eBay and Beer Sales

I think you are getting confused as to what entitlement means. If I were entitled to the limited release beer I didn't make the trip to go get, I wouldn't be ok paying well over cost for it. I'd want it for what you paid when you went.

My punishment for not making the release myself is paying the markup.

 

For the most part, it seems to me that much of the anti-Ebay crowd in here are the same people with upstanding reputations in the trading community for trading fair and not whoring out bottles. Which is most definitely not part of "the problem". The problem is with the people who treat trading like an Ebay auction with beer instead of money - that group is no different. There are plenty of people in both groups of traders, and I don't think it's very fair or accurate to lump them together.

 

I've never bought anything off of ebay, and while I agree with the whole "don't buy if the price is to high" arguement... I just feel that the ebay/auction thing is so scummy in general. The fact that ebay and the person selling both profit from the sale of the beer without having paid for a license to do so is bogus. And it just comes off as "wrong" in general to me.

 

Why, pray tell, should you need a license to resell alcohol but none of your other personal possessions?

 

That's getting into a whole different topic. Licensing is a law that has been going on for a long time... you could argue this about other laws and then think to yourself... no, that's ridiculous.

 

No. See, you just did it yourself! Your "punishment" is that you might not get the beer. You assume that by simply paying a markup you'll be guaranteed to get the beer. That's what makes it seem like entitlement to me, regardless of whether I'm "confused as to what entitlement means." I don't think I am.

 

Close enough to use as a perfect example for how the secondary market should work.

There are differences of course, like that vintners don't seem to be screeching divas like some brewers.

 

Why does expecting to have access to a product make me entitled? Why do the rules of a free market cease when we are talking about beer?

If a painting I really want goes up for auction at Christie's should I not be able to call in and do phone bids or place my bids online just because I am not physically there? Technology permits access to all kinds of things that people would normally not be able to get.

 

Of course you don't; not surprising.

Just a hint: paying market value for something automatically makes it not an entitlement.

 

Oh please. Don't pretend like shipping your beer off to trading partners is an act of benificence. The more trading partners you hook up now, the more they will be willing to hook you up with their limited releases later on. That said, I have nothing against what you are doing. I too would rather have limited beer going to my partners than some local/nonlocal/anyone that I don't know and don't care about, but there's no reason to pretend what you are doing is you just being a wonderful person. Blow smoke up someone else's ass.

 

about time, they are lucky the feds never got on their ass.

 

I have to disagree. Do you see budweiser, bud light, etc on eBay? Hell no. Because you can buy it anywhere!

 

I'm not sure where you're getting your definition from.
http://www.answers.com/topic/entitle
To furnish with a right or claim to something: The coupon entitles the bearer to a 25 percent savings. Every citizen is entitled to equal protection under the law.

 

see: http://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2012/06/screaming-eagle-thwarts-selfish-greed

Plus, vintners started using auction results to set the prices of their futures, which has led to astronomical prices in the retail market (at the very high end, the auction-worthy wines) and a decline in the ability to flip cult and premiere wines like you would see between 2005-2008. People could buy Harlan Estate off the list for $150, turn around and sell it (legally) on the auction market for $600 when they took delivery. Now, Harlan is $500+ off the list.

Not to continue beating the dead horse further into a bloody pulp, but shipping is a major issue for why the secondary market for beer cannot mirror the secondary market for wine. Beer is treated as a different animal than wine in the eyes of the common carrier shippers and the shipment of wine by the auction houses via common carrier (e.g. UPS, FedEx) operates in a major grey area. There is also the fact that the track records for drinking aged beer is checkered at best whereas for wine it is well-established.

 

Both your expectations, and the rules of the "free" market just changed. If you find this outrageous, that's because you were previously feeling entitled.

 

We get Hill Farmstead beer in the Philly area.

 

You assume that I expect some sort of hook up down the line. Is generosity so dead these days that you cant just send/gift anything and not expect something in return?
I should probably contact my former students and let them know I will be expecting some sort of percentage on their future earnings. I have given nearly a thousand hours of my time, free of charge, to them so they could learn how to read. Without that ability, they would have little to chance at success. I should be given some sort of compensation for that right?

Every talks about hooking your partner up so they hook you up in the future. How about just hooking them up for the sake of hooking them up? It's an easy notion to grasp, but very few do. There are quite a few who do just this, because they love sharing beer that would otherwise be unattainable.

 

Ebay is not entitlement necessarily and neither is trading. Entitlement is your right to something, and no doubt there are beer geeks who act/believe they have a god given right to the beer they want. When they don't get what they want it turns into some rant/bitchfest thread about how much that beer is getting on ebay or in trades and why they should get it for less.

 

Paying market value means there's no entitlement involved. If I said I have a right to buy Screeching Diva beer for sticker price, that would be entitlement. That's not free market. There is no entitlement in the free market; you pay what it takes based on how much you want it and the available supply.

 

If you really want to make it fun, add in "hype" and "rare" as well.