Sorry if this seems obvious but in case it isn’t to someone reading the topic, regardless of whether shipping costs are deducted from proceeds or if it ends up being part of your other fees, the auction company (or at least some entity who can ship) must be the one who creates the labels and is the shipper of record. It’s illegal for most of us to ship wine, and as a result you would not be covered by insurance if something happened. (I would also want some assurance that the shipment is covered at and at what value relative to the estimate.) I’ve usually used my own boxes as most collectors have plenty of those around, but have asked a store here to sell me new boxes once or twice.
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Winebid brought boxes to my house, and gave them to me to keep when we used my boxes instead; had I known they were going to bring boxes I would have used theirs because I shipped a lot of wine in nice lay flat domaine boxes and the boxes they brought were upright 12 bottle white cardboard boxes.
Did Winebid transport in their own truck as well? The Domaine boxes aren’t strong enough for Fedex and UPS, i.e. not double-walled and without strong inserts or styro. My consigments were small enough that they just emailed me 2-day labels, and long enough ago that they likely do things differently now.
Yes, they brought a refrigerated truck to my house. It was a lot of wine they picked up, like 1000 bottles. I’m sure they palletized it.
Acker doesn’t charge sellers’ commissions…
Yeah they also don’t take a lot of the wine I sold with Winebid; there was a large amount of low dollar bottles which almost all sold.
I’ve got an update and more info on my specific experience-
Nicole (based out of Chicago for Winebid) was handling my inquiry. She and I chatted on the phone and she’s great. I’m in MN so not close to a Winebid facility. Unsurprisingly, a lot of factors go into determining the “shipping fees.” Like @Stan_Y mentioned the shipping/transport of wine is highly regulated.
Nicole asked a lot of questions about my specific situation. I’m thinning out our cellar, selling 3-400 bottles estimated to land in the $50-100K range. Winebid can tailor your wine pickup to whatever you need. The more they do, the more it costs; the less they have to do the more they can work with you on the expense. Would I be onsite? What was I willing to do? Do they have to send a team of movers to your house and your off-site storage, spend hours sorting and packaging your wine? Or is it more straightforward? Do the movers have to go up/down a flight of steps?
We discussed and decided that Winebid would send me the packaging, I would pack up the wine, I will be on-site to help bring wine to the truck. This allows Winebid to send a single employee to my house and pickup the wine pretty efficiently. Rob, who works throughout the midwest for Winebid plans to be in MN with a truck in the next month, so we’re coordinating for that.
As of now it appears the only extra shipping costs for me will be shipping the packing supplies to me (approximately $150-200). I’m sure this part will be different for everyone, but I’m glad I called to work through it with Winebid.
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My rep randomly emailed me and said the truck is coming by next weekend. No charge for pickup. $2500 minimum. Tempted to ship off a few more cases tbh.
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