Looking to join maybe two online auction houses for wine. So i was hoping for recs or the " no no no, not that one, good god, anywhere else." Advice.
Im in illinois. So klwines does not work. But i have looked at hart davis and wine commune. List anynpro and cons to recs please. Like they add 15% fee to closing bid or shipping is low or reasonable.
Im not looking for those really rare and expensive wines. Standard wine in the ranges of up to several hundred dollars .
Thanks.
The Chicago Wine Company TCWC has auctions and they do not charge a buyers premium. I have bid there and one some wines.
Only one person here has a thought about online wine auctions?
I’ve had good luck with Heritage.
Not sure why you discount K&L. I am in Colorado and have used them for auctions with great success. Wouldn’t hesitate to use them again.
Someone go buy my Auteur Shea Pinots from K&L. 13.5% alcohol and our own Doug Wilder gave it 100 pts 
I have too many and want to buy more Italian wines
I would avoid Spectrum.
What about Winebid? Can be a little expensive on the buyers fees but just bear in mind when bidding.
Klwines can’t deliver to Illinois for some reason.
HDH Wines
I’ve had pleasant experiences with HDH as well as Winebid. As far as the latter goes, one really needs to be cautious about reading and understanding their provenance descriptions for each wine; quite a few on this board swore them off earlier this year over a specific provenance issue. That said, I usually use Winebid to nab the cheaper, older bottles from producers that have fallen off the hype radar.
I’ve had good luck with www.brentwoodwine.com - Haven’t bought anything recently, and I notice the prices are going up, as is the case everywhere, but the older bottles I bought through them have ALL been excellent.
The different sites are stronger or weaker depending on what kinds of wines you intend to buy and in what quantities. For low to mid priced wines and single bottle type purchases, winebid is great.
I used it for many years with almost total satisfaction – the only negative was that there were too many great buys, and I finally had to shut it off because I was spending too much and accumulating too many bottles.
I too am in chicago. HDH is tops for retail too. I also like winebid. TCWC, as mentioned is another great choice. I am content with those 3 but don’t forget our commerce corner too. I have had just as many bad experiences on winecommune as I have had that were good. YMMV.
I had good luck with acker, but that was before I read the Rudy thread. I’ll be damned if they see another penny of mine, but if you don’t care about that stuff, go for it.
Acker sucks, easily my worst online auction site in terms of provenance and screw ups. With a little caution, WineBid is the best for deals.
HDH
alan
+1 on TCWC and Winebid. Even though Winebid charges a buyers premium, they have a distribution center in Elmhurst (about 20 miles west of Chicago), so they don’t charge shipping if you pick up there.
HDH without a doubt. Been a client since I started buying, and I’ve never been disappointed.
I like HA and Winebid. Although I am watching the Spectrum Live right now.