Best Wine Consignors and Auction Houses

[Gus_Siokis]

I used HDH to auction two 10 year verticals of Scarecrow and Schrader. They were great to work with and really can’t say enough good things about them. I also looked at WineBid…became very pushy after I told them I was also talking to HDH. That said, I would probably never do business with them outside of just purchasing.

[Mark_Golodetz]

I think it really depends on the type of wines you are looking to sell. If it’s nothing but Grand Cru Burgundies, then I would probably go with Hart Davis, if I am a Bordeaux chateau looking to sell excess inventory, Sotheby’s seems like a good choice. I personally would avoid Acker, but Zachys would in the mix.

I am selling part of my collection, and chose Heritage, who I find are incredibly easy to work with, and with a largish collection, with a ton of one to four bottle lots are making sure that they are devoting enough time to do the lotting etc. nice people too.

Curious on the comment of avoiding Acker. Is that due to the Rudy issue?

No, I had my own issues with Kapon. But consistent with his reputation.

[Mark_Golodetz]

I considered sending a shipment to Winebid recently. They quoted me prices below what last transactions were (I know because I had bought one), and then insulted the quality of the wine collection saying there were no blue chips and I should be happy to get what I can. And then when I said I would go elsewhere, they implied they would threaten me with legal action because I was legally obliged to go through a middleman such as them. It was mind boggling. I know others have had positive experiences, but this experience was comically offensive.

I had this exact experience the last time I offered some wine to their east coast rep. Truly obnoxious. I don’t do business with them anymore (buying or selling)

Sounds like this is a pattern. I had the exact same experience last fall and my collection had a decent amount of desirable bottles. I ignored his extremely unprofessional response, considered forwarding his note to the senior management of Winebid, but ultimately did not and went someplace else. That’s the last time I try to sell anything on Winebid. I’m still tempted to forward that note, however…

Sounds consistent with the customer friendly attitude they showed me.

Apart from anything else, the people I talked to were not very bright. I stopped doing business with them after they charged me storage fees for the winter months. 50 cents a bottle a month isn’t going to break me, although $6 a case per month is exorbitant. But if they are that dumb that they think it is ok to ship wines in Winter, not sure if I could trust them to know and inspect the wines.

[DanielP]

I had this exact experience the last time I offered some wine to their east coast rep. Truly obnoxious. I don’t do business with them anymore (buying or selling)

Sounds like this is a pattern. I had the exact same experience last fall and my collection had a decent amount of desirable bottles. I ignored his extremely unprofessional response, considered forwarding his note to the senior management of Winebid, but ultimately did not and went someplace else. That’s the last time I try to sell anything on Winebid. I’m still tempted to forward that note, however…

Sounds consistent with the customer friendly attitude they showed me.

Apart from anything else, the people I talked to were not very bright. I stopped doing business with them after they charged me storage fees for the winter months. 50 cents a bottle a month isn’t going to break me, although $6 a case per month is exorbitant. But if they are that dumb that they think it is ok to ship wines in Winter, not sure if I could trust them to know and inspect the wines.

AFAIK, their storage policy is fairly transparent - 6 months free after purchase, and then $.50/month/bottle

[Nick_Gangas]

I’ve used both HDH and Flickinger with outstanding results.

[Joe_G_a_l_e_w_s_k_i]

I considered sending a shipment to Winebid recently. They quoted me prices below what last transactions were (I know because I had bought one), and then insulted the quality of the wine collection saying there were no blue chips and I should be happy to get what I can. And then when I said I would go elsewhere, they implied they would threaten me with legal action because I was legally obliged to go through a middleman such as them. It was mind boggling. I know others have had positive experiences, but this experience was comically offensive.

Wow, I didn’t have that much of a problem with Winebid. But when I told them I would not be using their services because I had received multiple offers that were higher than theirs, they explained WHY their offer was completely correct and suggested that I reconsider their offer. Umm, I have multiple higher offers, what is there to reconsider? And their offer was the only one that was contingent on the auction result. To me, it was slightly comedic.

I would like to mention that Cellaraiders and Benchmark are good options too. For both buying and selling. I have both bought and sold from Cellaraiders and Benchmark, and it’s basically a question of price. You may find high or low prices while buying/selling from them, but they can both be competitive on any given day.

[Mark_Golodetz]

Sounds like this is a pattern. I had the exact same experience last fall and my collection had a decent amount of desirable bottles. I ignored his extremely unprofessional response, considered forwarding his note to the senior management of Winebid, but ultimately did not and went someplace else. That’s the last time I try to sell anything on Winebid. I’m still tempted to forward that note, however…

Sounds consistent with the customer friendly attitude they showed me.

Apart from anything else, the people I talked to were not very bright. I stopped doing business with them after they charged me storage fees for the winter months. 50 cents a bottle a month isn’t going to break me, although $6 a case per month is exorbitant. But if they are that dumb that they think it is ok to ship wines in Winter, not sure if I could trust them to know and inspect the wines.

AFAIK, their storage policy is fairly transparent - 6 months free after purchase, and then $.50/month/bottle

Never read the terms and conditions, and of course, you are right. I had actually forgotten about the wines, so when the six months finished in December, they charged my card. No suggestion it might be a good idea to ship.

On paper they are right and legal and whatever else they want to be. But dumb. They did get their $3, they lost a customer, whose annual commissions would be a serious multiple of that.

[David_Kubiak]

I do business in Chicago, so it’s interesting to compare Flickinger and HDH. No nicer or more frank and honest guy than Pete at F., and you end up financially coming out best with them. But part of the reason for that is that their overhead is low. The managing partners and staff at HDH are equally a great pleasure to know and work with, and they have done me many favors of various sorts over the years when they didn’t have to. But they operate with a luxury international profile, which can be great if you are in the mood to be wined, dined, and graciously pampered. But I don’t think anyone would claim you are going to come away best financially with them. I plan to go up for their two day Burgundy sale in a couple of weeks, have a great time, and not take a single lot. (If you’re selling a $5,000,000 collection you’re probably going to be the happy one.)