How To Sell Rare Whiskey

Whats Your Bottle Worth

For a free, no-obligation valuation of your bottles of whisky simply get in touch.

Send us images of your bottles on Whats App and we will get back with a valuation. Click the button above or send the images to 07852 247421

If you want to email over your images please send them to or click the button above.

Would you rather speak in person? Call the office on weekdays 9am to 5pm and we will be happy to help.

We Buy And Sell Whisky Collections & More

While it’s illegal to privately sell alcohol in Australia without a liquor license, Nicks Wine Merchants will buy your investment grade and collectable spirits and liqueurs… All inquiries should be directed to

Typically, it works like this: We buy your bottles outright for an agreed price and we retail the bottles at a price we think they’ll sell. You deliver the bottles to our Melbourne store. We pay you!

There are a few conditions to note before proceeding further:

1. While we chiefly deal in whisky, we’re happy to consider any spirit or liqueur that may have value.

2. Allow at least one week for a response. ** If you do not hear from us in this time, please check your junk/spam filter. **

3. Consignment terms are possible in some circumstances, in particular for extremely high value items.

4. Ideally, please include photos that show bottle standing upright, fill level, label and seal condition along with any boxes/certificates. Any significant damage should be noted. We may respond with requests for more photos.

5. All offers are based on you shipping to us at your expense and risk. All items are subject to a final condition check by us before payment is made. If the condition is found to be poorer than described, a new offer will be made.

6. If items are damaged in transit a new offer will be made or the original offer cancelled. Items will be returned at the sender’s expense. Nicks are not liable for any item damaged in transit.

9. All inquiries should be directed to

Want To Sell Your Whisky

WeBuyOldWhisky is a website dedicated to helping people sell their collections of old and rare whisky.

Our team is always looking to buy old and rare single malt or blended Whisky, Bourbon, Cognac, Armagnac, Rums and other Spirits either in the bottle or still in the cask. We are particularly interested in unique collections.

As a general rule we are always interested in buying any casks, old Macallan , Macallan Fine & Rare, Macallan Lalique decanters, Macallan blue box 30 year old, old Dalmore, Springbank, Ardbeg, anything old and sherry finish, any old decanters, Port Ellen and closed distilleries, commemorative bottlings, cask strength bottlings, anything pre-1950 and any Japanese whisky such as the Karuizawa, Yamazaki, Hibiki or Suntory brands.

We also purchase casks given the right conditions. If you are an owner of a cask and are considering selling your cask please visit our Sell Your Whisky section for more information.

Unfortunately, we are not interested in buying single bottles that have been recently released unless they are very rare and of high value.

If you have an item you think we may be interested in please feel free to contact us using the form available below. You can also check out our frequently asked questions section that may answer some queries that you have regarding this process.

We hope you enjoy our web site and look forward to hearing from you !

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Is It Legal To Sell Whiskey

Yes, it is legal to sell whiskey. Its also essential to follow all laws and regulations pertinent to your place of business. Just like other alcoholic beverages in the United States, whiskey can only be sold to adults that are 21 or older.

Whiskey can only be produced by a licensed manufacturer and only sold by a licensed dealer, distributor, or retailer. When selling whiskey across state lines, you must have a shipping license that corresponds to every state youre doing business in.

Why Sell Whisky Online Through Our Auction Coordination Service:

• Your bottle is marketed very widely to a specialist community of buyers.
• Fees are generally low: Whisky Auctioneer charge a 6% commission
• Astronomical prices can sometimes be achieved if two buyers get stuck in a bidding battle.

Specialist online auctions are a great place to sell your whisky if you are not risk-averse. They can achieve prices well over the market averages, but as a note of caution can sometimes also deliver underwhelming prices. The main drawback with auctions is that you have no control over the selling price unless you set a reserve, which has its own issues.

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How Much Is My Whisky Worth

As seasoned whisky buyers, our small team at The London Wine Cellar is well placed to value your whisky, whatever variety it may be. We provide a number of ways to get your bottles valued and subsequently sell your whisky online via our contact form, sending photographs to our dedicated WhatsApp number, or coming in to our East London cellar to discuss the sale in person. Selling to us offers several advantages we are able to provide a competitive, obligation-free quote quickly, we organise the collection of bottles to suit you and only send out via specialist couriers, and most importantly, well transfer your payment as soon as we have quality-checked your bottles. We currently have our eye on all old and rare bottles from Scotland, Ireland, Japan and the USA but are always keen to discuss your bottles, whatever they may be.

Great But How Does It Work

Super simple. Fill out the form below and let us know what youve got, in as much detail as possible. Upload some snaps, let us know where you got the bottle, and hit submit!

