For The Love Of Port

From a friend of mine ...

Hello Roy,

I hope this finds you well. I finally got the 14-bottles of 1994 QdNN listed with Heritage Auctions. The URLs are

For the 12 bottle lot:

http://wine.ha.com/itm/port-madeira-and ... ion-071515

For the 2 bottle lot:

http://wine.ha.com/itm/port-madeira-and ... ion-071515

Hopefully that is of interest to your FTLOP community. Thanks for your help.


Kindest Regards,

IMHO, reasonable prices at the reserve. Can anyone who has purchased from Heritage comment on them as an auction house in general, and also how prices end up relative to reserves and estimated ranges?

I will preface what I am about to say with the disclaimer that I know a former high up in their wine auction department and her husband, they are often in my drinking circle. She no longer works at Heritage.

After she left the customer service went way down. I've read the same from at least two others online. After she left I had what appeared to be ghost bids placed right after I placed bids on lots where no one had bid on them for days (they don't send email notices for lots your watching immediately) so either a very weird coincidence or.... In the last year I've not had any issues mentioned and things appear to have improved.

Their shipping and website is confusing and in general a royal pain in the back side, but better than some other wine auctions. I'm lucky I can just pick up at their office in Beverly Hills instead of shipping.

Bids tend to get a lot of play near the end and prices often end up higher than retail. So as I always say, place your best bid and walk away if it exceeds it.

IMO, Heritage is very good at checking for fakes and such and is one of the best when it comes to auction houses.

Heritage is well known in the rare coin and bullion market. I have bought several items at a fixed price from them with zero problems. My problem with auction houses in general are now more how much they are charging on both sides of the transaction.

Edward J wrote:My problem with auction houses in general are now more how much they are charging on both sides of the transaction.

Agreed, which is why I only shop auctions when the prices appear to be pretty insanely low.

Which, granted, these appear to be for starters. But I doubt they'll stay that low, at which point 20%+ (or whatever they charge) adds up quickly.

Glenn E. wrote:Which, granted, these appear to be for starters. But I doubt they'll stay that low, at which point 20%+ (or whatever they charge) adds up quickly.

That's why I was asking about how things end up relative to the estimates. When I look at winebid, end prices pretty much are where they start, maybe with a few bids. With Zachy's I've bought below the estimate, and regularly see things in the estimate, and sometimes they go higher. But when I bid on bottles at Leland Little based on the estimate, I had absolutely no chance. The estimates were way low and everything went well above them. I could comment on some of the other auction houses, but these are kind of samples of the different behaviors I've seen.