Kicking off its 25th anniversary year, WineBid announced a record-breaking year in 2020. Total weekly auction bidder growth during the holiday season surpassed 45% year over year. Total revenue grew 17% to $33.8 million, constrained only by marketplace supply. The company also significantly increased profitability over prior years.
… congrats… i guess?
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(Waiting for the Thank-You. Indeed.)
With the Winebid changes, I guess Russ Mann really wants a bigger yacht. Got to keep up with the Jones.
I don’t know how the full model works but assuming they only get the 17% fee for all their operations that comes out to about $5.7M in gross income right? Then operating costs out of that? Doesn’t that seem low for how big the ops are?
Isn’t it 17% on the buy side and then again on the sell side?
We need a down vote button.
I told ya they were making bank on the OT bidding 
I don’t think it is clear in the article, but I would think WineBid’s revenue does not include the value of the item sold - that is not income to them, but rather to the seller. WineBid’s revenue - the $33m - would include the fees from sales and any other income earned (maybe a cut from the Winery items?).
I still think they should offer free hold during summer months…
1%ers complaining about a business making a profit. That’s rich!
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Big surprise… Breaking news… Since we couldn’t buy wine at restaurants for a big part of the year, we bought it online instead!!!
And yes, kind of a stick in the eye to get the “record profits” announcement the same week we get the “New upgrade for you… loss of 5 months of storage after purchase…”
#timingisimportant as my wife keeps telling me 
.
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For younger folks, who may not remember/experience the way NY auctions were run in the 90’s, here’s what stuck out for me
- big paper brochures/books, that took time to review, no ability to for a desired item
- generally case purchases only
- generally only collectible categories and names
- if there were single bottles they were lumped into mixed tasting lots
- pictures were shown for only select high end lots
- absentee bids - at least for me - never got filled below my high price
- pressure to pay by anything other than credit cards
- some shady actors had infiltrated the scene, aligned with certain houses
- sometimes a bidding paddle (to attend in person) came with a cost
- shipping was not something easily dealt with, mostly I had to go to warehouses for pickup myself.
And I’m sure those who were buying in London market in the 70’s and 80’s have even better “i had to walk uphill both ways” stories like Broadbent rejecting a paddle’s bids since he didn’t know them and all that… There’s probably other irritations I’ve forgotten decades later, but its pretty amazing the world we live in now for secondary purchases. Obviously WineBid didn’t fix every issue by themselves, and they’re not the only secondary platform out there so some innovations were figured out by others (and copied).
But one of the benefits of a free market is that as entrepreneurs make society better, they get to share in some of that benefit and prosper.
I’m ok with that!
It’s much better than the alternative, when vendors go under, and oenophiles are left fighting over a bankrupt carcass (PremierCru, Carolina Wine Co, Rare LLC, etc.)
I’m a rinky dink WB account (7 btls avg over last two years) so their changes will likely push me out, but think the carping is unfair, even sad.
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I miss the Wine Commune.
I had lots of great buying experiences on Wine Commune but also a couple rip off’s. Was saddened when JJB shut it down but they had come under regulatory scrutiny.
Congratulations to Russ Mann and his entire team! If they were not doing a great job then their business would not be growing. I recently sold some wines with them. My contact points were well beyond awesome. Getting ready for round 2.
Last, if they weren’t doing a great job, competition would spring up and quickly. Barrier to entry is high, they are known commodity, again congrats. 
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