Our buying team will check out your bottle and get back in touch with their assessment in a couple of days. Theres no obligation to sell to us, and well be clear and transparent with our valuation.

If you want to sell and we like what youve got, its deal time!

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When Only The Highest Level Of Professionalism Will Do

With over a decade of experience in the fine and rare spirits business, and over 5 million dollars worth of whiskey purchased, Whiskey Buyers is the perfect place to turn your liquid gold into liquid assets in as little as 24 hours. We offer extreme professionalism coupled with an immense knowledge of the fine and rare whiskey, bourbon, and cognacmarket. Dont wait months to run through an auction, for a free evaluation. There is no collection too big or too small. From single bottles to entire inventories, we pay top dollar.

Top Tips For Collecting Whisky

Macallan is the most popular whisky among collectors according to a report from Rare Whisky 101.

Ardbeg , Bowmore, Highland Park and Laphroaig are in the top five based on the number and value of whisky’s sold at auction last year.

A whisky experts previously told The Sun the spirit is considered a safe investment, because even in the worst case, you’ll usually be able to sell a bottle at the same price you bought it in the first place.

Though as with any investment, there’s no guarantees and you should never invest money you can’t afford to lose.

Your average bottle of booze from the local off-licence or supermarket is unlikely to be worth any more than you paid, even if kept unopened for some time.

It is the rare bottles and special editions that you should look out for.

“Reputation for quality, scarcity and exclusivity are very important when it comes to single malt whisky.

Many leading distillers produce special limited editions of their very finest whisky, which become collectors items.”

The bottles you should watch for fall into four categories: the recently awarded whiskies, official bottles from popular distilleries, the discontinued bottles, or the ones that are not discontinued yet but will become harder to find soon.

The trick, according to the experts, is to identify fairly-priced limited edition bottles that are likely to rise in value once sold out.

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Top Tips For Selling Whisky Collections

Here are some tips from experts on how to get the most out of your tipple:

• Be patient: Wait for the right moment to buy or sell your booze.
• Do your research: To make good revenue it’s important you understand whisky and become a bit of an expert. You have to make the right choices and know what you’re buying in the first place.
• Where to start: Whisky Onlineand RareWhiskySite101 are among a number of websites looking to buy old and rare whiskies so make sure you take a look at them before buying or selling.People can also check more generalist whisky information websites such as scotchwhisky.com, Whisky Advocate or The Spirits Business – or subscribe to Whisky Magazine. Anne-Sophie also has her own website where she blogs about whisky: thewhiskylady.net.
• Keep the bottle in good conditions: Make sure you keep the boxes and keep your bottles in good condition. Whisky does not need the cool, cellar-like conditions often required for wines. But it needs to be kept at a constant level at room temperature and upright avoiding contact between the cork and the tipple inside. The value can drop dramatically if there is damage to the bottle or labelling or if the fill level drops, showing poor closing and evaporation.

It’s not just rare drinks that can mean you’re quids in.

You could earn hundreds of pounds from selling old toys and games, including Monopoly and Lego.

Attorneys General Across The Us Cracking Down On Illegal Secondary Market Online Sales Of Alcohol

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As the holiday season kicks into full gear more and more people will be trying to get their hands on that impossible to find bottle of bourbon, whiskey, tequila or whatever spirit their heart desires. Rather than arriving at the liquor store at 4am in 30° temperatures and standing in a line that wraps around the building many people choose to do their shopping from their easy chair by visiting their favorite website to search the secondary market to find that impossible to find hooch.

In that search many will turn to social media sites like Facebook, a bidding site like Ebay or an everything is for sale site like Craigslist. Any online purchase is buyer beware but when it comes to consumables theres additional risk. Its possible what you are buying is the real-deal but its also possible that bottle with the sealed cap is filled with a lesser product or one that had been adulterated to give the aroma and appearance of the real McCoy.

A quick online search shows things are easy to find online. The Pappy Van Winkle Collection for $15,000 or even an empty bottle of Pappy for $249? Hmm. Caveat emptor = buyer beware.

In an effort to help curb online sale of alcohol by non-licensed sites the National Association of Attorneys General sent letters to leading U.S. online vendors, asking them to undertake certain steps to curtail illegal alcohol sales online.

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How To Buy Spirits At Auction In 5 Easy Steps

1. CHOOSE A BOTTLE

• Its easy to find a whisky to buy at auction. Here are some search tips straight from the Whisky.Auction specialists:
• Use the SEARCH bar to type the name of the whisky you want to buy. For instance: Macallan or Ardbeg or Glenfiddich or Bowmore or Highland Park or Johnnie Walker
• Refine your search by category: click CHOOSE CATEGORIES and search for Scotch whisky or single malt whiskies or blends or Japanese whisky or rum
• To conduct the most thorough research and to ensure you dont miss a single bottle you can sort items alphabetically
• Whisky auction bargain hunters can search whisky by price
• You can also search by end time or combine any of the above to create your own bespoke old spirits search.

