London Cask Traders

jimjames

Albermarle said:

If you look at the mainly glowing Trust Pilot reviews, there is a suspicious number of people with only one or two contributions.
Plus they all praise the company for the ease of purchase, but not one comment about selling the casks again, where I suspect is when the issues will start.

Funnily enough the reviews for London Capital & Finance were equally glowing on Trustpilot until people wanted their money back and then realised it was a scam and pyramid scheme. Not suggesting London Cask is a scam but as you say people posting reviews about buying don't have the full picture of the cask investment lifecycle.

boingy

Not sure where the 12% to 20% has come from. Their own website says:

What returns could I expect to achieve?

We could expect returns of around 8-12% per annum based on historical performance. Meaning if you were to invest £20,000 into whisky casks, you could expect to sell for around £30,000 – £36,000 in five years.


(and, yes, I chuckled at those TrustPilot reviews).

tmen

Thanks everybody for your comments they are appreciated.

It confirms my initial thoughts and he has decided not to invest

The 12 to 20% came from an email they sent to him.

Martin_the_Unjust

If anyone believes they can reliably turn 20k into 30 to 36k in five years I have a bridge and some magic beans for sale!

flaneurs_lobster

mortgageFTB said:

It’ll be a highly illiquid product.........

It literally is a liquid product.*

* if it exists.

Gary1984

If he wants to dabble in whisky try buying a limited edition bottle direct from a distillery. It will cost less (say, hundreds instead of thousands), he can store it himself, no future fees for bottling or duty and he can be certain it actually exists. Easy to sell too through a specialised whisky auction site. And if it doesn't go up in price he can always drink it.

flaneurs_lobster

I’ve since had my casks independently valued by an auction house, and they were assessed at around £4,000 each.

I assume that this means that you've told the auction house what you believe you have bought and they have valued it based on your description - not that the auction house have been able to verify the existence/condition/contents of the casks?

Maybe the time to get the casks "independently valued" was before the initial purchase.

Rollinghome

This is covered by the first rule of investing: "Don't invest in something you don't understand". That applies especially to alternatives such as whisky, wine, precious stones, art, etc where there is little or no regulation. It's always difficult to get a return better than cash without some risk. At least with equities there is considerable regulation, well-established platforms, and index-trackers to minimise the risk for newer investors.

Useful video, himself a broker, at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdadBpkKJAA

Albermarle

Forgotten whisky cask sets £1m auction record

• Published25 April 2022

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Image source,Whisky HammerImage caption,

A sample from the record-breaking whisky cask

A rare cask of whisky has sold for a record £1m at auction, after being bought 34 years ago for just £5,000.

The Macallan 1988 cask had been forgotten about until the distillery reminded its original owner that it remained maturing in a warehouse.

Although it seems some people get lucky. This was from 2022, but there was a similar story in the news recently.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82115773#Comment_82115773

That £5000 in 1988 would be the equivalent of ~£13k today, so not that far off what @jjgser paid for their casks.

May we ask what was in the recent casks?