Just got the email today. No sellers premium for now
“ After a year of planning, I’m excited to announce that Leon & Son is the newest home for wine auctions. We’re calling it New York Wine Auctions, and it’s different from what’s already out there in a lot of ways.
We built this platform to be explored the way you’d shop with any great retailer, at any budget. If you want to buy a single bottle, you can. This isn’t only about lots or whole cellars—finding a gem is possible for every curious customer.
That said, retail is (and will remain!) our core business at Leon & Son. That means we can be highly selective about what makes it onto the auction platform, and in the process keep costs down. In a landscape of soaring fees, every step of buying and selling with us will be meaningfully less expensive than traditional auctions. To launch, there are no seller fees, and buyer fees are an industry low.
It’s called New York Wine Auctions because I’m proud that this is an extension of our Brooklyn store. Traditional New York-based auction houses have expanded to Hong Kong, Paris, Tokyo and beyond—but we’re here, working from Fulton Street. Win a bid and live nearby? Picking up is as simple as selecting in-store pickup at checkout.
We’re bringing wine auctions to a place where more people can participate. Everyone is invited to explore the world’s best wines.
I took a look before their first batch closed yesterday and frankly the setup is so confusing I was deterred from bidding on anything. Unclear how the process is supposed to work for multiple bottle lots, and lots show one price in the listing and then another when you click to view. Not that prices were that attractive to begin with.
Lots are multiple bottles, but a bidder can choose how many to bid on, and that then sets the price for all the bottles in the lot.
So if someone bids on 1 bottle, that drives up the price for the other 11. If the remaining bottles don’t sell at that price, they’ll be re-listed in a future auction cycle.