Trade Value of Drie Fonteinen

Please let your customers have a shot at them them first. Let them sit on the shelf for 30 days, then id love to work something out with you.
Cheers!

 

Nothing on your list. A few months ago when you could only get golden blend online...then it could pull in some limited stuff. Right now both the golden and standard gueuze be seeing fairly wide Shelton distribution.

 

insight: when was the last time the beers on your list came into your store?

 

Bingo!

 

So were the bottles of St. Lamvinus your store got actually just limited to "regular customers" as I was told, or were those used for personal whale-hunting on here too? As someone that's shopped on and off for a few years at your store and the market, this thread is a bummer.

 

Oude Gueuze has almost zero trade value beyond other shelf beers. Golden Blend is in distro now, so the trade value it did have is mostly gone.

As others have said - don't buy your own store's limited releases until your customers have had a decent stab at them first. Their business keeps you employed.

 

Being in retail myself I am a bit surprised to see this. I don't know how others work their stores but I personally never buy anything I don't intend to drink myself. I'm sure you're a great beer guy but Indy doesn't get stuff like this often and I'd love to see them go to people who intend to drink them instead of trading them.

 

I'm not even a huge fan of employees buying limited releases for themselves, but trading is just getting a bit abusive IMO. In most other retail businesses, the limited stuff is reserved purely for customers. For example, anything awesome/limited that shows up in a weekly Best Buy or Walmart circular is typically completely off limits to employees. Rarities and special deals and stuff like that are supposed to be special treats for customers - the store doesn't get enough to make much money on them, so it's more like a periodic "thank you" for shopping here and keeping us in business by buying our normal beers all year long.

If a store gets 12 bottles of something and wants to split one amongst 3-4 employees, I have no problem with that. But there are stores out there that will get 12 bottles, immediately have 5 taken by employees, and only sell 7 to their customers. That's just not putting the customer first.

 

I don't think OP is doing anything wrong. He is working hard to acquire amazing beer for his customers and the fact that he can reap some of the benefits probably only motivates him to do so even harder. This isn't a situation where the store makes no money off of a door buster deal so there is no reason why he shouldn't be eligible to buy one if the company has no policy against him doing so and whether he wants to drink it or trade it to a fellow BA, regular trading partner or even a stranger should have no bearing.

OP, keep up the good work and just do your best to secure as much of this type of stuff for your customers as you can.

 

What about an in-person trade to someone who would've bought the bottle, given the opportunity?
/Devil's Advocate

 

I'm the guy who offered OP some beer for the Golden Blend. However, Rempo has a point, if he can make a trade happen IP to someone who would have loved to buy that bottle, he should do so.

 

That's wasn't quite my (hypothetical) point.

 

Wasn't stating that you specifically wanted to do an IP trade, but if he can get an IP trade done with someone that would have wanted to buy the bottle from his shop, he should do so. He saves shipping, and his store goes up several notches in the prospective customer's opinion of the place. Everyone wins..

except me, but there's always more golden blend!

 

You may be right now, but 3F is drying up mightly quickly (around these parts, anyways). Once the non-enthusiasts figure out it's as good (IMO better) than Cantillon, I think it's going to get a lot more trade value. Just speculation (and I hope I'm wrong), but a year from now I can see it pulling in fairly recent vintage DL.

 

Shouldn't he just let the person buy it? After doing an eBay background check and/or consulting with nearby stores' beer managers that the person isn't hoarding and/or making sure the person will consume and not trade, of course.