Bid for Wine

Biography

Bid for Wine, the online wine auction site will allow users to buy and sell wine directly from and to one another via the website. The site will be ideal for trading fine wines, rare wines, bin ends and limited production wines. It was started by Spenser Hilliard (a Barrister) and Lionel Nierop (an escapee from Management Consultancy). Both are avid wine enthusiasts and regular attendees at auctions and it was their experiences there, as well as conversations with other enthusiasts that highlighted this business opportunity.

Currently there are two main options if you have wine to sell. The first option is to sell via a broker, a route that is expensive for the service provided – would you pay 10–20% of the selling price of your car to the local paper for listing it? Furthermore, broking is only feasible for the small proportion of rare wines that we have in our cellars. Few brokers would be interested in odd bottles of Cru Bourgeois or Bourgogne Blanc, though many connoisseurs would happily buy them for Sunday drinking or restaurants choose them as a mature offering for their customers. Bid for Wine will finally bring liquidity to these otherwise illiquid assets.

The second option is via the traditional auction house – here lots may have to be delivered (consigned) to the auctioneer pre-sale and often sellers cannot set a reserve price. In addition, buyers premiums and delivery charges add extra costs to lots, meaning buyers keep their bidding low. These factors, combined with poor promotion of auctions can mean that prized wines sell for far less than their real market value. Add in commission and sellers may end up receiving as little as 70% of the final selling price of an already underpriced lot.

In contrast, Bid for Wine will offer access to a nationwide, possibly international, audience, no consignment, low commission rates and the option to set a reserve price. This gives a low hassle, low risk way to auction your wines which can still offer buyers a good deal whilst ensuring you get a fairer price and lower selling fees.