Tonight I am drinking 2005 Favia Cerro Sur. The wine on the mailing list is $125. At Spectrum Wine action I was able to get 6 bottles of Cerro Sur for $225 plus fees and shipping which brought the sum total to 299.95. This is the equivalent of two bottles plus shipping from the mailing list.
Auction buying has some great advantages such as being able to buy hard to find wines. Even better, in my example above, being able to buy hard to find wines (or mailing list only wines) at well below retail value.
Auctions are not always the best value as you have the buyers percentage (at Spectrum 19.5% of the final bid value) and the shipping cost. Plus buying directly from the winery is the only way to ensure the wine was properly stored, this is important of older wines.
I view the auction sites for mostly values but I have used them to buy hard to find second labels (Bond -Matriarch and Harlan-Maiden for example). I have also used them as value 'steals' for Nickel and Nickel, Favia and Palmaz to name a few.
The difficult part of auction buying is once you buy a great wine at a great price it is often hard to turn around and pay full price (especially if the wine exceeds $100) or waiting 3 years to get on the mailing list.
Does Auction buying effect your perspective when buying bottles you really enjoy at retail price?
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