Online Whisky Auctions
Get deep enough into Scotch, and chances are you’re going to exhaust both any and all local retailers, and even online retailers. You’re going to want to lay your hands on rare bottles from years or decades past, or taste the produce of a distillery that has been closed for years. Your best bet for scratching that kind of itch is reputable online auction houses.
The upside of auctions is that they offer you a second chance on rare and discontinued bottlings that are difficult or impossible to come by at retail; occasionally, they also offer decent bargains on more workaday bottlings. The downside of auctions is that they often present you with a variety of fees beyond just the nominal price, they can easily encourage you to spend more than you might intend to, and they can contribute indirectly to speculation and industry-wide price hikes.
In short, auctions can be a great resource for the avid whisky consumer or collector, but they should be used with considerable caution.
Each auction house has its own quirks in how it conducts business. Before bidding for whisky at an auction, you should visit that auction’s website and carefully familiarize yourself with how they work. Pay special attention to fees that may not be immediately obvious!
While every auction is a little different, here are some common points:
- Auctions make money by charging a commission on transactions. Some charge a fee on both the seller and the buyer, but all–at a minimum–charge a percentage commission on buyers. Expect to pay at least 10% (and sometimes more) of the winning bid price as a buyer’s fee.
- Most auctions require a one-time sign-up fee (usually around $10) in order to create an account that you can use to bid.
- Auctions typically charge a variety of other fees that may not be immediately transparent or obvious without reading the fine print–2-3% of the winning bid for shipping insurance, 3-4% of the winning bid for credit card transactions, and so on. Especially when you factor in the base auction fee of at least 10%, foreign exchange rates, the expense of shipping liquor, and potential foreign transaction fees if you’re using a credit card, things can add up very, very, very fast, and you can easily end up paying 15-25% on top of your winning bid just on various fees.
- Auctions run for a set period. Every house mentioned below runs an auction about once per month. Some run for nearly the entire month, but most run for 3-10 days, usually at roughly the same time each month.
- Most auctions allow bidding to continue indefinitely past the nominal ending of the auction (in practice, that usually means that things wrap up about 4-6 hours after the closing time). A few have hard closing times, and the highest bid before closing time wins.
- Auctions usually require that you bid in set increments, and the higher the current winning bid, the higher each increment becomes.
- You can usually set a maximum amount that you would be willing to pay for a bottle in advance, and the auction will automatically raise your bid to surpass new bids until one surpasses your maximum bid.
- Some auctions allow sellers to set a “reserve price,” which is the minimum price at which they’d be willing to sell. Any bid below reserve–even if it’s higher than any other bid–still won’t win the lot.
- Auctions have a vested interest in their reputation, so any reputable house–such as those linked below–will have a policy to vet fake bottles. That doesn’t mean nothing amiss ever slips through the cracks. Caveat emptor.
- It’s easy to get caught up in bidding wars. Be careful, unless you have money to burn.
Location: UK (Scotland)
US shipping?: Yes
My experience: Positive
Selection Rating: 5 stars
Notes: I’d give Whisky Auctioneer a very slight edge over WhiskyAuction and Scotch Whisky Auctions as the best auction site. They typically auction thousands of bottles, and you can usually find several bottles from any distillery that has been active in Scotland in the last 50 years or so, from ill-starred concerns like Glenlochy and Millburn, to Scotland’s newest distilleries. They also usually auction a wide selection of Japanese and American whiskies.
I’ve only ordered from them once, however, they got my bottles to me quickly and securely.
Location: Germany
US shipping?: Yes
My experience: Positive
Selection Rating: 5 stars
Notes: Don’t be put off by the primitive website (it’s better than it used to be!) WhiskyAuction runs a top notch auction with a wide variety of offerings, including plenty of rarities from closed and extant distilleries. They and Scotch Whisky Auctions–see below–are the only two houses that, in my estimation, are legitimate competitors with the selection at Whisky Auctioneer.
My one experience ordering from them was a good one and the bottles got to me faster than I had expected.
Location: UK (Scotland)
US shipping?: Yes.
My experience: Positive
Selection Rating: 5 stars
Notes: Another truly formidable house that typically auctions thousands of bottles from a whole range of distilleries, including many that have been closed for decades and those that only just opened their doors. They are top shelf, along with WhiskyAuction and Whisky Auctioneer.
I’ve bought from them a few times, and have had nothing but good experiences.
Location: United Kingdom
US shipping?: Yes.
My experience: Positive
Selection Rating: 4.5 stars
Notes: A somewhat smaller house, they don’t typically have quite as many bottles at auction, however, they auction some real gems. For instance, one time fairly recently they were auctioning a nearly complete set of UDV’s (a Diageo forebear) Rare Malts collection. They typically auction a pretty wide range of stuff with at least some lost distilleries in the mix. Although the last time I bought from them, their auction fees looked noticeably higher than any of the three houses above, when all was said and done the total percentage of the price from fees didn’t end up being that much worse than elsewhere.
I’ve bought from them a few times and had good experiences.
Location: UK (Scotland)
US shipping?: Yes
My experience: None
Selection Rating: 3 stars
Notes: A smaller auction than those described above. If you’re looking for rare or limited bottlings from big-name distilleries in current operation, you’ll probably do fine. If you have your heart set on something from a lost distillery, you’re better off with one of the other houses.
Location: United Kingdom
US shipping?: Yes
My experience: None
Selection Rating: 3 stars
Notes: Pretty much the same deal as Whisky Hammer, in my estimation.
Location: UK (Scotland)
US shipping?: Yes
My experience: None
Selection Rating: 3 stars
Notes: Ditto.
Location: UK (Scotland)
US shipping?: Yes
My experience: None.
Selection Rating: 3 stars
Notes: Ditto.
Whisky Considered 