I’m thinking of pruning my cellar a bit. What are some reliable sites for checking out what things are worth?
DoctorJay
If you donate to Celler Tracker, you’ll get access to recent Wine Market Journal prices for wines (or subscribe to WMJ and get more historical data as well). This seems to track the market quite well (not surprisingly, given that’s their intent). I haven’t found other sources to be as reliable/accurate.
Wine searcher gives you what people are asking for wines. Sometimes inconsistent on including or excluding sales tax, so often worth clicking through to be sure. Probably worth paying for the pro version if you have a large number of wines to sell.
Wmj on ct doesn’t take the full current value. I think it’s behind by a quarter and then averages the whole year from there. So your value maybe higher if you have some blue chips
I would just sign up for WMJ. It’s very inexpensive
I don’t think that’s correct. I believe the CT WMJ data shows you the last auction value in a series of auction values (it might be delayed, not sure), not an average. If you click on the auction value, it’ll show you the series of auction values, not a full list of course (you either click on the auction value, or on something next to it…one gives a pop up with the auction value series, the other brings you to the WMJ page…I always forget which is which). Whether you get the most recent or delayed data I’m not sure (wouldn’t be surprised if it’s delayed tho), but pretty certain you’re not seeing an average.
I wouldn’t argue against subscribing to WMJ tho. Most folks that are likely to will be on CT, so it’s an easy way to look/play with the, or some, data and see if it’s of further interest.
To clarify further about Wine Searcher (which, with Cellar Tracker and this board, is among the most useful tools I have as a wine buyer). It’s important to distinguish between:
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Auction sites, which often list their starting bid as the price that shows up in WS. So this quite often represents an artificially low price. When the auction closes, the final bid (usually higher, sometimes a lot higher) plus vig is the actual sale price.
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Retail sites, which list the actual price they are trying to sell wine for.
As a rough guide, (Retail - 25%) is a pretty typical auction price. Except for when it isn’t.
It definitely shows an average. I asked the question on the CT forum before
Interesting. Then what are the series of auction values that it shows if you click on the link?
The values that go into the average?