I think if you do your due diligence, auction houses are almost as safe as retail. You buy from auctions with large collections, and take the trouble to ask the people at the auction houses. I try to avoid random lots with no provenance.
At retail, you will (usually) pay a lot more, and instead of it going through experienced people at the houses, you are putting yourself in the hands of someone who may or may not know something about older wines. I would trust a Chamber Street, but not a store where they only get offered wine once in a blue moon.
I think the last year has seen a fairly large increase at auction; I consistently see lots of wine you can easily get at retail going higher than retail pricing, which is odd. However, if you have the money to buy in larger quantities, auction is certainly easier. That’s an “if”, though
And commission varies by auction house. Again, WS is a price scraper. Why are you not asking the auction houses to provide the final price rather than WS?
I’m not so sure. I recently saw a case of recent vintage Levet go for $120 after vig. You’d have to try pretty hard to find it at that price retail, because it’s all cheaper.
by that you mean you think people see the lot at $100, see that is $10 less than the best retail price of $110 and bid $105 but in reality are on the hook for $130 and didn’t realize it?
yes this would be easier - I don’t know how WMJ does it (as you can see results with or without commission). Though, when the sale is final, it is reported with commission so that might be why it is easier for WMJ to give the price two ways vs just one way.
What I understood from WS is they take in the catalogue from each auction house. The catalogue is listed without BP (which is the custom). The change, as I understand it from WS, would be they would now get a piece of data from the house that is the commission (say 24%) and then provide users with a view of the price with commission (and I think the ability to either toggle it or see it both ways in the view - not sure).
Since the actual price is hammer plus vig plus shipping, there is no possible way to provide accurate final price auction listings on WS. That is why filters exist. If only humans applied more filters.
Why is shipping an issue? Retailers don’t include shipping costs why should auction houses? As I said in an earlier post, commission costs are the same for everybody, but shipping varies depending on where the buyer is.
This is not brain surgery; all the auction house has to do is add the commission to the listing, when they send it to WS. it is basically a few clicks on the computer.
This is just a question of leveling the playing field, so we can compare like with like. A bottle of Burgundy at auction may be listed around $400 but when I added the commission the cost is around $500. And let’s not forget to insurance; one of the hidden costs of buying at auction, which adds around 2% more. How many retailers do you know charge insurance for wine? And it brings the cost of that bottle listed at $400 to $510.
Auction houses like the non commissioned price listings, it looks lower and means they are placed nearer the top of the page. And it is also pretty convenient for the ones with higher rates; much easier to hide in the small print. And WineSearcher acknowledged that getting them to comply would be difficult; but they can always refuse to list the wine if it is misleading, which clearly it is.
