Online Brokers
More of the wine brokers are enhancing their services by making it easier for consumers to consign their wines. This is the same model as the online wine auctions. This is a fairly slow process, but is a good method of selling wine.
Wine Commune is a case study in consumers taking risk. There was a time when there was suspicion that individuals were using the service to sell wine directly to each other, which is illegal. In 2002 and again in 2004, the ATF (Bureaus of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) who have now morphed into the TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau), had a legal tussle with Wine Commune and subpoenaed the records of the names of the people selling wine on the site. Wine Commune provided the information, and a number of sellers who had sold over a couple of cases, were sent a letter stating that they needed to contact the agency, and pay an annual license of $250. The outcome was that Wine Commune took down their forums, which had been full of angry sellers, some sellers stopped selling, a few signed up for the appropriate licenses, and Wine Commune beefed up its consignment operation. Wine Commune today is thriving and is the largest of the online wine brokers.
In addition most of the wine forums have occasional offers on their boards made by individuals ‘thinning’ their cellars and seeing if they can get buyers among the other forum members.
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