I would like to thank everyone who helped ensure that I only won one lot of 5 bottles. For a while I was looking at over two cases worth.
Got a couple bottles of Dujac Charmes and some other things at a good price.
Got 3 bottles, which I’m quite happy with 
Oh well… correction. I had thought I had won one lot I quite wanted… but I didn’t… I clearly bungled it on the app (where I thought I bid X, but I guess I bid X - $50)… I had some guilt paying that much too… all sorts of mixed feelings here! On the positive side, the money I saved on missed lot has already been spent… 
looks like I got 2 lots from the front end and 2 from the back
I believe first time I had a Giscours was at your house Mark
We purchased a few lots as well. Hope you are happy with the results, Mark!
It was tough, I was expecting a little more. Not a great week for wine auctions, sale at the other houses were also little lackluster. But pretty well all sold, except for some reason the older wines did not. So happy to bring them home. And thank you all for bidding.
Mark - I bid on a bottle of California wine thinking it was yours until I saw your lot numbers above. Maybe I just have not looked in a long time but the California wines, particular, some of the cult stuff which I did not think many people wanted seemed strong based on a quick glance.
I think more and more people want Cali wines.
I walked into Total Wines shop yesterday for first time. I saw 2 very small shalves of Red Burg, bigger selections of BDX but huge selections of Cali wines.
There is no real wine people at Total wine. Their main business model is buy direct and maximize profit. Cali wines always have been very popular for the casual wine drinker. I got the catalog but totally missed the auction. The market is really soft.
Mark, I looked at the list of unsold wines and saw a lot of older wines. I was hesitant to buy because of stated condition. I am very conservative and look for old wines with fills in the base neck. Also, I did not see any photos. Maybe I just did not look in the right place. I found the website very confusing.
No photos.
I too found the website very confusing. It wasnt user friendly for me.
I’m a regular Heritage customer - not just for wine - and I don’t find the site any more difficult to navigate than any other auction site. For the wine auctions, I do find it puzzling that they don’t post photos. I expect that’s a dealbreaker for many potential bidders.
FWIW I didn’t bid on this auction.
Prior to an auction, I have emailed to request photos for wines from the 70s, and they have supplied them in advance.
Heritage has been good at accurately detailing condition, and I have opted to buying items more recently released, so I don’t ask anymore. But, that’s what I would do if I were bidding on an old wine.
For the items I was interested, they supplied great photos for all the items within a day or so.
How profitable are these auction houses? Presumably they pay for shipping to their auction center and inspect wines. They then guarantee a low selling price and take a vig off the seller. And then charge 20% from the buyer, can charge expensive shipping (at times) and now have to charge tax. They do not have auctions every day, so have fixed costs over the year, which I imagine is problematic (absorbing the overhead). No axe to grind here… just wondering… I always thought StubHub would see more competition given the fees they charge, and these auction houses do have competition (so many auction houses vs. just one stub hub) yet fees haven’t come down.
there are numerous ticket sites competing with stubhub. Stubhub just has highest market share
Not sure what your point of contention is, as you agree Stubhub is a dominant player in ticket sales (unless you are arguing with the literal point that there are many other ways one can buy a concert ticket?)
I don’t think posting photos is the norm. I also don’t think it matters to most people otherwise auction houses would not be doing so hot as most don’t put up photos