A couple of current offers

If you’re not currently on our mailing list you may have missed out on a couple of great offers we currently have out:

Rhone Bin Ends

Earlier this year we picked up the remnants of a deliciousy Rhone-centric cellar which had belonged to a real connoisseur of this area. We have auctioned the majority of it off over the past few months but still have a few bits and pieces left.

We’ve decided to offer these bin ends out at a special discount. All prices are at least 5% or more below the next best UK price and if you buy all the remaining stock of any given wine we’ll take a bit more off..!

‘Non-primeur’ Bordeaux

‘Non-Primeur’
▶adjective & adverb. colloq.
‘Non-Primeur’ refers to the process of purchasing wines available for immediate delivery and in place of futures for unfinished wines which are still lying in barrel.

Advantages of purchasing ‘non-primeur’ include:

• Price: Vintages purchased ‘non-primeur’ tend to be cheaper than more recent vintages. E.g.

  Moulin St Georges 1995 (RP 90): £395 DP
  Moulin St Georges 2009 (RP 88-90): £410 DP

  Haut Brion 2001 (NM 95+): £3600 DP
  Haut Brion 2009 (NM 96-98): £7600 IB

• Delivery: Wines are available for immediate delivery rather than having to wait for 2-3 years.
• Cashflow: Stock can be consumed the day of delivery rather than incurring holding costs whilst waiting for a wine to reach maturity.
• Certainty: These wines have been tasted in bottle and are an accurate reflection of an estate’s wine rather than being an unfinished ‘assemblage’.

Our ‘non-primeur’ offer is comprised of vintages between 1982-2005 and includes a good number of 1995s & 1996s – both of which were heralded as excellent vintages when they first came on to the market, a claim which time has subsequently shown to be valid. We also have a small quantity of First Growths from 1982 and 2001 which look like excellent value in comparison to more recent vintages.

All the wines are offered DP, including VAT and are available for immediate delivery. All offered subject to being unsold. Usual terms of business apply. Orders can be placed by email to sales@bidforwine.co.uk.

See all Rhone Bin Ends.
See all ‘Non-primeur’ Bordeaux.

A new take on wine investment…

As readers of our blog may have seen in the press recently, Bid for Wine is currently seeking investment to expand operations. As such I felt it appropriate to give a full, official, explanation here.

Just over three years ago we set up Bid for Wine to challenge the brokers and the auction houses. We aimed to offer the best of both worlds along with a slimmer fee structure and the opportunity for users to trade directly with one another via our platform – the perfect way to dispose of professionally stored stock or odd/surplus bottles without the hassle of using an intermediary.

Now, in April 2011, our business is in a strong position – £1m of sales are projected for this year, we have recognition and referrals from many sectors of the trade – both UK and internationally – and a fledgling operation in Singapore which offering customers access to this valuable but relatively unheralded section of the Far Eastern market (and of course, in reverse, access for Singaporean customers to mature European stock).

Our trading record over the past three years has shown that we have an excellent business model offering services which are much in demand. Furthermore our current position has been achieved with relatively few resources (only one full time member of staff – myself – and limited private funding). We’re fielding ever increasing numbers of enquiries about selling through us but with our current resources, business structure and management team we’re limited in the volume of stock we can handle. It’s because of this that we’ve been undertaking preliminary talks with potential partners and investors who share our vision and belief in the business.

We have a number of ambitious plans but initially intend to focus our efforts in two core areas in the near future: improving the experience for customers selling in or buying from our monthly sales, and leveraging historical sales and transaction data to suggest guide prices for people using our ‘direct sales’ option.

Bid for Wine will continue to host regular online auctions as well as monthly sales of consigned stock – often the perfect place to pick up sensibly priced wines close to their drinking window.

Paying for Fees/Purchases

We’ve recently had a few people enquiring about how to pay for lots and the details of the card used to pay monthly fees on the site so it seems sensible to explain here.

Monthly Fees:
Monthly fees (listing fees and commission for lots sold) are billed on an invoice sent to you at the end of each month. 14 days later these are charged to the card you last used to pay for purchases/fees on Bid for Wine (see s. 24 & 25 of our user agreement). Occassionally collection of this payment will fail (there are several reasons why this might happen). In these cases you will be emailed and asked to make payment manually. In other cases, you might want to change the card we take payment from – in which case this can be done by paying your invoices before the 14th of the month.

The Process:

1. On the home page click ‘My Bid for Wine’. You will be asked to log in to your account.



2. Once logged in, visit ‘Invoices’
3. Click ‘Pay Selected Invoices by Card’ (note that you also have to do this if you wish to change card details!)



4. You will be taken to our Payment Processor’s secure site and asked to choose the card type you wish to use. Click on the logo.



5. You will then be asked to fill in details. Follow the steps to complete the payment.

If you continue to experience problems, you may find it helpful to clear any cookies on your computer before trying again. In Firefox this can be done via ‘Tools’—>’Options’—>’Privacy’—->’Remove individual cookies’ and in Internet Explorer via ‘Tools’—>’Internet Options’—>’General’ and then clicking ‘Delete’ next to Browsing History.

Changes to our user agreement

From time to time we review our user agreement to make sure it still provides everyone using Bid for Wine with the protection and assurances they need. In light of this we’re going to be making the following changes which will take effect on 7th January 2011. No action is required (unless you’re not happy with the changes – in which case, please contact us to close your account.

