Berserker Day IV - Final Thoughts

As BD4 winds down (for today at least. We all know some offers will linger a little), I wanted to get opinions on how the day went in comparison to other years. What did you like? What didn’t you like? How can it be improved? etc. Basically any constructive feedback would be great. We strive to make each year bigger and better than the previous one. Hopefully we’re doing a good job of that. I’m shutting down as it’s just past midnight here, but you west-coasters can keep it going. Have a good night!

$ome really great offer$ … I knew I $hould have $tayed away from any and all computer$ today.

Kudos to the berserker crew for putting this day together.

Excellent day! Loved the selection, and the donors heads up was great for planning purposes, however the actual document was a bit difficult to read on a computer (I’ve got Excel) and must have been harder on a smart phone. I loved that the offers sometimes included free shipping for donors, as that’s an excellent incentive to join before BD V! Appreciate all the hard work that went into planning and executing the day. As soon as I pay off my AMEX bill I’ll be saving up for next year! I know it’s hard to do, but you may have more people jumping in if the buy in on more offers was lower, i.e. around $100 (with perhaps the ability to order multiple) might be good as well.

+1. I loved the donors preview and was able to grab some early that disappeared quickly, but the document was tough to read/work with.

A lot of great offers this year. For me, the best are the reduced price samplers, particularly if they have free or reduced shipping. It lets me try new wineries that I wouldn’t otherwise get to taste. I picked up a few this year from wineries I’d never heard of but look very interesting.

I know it shouldn’t make any difference when you’re looking just at the net cost, but for some reason I find the free shipping offers really appealing. It feels more like a bonus and amounts to significant savings on the East Coast. Special kudos to those who offered it for donors. If anyone needs a reason to become a donor, the shipping deals and the advance preview give it big time.

I did not purchase a lot. Just two winerys. But i had loads of fun and read through many of the offerings and went on many websites to look around. Learned a few things and my interest increased in some new places and wines.

So thanks todd and all the donors and wineries. Keep up the fun times.

Thanks to everyone involved in yesterdays BD. Looking forward to an even bigger and better one next year.

Seconding Jeff Bloom. I really liked the number of offers that included free shipping. I have a hangup about ordering three bottles and having the bottle price increased 30% by shipping it to the east coast (I’d rather pay the extra 30% on the bottle, honestly–that at least makes me feel like my money is going to the right people), and not having to worry about shipping costs because of donor status made me buy 50% more wine this year than last. Donor status more than paid for itself yesterday, so I’ll definitely remain a loyal patron here. Everyone wins! (With the possible exception of my wallet)

As a newbie, I can’t offer any comments vs. prior years. Here are my thoughts on this year:

  1. Fantastic!! [welldone.gif]
  2. +1 on the comments about the spreadsheet (ultimately it worked, so this is a minor detail)
  3. Was there any particular rationale to the timing of releasing the offers? If so, would be nice to know what the organizing principle is in advance
  4. It would be great if more of the merchants were able to have the offers on their web sites, so CC info can be given securely (I understand this may be harder for smaller wineries)
  5. Can you or Todd do an update on which merchants are keeping their offers open past 1-27?
    • 100 on the comments about continuing to hold BerserkerDay on the closest Saturday or Sunday to 1-27. I can’t imagine trying to take advantage of all of the offers on a (ahem) “work” day.
  6. If there are merchants who will not be available to answer questions or acknowledge receipt of orders on BerserkerDay, it would be helpful to know this (reduces anxiety about whether order will be accepted)
  7. BerserkerDay needs to be live-streamed over the web, with Todd displaying each offer and taking a healthy swig of each wine (think “I love Lucy and vegameatavitamin”) - he can tweet his tasting notes.

Again, just a great experience; I will be in for next year. [worship.gif]

I do think the Sunday before SuperBowl is a great BD, even though I am almost assuredly working.

BD IV was great. This was my first, so I do not have others to compare it to, but I had a wonderful time hanging out on the boards, learning about some wineries I was not familiar with and of course making purchases! Will definitely be looking forward to next year. Thanks to everyone that made it possible and to Todd for managing the whole show - I am sure it was crazy but everything ran very smooth for those enjoying everything that was BD.

[cheers.gif]

Thanks to Todd & all involved, I know this was a lot of work for all of you.

+1 on free shipping for donors. Incentive for us to purchase & for all to become donors.

+1 on the idea of smaller offers to allow us to try even more new, to us, wines. I still purchased from 10 different wineries, most of them new to me.

Thanks again for a great fun day.

I missed the entire affair as I spent the whole weekend building a fence. Likely to be a very lean wine purchasing year for me as funds are earmarked for home improvements and landscaping. I missed not being a pert of the mayhem but I know next year will be just as good. Besides, when I didn’t see Holdredge on the PDF I lost my bearings.

As for the Sunday before Super Bowl, I understand it is convenient but Todd has always stated that the Anniversary is the 27th each and every year. We were lucky this year but I don’t mind taking a mental health day to go crazy buying wine. Doesn’t seem to slow anybody down when LastBottleWines has their marathons on a Friday. So take my vote as one in favor of the 27th over a Sunday. Sundays are for spending with my loved ones or household chores. I have all week to screw off.

Phil… great post. One thing though… It’s Vitameatavegamin. [cheers.gif] [wink.gif]

I was around and kept checking to see when my donations would have been auctioned, but I think in all the commotion my Veleta goodies never made it to the auction block. newhere

Selfish bastards! [smileyvault-ban.gif]

Really fun. As others have noted, one of the great things was learning about all of these new wineries that I will now be primed to go visit next time I’m on the west coast.
I’ll admit that I was so overwhelmed that I mostly retreated to the friendly confines of the Wine Library, where I filled up a case of hard to find items and got free shipping! Lame, but true.
And to beat a dead horse, offering free shipping is very, very compelling. I’d buy a $100 sampler pack that included free shipping much more easily than an $80 one where it was a question mark. I did appreciate all the folks who promised a flat rate shipping of X.
It’s just where it’s an unknown where pulling the trigger gets really hard for me.
And while this is not a complaint AT ALL, I will note that the offers seemed to skew heavily California, and seemed somewhat pinot centric. That’s great, but I would love to see more Washington, Oregon and New York wineries get in on the action.
Overall, an impressive achievement by a lot of people. Great work.

I’ve been a lurker here for the last 3 years, so I guess it’s time I came out of the closet and posted. This was by far the best Berserker Day yet. Have to agree with may others, the free or reduced shipping was the definitely the icing on the cake, even better than having the list in advance - which was great in itself. You guys rocked it out of the park.

I was looking for them, too, Nola

Great event - thanks. Can tell it took a lot of organization.

Only one suggestion (and its probably just me being a newb) - I couldn’t figure out how to sort the posts by original post time, so that it was easy to track when a new offer was posted.

Edit: and my personal point of improvement is to post more next year - was too busy keeping track of what I wanted to buy!

the offers … seemed somewhat pinot centric.

This was a major problem for me. Going in I was determined to buy mostly Pinot and I ended up spending way, way too much money!

This was my first Berserker Day and I had a lot of fun. I was figuring it would be an opportunity to get a few deals from wineries I know, but I ended up skipping all those offers and trying all wineries that are new to me. Well, except for a case of the Dacalier that Dave is giving away.

Many thanks to everyone who put this together and to the wineries that participated.