wine-searcher.com

[Eric Menchen]

First, I was wondering if anyone had found a better site for this kind of thing for the U.S. market. I've found a few others that purport to do the same thing, but none better. Any better?

Second, should I go for the pro version? Does the $30 pay for itself pretty much instantly? Or should I buy another bottle with that?

Finally, is there an easy way to filter out the half bottles? I've gotten rid of the LBVs when desired, but not the halves.

-Eric

[Frederick Blais]

Look at http://www.globalwinestocks.com you can also find them in the Portfolio section on the homepage here.

The free version is better than the pro version of wine searcher.

[Glenn E.]

I hase the Pro version of wine-searcher, and it does save you money but not very much. The difference is typically no more than $1 per bottle, though it does occasionally save more than that.

The only real reason to have the Pro version is that there are far more stores in the Pro version, so there's a better chance that you'll find what you're looking for. I think it's worth the $30/year just for that.

The Pro version also has several additional filters you can apply... such as the ability to filter out halves or magnums if you want.

I haven't been able to figure out how to use globalwinestocks efficiently... their interface isn't all that intuitive to me, but I haven't created an account and that might help.

[Roy Hersh]

I was one of the very early users of winesearch in the 1990s. I remember when it was $9.95 for the Pro and then was amazed they jumped to $19.95 and it is now up to $29.95. I let mine lapse for the past year, but doing the FTLOP subscriber's deal, I had to make sure the prices that were going into the offering were the best in the USA. Coincidentally this caused me to re-up my PRO subscription.

I agree that the the folks at globalwinestocks are pretty darn good too. My only issue with that site, it can be painfully slow. I used it during the past year when my Winesearcher.com PRO was lapsed.

[Eric Menchen]

Thanks for the info thus far. I signed up to http://www.globalwinestocks.com and found it to be pretty good too. For some old stuff, wine-searcher had some hits that gws didn't, and vice-versa. So for me the jury is still out, and perhaps before making big purchases I'll use both.

[Derek T.]

The only real reason to have the Pro version is that there are far more stores in the Pro version, so there's a better chance that you'll find what you're looking for. I think it's worth the $30/year just for that.

I agree. $0.58 per week to get 3 to 4 times as many hits per search seems like good value to me