A friend's brother has some serious medical problems and the family needs money. Smoking, drinking etc. are out of the question for the foreseeable future so I've been selling his cigar collection for them and now there is the wine. I've looked around online and there are some avenues for selling but they seem complicated for a lot this small. I've thought about joining a wine forum but I would have no reputation there and don't like the idea of joining a forum just to sell stuff.

There are about 170 bottles, vintages mostly from the mid to late 90's, a few early 90's and a few 2000's. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.
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You could try finding a specialty wine store and selling them on consignment. I don't know if that is legal or even possible, but it might be worth checking out?
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Check wine websites? Is there a "Wine Aficionado" site or the like?

Good luck!
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how much does he want for the wines? The whole lot.
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PM sent. :-)
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They have no idea what the lot would be worth. The bottles range from approx. $10 - $40 retail (plus a $300 1988 Dom Perignon). With the cigars I priced them at 65-75% of retail (except the Opus) but have no idea how wine is priced.

The goal is to raise some money for his care and at the same time offer a good deal to buyers.

PM sent back, thanks.
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I wouldn't have the first clue as to where to sell it?

Are there any high quality restaurants around that might be interested?

How about a winery?
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What about a community auction to raise money for your friend???

If people know what it's for they are more likely to pay more rather than less!!!
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Are they in So Cal?
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That's a good idea - I'll look into that. :-)

Yes, they're in La Mirada.
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It s a no-go from the start. You cannot ship wine these days, at all, unless you're a licensed entity (winery, retailer, auction house).
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Greg, What if it's a local community event with the players in house; nothing being shipped?
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The problem with an auction of that many be bottles is that you may have create a non profit corp to be the beneficiary. A private party transaction within the state for the entire lot is probably your best bet. As sales tax has already been paid, this would keep the Board of Equalization out of the mix.
I would contact your local office of the CA ABC for more precise answers.
http://www.abc.ca.gov/districts.asp?City=STA#Santaana
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That's why I love this place!!! So much great advice!!!:-)
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What about listing it as collectable bottles on craigslist or ebay for local pick-up only?
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See if the local church could be the one to have the auction. Just a thought since a lot of churches do that kind of thing for fund raising.
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I looked into that - from what I read on ebay wine is not considered a collectible since the value is more in the wine itself, so while they do allow some merchants to sell alcohol I'm not allowed. Craigslist will likely be good for the cooler but I saw no wine listed in my area and suspect serious wine buyers may not trust sellers who among other things don't pay for the ads.

This is what I was thinking when Darrell mentioned a charity auction. Our church used to have auctions all the time to raise money for their school and there were always cases of wine auctioned off. Not saying it's legal but it didn't seem to attract any attention.
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Wine is like cigars, provenance and storage conditions are key. Would you buy cigars at a church auction?
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Depends on what I could find out about them. In this case most of the people at the church know this family so it wouldn't be anonymous.
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Someone contact Pete Johnson, he's a big wine buff. :-)
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