While I love the classic “He killed his parents then asked the court for mercy because he was an orphan”, I am REALLY getting fed up with people who think it is fine to ask us to PAY fairly serious money (typically $200-500) for the privilege of GIVING away our inventory.
Rant over…
The nerve of some people.
If it assuages you at all, I’d be willing to take your inventory for free so long as you pay for shipping. 
Care to be more specific? I know I have never asked you this. But only because I didn’t think you’d go for it.
In this case we were asked by one of the local chambers to pour at a “wine tasting mixer” (of which there are 50 a week in LA) and asked to pay $350 for the privilege. The attendees are paying $40 head to get in so why should we pay to give away wine? It’s not like the Chamber of Commerce is a charity.
Because your wine has no fruit and is hard to drink? ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
Which must be why a guy drove here yesterday from Santa Barbara to get three mixed cases of “Something that tastes like WINE instead of all that fruit syrup growing all around me…”
Maybe the Chamber of Commerce was offering you an advertising opportunity since you only sold 3 cases of wine yesterday.
Just kidding! I keeed, I keeed!
Low hanging fruit, couldn’t resist the jab lol
Maybe… just maybe… there are some less successful wine shops in LA that would consider that an advertising opportunity? I agree that the fee just to participate is a bit much, given the cost of the wine on top of it, but the people who solicit for participants in such events aren’t usually going to understand that. They tend to think that everyone who runs a business makes money and that everyone’s profit allows for such expenses.
Then there’s the “If we ask him, the worst he can do is post a rant on wineberserkers” possibility.
The real context here is that we ALREADY have such opportunities seven days a week, 365 days a year WITHOUT paying for the right to give away wine. It’s a market and I don’t see why anyone would pay when you can do all the charity pours you want.
So Roberto, although this is in the wine pimps section, you’re the one being pimped, no?
They tried…