eBay and Beer Sales

the amount of "likes" given in this thread might break the internets...

 

Errantnight, ye come across to me as a bit smug, but I did enjoy reading your arguments.

This was an enlightening evening in making me understand how differences in this topic are as clear cut as they are in Republican-vs.Democrat politics.

As an attempt to bridge some common ground, if someone I've offended--which seems to be quite a few--finds themselves in Chicago and wishes to grab a beer, send me a BM. Hopefully we'll be able to avoid this topic and enjoy some off-the-shelf beer.

 

I definitely did and there are a handful of comments that I would edit/retract that do nothing to support my argument but do everything to open myself and by extension my arguments to dismissal for letting emotion (condescension / smugness) enter into it.

Ah well. Maybe in a few more years time I'll learn to leave even that little bit out (and maybe a few years after that learn to stop diving in to arguments on the internet).

Cheers

 

Like this one. More than a touch over-the-top.

 

And just because it's illegal doesn't mean that it's wrong.

 

Time for me to call it a night. Cheers.

 

im calling up my accountant to see how i should invest the 8 internets i won last night.

 

For those wishing to see how a poll worked out on this subject

ebay attitude poll

 

No...it happened because it's against the law to ship alcohol without a license, and eBay was facilitating that. In addition, because of the complete and utter lack of regulation on eBay, there's absolutely no way to make sure under-aged individuals aren't participating in the acquisition of alcohol. We're lucky we have a trading forum, all things considered.

 

To me, that's what's upsetting about people that hoard. It's not about fair share, mules, etc. The real tragedy is knowing that some beer that could be enjoyed by any number of people, is languishing in some moron's cellar going to hell in a handbasket. I'm quite certain there are some beers who get better with SOME age. But in my experience they are few and far in between. Through the tasting of verticals, and some small degree of cellaring, I've rarely come across a beer that that I preferred cellared over being fresh. Once I came to that determination, I cut my cellar down to a fraction of a fraction of where it once stood. I buy less beer now because I only buy what I can drink in relatively short order. My intention's to drink/share/give away whatever I buy within a year of acquisition. There's SO much good beer out there, why stash shit away when every single week there's something awesome hitting the shelves that you can surely enjoy? But yeah...I know people that have upwards of 6...700 bottles in their house...and beyond that, they purchase at a far higher rate than they could ever hope to consume. Makes me cringe to think of how many beers they're likely ruining because they're collecting beer instead of drinking it. I wonder how my OWN stuff is going to fare between now and when I get to it.

 

What are there, a couple thousand active online beer community members? Perhaps it's time we start writing our senators and demanding reform.

 

I keep seeing entitlement brought up.

This is America. If I have the money and I want something I will have it one way or the other. Whether it is a $1000+ PS3 right after launch or a bottle of beer it makes no difference. But that has nothing to do with entitlement and everything to do with living in a free market society where people buy and sell things based on supply and demand.

 

Store/restaurant owners shop at Costco. They'll buy obscene amounts of cigarettes, soda, bottle water, etc. They then re-sale it at their store/restaurant at 300%+ markup. You can buy like a 30-pack of water at Costco for $3.50. The store/restaurant owner probably re-sold them at $1.50/bottle. That's like a 1,500% mark-up. This kind of stuff goes on all the time. Should Costco start whining about it?

 

I guess the more money you have the more entitled you will feel.

 

Entitlement would be if I thought I deserved to have access to your big local release thousands of miles away for the same cost you paid rolling down the street to it. I want something someone else has and they want to sell it. Is everyone that ever bids on anything on eBay entitled?

 

Entitlement and the ability to pay are two separate issues. I can afford to buy a bottle of BCBS Rare and pay the 150+ bucks for it, wouldn't miss a beat, but I won't. But I'm an adult, the ability to buy what is legal should be my decision. I don't know what's driving EBAY but I bet it's tied to shipping issues and some individual state laws on ABV limits. If you can't distribute 7% or higher ABV brews to WVA for example, then having a guy on EBAY sending you a bottle of 10% brew is really breaking two laws at once. I buy from online stores, prices are reasonable, and the shipping is equal to what i would pay for a trade, no hassles, but someone 21 has to sign for it. Don't know if a place like france 44 looks at state ABV limits, but I would bet that any sate having a ABV limit is not on the ship list to begin with. I wish I could find a legal online store that had BCBS, I would certainly do it, but I haven't so far.

 

Well Shaun does trade beer, so he can't be totally against it.

 

Well it seems obvious to me that people feel that having lots of money entitles them to get these limited beers without going to the release. Why else are they so upset? They're losing their entitlement.

 

I actually don't really mind that eBay is shutting it down. Life goes on. The thing that annoys me is some of the beer traders that are singing "Ding dong the witch is dead" but are too naive/self-absorbed/dumb/whatever to realize that trading is every bit as much of a problem as eBay was.

It'd be like if one guy got pulled over for speeding, and another guy is thinking "Good, I'm glad that douche bag got what he deserved!" -- as he proceeds to run a stop sign himself.