A bit of fun buying a bottle of whisky

Bigbobby

InvesterJones said:

Bigbobby said:

A similar limited edition from the same distillery in Norfolk for the queen's coronation recent sold for £500.

Given said distillery was only founded in 2006, it's very unlikely they did anything for the late queen's coronation back in 1953.

Sorry typo error from my side I was meant to say queen's jubilee not coronation. Edited my post now

Malthusian

DullGreyGuy said:

A 10 year old GlenGrant is about £35 but this 7 year old bottled in the 60s they are asking £500 for https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/47677/glen-grant-7-year-old-bot1960s 

I'm told a bottle of whisky cost around £2.50 in the 60s. £2.50 invested in the S&P 500 in 1971 would be ~£900 today. (That's as far back as my data went, if you started at the same time as the whisky was made it would do better). So as 50-year investments go that's rather disappointing. Still, you can always drink the contents, assuming it doesn't just taste of disintegrated cork.

Grumpelstiltskin

I have no idea about whisky but I wonder what this one cost new, it as sold at my local auction last week.

Arthur Johnson & Son | The Saturday Auctions 27th May 2023 | Lot 816

boingy

Investing in whisky and similar spirits is very much a lottery but, for fun, yeah, I can see the attraction. I have a bottle of Highland Park from the 60's. It wasn't an investment, it was a birthday present because it's the same age as me. And, yes, I occasionally drink some of it! It's decent but not the best I've had.

I think serious whisky investors buy it when it is in the barrel but it's still very much a lottery and there have been a few scams over the years where people end up with a certificate for a barrel that does not exist, or that has been sold many times over.

caileag

There is money to be made - my OH (who works in the trade) has bought bottles for £70 and sold a few years later for £300. However, it is such a volatile market (no pun intended) that you can miss the boat and what sold last month for £500 now sells for only £200. We never buy a bottle we would not be happy to open, and any sales are generally to clear space, rather than to realise gains. But still - it is a bit of fun and, if it goes south, we can just drink the losses.... 

GenieBoy

I only like minimum 18yo Whisky which is nice and smooth. None of that cheap mass produced stuff.

Brie

It's the same with wine - if you buy sensibly.  OH bought some nice reds a number of years back when we were in France.  After a few years discovered that they were selling for about 10 times what he'd paid.  So then there was the dilemma - do you sell it for a profit or do you drink what you know is a very very expensive wine.  personally I've never significantly enjoyed wine that I know is expensive as I sit there sipping and thinking "£5 for that sip, £10 for a slightly bigger sip....." which really ruins things.  Might as well buy the plonk in Lidl.

As for scams - isn't it a bit like bitcoin or whatever?  You aren't actually buying a real thing but investing in a share or a virtual item which may or may not actually exist??  Someone can send you a certificate or a email saying you own something but if you never see it how do you know?  

DullGreyGuy

Personally only thought about doing it once as a certain gin company does a limited special edition each year which can only be bought from then and its by raffle (I've entered 4 times and selected once). They routinely sell on the secondhand market at about 4-5 times their £65-£70 price ticket even for the ones released this year, the older ones are not massively more expensive than the new ones.

I did initially think I'd sit on it for a year and then sell it but curiosity got the better of me and I drank it  

Cloth_of_Gold

Grumpelstiltskin said:

I have no idea about whisky but I wonder what this one cost new, it as sold at my local auction last week.

Arthur Johnson & Son | The Saturday Auctions 27th May 2023 | Lot 816

The previous lot at this auction was this. https://www.arthurjohnson.co.uk/catalogue/lot/5b6c03ed9fc73fa90d3ac998262d353c/1d509dfe86f02da2d7cbda445ef6ff1f/the-saturday-auctions-27th-may-2023-lot-815/

Quite an eclectic mix of lots at that auction!

Cloth_of_Gold

DullGreyGuy said:

Personally only thought about doing it once as a certain gin company does a limited special edition each year which can only be bought from then and its by raffle (I've entered 4 times and selected once). They routinely sell on the secondhand market at about 4-5 times their £65-£70 price ticket even for the ones released this year, the older ones are not massively more expensive than the new ones.

I did initially think I'd sit on it for a year and then sell it but curiosity got the better of me and I drank it  

And did it seem very special? I wouldn't drink gin neat so once you've mixed it with other things, whilst you can still tell a decent gin form a cheap and cheerful one, I don't think you'd notice any incredibly special subtleties that a very expensive one might have to justify the price.