In the past all you had to do was sign up for Premier Cru’s email list.
Good advice that is often overlooked. Be skeptical.
That said, don’t over think it. If you do you will lose out. This market isn’t that efficient so mispricings abound.
Appreciate your responses Alex. Both good advice:)
I have played around with wine bid. How specifically do you go about uncovering a deal? Are you always searching for a certain wine or varietal? Or, are you just sorting by most recent postings and looking everyday?
This has been my only avenue I feel. But you are spot on. Thanks.
So right, I am always tempted to buy things…but restrained by this reality. I try to think about what my wife and I like and juxtapose that against the deal and what is in our cellar (fridges).
If you value being a drinker more than being an investor/collector there are plenty of good deals out there in the sense of wines that massively outperform their price point. Once you know your own palate I think it’s pretty routine to be able to get wines that are at least “as good as” wines two to three times their price, at least for your taste.
If you are looking for wines below market value that is a lot harder. It is sometimes possible to get 25-30% off by buying case lots of not very fashionable but good wines at auction, assuming you don’t value your searching time much and you don’t mind laying out the money for a case. I think that used to be more routine in the past than it is today though.
P.S. edited to say after reading the above – yes, there are occasional blowouts on Winebid, that seems to be the best auction site for that along with K&L. Most recent was Copain where they had a bunch of good 8-10 year old Pinots and Syrahs going for basically half price or less. But you need to know you like the producer.
Triplicate
know the market.
Search continuously.
Search widely.
Cultivate sources—Sarah had good advice re this.
Respond quickly and graciously to private offers.
Step up when the deal presents and be reliable.
duplicate
Sarah’s post on sources and relationships is important, especially for discovering new gems.
But in the broader sense of finding deals, especially online, I think there’s an important difference between underpriced and discounted, given that the correlation between price and quality is pretty sketchy, and even more so when taking personal taste into account.
I think a big mistake people make is in buying up wines that they are unfamiliar with or don’t love but are being sold for much lower than their normal price. If I see an “$80 wine” being sold for $40, what are the chances it’s better than Geyserville? Pretty slim. So I think there are two important parts to getting great deals:
(1) Tasting as widely as possible at all price points to know which wines are inherently good deals for your palate at their release price.
(2) Keeping tabs on K&L/WineBid/Wine Access/Wine.com/your local retailer so that you can strike quickly when something comes in that you know is a good deal for you.
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I’m surprised no one has mentioned spending an inordinate amount of time scouring every thread on wineberserkers.com. If I was here years ago, I’d have a cellar full of Gonon. I’m still happy to have a cellar full of Baudry, Prum, BAMA, Bedrock, Sassetti, Lumpp, and Foillard. Not to mention the close out bargains like Congruence, Heresztyn-Mazzini, Wind Gap…
My best advice would be to stick around here.
I was holding this question strictly as “how do I get wine x at the best price?” Not “how do I find the best wine for my money?” The latter is an important albeit subjective question (of which many QPR threads are dedicated) and I hold your advice mostly in this vein.
I think most are answering the former question but good to be explicit.
In terms of where deals (ie wine x selling a the best price I’ve seen) spring up I think it ask depends on what you are buying. I am curious what the OP is looking for as that might help us direct
If you mean to buy (ie CC), it’s my #4 in my post.
If you mean from advice on what to buy then do you mean in terms of where the market is going?
No. I don’t much care about the market and I don’t mean commerce corner. I would actually prefer if the market kept the pricing of future release right where they are on my list–but from experience, doubt it does. I just mean they are wines that punch over their price point.
Punch over their price point is a statement about where the market is going. If they are better than their current price, the price will go up and/or it will become very scarce. Sometimes neither happens which is great but not usually.
I search the AVA’s I enjoy and look for wines from vintages I have had and liked. Then sort by price.
Get a part-time job working a few hours/month at a local wine shop that will give you an employee discount. It can really, really drop the price if you can buy at the shop’s cost or a dollar over.
Yes, for sure. Reading this board is part of attaining a prepared mind. There are many dozens of centuries of aggregate wine knowledge here including tasting, meeting producers, traveling to vineyards, studying grapes and soil, etc. This is one of the great places to learn.
There are numerous coupon codes for wine.com at the Berserker link below. Some are $50 off purchase of $150 or $100 off $300. Join the shipment club for $50 and shipping is free for a year. If they have what you are looking for, it’s a great deal.