For The Love Of Port

Look at Winebid.com's ridiculous starting bids on the 1834 and 1863 Barbeito.

http://www.winebid.com/Items/madeira/35341

My guess is that the seller asked someone to give a value for those wine.
Said someone searched on wine-searcher, took the highest prices ($999, $799) and rounded.
Seller then lists wines on winebid for those amounts.

It seems silly to me, but my view is skewed - my purchases from winebid have had an effective premium (premium, insurance, tax, shipping) of 25% to 40%.

By the way, I think there is a social convention at FtLoP about commenting on auctions in progress. Andy - can you comment?

I only replied to this post because, anyone who looks will find those wines at retail for $200-300 less than the auction starting prices.

Timothy B. wrote:By the way, I think there is a social convention at FtLoP about commenting on auctions in progress. Andy - can you comment?

I'm not Andy, but I'll comment. I would prefer not to bid against my fellow FTLOPers on winebid or any other auction site. I really don't want to drive up the price on a friend, as it serves neither of us well. I know who Andy is on winebid, and Marc. I know the handle of another FTLOPer on Acker. I'm foomench on those and just about any other web site. If there is a major parcel at an auction like Christie's, I'll discuss it with others. Maybe we want to split a case? Who knows. Anyway, as we are primarily consumers, not sellers, I think the more information out there the better. If these were in-person auctions, the situation would be the same. I could look across the room and know if I'm bidding against Andy or someone else, so I don't think the auction house can fault us for letting others know who is bidding.

Agree 100%. Nice post Eric!

Tim, that pricing on Winebid was ridiculous, but more often than not ... scarcity will win the battle and some hunter will come in with a fat wallet and plunk down the requisite cash to win the prize.

Eric Menchen wrote:

Timothy B. wrote:By the way, I think there is a social convention at FtLoP about commenting on auctions in progress. Andy - can you comment?

I'm not Andy, but I'll comment. I would prefer not to bid against my fellow FTLOPers on winebid or any other auction site. I really don't want to drive up the price on a friend, as it serves neither of us well. I know who Andy is on winebid, and Marc. I know the handle of another FTLOPer on Acker. I'm foomench on those and just about any other web site. If there is a major parcel at an auction like Christie's, I'll discuss it with others. Maybe we want to split a case? Who knows. Anyway, as we are primarily consumers, not sellers, I think the more information out there the better. If these were in-person auctions, the situation would be the same. I could look across the room and know if I'm bidding against Andy or someone else, so I don't think the auction house can fault us for letting others know who is bidding.

I generally personally refrain from posting about in-progress wine auctions in case people I know are bidding on them. I don't want to draw attention to the fact. That is just me though and everyone needs to make their own decision, as there is no right or wrong answer.

Basically what Eric said. I also know many of the other FTLOP'ers and those from other wine boards and I don't bid against them. Out of respect and karma. If i really need a bottle and someone beat me to the punch I'll just ask the person if Ic an buy or trade it from them if they win. In one case where I really needed a bottle to complete a line up the person told me to outbid them, which I did. But I don't knowingly like to bid against fellow board members and friends.

Gee, no one bid on them...

Barry Sunderland wrote:Gee, no one bid on them...

Must be something wrong with the bottle then

There are deals to be found on winebid.com, but because this is a Portugese wine-centric forum I would consider it to be spamming to discuss them here. There are numerous relevant opportunities here, sometimes exclusive to the subscribed members, that more than compensate for uncompetitive pricing on winebid.com.

I share the sentiment of avoiding bidding against each other.