BerserkerDay 13 Master Thread/FAQ - RECORDS SET YET AGAIN!

This will be the principal thread for all discussions related to BerserkerDay 13 #BD13 - a buying extravaganza unrivaled in any other wine community, anywhere. One day (two, if including the Grand Cru Crü Advance Purchase Day) where over $1.8million in wine and wine-related goods are sold to eager wine lovers throughout this community. (ANOTHER new record set last year!) Plenty of unique, fun new features this year, thanks to the feedback received from our BerserkerDay Council in the hard work they put in with surveying buyers and sellers during last year’s massive record-breaking event. There’s a fun new event shown below, so read on…

First of all, BerserkerDay (full history posted below) is a celebration of the founding of this amazing and vibrant community of wine lovers around the world, and it started on the first anniversary of our founding, 13 years ago. The idea is to have a day-long celebration by introducing wine and wine-related products to the community at large, at deals that you CANNOT find elsewhere, primarily because those making the offer are so small that they don’t have ‘sales’. It’s a fantastic way to introduce yourself to some new small wineries, in particular, and I can attest - as can thousands of others who have bought on BerserkerDay - that I’ve found some of my favorite producers this way.

How does BerserkerDay work?

Anybody - registered member or not - can view the BerserkerDay subforum (where you are now) and the offers that wineries, retailers, and other wine-related product sellers will have posted. It starts approximately 7:30 am PST on January 27th, and each offer will have its own thread. I will be posting them in chunks of approximately 10, in intervals of approximately 20-30 minutes. Threads from prior launch groups will NOT bump to the top of the forum when replies are made, preserving the current launch group’s space ‘in line’, pegging that launch group at the top. One exception: the Sponsors of BerserkerDay (back by popular demand, as those who were Sponsors last year want very much to do it again!) will have their listings pegged at the top of the BerserkerDay forum during their ‘power hour’ (more info below).

Discussion - as always - is HIGHLY encouraged. That’s part of the fun! Share this event with your friends, on your social media accounts! Our Twitter handle is @WineBerserkers for those that tweet, and the more you share, the more fun we ALL have here!! I want to see some tagging on Facebook and Twitter, folks!
(Offers are made by the wineries, businesses, retailers, etc, and each offer has its own specific order parameters, which will be outlined in the offer itself. Wine Berserkers does not take any orders, has no e-commerce capabilities, nor licenses to sell wine, so each offer posted will have the directions on how to order)

Categories, specific to BD13: Last year we had just two categories - Newbies and Sponsors - and we’ll repeat the same this year, as it worked beautifully. We have fewer Newbies this year since we had the ‘mid-term’ version of BerserkerDay in NewbiePalooza, giving the Newbies a chance to learn the ropes a bit before the big show. This year we’re guiding a small selection of Newbies through the process so they won’t be overwhelmed (hopefully).

Sponsors - Sponsors this year receive the pegged listing for one hour, keeping them atop BerserkerDay forum for their time period, known as ‘power hours’. These ‘power hour’ sponsors have the primo spots, and can’t be listed for consecutive hours, to give others a chance to grab attention from the buying public. Furthermore, unlike last year, when we had a larger group of Sponsors for the entire event, we’re limiting this year to only 4 or 5 (depending on demand) per hour until all offers are launched, then 2 or 3 hour increments thereafter (based on demand and availability). This gives our ‘regular’ sellers more attention, so the buyers don’t have to scroll madly to find the rest of the offers, feeling pressured to hit just the top 15. I want to be sure EVERY seller gets some attention from this huge community on the bit day. The topic icons for the Sponsors will be the following:

Preview Day/Early Purchase Offers

On January 26th, Wednesday, Grand Cru Crü and Monopole Crü members will have access to the Pre-Launch forum to see ALL the offers, and plan their buying strategies. NO PURCHASES CAN BE MADE FROM THAT FORUM, and violators stand to lose the ability to participate in future BerserkerDays. There are, however, ‘Early Purchase Offers’, wherein BerserkerBusiness members, in a separate forum, can sell their offer on the same day as Preview Day, Jan 26th. Only Grand Cru Crü members will have access to Preview Day and Early Purchase Offers, everybody else (guests and registered members) will be eligible on Jan 27th. Both will be open around the same time. All Preview Forums listed herein close at 8pm Pacific for housekeeping.

Monopole Crü-Exclusive Offers

While I’ve been posting some very limited offers to Monopole Crü members via their group-specific private forum, there will be more offers just for them! I’ve yet to figure out the ‘how’ and ‘where’ these will go, but likely a MC-exclusive forum where the offers will be posted, as a subforum of the BerserkerDay forum (here), much like how the pre-launch and auction subforums are shown, but it will be visible only to MC members. I already have some sellers talking to me about it, tossing around ideas :slight_smile:

Auctions

Auctions will commence around 2/3pm, finishing in at 8pm Pacific. Save some money for auctions, as many of our participating wineries and businesses offer auction items to the community, as thanks for the benefits they get during BerserkerDay, since there is no cost to participate (there is no cost to participate because this maximizes the discounts offered to the community! Rather than take a percentage of sales, the auctions are the way to financially support the community, throughout the year, and are a lot more fun than taking a slice from the deals being offered!).

UNICORN RAFFLE!!!

