Wine Buying on EBay

I quite accidentally came upon a wine on bid at EBay, and IF it has been properly stored it would be a tremendous bargain. Does anybody have any experience purchasing individual bottles there?

Other relevant info: The person has only 2 feedback comments as a buyer, and none as a seller. The bottle is pictured, with a closeup of the label.

What are your thoughts, particularly (but not limited to) those with EBay wine-buying experience.

Thanks, and yes, I'm a newbie. I wanted to make sure my first question was as ignorant as possible, so I could only go uphill from here. And special thanks to Robin, who went through several attempts to fix my log in. I can't imagine her disappointment once she starts reading my blatherings.

D,
I have no experience buying or selling on eBay, so will not offer an opinion. OTOH, I'd like to welcome a Hoosier to the board. As far a Robin being concerned about blatherings I don't see that as an issue. He deals with it in a very accepting manner.
Bill Paumen

Your bargain could just as easily be money down the drain. There's just no way of knowing if the sellers description is correct.
If I were to buy wine from ebay, it would only be from an established seller, with a previous record of selling wine. Check out the history for earlier sales, read the comments, contact the buyers and ask them if they were happy with their purchase.

Daniel K wrote

There's just no way of knowing if the sellers description is correct.

Fortunately, the auction includes a picture, so I can rely on the description IF the whole thing is not an intentional fraud or the wine has been stored poorly. I guess if I post the following I really will find out just how many here are willing to take a shot at wine on EBay.

[img]http://i10.ebayimg.com/07/i/000/83/52/75f1_3.JPG[/img]

I truly appreciate the advice. I might be willing to take a SMALL flyer on this one, but only after contacting the seller to ask how it has been stored.

Redwinger, thanks for the kind welcome. And thanks for the clarification as well. Much appreciated.

I quite accidentally came upon a wine on bid at EBay, and IF it has been properly stored it would be a tremendous bargain. Does anybody have any experience purchasing individual bottles there?

My recollection is that eBay some years ago banned the sale of alcohol in its auctions in the US. If true, the auction may not survive the scrutiny of the Powers That Be anyway. And to support what others have already said, when buying wine on auction, provenance is everything: a poorly stored wine isn't worth the shipping costs IMO.

Greetings from another resident of the Hoosier state,
Mark Lipton

[Jenise]

Mr or Miss Honig,

As someone who buys a lot of wine at auctions, and who buys things occasionally on eBay, I have to say I'd be leery of buying wine itself on ebay. People with good wine to sell would usually go a wine only site where they have a better chance of higher hammer prices. Though well meaning friends have occasionally brought ebay bottles to my attention, I wouldn't buy: a seller who doesn't know enough to sell on a wine site probably doesn't know enough to not put the wines next to the heater.

No experience with wine specifically on ebay, but I DO know that if you pay with paypal you have 1 month to withdraw your funds in the event the merchandise is fraudulent, or the seller "cuts and runs" and you don't get anything at all.

In addition, ebay does allow for the sale of wine [and wine only] on their website, but there are several hoops to jump through just like regular wineries. They must be preapproved and comply with all state and federal shipping laws.

Given the newness of the ebay user having only a couple reviews, I'd steer clear of it unless it was a WOW deal that you couldn't resist, even with the potential of getting screwed.


First post, been lurking as I'm just learning, but this is something I could contribute to.

...They must be preapproved and comply with all state and federal shipping laws.
First post, been lurking as I'm just learning, but this is something I could contribute to.

Hi Ryan,
Welcome!
I'm curious as to how eBay would assure compliance with shipping laws?? Assuming eBay does have an effective way to monitor compliance then M/M Honig will need a delivery address in a more wine friendly state than Indiana (felony)
Curleyt

[Jenise]

I'd steer clear of it unless it was a WOW deal that you couldn't resist, even with the potential of getting screwed.

Good advice, as buying at auction always has some risk attached (though I've had very very little bad luck myself). Oh, and welcome out of lurkdom, Ryan.

My business has offices in Michigan and Wisconsin, and we have inter-office mail

At least the wine's on it's side.

At least the wine's on it's side.

LOL. I was wondering how they attached the bottle to the wall.
BP

The rule for eBay is that only licensed wine shops can sell. If the seller is not a wine shop, the auction is in violation of the Terms of Service and might get cancelled anyway.

However, the feedback is more troubling. Who wants to risk being the first person to buy from a seller?

Walt

At least the wine's on it's side.

Just the way the camera is pointed... take a look near the bottom of the bottle... it's standing upright on a gas stove.

D,

Hoosiers unite! On this board we are small in number to big in... uh... Hoosierness! Plus, we can take solace in the fact that we're not from Kentucky, which is more that some of our moderators can say.

If you do end up purchasing the wine it's hard telling what you will run into trying to get it shipped here. It's still a huge mess. Less than 50% of the e-merchants I've queried are willing to ship to our fair state. I would probably take a pass on the e-bay approach.

I was willing to take a tiny flyer on this, but have (I think thankfully) have been outbid, and will not chase it any further. Thank you all for what I am sure is great advice.

I have gotten both great deals and defrauded on Ebay. At some point part of the sport can be to try to get what appears to be a major bargain. Many times their is something wrong with the product, eg it is a second or somehow damaged returned product. I actually got major deal on a diamond ring of all things. I bought things that never showed up and the seller disappeared back to China.

I have participated in forum like this one on ebay, complaining about being ripped off. In general if one only bids on items sold by seller with a 99% or greater feedback rating for 100 or more transactions, then you will likely have a good experience.

I actually had rather good luck buying wine on eBay back in 2002. They had two eBay wine shops at the time.

One seemed to offer overstocks, which could be purchased at very attractive prices. I recall seeing the bottom feeders (i.e., term I used for those folks, who put in minimum bids on everything and then hoped to get lucky) get lots of white wines at rediculously low prices.

The other dealt with more premium wines, whose prices weren't all that attractive, especially after factoring in the shipping.

Both of these eBay stores had pretty good customer feedback, and I don't recall any problems with any of the wines I purchased. The only real issue I recall, was the desire by people to have multiple purchases combined into a single shipment to save money.

I noticed a new eBay wine shop a few months ago, and looked at there offerings. Nothing listed really appealed to me, so I lost interest in tracking their offerings.

-- Clark