What to expect if you were to sell your collection?

[Greg_K]

I probably have 80-90% of all receipts for the wine.

Organize your receipts. You (or your heirs) will want them to prove basis. I recommend putting your wine in CellarTracker (if it is not already there) and put basis numbers in CellarTracker. Your basis generally includes not only what you paid for the wine but also sales tax, shipping costs, tariffs, etc., that you paid for the wine.

Since heirs take assets on a stepped up basis, not sure why they need the receipts for basis purposes?

[Arv_R]

Well, the whole stepped up basis upon death is ‘in play’ right now with Congress. I think its insanity to touch such a long standing dimension of tax policy, but who knows what will happen. To the extent people can, saving receipts is not massively space consumptive, and can generally help with any sales - if it helps show overall provenance. The kinds of owners who tend to save receipts tend to be the kinds of people who care about temperature, UV, vibration, humidity, cellar Feng Shui etc.

[Philip_G]

Well, the whole stepped up basis upon death is ‘in play’ right now with Congress. I think its insanity to touch such a long standing dimension of tax policy, but who knows what will happen. To the extent people can, saving receipts is not massively space consumptive, and can generally help with any sales - if it helps show overall provenance. The kinds of owners who tend to save receipts tend to be the kinds of people who care about temperature, UV, vibration, humidity, cellar Feng Shui etc.

My Inbox is 20k+. Pretty sure all my receipts are in there somewhere

[Jorge_B]

Has anyone used Zachy’s? I ask because they’re the auction house I’ve purchased the most from, so naturally I thought to contact them for a cellar liquidation I’m considering.

Any other strong recommendations on an auction house?

I’m not in a hurry for cash. I want the best prices and best service (i.e.; all of the wine is being moved to an offsite as we speak, I don’t want to deal with having to pack or “handle” anything). It’s probably some ~700-800 bottles total.

[Andrew_K]

Shop around for the best price. Depending on the collection you should either pay nothing or maybe 3% fee. I used Acker once. I have no idea if one auction house would rate to get you higher hammer prices though.