Vote: Are you for or against the resale of beer on eBay?
With Firestone Walker’s interesting press release from yesterday in mind, what better time to just put this question out there?
Since the polls have been rocking here lately, here’s another:
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I’ve bought beer off Ebay (Westy 12). And in general, I’m OK with selling beer on Ebay (or wherever) to let people who can’t show up at a certain place the chance to taste something special.
I don’t have a secret plan to solve the problem of a very limited supply with a huge demand, and a lot of craft brewers are finding themselves in this situation. Maybe a combination of different approaches would be better: a third auctioned off (profits to charity, or maybe dedicated to a brewery expansion, etc.), a third sold first-come, first-served, and a third sold by lottery.
Let the free market dispose of whatever product it wants. It’s beer drinkers who sell them, and beer drinkers who pay the outrageous prices they themselves set.
I think its BS. Ebay knows damn well that the beer will be drank and not “kept” as a collectible and it also directly violates many states laws on who can legally SELL beer, much less the transfer or direct shipment issues of beer. If the brewer themselves follows many of the rules each state puts on them, john q public shouldn’t be able to skirt around. On the other hand if someone is simple enough to spend ridiculous amounts of money on beer just because its not normally sold in their own state that the jokes on them. Its beer morons, not wheat in a post apocalyptic world.
There’s nothing wrong with selling what belongs to you. I think the eBay trend took off with the first release of Black Tuesday in late 2009, early 2010. I also think eBay has lead to the demise of beer trading. People try to trade based on an auctions final price. While that price reflects the bottle’s highest price, it does not reflect the true market value. The auction prices should not set a precedent on trade value, but unfortunately that seems to be the case.
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