2. LOG IN / CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT

• Its easy to buy whisky online, just set up an online account on Whisky.Auction. The one-off registration fee of £5 enables you to bid on as many bottles and auctions as you like.
• Visit regularly. We are a global whisky auction and youll find hundreds of bottles, not just whisky, within every whisky sale.
• Or with just one click of the watch button you can create your own personal whisky watch list. Get a quick view of the whiskies you’d like to keep track of. If you bid on a bottle of whisky it is automatically added to your watch list.
• Register to buy/sell »

3. BID ON WHISKY ONLINE

5. PAY FOR YOUR WINNING BIDS

Selling Whisky Via An Online Broker

Selling your whisky via a licenced whisky broker is a legal alternative to selling via an online auction. A broker helps you find a buyer for your item in this case whisky and charges you a commission on the sale price of the bottle. It is therefore in the brokers interest to get you the best possible price.

Selling whisky through an online broker gives you much more control over the sale of your whisky compared to an auction. If you dont agree with the offer price you simply keep hold of your bottle and keep looking for a buyer.

We make the process of selling your bottle really simple. You just send in a few images of your bottle standing upright. We then forward the images to our clients and send you the highest offer we receive. The offers are without obligation so if the offer is not right for you then there is no need to proceed.

If you want to proceed then we send you out a contract and you send us your bottle. We even have a subsidised and fully insured courier service that you can use where we send specialist packaging material and a pre-paid returns label. We then complete the sale with the buyer and send you the proceeds minus our commission and courier charge if you use it via BACS.

We have hundreds of five-star reviews on Google, Yell and Facebook and are really proud of the level of customer service we provide.

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Develop A Relationship With Your Retailer

It is very important to form a relationship with your local stores. You will then know when special products are arriving. Retailers want to move product and if they know a collector is hot for a new bottling, then that person is going to be their first call. Eddie Russell, Master Distiller for Wild Turkey

Many Distilleries offer yearly releases that revolve around the same label and concept. If you find one of these you really like, find the release date and talk to your retailer and see if you can get a bottle. You probably wont be the only one asking, so its important to know your retailer. Brent Elliot, Master Distiller for Four Roses

If they know you and something new or unusual comes in, they will hold stuff for you and you will get the chance try it. Otherwise you just have to get lucky and walk in on the day they are putting out a one-off thats going to sell out. Brendan McCarron, Head of Maturing Whisky Stocks for Glenmorangie and Ardbeg

Has The Coronavirus Affected Bottle Selling Prices In 2021

There were some concerns at the start of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic that we would see a drop in bottle prices. However despite some distilleries stopping production the secondary market for rare bottles seems to have continued as normal.

As of April 2021 online auctions have continued to take place, online retailer continue to buy and sell and bottle prices seem relatively steady.

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Post Auction / Proceeds Transfer

Following the end of the auction, we will facilitate the transfer of legal ownership with the seller, the new buyer and the distillery. At this stage we ask that you are patient, as the legal transfer can take anything from 1 week to 3 months, depending on the new buyer location and the distillery processing time. Once we are satisfied that the legal transfer has completed, the auction proceeds will be transferred into your nominated account within 48 hours. During this stage we will be chasing both the buyer and distillery on your behalf to complete the legal transfer and conclude the sale as promptly as we can.

The Bourbon Gray Market

A couple of months ago FiveThirtyEight posted an article about the secondary market in the sneaker industry. Now, Im no sneakerhead but the article was extremely interesting and I couldnt help but draw comparisons from what is going on in the sneaker industry to the current bourbon market. The sneaker industry releases special edition shoes to which people camp out for, riot over and in general go a little too crazy over what is, in my mind, just a shoe. Sound familiar? Nike releases special edition Air Jordans which are by far the most popular and bring the highest secondary prices. However, there are other releases like the Lebrons, Kobes and KDs that also fetch multiples on MSRP on the secondary market.

Heres how I see the bourbon secondary shifting:

Like it or hate it limited edition bourbons are sold on the secondary market on sites like Bottle-Spot, Facebook groups and Craigslist every day. The mysterious bourbon flipper is the most hated figure in bourbon today. Cant find Pappy? Blame the flipper. Store increased their prices? Blame the flipper. Distilleries increasing prices? Blame the flipper. I think of a flipper as someone that doesnt even drink bourbon and purchases solely for resale. I think this is a very small percentage of the market but increasing. Whats also increasing is the bourbon opportunist The guy that is in to bourbon but can fund a year of purchases with the sale of one bottle of Pappy.

Whats the most expensive bottle right now?

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