Ok, I guess mad (“Almost makes me as mad as the increase”) is a step below outrage. Mea culpa.
But how do you know the increase has negated lower prices? There’s a pool of potential bidders for every wine. If the 2% increase means some people drop out (and multiple people saying “that’s it for me, not buying there anymore” would mean buyer pool smaller) and one would assume that those who remain factor the increased vig into their bids, it should mean that some (not all, but some) bid highs will drop. Without reviewing the WB increments I can’t say for sure, but pretty sure that at most levels a drop of one increment would more than offset a 2% (net to buyer, 13% overall) increase in vig. Again, all that matters is total price.
Big question from a fairness/ethical standpoint to me is when did they communicate this to consignors? If I had sent a collection to WB for Oct auctions and then discovered they were raising buyer’s premium, potentially (actually, almost certainly) lowering total hammer, I’d be pissed.
Yeah, pretty sure you’re missing the point here of why some of us who are customers (buyers) would be “mad” (and yeah…it does make me mad).
Being a consistent client who buys from WineBid on a weekly basis (or just a customer in general for that matter), I would expect to be notified that I will soon be paying an additional 2% on each of my purchases. Being that I haven’t heard a damn thing about this from WineBid until this thread, it makes me “mad” that they might be trying to just sweep this increase in costs under the rug, hoping that I wouldn’t notice it (which I probably would not have, being that I don’t triple check my total costs for each bottle I buy).
Now if WineBid does send some sort of notification after the weekend, or at some point in the near future, I’d be OK with it form a business standpoint (i.e. no longer be “mad”), as they have the right as a company to charge what they feel is reasonable. And in turn, I have the right to choose whether or not I will still buy from them.
*I am big a fan of WineBid and have acquired many bottles at solid prices while always receiving excellent customer service…so I do hope they make the right call and send out some sort of notification to their clients.
I know that the increase has negated lower prices for me, which is what I said and described. I was barely bidding as it was, now… not a chance.
And fact is, I have a WineBid account and have yet to receive the email that others have.
As far as I can tell reading through, only one person says they got an email. The OP posted that they found it in T&C, where it is highlighted. If I were an auctioneer first thing I’d do is make change clear in T&C (since that rules legally) and only do the email the week it is about to go into effect- if you do earlier, it’s clear from responses here some people would think it was in effect immediately, potentially reducing their bids. Most importantly, they should (and probably will) post it prominently and in bold on the site at sign-in that week. I scarcely buy at WB, but there is NO evidence they are trying to sneak on an increase without anyone knowing.
As to price increases, one cannot evaluate that until the premium goes into effect. A vig increase will definitely decrease action (according to logic, and confirmed by comments here) but how much remains to be seen. Again, if wine goes for one less increment it will be cheaper than higher bid with 15%.
A hundred dollar bottle of wine is going to cost me two bucks more? It doesn’t really bother me that much either. Email with updated terms and the increase highlighted seems appropriate.
I received the same email, it stated “We are writing to inform you of changes to our Terms & Conditions, effective October 4, 2015” and the “Terms & Conditions” phrase was a link to the T&C page. On that page, the changes were highlighted in yellow.
Seems clear enough.
The one group that should have (IMHO) gotten an explicit email saying “buyer’s premium is going up!” is people who are consigning wine starting in next month or so, as they’re the ones who will almost certainlty have a lower net.
It’s interesting for me to hear that people feel this way, as I’ve felt that their starting prices have been pretty high over the last few years. Maybe there was a time that they were low, but I believe that time has ended. Most items I see on Winebid these days, can be found on Winesearcher, at or around their opening price. I have no issue with the premium, if it brings me to a fair price in the end.
I got the following email Sept 4. “We are writing to inform you of changes to our Terms & Conditions, effective October 4, 2015.” Terms & Condition links to the new terms and as others have said, the increase in premium is explicit. I have no problem with their transparency on this issue. The question I do have relates to a charge for storage over 90 days. I want to know if that applies to storage due to unsuitable weather for shipping, which is often more than 90 days. I’ll call them to get that clarified. I have bought many hundreds of bottles from them over the years and have been satisfied that the wine I received was as described at the site.
Unfortunately I never received that email for some reason, but if I had, I would have been fine with this increase, as it’s obviously their call as a company to do so.
As I mentioned, I’m a fan of Winebid and given the above email that it seems they tried to send out, I probably won’t hesitate to purchase from them moving forward. I’ll just have to keep that slight increase in mind when bidding to compare total costs next to what is available elsewhere from other retailers.
*And PLEASE let us know what you find out on those holding costs vs. Weather holds.
While they might have raised the buyer paid premium, I don’t believe the seller paid has changed, as you have to sign a contract when you sell, and even though they have a tiered price, it can be negotiated, if you are selling a large dollar amount of wine. Say what you want, Winebid does a great job and very large customer base.
WB prices are definitely much less attractive overall than they used to be, absolutely. And I agree current release stuff available on retail is often just as cheap elsewhere as WB after premium, etc.
However, for back-filling 80s Bordeaux and similar 10-30 year old wines, one is usually forced to go auction-only and then WBid’s prices are quite competitive.
Here’s a completely non-scientific n=1 experience. I looked up all the wines on my WineBid watch list for last week that are still listed and searched for them at Wine-Searcher, looking for the least expensive listing for each wine other than the WineBid price. Retail sources were all over the U.S., of course. Did not search other auction sites. Many of the wines that interest me are fairly mature.
29 items were not listed at Wine-Searcher.
7 items were more expensive at WineBid (avg = 9%, median = 6%, range = 3%-26%).
35 items were less expensive at WineBid (avg = 30%, median = 25%, range = 2%-92%).
1 item was the same at the two sites.
Of the 43 items listed on both WineBid and Wine-Searcher, the avg price at WineBid = $60, median = $55, range = $20-$130.
Go easy on the poor chap. He’s retired. 