If you are looking to sell whisky bottles then this article runs through the different ways to sell and the benefits and limitations of each. If you prefer you can also watch the below video.
If you want a free valuation for your bottle and professional advice on how to sell it for the most money please get in touch: [email protected]
The 5 ways to sell bottles of whisky:
If you have bottles to sell then most important thing to know when you are looking to sell a bottle of whisky in the UK is that you cannot sell your whisky yourself. This means you cannot sell whisky on eBay and Facebook. To sell alcohol in the UK you either need to get a personal and premises license, or you can sell through someone who has them already. The five main avenues for selling are via:
- Specialist online auction
- Traditional auction house
- Whisky brokers
- Retailers
- Mark Littler Ltd Shop
Finding out what your whisky is worth?
Before you go about selling your bottle you probably want to get an idea of how much your bottle is worth. Once you know how much your bottle is worth you will have an idea of which of the 5 methods above is most suitable for you. We can help with this if you email a picture of your bottle standing upright to [email protected].
The different routes to sell your bottles can take different times and also have different potential returns.
Specialist online auction
One of the most popular ways to sell is via specialist online whisky auctions, which have been around since the 1990s. They are good for reaching a very specialist, international audience who are focused on purchasing whisky. They have low selling fees and there is the potential to get more for your bottle due to a bidding war.
However specialist auctions are also involve a degree of uncertainty about pricing, plus you are usually responsible for shipping your bottle, there are often lots of small fees and finally payment is usually 3 – 4 weeks after the auction finishes.
This selling strategy tends to suit lower value bottles around £1,000 or less that you can afford to take a risk on.
Traditional auction house
Traditional auction houses are the likes of Sotheby’s, Bonhams etc that have physical auctions where you can bid in person. One of the biggest benefits is reaching an affluent audience who may not necessarily know they want to buy whisky yet. They produce high quality promotional material and can generate very high hammer prices as a result.
On the other hand all of the marketing, physical sale room etc comes with a cost and they typically have much higher commissions for both sellers and buyers.
These auctions tend to be most suited to selling very high value prestige collections.
Whisky brokers
Brokers like Mark Littler Ltd are like estate agents; we don’t buy the items but we help you find a buyer and coordinate the sale, from fees to transport. A broker’s job is to help you get the best price for your bottle, often through a private sale.
One of the biggest benefits of a broker is that they can help you organise everything. For example we can help with everything from valuing your bottle to completing the sale, and have a fully insured courier service for example, so you can get the bottles too us. Contacting us is risk free as all offers are no obligation, private offers provide certainty of price, we have a fully insured courier service, a large base of passionate collectors and generally payment can get to you within a week of us receiving your bottle.
Our fees are very competitive compared to an auction house, but the private bid style of our offers there isn’t a chance for auction fever to push prices up in a bidding war.
A good broker will be able to advise you on the best way of selling. At Mark Littler we provide multiple options, providing you with an idea of what you can achieve using the different routes to sale, whether that be privately or getting your bottle to the best auction house. High value bottles worth over £1,000, and large value collections are particularly suited to selling through a broker.
Retailers
Selling your bottle direct to a retailer or dealer is not as common as it used to be. It has many similar benefits to selling through a broker, in that it tends to be a fixed price, is low risk and usually has quick payment terms.
The cons are the frustration of the vast difference between their retail prices and their offers. This difference is standard in the industry, and covers tax as well as the retailer’s overheads, but it can be annoying to see it laid out in front of you. Also shipping the bottle is usually completely down to you.
If you are after a very quick sale then this could be the best option for you.
Mark Littler Ltd Shop
In 2020 we launched the Mark Littler Ltd shop to address the gap between auction and retail values. The shop helps you sell your whisky for the highest price by getting you over auction price but still being the cheapest retail.
We are able to undercut other retailers because we are selling the whisky on your behalf, which means there is no VAT added. The Mark Littler shop means you can market your bottle in a retail environment to get higher prices for your bottle.
Selling this way helps you to achieve a higher price than auction but in a risk free environment. You can still use our insured courier service and we market your bottle worldwide and can ship internationally.
This option can take longer than other avenues and as such it is most suited to higher value bottles that you are comfortable taking your time to sell.
Bottles most suited to selling through our online shop are high value individual bottles, large collections of premium bottles as well as unique collections and verticals.
