26 Sep How consigning works…
Are you sitting on wine you’re thinking about selling? We’re going to step away from our current Single Vendor Auction to let those who are curious know about the consignment process.
Once a potential vendor has gotten in touch with us (or we’ve gotten in touch with them if they have been referred to us by one of our clients or someone else in the industry) we appraise the wines and research the wines, vintages, reviews, drinking windows and, of course, prices. If you’re a new vendor we may also require proof of how they have been cellared. If wines are well and truly over the hill or have not been properly cared for we will turn down either individual bottles or full lots. Once the vendor has approved our appraisal they are sent a vendor contract which outlines all of our terms and conditions.
To note, here at The Wine Auction Room we don’t just sell expensive wines. In fact we have huge demand for wines in good condition across the price spectrum and have recently seen exceptional prices for the likes of Te Mata Awatea, Brookfields Hillside Syrah and Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir.
At this point, wines will be shipped to The Wine Auction Room where the wines will be inspected and cataloged by our director and auctioneer Reece before being entered into upcoming auctions. We inspect each bottle thoroughly and wines that don’t cut the mustard will be shipped back to their owners, likewise we are also New Zealand’s first accredited members of WineFraud.com which allows us to verify the authenticity of any especially valuable wines.
Our next step is entering wine into upcoming auctions. Whichever option we suggest, we do so to maximise the value of each bottle in the consignment and the consignment as a whole. We are auctioneers, and our ultimate duty of care is to our vendors. For focused, curated consignments, we occasionally offer Single Vendor auctions that we can tell a story around; however large consignments may also be broken up across several auctions in order to generate consistent demand for the wines.
In advance of the auction, our Wine Consultant Steve photographs all of the wines and we write comprehensive notes to best showcase your wines to our loyal buyers. We also double check all of the info before we push play on each auction.
We run two auction formats… Live Auctions and Online Auctions.
LIVE AUCTIONS are held from 6pm on the first Tuesday of every second month (our next Live Auction is in early December) and always feature a catalogue of wines that are new to us. We generally publish these auctions at least a week before to allow us to generate buzz for the auction and to allow time for absentee bids. Buyers can join us at The Wine Auction Room or bid live online.
ONLINE AUCTIONS are held from 11am Wednesday through to 8pm the following Monday and are usually published a couple of days in advance however we do not allow pre-auction bids for these. We normally host 2-3 online auctions per month and these can be general auctions, single vendor auctions and specialist auctions such as our upcoming Pinot Envy auction in October.
Once the auction is live, Jules, our Digital Marketing and Content Manager takes over and makes sure that as many potential buyers see every auction lot. This includes email marketing, social media and digital advertising across multiple platforms. We actively market all auctions here in New Zealand but depending on the auction we also market to buyers in Australia, Hong Kong and further abroad.
When your wine is sold, the winner of the auction gets invoiced and you get paid (minus our vendor fee) within ten working days.
If you’re thinking about selling your collection (or just a bottle or two) reach out to our team… send us an email [email protected] or send us a message on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and we’ll get back to you asap.
