no one said they are worth $500 a piece - but already we know that one of your members is willing to give $175 a piece - I’d say that’s far from worthless… we apparently have already established a minimal value… why many of you seem to have a need to devalue them completely is beyond me - just because YOU wouldn’t buy them as an undrinkable collectible doesn’t mean that MANY others would…
you know wine - I know antiques and collectibles - we have now established that these are in the genre of collectible -
the peanuts are no good - and yet someone is willing to pay nearly $4000 as a collectible - and not just one person - the item received 19 bids -my guess is that if you saw it at a yard sale and they asked $20 you would have said no - in fact my guess is that if it was marked ONE DOLLAR you would have walked right by it and left it there… an empty coke bottle sold for $3500 - there are literally HUNDREDS of items selling in the THOUSANDS of dollars of food and beverage items that are no longer consumable - you know wine and obviously have no reguards for anything that’s not consumable - but because you want to devalue the bottles doesn’t mean that lots and lots of other folks don’t… - just because its not up to your high standards doesn’t mean that they are worthless - they are worth at least $175 each according to your own forum and he hinted that he was possibly interested as high as $225 a bottle…
me - I’d be happy to take $500 for the lot - not a greedy guy here - I was trying to substanciate fair current market value - sorry it has antagonized you so much…
Robert. The luminous bottles always are more expensive empty because peopl like the design. It has a battery operated plugin fit specifically for a dom p bottle. It’s not because of the age of the bottle that people are buying it.
Charlie,
This is almost what it seems he’s trying to do. He comes here and asks for advice. He gets it then wants to argue that we’re wrong and he’s right because he sells old things and infers that someone should buy it as they’ll get a deal on a hard to find bottle. I’m sure Robert’s a good salesman and he could find some sucker to pay lots of money for these. But any knowledgeable wine person isn’t going to pay much for what amounts to a bottle that is most likely DOA.
Robert, the difference here is that nobody is buying empty Coke bottles, refilling them and then selling them as if they were the real deal. Counterfeiting wine is a HUGE problem. If you sell these bottles you are aiding and abetting a counterfeiter.
Charlie,
I think she means that by selling these just as a bottle (empty as the contents are probably no good anyways) someone else can reuse the empties and make fakes, ala what Rudy did.
+1. Since you are new here, Robert, take a quick look at the ‘Rudy Kurniawan’ thread (‘quick’ being a relative term, but perhaps focus on the last two weeks or so). It’s the one that’s been pinned to the top of the Wine Talk forum and is up to page 187 of posts. People like that are why consumers of older bottles are more sensitive these days. You may think some people are being overly aggressive to you, but it’s because there is a high instance of old bottles being refilled and resold to unsuspecting and under-informed consumers, and it has hurt people on all sides of the industry. No ill will towards you, I hope you understand, but you just picked the worst possible time to present these bottles to a forum like this. Like selling lawn sprinklers after a hurricane.
It can range from being an overly oxidized “still” wine with little to no fruit where the oxidative notes are in the forefront while the mature Champagne flavors are too far in the background to be enjoyable, to a wine which is foul smelling, almost like sewage, that I wouldn’t dare taste.
I can definitely see both sides of this. These bottles are worth something to someone, and Robert as an antiques dealer should sell them for what he can, so long as he doesn’t make any misrepresentations about them (how they were stored).
Might someone be buying them to counterfeit? There is a chance, probably a small one. But I can’t put that on Robert. We’ve all thrown countless classic old bottles in the garbage and recycling bin without breaking them, and those could have been used to counterfeit as well. Plus, this is only three bottles.
Anyway, interesting discussion from all sides. Thanks to everyone for sharing their knowledge.
I have a hard time with that as well. This is not selling empty bottles, these are unopened and real bottles. You can’t sell a bottle of a old wine because someone might refill it with a substitute and resell it?
Plus, this is three bottles, it’s hardly the basis for some counterfeiting operation. And I imagine a counterfeiter could find/get empty bottles of old wines more cheaply than buying unopened (even if likely not in good condition) ones.
I’m no expert on it, but the labels look very clean and unfaded for the age of the bottles. Which strikes me as either a really good cellar with exactly the right humidity, or less ideal (too dry) conditions. And in the latter case probably also too warm. My guess is dry/warm/dark storage, just betting the odds.
If I picked these up on the cheap, I’d be tempted to pop them as a personal experiment, going into the experiment with zero expectations on the hopes of being pleasantly surprised.
I’m not very torn over this. Sell on auction. Tell the background. Market determines the price. No need for morals in either direction. It’s unlikely to make you rich, but also won’t make you poor. Onward.