even less. It’s fairly average stuff.

[jammy-git]

Is it NAS?

[S6PNJ]

Pflanzgarten said:

Quite often available on Amazon for even less. It’s fairly average stuff.

Well, you could save 50p, possibly £1.50 but that was a while ago.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bunnahabhain-Stiureadair-...