Sell Wine Collection For Profit

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By Vicki Diaz


You want to sell wine collection as soon as you can. If someone has collected a substantial inventory there may be a point when they want to part with some of it or all of it. Not only wine collectors, though, sometimes want to part with what they've accumulated. Someone may inherit a collection and not want to keep part of it or all of it. This may not occur very often. So, it is understandable that most people are unfamiliar with how to do this.

The chances of finding someone to buy one bottle of a quality wine is small. However, there are many techniques to sell a collection. The most popular ways are to contact an auction house, engage in a person-to-person transaction, or by contacting wine merchants that make a business of selling collections.

Vintage that has not been stored in the correct conditions or whose provenance cannot be proven will be harder to sell. Provenance has to do with the chronology of ownership or proof that the vintage is a quality one. One way to check its quality is to refer to an online auction database.

This is an example of a true situation in which a man wanted to part with his inventory. He had 9,000 bottles to sell. That composed 90 percent of what he possessed. He sold it to a large New York auction house. Chances are that most inventories would not be as spectacular or large as these, however.

If you visit websites that provide pricing information you can quickly get some idea of what wine prices are. Once you've done that you will have a good start point from which to plan your next move. Most companies will want to see an inventory listing of what you have. Then they will be able to give you an appraisal of what it is worth on the open market. Some companies will buy your whole group outright and come to your home to pack it up and ship it to their warehouses.

You can look up the prices yourself to find out what you inventory is worth. This may be faster to do but less accurate than if a professional does it. Total the value and half it. If the inventory was stored in warmer conditions you'll need to lower its value even more. Include a disclaimer that identifies the process you use. Craigslist is an easy, inexpensive way to advertise your sale.

There are auction houses that specialize in selling articles of quality including a vintage. Auction houses will want proof or documentation of how the wine was stored. Normally, they will be interested in large inventories only. Try to have an inventory and approximate valued already determined to compare to what they say the inventory is worth. The auction house may decline if they believe ideal storage conditions were not maintained.

An auction house's commission structure should be carefully reviewed when engaging them to sell wine collection inventories. They may also charge storage or insurance fees. These additional fees can add up to be quite substantial. Some will not charge you a commission when you sell wine collection if you accept their version of a store credit.




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