In article <b8i180$vv
...@slb6.atl.mindspring.net>, scotch_
...@yahoo.com
says...
>Hi all!
>I've recently acquired a rather significant collection of various liquors,
>most of which are Scotch [~320 bottles, about 100 of which are Cadenheads
>with distilled dates in the 50s & 60s] -- the rest of it consists of various
>Armagnacs, Cognacs, & other assorted liquors. I'm not a Whisky drinker, so
>I'm looking to liquidate all of it [preferably as a lot]. How would I go
>about finding a qualified buyer for this? Also, what US federal/state laws
>are applicable here that I need to be aware of?
>Any advice that anyone can provide would be tremendously appreciated.
>Thanks!
>Bob
After shorting out my keyboard (see Douglas' response) I've gathered
up a little info. I hope this helps. That is quite an impressive
sounding collection and I think everyone here would love to go
through it to see what treasures you hold.
First the bad news: there are probably state laws that regulate
such a sale and I think some states would not allow it at all
within their jurisdictions. You didn't mention which state you
live in, and even if you did I'm no lawyer. Federal laws that
I'm aware of are concerned with the collection of tax revenue:
import duties on bringing whisky into the country, income taxes
on income generated from the sale of any property, etc. The nuts
and bolts of regulation is mostly left to the states, but again,
I'm not a lawyer.
But don't despair; there are still ways of selling your whisky.
I have read that Christies holds whisky auctions in New York,
and they also hold auctions in the U.K.
Another auction house, McTears, with the help of Martin Green of
the Martin Green Whisky Consultancy, holds regular whisky
auctions in Glasgow.
You can contact Martin Green for a proper valuation. This is a
professional evaluation and you would pay a fee for this. I
have no info on the size of such a fee. But it sounds like your
collection might include some valuable bottles, and professional
sevices might be worth looking into. If it seems to make sense
then you would ship your whisky to Scotland to be auctioned.
You never know. (Or, at least, I never know; that's why we have
people such as Martin Green.) More info about this can be found
at
http://www.mctears.co.uk/
(And thanks to Joshua McGee who first posted this info about McTears,
and whom I have partially quoted here.)
Not all old rare whiskies are valuable. A surprising number of
whiskies sell at auction for about what they would have cost in
the store, or only a little more. Maybe even less. The interest
seems to lie in the output of only a few distilleries: the Islays
and Springbank and Macallan and a few others.
As far as I know, the highest prices at auction have been paid
for very old Macallans. And by very old I'm taking about pre-WWII
by a good bit: from the 20's and before and from the 19th century.
But some whiskies from the 50's and 60's are quite valuable. These
whiskies attract the attention of both collectors and drinkers, not
just one or the other, being both well though of by tasters and sought
after by collectors. Many very good whiskies don't attract collectors.
Many very rare whiskies just don't interest those who intend to
drink the stuff.
To get a feel for what prices at auction are like and which whiskies
arouse interest, try
http://www.whiskyauction.com/
an online whisky auction. The site is physically in Germany, but
the website is in English. They auction all sorts of whiskies on
a roughly monthly basis. The auction is online so the bidding is
worldwide. You can see the final sale price for the last month's
auctions, as well as how many bidders have bid on the whiskies.
Likewise you can see what is going on in the current month's auctions.
You can also contact that website's owner for an opinion of whether
or not your whiskies are worth auctioning, or more likely, which
whiskies are worth auctioning. I haven't seen large lots of whiskies
sold as a group there. I think you might have to sell the whiskies
worth selling individually.
Please post back and let us know what you discover.
You'll probably need to catalog the whiskies to request information
from any of these sites. They will tell you what info they need
from you. List the distillery, the bottler (like Cadenhead),
the age on the label (12 years old), and pretty much any other
info on the front labels like the year, month etc when distilled
and when bottled and so on.
Post that list and a thousand keyboards will short out again!
Bart
