Tell me about winebid.com

WINE TALK
1

As the title suggests, tell me anything you’d like about the wine auction site “winebid.com”. This could be personal stories, buying, selling, etc. Thanks!

2

Buyer beware, as with any auction house. I’ve generally had good luck, but had some bad bottles which were not properly described. You’ll notice everything is from a “temp and humid controlled cellar” or something to that effect. Yeah, right.

Know your prices and factor in buyers premium, tax, and shipping costs first. Otherwise you may way overspend on a bottle.

Do your homework and if it looks too good to be true, probably is.

3

If you drink and bid on burgundies, I can tell you this:

Bidding on these wines can give you cancer and weight gain and flatulence.

If you drink and bid on other types of wine:

Its a good place to find older mid-ranged wines are reasonable price. Highly recommended. Ive heard some horror stories with customer service (of course we only heard one side of the story) but they have been great to me.

4

I’ve had good dealings with the customer service aspect and haven’t had any bad bottles from them out of maybe 2 cases purchased. Then again, it isn’t a site I visit expecting to save a bunch of money…

5

I haven’t had a bad bottle in a few years of buying. It’s a good way to get access to a pretty wide range of wines and back vintage, which sometimes makes the premium plus shipping worth it. Screaming bargains are rare.

6

I’ve bought hundreds of bottles from Winebid. I’ve been happy with the vast majority. But I think there is a (modest) greater risk of poor storage versus a serious B&M house. I discount my bid (after figuring all in cost) accordingly. I don’t generally bid on bottles that go to upper level of my comfort zone pricewise on WB. I also try not to bring WB bottles (if not from a multiple bottle lot I’ve already tried ) to serious tastings that are structured (if I’m the guy bringing the '89 to a vertical, I’d like more confidence in bottle).
Pay very close attention to bottle condition, and check when delivered. Plus if WB suddenly shows 10 bottles of '78 DDC and 3 are mid shoulder w/seepage, 5 are HS w/seepage, and 2 are HS, don’t bid on the 2 thinking “no seepage”, because almost certainly from same iffy storage.

7

Snipers will steal your wine at the last minute ala EBay. If you really want that bottle check on it with a couple minutes left in the auction on Sunday evening. Everything I have purchased has been unharmed. I feel fortunate.

8

I’ve never had a problem with WineBid over the course of buying roughly three cases total from them. It’s a great place to pick up old bottles (though yes, there is risk with provenance) and small batches to complete a vertical/horizontal or track down something you’ve been wanting. I’ve found many things on there that I could find nowhere else.

The interface is fantastic, much better than most other auction sites. It runs smoothly. Bottles have all been correct and come in the condition advertised. Honestly, it’s hard to ask for more from a vendor but I suppose the comments about provenance that Andy brings up are worth considering.

9

Oh yeah, definitely.

10

Stay away from the button on their site that reads “Place Bid”.

Hey Rat, I spent some time with the F5 key yesterday at about 655PM to make sure those '01 Pignan bottles were on my invoice this week. No snipers this time.

11

Used to love it when they shipped to Texas, but that was several years ago.

12

[highfive.gif]

13

I’ve bought and opened hundreds of bottles, and I’ve been completely happy with the condition and customer service. Though I was mostly not chasing the hot collector / investor wines, but rather just good wines usually with some age, wines I couldn’t find other places, and so forth; I wonder if the hot collector / flipper wines might have more risk of fakes, bad storage or condition, and the like.

The only problem with winebid is that it can quickly become a siphon on your bank account – I finally quit not because I didn’t love it, but because every week I kept finding great deals, bottles I couldn’t find anywhere else, and I just was buying too much.

The best things to shop for on winebid are the good wines that aren’t the ones everyone else is trying to get, wines that are great drinking but not splashy names. Because I was mostly buying those kinds of wines, I rarely had any issue with snipers; probably 80% of the time I bid on a wine, I won it. In fact, I usually wanted to get my bid in early, so I didn’t have to step up the $5 or $10 to the next pricing increment once someone else bid on it. And when I didn’t win, it was no problem, there were plenty of things I wanted to buy the next week.

If you’re looking to buy cases of Grand Cru Burgs, First Growths, Cult Cabs and the like, I don’t think winebid is the place. But when you want to find a great quality Napa cab that now sells for $70 and you want to pay $25 for the 1999 vintage so you don’t need to store it and age it for a decade, and you don’t care that it may not be a name that draws oohs and aahs on message boards or in tasting groups, it’s awesome for that.

14

While I worked at Peter Weygandt’s store in DC (fall of 2011), he and I were browsing the site and found an older bottle of Jacky Truchot’s…think it was a 1er from 1987. Peter’s import label was on the bottle, but he told me that he certainly hadn’t imported any until the following year - Jacky’s first year producing the wine. We wrote a letter to WineBid asking them to remove the bottle - citing Peter’s experience with Truchot - but they opted not to. Told us their experts were confident the bottles were real. [head-bang.gif]

Other than that, I’ve bought from them countless times. I’ve been happy with their customer service, but try to stick to bidding on bottles under $100. I’ve had some that have been oxidized/heat damaged, and other bottles that have performed flawlessly.

15

Great resource for those willing to be patient; that patience could pay off. I have had some amazing deals on wines I am actually happy to drink. Sniping is fun and productive. I have a 95% success rate when I snipe. I try to check the names against those registered there and here. To the victor goes the spoils. :slight_smile:

16

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17

WineBid is great especially for newbies - they have a source for older wines

WineBid is bad because it is addictive (see above), but it’s nice that I know what my friends are doing any given Sunday (evening)

18

I’ve bought many wines from them over the past 5/6 years with very little problems. I’ve also had good experiences with wines between $100-300, but I don’t always float in that range.

I agree with the people who’ve said it’s a great resource for older bottles and it’s also a great way to experience wine with age on it without always buying at the top end.

19

As most posts have mentioned - a great place to find deals for buyers if you have tolerance for the occasional bad bottle. WineBid was my source for back vintage wines before I got into the Biz. However, if you are considering selling there, those great deals for buyers are not so great for sellers… There is a reason they pulled their monthly auction data feed from CellarTracker years back.

Full Disclosure: Before jumping into the winery side of things, I was employed by one of WineBid’s competitors.

20

I’ve used Wine Bid over the years and had nothing but a good experience with them.