"I guess I have to..."

You showed a lot more self control than I would have, I probably would have gone out and sold some plasma (or any other desired bodily fluid) and and come back for another bottle of BCBCS!

 

I would have struggled to walk away from that - respect dude

 

I can count on exactly zero fingers how many times I have encountered such situations. Therefore, if such a situation did arise I would have no problem saying yes.

 

Much respect. Would not have been able to stop myself.

 

I do my best to show self-control when faced with the myriad of good beers I pass by all the time. The other day, I passed up River Horse's Small Batch Barrel-Aged Tripel Horse and Small Batch Barrel-Aged Berliner Weisse. It was a bit easier, because they weren't well-reviewed or world renowned, but they were still extremely rare, limited releases that I had not previously tried and probably would never have access to again. C'est la vie.

I find it especially hard to pass up beers I've never tried, and probably won't have access to again. It's a bit easier when it's something like Parabola, when I know I already have a bottle of it at home.

 

I don't even like BBA beers that much and even I couldn't have passed that up. Had much the same situation happen when I got a tour of a restaurant's "private reserve" cellar back home--they had 2013 BCBCS sitting on the shelves. $16.99 for 12oz. Yeah, I bought it. I drank it shortly after I got back here to CA and there was still some coffee in it. No regrets.

 

You're a stronger man than I. The only time I've been able to show restraint is when the wife is with me...and she give me "the look."

 

Amen brother.

 

You guys have way too much willpower.

These examples turn into hangover situations for me.

 

This happened to me last night, though at a lesser extent.

I flipped over a bottle of MBC Lunch...I think my voice cracked.
Walking out of the store (after purchasing of course) I reflected on my fan-boy reaction and felt a little less about myself.

I don't understand it; it's just a bottle of beer, right?
it's just a something of something.

 

Totally on board, OP. Been trying to learn the discipline of really thinking through my beer purchases, rather than reflexively saying, "Oh, man, that's so hard to find! I have to get it!" Because that sentiment doesn't really address the more important question of, "I have finite resources. And I like some beer more than others. Do I really actually want this beer, or do I want it because I know it's hard to find? Is the purchase of this beer really worth not having X dollars for something else I'd like?"

I ran across a bottle of NB Le Terroir last night for $5 cheaper than anywhere else around town. I really like that beer and had been wanting to get one, but wasn't keen on the price. In this case, I readily snapped it up. But, I've just as readily walked past bottles of Parabola (and I'm a major FW fanboy), as well as Pliny, because, like I said, resources are finite, and I just didn't need them.

 

Kudos to you.

Honestly, I've found a $1 per ounce limit works well for me. Whenever I go over that, I tend to be rather disappointed with my purchase.

 

I would definitely seize rare opportunities like that if they were presented to me. It's not a matter of some addictive response to stimulus, it's a matter of balancing a choice you can make any day against a choice you can only make right now.

 

In France last month I went to a place with four Armand'4 bottles at $62 a pop. If not for my wife being there, all four, as well as probably 10 additional Cantillon bottles would have been coming home with me from there. Unfrotunately, I she was there and I only left with Herfst, 2x LPK, and 2x St. Lam.

 

Had the first bottled batch of BCBCS from 2010 a few months ago, coffee didn't drop off at all...

 

Excellent points all.

I think that the ratio limit works for me as a "yellow light" (purchase with caution and forethought) rather than a strict "red light" (don't buy at all).

Of the whales that I’ve actually been able to track down, more often than not I have found those beers to be disappointing in the context of their taste versus their price and the difficulty of attainment.

We all contribute to the “hype, rarity, hoarding, rising costs...” every time we purchase a whale. I suppose that when I actually do pull the trigger, I want to know that I am doing so with solid forethought rather than based upon knee jerk reactions.