I know some people "hoard" beer, and I know some people buy up lots of beer to either trade or sell on eBay with no intention of drinking it. But are there actually people out there who buy beer to collect, with no intention of ever drinking it, sharing it, selling it, or trading it? Is this a thing people really do? And if so, why? I mean really. Why? Just curious. I think I've seen references to this practice on here in the past but may have been misunderstanding something. Cheers!
A trip to ebay will answer that question. There's plenty of full beer containers being sold that are obviously not intended for drinking. edit: being serious. i.e. billy beer, 1975 banquet beer etc.
I have often wondered this myself, and not to be mean or be too deep, but I think it is a by product of our modern society where having "things" seems proper. Maybe it is in a malicious manner that this occurs, or not knowing, but it is something that occurs never the less. I could never see myself hoard something and NOT share. I thrive on sharing even when I have little. It is all about the balance!
Not sure the point of it, but I guess certain beers that people may find unique,novel or sentimental because of the nature of the branding and artwork may be reason enough to collect the bottle. I don't understand not drinking the beer inside. A friend of mine who isn't a craft beer drinker purchased the Pearl Jam faithful ale because he is such a big fan of the band. He does not plan on drinking the beer which I find ridiculous.
Wow I don't know how anybody could do this, although I'm biased like all you guys in that I love to drink good beer. There is no way I could buy beer to just let it go to waste. For what the bottle? It would be impossible for me knowing that there is potentially great beer in those bottles and never to try them! Impossible for me!
If I bought a can of surge off of ebay I would have no intentions of drinking it. Same would go for old pull tab cans or old bottles of pilsners/adjunct lagers. And people obviously collect these since they're all over ebay.
If you bought a full bottle of some pre-prohibition lager that was <5% abv, opening it would be a damn shame. It would ruin the collectible value. Also, if you collect beer you can still drink it. You just buy more than one bottle. Keep one to collect and drink the rest. Not my thing but whatever makes you happy.
Kind of what I was getting at (and I also bought a bottle of the DFH Faithfull Ale, for largely the same reason—but I already drank the beer inside). I guess what I'm wondering is, are unopened bottles of beer valued in the same way that, say, an unopened Star Wars action figure or Cabbage Patch Kid or whatever is? (I'm afraid I'm showing my age here.) And if so, why? Most beers go bad over time. So having some unopened bottle of rancid beer sitting for eternity on a shelf... why is that somehow inherently valuable? And even if it is valuable... if the person never intends to sell it, what's the point? Then again, I don't get why unopened toys are valuable either.
I guess it's so they can keep it on a shelf for 25-50 years to say "look what I have". I have some autographed sports pieces that I am guilty of doing that with, now I wonder if my kid will just E bay them after I croak for chump change. Oh well.....
Well, most collectibles are not "inherently" valuable. That doesn't answer your larger question, of course, but that's not the limitation here.
I myself collect everything Sierra Nevada. This means that I purchase a bottle of each of their new releases and keep it intact, beer and all. Now with that said, I also drink AT LEAST one of each of their new releases. I am also always in search of some of their older bottles. I try to find Unopened versions of all of their bottles, especially Bigfoot because the bottle and label looked the same every single year, for years, and the only way to distinguish a difference was to have the bottle cap. Thats my reason! Plus, when I'm on my death bed, I am going to have one helluva Bigfoot vertical!
You took the words out of my mouth......or typed the words from my fingers.....haha anyways, yeah you nailed it. I buy beer with the intention of sharing it with family and friends, or trading it. I love trading beer from my region that people in other parts of the country don't have access to. SHARE THE WEALTH!!!.....oh and I'm not a communist...
For some reason I see a difference between sports memorabilia, baseball cards etc. and beer. You can still look at the card or signed football or whatever, hold it in your hand, etc. But if you're collecting a bottle of beer for collecting's sake... well, you can't drink it. Now I can understand maybe some collectible beer like a can of Billy Beer or maybe even a bottle of Pliny signed by Vinnie or something like that... But aside from some pretty unusual examples this phenomenon still seems pretty weird to me.
Now there's a reason I can get on board with. Ha! I see they've moved this thread to an area I've never even visited before. So... I guess this is a thing after all. Cheers!
I keep my cellar well stocked for two reasons ... Good friends and in case of a blizzard , I wont run out of beers