The changes we will be making are as follows and highlighted in italics:

General Terms of Use
Misuse of Bid for Wine

15.
….
t. You may not email bidders in a currently open auction being run by a different seller, offering similar or the same items at any price level. Shill bidding (when you or someone you know bids to artificially drive the price up) is strictly forbidden. You may not use an alias to place bids on your auction for any reason nor are you allowed to bid on auctions run by family members, housemates, employees or others with whom you have a pre-existing relationship. You may purchase from them via other formats. Breaches of this condition may lead to referral to law enforcement or other authorities.
….
x. Without prejudice to clauses 13 [Bid for Wine may refuse our services to anyone at any time, in our sole discretion.]. and 15 b) [b. circumvent or manipulate Bid for Wine's fee structure, the billing process, or fees owed to Bid for Wine;] & s) [s. attempt to circumvent the Bid for Wine system by conducting transactions off the Bid for Wine system;] above, Bid for Wine reserves the right to charge commission and fees at our usual rates on any transactions (whether or not conducted via the medium of Bid for Wine) between users who have traded with one another on the site in the previous six months.
….

T. is necessary due to incidents such as this whilst X. is intended to deal with the very small number of individuals who use Bid for Wine as a ‘shop window’ to sell their stock without paying fees (understandably our staff like to be sure there’s money coming in to pay them..!)

Finally we are making a minor clarification regarding consignments to us:

Terms and Conditions of Shipping, Storage & Collection
Insurance and Risk

10. Items consigned to Bid for Wine are insured by Bid for Wine from their arrival at EHD until their sale. Whilst we are able to arrange collections of wine on behalf of consignors, unless otherwise explicitly agreed in writing, shipments are not insured until arrival at our warehouse.

Shipping Lots for Christmas

We have several cut-off dates for shipments before Christmas depending on where the wine is lying (specified under ‘Shipping details’ at the bottom of each listing – see right).

16TH DECEMBER UPDATE: Our Couriers have advised us that due to snow they are unable to guarantee any that any stock collected by them from Monday 20th onwards will be delivered before Christmas. Our apologies for this.

For stock at EHD

-All requests for UK delivery must be received by Sunday 19th December at the latest.
-Requests to collect stock can be processed up until 1pm on 21st December.
-Requests for overseas shipments must be received by 12th December.

For Stock at BWA Logistics

-All requests for UK delivery must be received by Sunday 19th December at the latest.
-Requests to collect stock can be processed up until 1pm on 21st December.
-Requests for overseas shipments must be received by 12th December.
For Stock at Stevenage

-For UK delivery at our usual rates, requests for delivery from Stevenage must be with us by 12AM on Friday 10th. Orders placed between 10th and 19th December will be processed but may incur a delivery surcharge if required before 24th December.
-Requests for overseas shipments must be received by 10th December.
-Requests for delivery placed after 21st December will be processed from Tuesday 4th January 2011.

New Competition: The 12 Days of Christmas

Between now and 12th December we’ll be running a special competition – win a bottle of fine wine for each of the 12 Days of Christmas!

How does it work?

Well each day we’ll hide a bottle on our auction list and it’ll be available to buy for the nominal price of £1. Search through the list (you’ll have to do this manually as we’ll only give a clue as to what the wine is) and once you’ve found it, it’s a race to be the lucky buyer. We’ll be announcing when the bottle goes up via Twitter so if you want to be the first, you might want to follow us!

What are the prizes?

We hold very little stock but occasionally have bin ends which we’ve bought from clients – we’re digging in to these for prizes as well as sourcing a few interesting bottles from other places… They’ll range from Sauternes to Barossa Shiraz and everything in between. We’ll be announcing the day’s prize once it’s been found and claimed.

How do I get hold of my prize?

If you’re based in London it’ll be available to collect from 12th Dec. Alternatively we’ll give free delivery within the M25 or can ship at cost within the UK.

Wine Investment Cold Calls – a Warning

I’d like to draw attention to what appears to be a new scam in the often murky world of wine investment (see Jim Budd’s Investdrinks Blog) – namely hijacking the name of an established business. The fraudsters then use the name to sell wines for investment, presumably with the intention of pocketing investors’ funds and leaving the legitimate business taking the heat.

I became aware of the ‘scam’ yesterday evening after I was emailed by a gentleman wishing to complain about several cold calls made to him, ostensibly by one of my employees. The caller was apparently rude and persistent.

The email was a surprise and puzzled me for several reasons:

• Firstly we do not solicit for business by cold-calling.
• Secondly we have no employee with the name I was given.
• Thirdly I am deeply sceptical about wine investment in general. This stems from regularly having to auction off stock at for people who have been mis-sold wines as being suitable for investment and have then seen the deal gone sour. I would always advise anyone considering putting their money in to wine to look beyond the sales pitch and, if still convinced, only to purchase wines as from serious, long standing ‘blue chip’ merchants.

I am sure that we at Bid for Wine (www.bidforwine.com) are not the only ones who are having our name misused in this manner and I would urge the trade to be vigilant and anyone being contacted by cold-callers selling wine as an investment to take details and pass them on to the police. In addition, if anyone encounters our name in association with such a sales pitch I would be very grateful for any information!