RAFFLE IS POSTED HERE! No, we’re not raffling a unicorn this year, but something close. This year, instead of having JJ Buckley’s gift cards in auction, we’re going to do a mega-bottle (and I mean MEGA) that I procure from JJ Buckley that we raffle off. The 20 gift cards will be ‘first prizes’, and the Grand Prize (which will be very Grand, let me tell you!), and if we meet a certain ticket sales amount (and I have no doubt we won’t), a portion of all raffle proceeds will go toward a charity of my choice, so we can give back as well, and that way anyone who buy a raffle ticket will have something upon which they can claim they ‘won’ [cheers.gif] Best part, we’re going to do this LIVE - I will Livestream the event and post a link for all to watch their names (hopefully) be selected!


2020 sucked like no other year, then 2021 came on board and said ‘hold my beer’, so let’s hope BerserkerDay 13 sets us all off on an amazing year filled once again with wine and friends, getting together and enjoying our passion with one another

HISTORY OF BERSERKERDAY:

WHAT IS BERSERKERDAY??

For those who do not know, BerserkerDay was named for the day it was founded at its current location on the web - January 27 - with the URL wineberserkers.com. Each year, on the 27th, I invite wineries, retailers, and other peddlers of the wine industry to offer berserk deals on their wares. Each is posted throughout the day, in groups of about 10, in roughly 30-minute increments, spreading out the fun throughout the day, ending with an auction of even more fantastic items. This day of deals is a fantastic way for those ITB to give back to consumers, and also the reverse, as many, many new and exciting wineries/producers/wines are discovered by Berserkers on BerserkerDay, with purchases made, and discussions from those who might have experience with them. There is NO revenue sharing or cost to any participating winery or retailer, as to do that would raise the prices in the offers - this way, the maximum discount is given to all those who show up on this magical day. It’s also a way for me to give back to what makes Wine Berserkers what it is - the community! All the fantastic content on WB is from you, and here’s a way for me to setup a virtual party for everyone - current and future community members.

History of Wine Berserkers: It’s a common question, so I like to list the history during BerserkerDay. The name ‘Berserkers’ actually comes from Mark Squires (the image below shows when/how the original group of 15 or so was named by him), before the word that bore our community became a banned word on that website and forum. Our growth has never stopped over the past 10 years (there was half a year on another domain name as well) and we’re currently nearly 30,000 registered members strong.


This year, be sure to tell your friends, as I’m opening the BerserkerDay 13 forum up to anyone who wants to see it - you don’t HAVE to be registered (unless you have an order that requires you to PM the winery, in that case, you better register!) to see the deals. We’ll have a Twitter hashtag of #berserkerday and #BD13 and hope that you can post your favorite threads on Facebook as well on the 27th. PLEASE help point it out to me, so I can see when folks are sharing. My Twitter handle is @toddfrench, so please tag me, and on Facebook, I’m easy to find.

Our PR campaign worked well for BD10, so if you didn’t have a chance to see some of the pieces that featured BerserkerDay, check these out: (and please reach out if you have PR expertise, as we really want more wine lovers to know about this amazing event)

Forbes: Where To Find The Best Wine Deals: BerserkerDay January 27
Orange Coast Magazine: Todd French Celebrates 10 Years of Wine Berserkers, World’s Largest Online Wine Community

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Was wondering where the BD forum had gone . . . welcome back my dangerous friend!

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13 years. NUTS!!

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Oh boy … here we go!

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I always look forward to this event.

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Todd meant to say it’s his Bar Mitzvah year. flirtysmile

Should I have a virtual Bar Mitzvah celebration??? Interesting component to BerserkerDay for sure!

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Let me know when you’re ready to convert. I know a guy, I mean… a Rabbi.

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Mazel Tov, Todd

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I’ve posted this before, but here are some BD tips:

As a BD veteran, I’ve found that the best way to manage the mayhem is to become a Grand Cru Crü member or, better yet, a Monopole Crü member. Then I use Preview Day and the Early Purchase Offers to prepare a spreadsheet outlining everything I want to buy. It is much easier to budget and plan when you can review the offers in advance instead of having to react to them as they appear (though I still haven’t figured out a way to completely avoid at least one or two impulse buys in the excitement of the actual event).

Remember, these are mostly small producers, so quantities are limited and I’ve seen in recent years that some wines offered by BerserkerBusiness members get sold out to Grand Cru and Monopole Crü members as Early Purchase Offers and never make it to the actual BerserkerDay event. My spreadsheet includes calculations of cost per bottle including tax and shipping which makes it easier to enter purchases into CellarTracker.

If you want some insight into wines being offered, the “Has Anyone Been Drinking BerserkerDay Wines Lately?” thread is a good resource, as are the forums from past years. Looking at the forums from the past few BDs will give you an idea of how things look once the dust has settled.

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Folks, Mike Evans is a two (or three?) time BerserkerDay MVP and/or All-Pro. If he gives guidance…take it, trust me.

Here’s the more concise version:

  1. Look at the previews and formulate a strategy.
  2. On January 27, stick to your strategy for 30-60 minutes.
  3. Discard the strategy and purchase with rabid, unrestrained exuberance.
  4. Apologize to spouse/significant other after the fact.
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Excellent.

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Getting an early preview for planning purposes, and access to early offers, is alone worth the cost of membership.

And don’t forget to buy some cheese,

My wife told me that she could not wait for BD because we need….
I don’t deserve her.

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Last year I got home from work, logged on and the early preview was over. Keep that in mind if you have a day job.