Hi BA's, Wanted to share experience. Visited a favorite bottle shop of mine in San Jose today and encountered a rarity: They had a single bottle of Westvleteren 12 in the display case. The price: $39.99. I passed, but thought it was cool to see one. I personally tend to pass on crazy-inflated prices like these. They are obviously trying to benefit from the rarity of the beer, as I'm sure the original price is more reasonable. My question: What kinds of beer have you seen or been able to acquire at bottle shops who are obviously illegally reselling beer? What was the price? Cheers
Was it a screen printed bottle like this one? If so, there's nothing black market about it. The abbey sent several thousand gift sets to America around Christmas 2012, and I've seen the bottles and chalices pop up from time to time at random stores.
Nothing illegal. Local shop down the street is selling BCBS for $16 a bottle, and you have to buy 2 Goose Island 6 packs. I can't think of a beer rare enough for me to justify that. The bottle shop I frequent biweekly hasn't had anything extraordinary or illegal though.
Consider yourself lucky "The House of 1,000 Beers" had these bottles years ago at 50 dollars a pop AND they SOLD! Wrap your mind around that!
$50, jeez that is madness. I mean, so is $40. The bottle did not have the screen print, but the cap had the trappist Westvleteren insignia and the "12". Bottle looked exactly like the above, plus they had the old gift box described above on top of the display case. Guess it's not illegal then, but gawd that price. I guess if its a longtime want situation, then you just bite the bullet. They had Cantillon there too
I don't think I'd pay that much for a Westy 12, but years ago we used to have a store in town (who's since changed ownership) who would order some Westy 12 from overseas and sell them by the bottle. Not as much at that price the OP was saying, but there was enough interest from people that they were still able to sell what they brought in. It's been so long that I don't remember the exact price, but I know it was less than $39.99 a bottle. And this was before the screen printed Westy 12's were sent to the US.
Not too proud to admit I used to know a guy who sold Heady Topper, back when cans were only sold at the brewery, to bars and stores in Brooklyn who then resold it for 13.00+ each can.
I can imagine West XII going for $40 per bottle easily in the tech world of San Jose. Seriously, I don't think its unreasonable there. That being said, I am not paying double or triple for rare beers. A local shop has two cases of BCBS at $10.99 per bottle. Thinking of just buying one case as a present for my cousin's wedding in May.
I got New Glarus Raspberry Tart and Belgian Red for $20 each via a friend of a friend from some bottle shop in Pittsburgh (Dogz?) years ago. They apparently also had other out of market beers available for variable mark-ups. Every other beer I had from that store was terrible, old and oxidized.
Most likely said shop owner bought those Westvleteren from a Belgian re-seller, who probably sold them at $20 a piece. Factor in that it's also $5 a bottle to ship them over, you probably got a stellar deal if he sold them retail at less than $40 a bottle. The beer costs $3 at the abbey if you can manage to get any. Jeff
Exactly. He's still got those BCBS on the shelf, so clearly the "deal" isn't working. I have seen some online craft dealers with BCBS still in stock, and it's right around $10.99 a bottle, which is nuts considering there is an average of a $2 to $3 mark up on all large format beers on the sites I've visited.
You can get a 6-pack shipped direct to your house of Westy 12 for about $120; so $20 a bottle. I guess if you didn't want to deal with ordering from Belgium, but if you go in with a few people, or do a Lambic order and throw in a Westy, there are much better ways to get one.
Was at a bottle shop in NJ last year and someone there mentioned they had some Heady in the back $20/can.
I hear about that a lot for Heady. I always wonder how fresh it is... No date on can = no buy from me, regardless if it is bootleg or not, but especially if you are over-paying a huge markup for a special out of distro beer.
A few years back a local shop was offering some for $15 a can, I passed. Not sure if the employee was doing it on his own or if it was shop sanctioned. I found out about it through an email from them.
Even happens in VT. A couple of years ago I was in Killington for a Jeep Jamboree and at diner a couple of guys were sharing a Heady. I asked them where they got it, since I was looking for some but didn't think it was available in that area. They pretty much indicated they got it at a local shop, but didn't give much more info than that. I didn't press them for the place. On a side note, if I were them I would have at least shared a taste of it with me.
