What actually happens when you sell a cellar
Most people sell a collection once. Here is the whole process, the three routes and what each really nets — written down, because almost nobody in this trade publishes it.
Selling a cellar is something most people do exactly once, usually at a difficult moment: a move, a settlement, an estate, or simply the realisation that the drinking will not catch up with the buying. Doing it once means there is no chance to learn the process, which is precisely why so little of it is written down.
The three routes, and what separates them
Selling outright means a merchant buys the collection. One number, paid quickly, and the market risk transfers the moment the money does. Consignment means the merchant sells on your behalf for a commission: a higher ceiling, but you keep the risk and the cash arrives in pieces over months. Auction means a house sells to a room, on their calendar, after their fees.
The number that gets left out of auction maths
Auction houses charge a buyer's premium — commonly high teens to mid-twenties per cent — on top of the hammer price. It is described as the buyer's cost, and in a sense it is. But buyers bid to a total: if a bottle is worth 1,000 dollars all-in to the person in the room, a 22 per cent premium means the hammer lands near 820. Then the seller's commission comes out of that. The premium is charged to the buyer and paid by the seller, through a lower hammer.
This is not an argument against auction. For a young, famous, perfectly documented cellar, a competitive room can beat any merchant's cheque. It is an argument for doing the arithmetic before choosing, with every fee visible.
What we do, step by step
Send a list and a few phone photos — labels, and where the wine has lived. Within 48 hours you get a written offer, a real number rather than a range. Within 90 miles of Carlsbad we come and appraise the collection in the room it has been sitting in, free, because that room is the best provenance evidence there is. Further out we send prepaid, insured labels and can book the pickup.
Every bottle is inspected on arrival, photographed and graded, and enters a documented chain of custody. Payment goes out the day your wine passes. There is no bottle fee, no minimum, and no charge for being told the honest answer.
The collections other buyers decline
Mixed provenance, partial cases, single bottles, a cellar assembled over thirty years with no paperwork: these are the collections that get turned away, and they are usually the ones being sold by someone who needs the process to be straightforward. We will look, tell you plainly what is saleable and what is not, and explain how we valued it. Sometimes the honest answer is that a portion is worth drinking rather than selling. We would rather say so.
We are wine merchants, not financial advisors. We will value your wine as wine.