eBay and Beer Sales

Seems everyone has an exacting system of what is "right" and "wrong" - and believes everyone else should live their lives in exactly the same manner.. Just let people be.

 

I'm all for E-Bay cracking down. Even if it won't solve the problem. I have come into contact with a dude or two who were all about selling on E-bay and while they appeared to be "enjoying craft beer" they do ruin it for average folk. They recklessley throw money at "rare" stuff create unnecessery hype and demand. For the most part selling beer or anything for that matter on E-bay is super easy and these characters are making a lot of untaxed profit. Even if this is just a speed bump its a good thing.

The dark lord is the tip of the iceberg for me. The beer should not garner any more than 20 bucks a bottle but because of ebay its a houndred+$ bottle and thats sad. People will counter and say that if the buyer was happy then the end justifys the means but you can't go through life throwing money at everything to fix problems which is what people are doing on E-bay with beer.

 

You're missing the point, because what you just said is the whole point we're arguing.

If you want to mule, mule. If you want to trade, trade. If you want to eBay, eBay.

The part that's stupid is when one of those groups tries to play the saint and paint the other as the sinner. The main thrust here is that the trading community has no right to say "eBay is bad" when they're basically doing the exact same thing.

 

Way late, but here it goes anyway. I don't think they will go to BMC. However, many small breweries with limited distro rely on survive hyped small releases to generate interest. I can picture this happening: The largest companies like Bells, Stone, and DFH survive and thrive because of regular releases that are popular, nationwide following and access, and reliance on consistent and available product rather than hyped small batches.

 

Hate to say it but I bet some of the people buying up hoards of CBS to put on Ebay caused this dilemma and turning to Ebay to solve it creats a never ending cycle.

 

The problem is that ebay takes the fun out of trading. Trading is fun and generous. People don't like sending extras or giving someone a deal if something is going to be sold on eBay. Unfortunately, if you're selling beer for profit, you're probably looking at BA and ebay as two different markets that provide you an opportunity for arbitrage.

 

I agree with you, and that reason is why I can't bring myself to buy a bottle. I don't want to be part of the problem BUT I don't know if I want to take that choice away from others just because I don't want to do it myself.

I'd say it can be, but there are a ton of people out there currently looking to maximize their trades as much as possible which is exactly what eBayers are trying to do....one wants dollars, one wants dollars in the form of purchased beers.

 

You are right that it can be generous. Ebay, however, is never generous. It's about maximizing profit. If you want the forums here to be more about profit, then let's continue to allow obvious ebayer to trade with us so there isn't a discrepancy between the two markets.

 

I think a graet many people would disagree with you these days. Tons of veteran traders have gotten out of the game because it's just a big pain in the ass, with so many people trying to maximize returns and treating it as a bottom-dollar experience -- but with a few extra locals thrown in...you know, to keep it all about the advocacy!

Hell, even the people that run this site think that beer trading has gotten pathetic. They said in another thread today that they've recently contemplated shutting the trading part of this forum down.

 

I'll give you that, even "deals" I've seen with fairly low buy it now prices would still yield a nice profit for the seller, then when they charge some stupid amount for shipping.....yeesh.

But again, if you look at many of the lopsided $4Rarity threads out there, it can be equally as ridiculous.

 

If BA as a community is giving up on advocacy in the trading realm, that is fine. I'd just like some warning about it.

 

Have you not seen the trade value threads? They breed advocacy.

 

This sucks donkey balls! I use to just flip back and forth from BA to ebay to online stores that ship in order to obtain the rare brew I was looking for. Now I will just be flipping from BA to online stores and have lost my 3rd go to option. This seems to be the trend w/ America as a whole, every year our rights get more restricted.

The nice thing about ebay was the fact that alot of times I would rather just drop $100 or so to get a nice bottle I was looking for, versus trading some tough to obtain brews. $100 is cheaper to me than alot of the legwork necessary to obtain rarities from around the country in some situations.

I figured this would happen sooner or later because of the shear greed of people and the almighty dollar.

 

Man, this argument is sounding eerily similar to a larger argument going on this fall...

 

What's your best tradebait, brah?

 

So how long before someone starts a website like beerauction.com to capitalize on Ebay banning the sale of alcohol? Funny that beer sales got zapped but if you do a search on ebay for "pappy van winkle" there are like 50 auctions still up and thriving. I guess liquor gets a free pass..

 

It'll never happen as the rules/laws still apply. It's illegal to ship alcohol without a license...period. Dress it up however you wish, but a site suddenly popping up named "beerauctions.com" or whatever clever monicker this fictional website may choose will appear so incredibly transparent that it would immediately be scrutinized by all appropriate parties.

So yeah....no one outside of eBay is going to be "capitalizing" on their newly enforced policy.

 

I'll never buy beer online again, so I don't care. However, it was because of E-Bay that allowed me to try my first Pliny The Elder, so i did find that rather cool, although ridiculously overpriced.

 

A fight better left for whiskeyadvocate.

 

I've never bought a beer on eBay but I've liked knowing I could if desired. I've always wanted to obtain a Thomas Hardy's Ale 1968 and occasionally one would pop up on eBay. Now it's unlikely I'll ever get a chance to grab one with eBay's new policy. And that sucks