King Henry and other "rare" beers

Former shelf beers are now mega-whales while former whales are minnows.

I didn't trade a lot for my bottle of King Henry, but I traded A LOT for my Rare. Yeah, lots of people are asking a lot for King Henry, but only because people are willing to give a lot for it.

 

Unless you pour way too much money or time into beer obsession, we never get all the tasty, rare beers that our beer lovin' hearts desire. Learn to love the locals.

 

Other people have 5-6 bottles to give away for one King Henry? Who's the hoarder?

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No. King Henry is not rare. And since we're on the subject, Rare is not rare either. Its all the new BA's flooding the trading forums that think those beers are wales.

Newsflash: You'd be hard pressed to get a "real" wale if your only bait is King Henry and GI Rare.

 

My point is that people are asking for WAY too much for King Henry, but at the same time people are giving out WAY too much to get their hands on it. People trading away half their cellars for a bottle of KH are just as "guilty" as the people who are asking for an arm in a leg.

 

Well, I think that since it's basically an offspring of Rare, some people are treating it as "the next Rare". Even tho it was a one time release, I was able to find more King Henry this winter than reg BCBS. I've traded and drank most of my King Henry reasonalby(sp) for MoAS and Ivan. Just because King Henry is retired, I would find it hard to believe that GI will not make another BA-BW. I can't wait for the inflated shit storm later this year when the WWBCBS is the next "insta-wale"

 

Not particularly rare, but people are holding on to it because it's very tasty. Top English BW by a fair margin.

There can only be as many KH as Rare because KH is a BW aged in PVW barrels that held Rare before it. There are around 10-11k bottles of rare so about the same number of KH

I think people are most upset at others that misrepresent themselves as traders, tell sob stories about a brother dying of cancer whose last wish was to try PVW DL in order to trade for it and then sell it on ebay. People have more problems with those that sell on ebay than the buyers. It's kinda like drugs, the stigma of being a drug dealer is much worse than a drug user when in reality the two parties are just about equally responsible.

Sorry you couldn't get the trade done you wanted. I have a couple King Henry left, but I wouldn't trade one unless I got something back I really wanted because that beer is fantastic. However, you are just as much of the problem you have a Rare already, why do you think others should share "the wealth" with you if you already had one? Maybe you are a hoarder and hypocritically mad at other hoarder for hoarding their beer?

 

Don't get mad. The game is the game. One of the many life lessons I learned from "The Wire".

 

I think I saw that KH was released in 12000 bottles. Could be off though. Totally not a "wale" but everyone is asking and receiving rediculous amounts of beer for them

 

Here it is. If people stopped shelling out 4 or 5 bottles the "hoarders" would have no choice but to lower their price. Generous guys are out there and won't charge you an arm and a leg for KH, Rare, or even the real whales. I'd say the biggest "whale" I've traded for was an Isabelle Proximus and it was sent by a very generous BA who only asked for a BT and some off-the-shelf locals in return. Instead of trying to pry a KH away from numerous random traders I would suggest developing some close relationships with a few reliable, generous cats on here. That's when beer loses its rarity and advocacy really takes shape.

 

cheaper to just buy a ring.

 

This this this this this. Well stated!

 

Actually it's perfectly conceivable that there's more KH than Rare due to losses over time. I don't believe KH was aged for two years, and if it wasn't it lost less volume.

Anywho, to the OP, it wasn't particularly rare. The problem is that GI sends their stuff all over the place, so it's spread really thin. Sort of like Cantillon, plenty makes it to the US, but since it goes to like 25 states no one gets very much, people only get a few bottles, and no one wants to trade it. Beatification, which has the same number of bottles, is generally easier to trade for because it was only sold at one place so anyone who lived nearby could get a lot of it.

 

Supply, demand, greed. Those are the facets at work here. At the end of the day, these 3 factors will set the trading price of a beer. If the going price for a bottle of KH is 5-6 bottles, you'll have to pay the price unless you find a person willing to trade it for less.

As Soonami pointed out above, you'e an equal player in this whole situation/problem. You're upset because you couldn't get a SECOND bottle of RARE. For those that don't have a bottle at all, you sure look like a hoarder to them!

Whether you trade or you're beer or turn to an auction site, with beers that have high demand you really have to pay to play.

 

Sounds like there's something else you could do it you don't want to wait.