Tag: e-bay

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The Firkin for September 2011

Above is the third of three new logos designed for me by Charissa Santos. If you like the look of it, check out her site HEREstory on the black market for craft beer.

What caught my attention were the last two paragraphs, “Last September, Russian River released Framboise for a Cure, a raspberry-flavored beer that it sold for $12 per bottle to raise money for a local breast cancer treatment center. The beer sold out in a day, and soon somebody sold a bottle on eBay for $400. Then someone else put one up for sale. “We contacted that person,” Cilurzo says, “and we said, ‘This is absolutely ridiculous, because we donated 100 percent of this for charity.’”

The seller didn’t budge. “The guy said, ‘I have to support my habit somehow.’ ” Not heroin or cocaine. He meant craft beer.”

I do not think that I am going out on a limb to say that this guy will not be served good beer in the afterlife and that he forfeited ALL of his good karma as well.

Anyone who thinks that working the e-bay alcohol sale loophole to their benefit need to be stopped. And it shouldn’t fall onto a brewer to scour the listings and devise strategies to get a limited amount of beer to the maximum amount of people. E-Bay needs to forbid the selling of beer unless it is done by the brewery or the brewery’s distributor. Or if they wanted to go all “Leverage” on these sellers, they could allow the sale to go through but divert all but the original cost of the beer to the intended charity. Do that enough and people will stop.

But this wink-wink “collectible” rule would only benefit these sellers if there are people buying. So. Here is my plea to all those in the beer world who are dying to try the “it” beer of the moment. STOP! Get on the internet, befriend people in other parts of the country and trade with them if you cannot live without Pliny the Younger or Black Tuesday.

Yes, those are excellent beers but American in 2011 is filled with great beer everywhere and I will bet that the fresh beer at your local will be BETTER than a PtY of dubious provenance. And if that doesn’t halt your craving then fly out to California or to Indiana or Minnesota and get the beer there. If you are buying overpriced beer, then a plane ticket isn’t that much more expensive.

The upshot of this? I want the brewers brewing. Not playing police.

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E-Bay

A truly fascinating study (with quite a few economic terms that I had to look up) was posted on RateBeer regarding auctioning of rare beer on E-bay.

What riled me up was right up front. E-bay policy or non-policy. Here is the summary according to the post:
1) The value of the item is the collectible container, not its contents.
2) The container has not been opened and any incidental contents are not intended for consumption.
3) The item is not available at any retail outlet, and the container has a value that substantially exceeds the current retail price of alcohol in the container.
4) The seller will take all appropriate steps to ensure that the buyer is of lawful age in the buyer’s and seller’s jurisdiction (generally 21 years of age).
5) Buyers and sellers both ensure that the sale complies with all applicable laws and shipping regulations.

All I can say is that E-bay might strain a muscle in their effort to look the other way. What a blatant way to say that we want the commission fee and none of the legal problems. I don’t know who wins the crass capitalism award more. E-bay or the sellers.

And all of this could be minimized with a simple national law that standardizes alcohol shipments between states. That way E-bay and other online sites, including the brewer could sell without worrying that they were “against the law”. The market would have an increase in sellers and that might push the prices below what makes it worthwhile for the rare beer seller who is it in for profit and not the taste of the beer.

Have any of you bought beer from E-bay? I would like to know what the experience was like.