A good wine cooler...

I just picked up a pretty decent wine refrigerator off Craigslist for $100. I had been subscribed to a Craigslist search feed for several months before I pulled the trigger and I think it was worth the wait in savings. While I was doing some research, I found this of similar capacity, but with no reviews it might just be really cheaply built.

Some unsolicited (and likely minority in this forum) advice about the capacity: Unless you intend to use this as a show piece in your house or something, consider how many bottles you intend to truly cellar (by varying definitions, lay down for at least a few years). Anything not fitting that definition, save yourself the cash and settle for something lower-capacity than your entire collection and use a dark closet for stuff you intend to drink sooner rather than later. Big wine coolers are super-expensive and a huge electricity suck.

 

Bartles and James?

 

Whoops... answered without reading!
(not really, I just couldn't resist)

 

Just to add some nuance to this reply - while large wine coolers can be expensive, if you don't have access to a fairly constant temperature (or rather, constantly in the desired 45-65 degree range) basement they can be a worthwhile investment. I also just used Craigslist to purchase a wine cellar, although it was a bit more expensive than Falcons but also a good deal bigger (110 bottle capacity). It was pricey in absolute dollar terms, but thanks to craigslist, far less than retail, and it serves the purpose of being a nice showpiece in my apartment as well as safely preserving beers for many, many years.

So what I'm getting at is while they can be expensive, if you're looking for reliable long-term storage they aren't necessarily a bad deal. Opening a 5 year old beer that's been spoiled by poor storage conditions is, in my view, a fairly expensive experience.