Selling Port

[tomfez]

Up until my 21st Birthday my (exceptionally kind) Uncle gave me a bottle of vintage port each year. Unfortunately port isn't something that agrees with me any more!

I am looking to sell my remaining 18 bottles. All have been carefully stored though the labels are a little weathered. Some have messages from my Uncle on them; e.g. "For Thomas on his 15th Birthday".

Does anyone know how I'd go about selling this?

I have included a list below including the company name and the vintage.


4 x Taylor's Vintage Port 1980
1 x Graham's Vintage Porto 1975
1 x Graham's Vintage Port 1980
1 x Graham's Malvedos Vintage Port 1979
1 x Dow's Vintage Port 1980
1 x Dow's Vintage Port 1981
2 x Dow's Vintage Port 1983
1 x Dow's Vintage Port 1975
1 x Warre's Quinta da Cavadinha Vintage Port 1978
1 x Warre's Vintage Port 1980
1 x Warre's Vintage Port 1991
1 x Offley's Boavista Vintage Port 1977
1 x Smith Woodhouse & Co Ltd Vintage Port 1977
1 x Sandeman Vintage Port 1977

Many thanks

Tom

[John M]

Can you tell us where you are located?

[RAYC]

A very interesting and well-picked little selection for drinking - however, I suspect its re-sale value will be far lower than the potential enjoyment it could bring, so slightly unfortunate that port no longer agrees with you!

1 x Dow's Vintage Port 1981

Presumably this one is "Late Bottled Vintage"?

You will get responses in this thread i'm sure, but please read the standard advice below and let us know a bit more!

Standard advice to would-be vendors

Some new members of ThePortForum.com join because they have a bottle, or some bottles, for sale. So we have jointly composed this standard advice, that covers the most frequently-seen situations. Of course, some more specific advice might follow after.

First, hello and welcome. We welcome such visitors, from the likes of whom we have bought bottles and cases in the past.

Second is less good. Your bottles are unlikely to be worth a lot. Selling at auction, through one of the big auction houses, is likely to net you about half the retail price. (Auction prices are less than retail which is why wine merchants buy at auction, and there is the seller’s commission and transport costs.) Selling to a wine merchant is likely to net you about the same, half retail. As a guide, vintage port (rather than LBV, Crusted, or other types), of a good name, from a good year, four or so decades old, of good provenance, might be as much as £100 a bottle. If not all these ducks are in a row, it will be less. So this will not pay for a car or a holiday: sorry.

So our usual advice is not to sell.

If you were given these bottles as a christening present, we advise that you hold them. When you are thirty or forty years old it will give you great pleasure to open these bottles with friends bottles you will have owned since you were a toddler. (Recall Alan Clark on Heseltine: ‟he had to buy all his furniture”. Your friends will have had to buy their own wine; yours came to you as a child.) Selling will net you small money; holding and drinking later can give you great pleasure.

If you are the father of the vendor, a teenager with non-vinous uses for money, then you are probably the best purchaser. Buy, and share with your offspring when they are old enough to regret having sold.

But if, despite all this, you still want to sell, then we might be the best purchaser. Please describe what you have, and post a picture of the bottle or of the unopened case. When did you acquire it, and where has it been stored? And where is it now located: which country (UK? USA? Other), and approximately where within that?

[tomfez]

Can you tell us where you are located?

Apologies!

I live in Goring on Thames in the UK!

[tomfez]

A very interesting and well-picked little selection for drinking - however, I suspect its re-sale value will be far lower than the potential enjoyment it could bring, so slightly unfortunate that port no longer agrees with you!

1 x Dow's Vintage Port 1981

Presumably this one is "Late Bottled Vintage"?

You will get responses in this thread i'm sure, but please read the standard advice below and let us know a bit more!

Sorry that should have read as 1991 rather than 81!

Many thanks for the information, unfortunately I don't have the space to safely store it (I have a very very inquisitive 1 and 1/2 year old who loves to shake and break things!), in addition to the monumental hangovers it gives me. Thus selling seems my only real option!

[DRT]

Tom,

How do you fancy one last hangover? Perhaps your uncle could also join the fun?

What you have presented to us looks like a very nice tasting of mature Vintage Port. If we saved the duplicates we would have 14 different Ports, which is just enough for 14 strong men in one sitting.

We could even teach you how to drink Port and not have a hangover

Let us know if this is of interest. If it is the boys from can have a behind the scenes huddle to come up with a group offer to buy your bottles and do what needs to be done with them.

Derek

[RAYC]

Tom,

How do you fancy one last hangover? Perhaps your uncle could also join the fun?

What you have presented to us looks like a very nice tasting of mature Vintage Port. If we saved the duplicates we would have 14 different Ports, which is just enough for 14 strong men in one sitting.

We could even teach you how to drink Port and not have a hangover

Let us know if this is of interest. If it is the boys from can have a behind the scenes huddle to come up with a group offer to buy your bottles and do what needs to be done with them.

Derek

This is an excellent idea and would be a fitting fate for your bottles!