What Kind of Bourbon Buyer Are You?

This week’s post comes to us from guest writer Matthew Saunds. Matthew is the Store Supervisor at Village Wine and Spirits in Sleepy Hollow, New York. He brings us tips to help determine what kind of bourbon buyer you are and what to look for when purchasing bourbon and whiskey.

When it comes to buying, selling and trading bourbon it might seem like a whole lot at once. Where do I begin? What should I look for? Both valid questions when starting to buy whisky and bourbon. The first thing that I ask my customers when I talk to them is; what kind of buyer are you? Do you buy to drink, invest, sell, flip? Each of which comes with self-awareness and most likely a price tag.

Starting off, if you buy to drink 9 times out of 10 you likely won’t spend anywhere past $500 or so. Case in point, how does this buyer justify spending that much money for a bottle that they are going to drink? So to yourself it’s not worth it to go over that price point. If you’re buying to sell it usually means that you’re the middle man. You may know someone who wants a bottle of a specific whiskey or bourbon but they can’t get it near them so you get it for them. Whether that buyer be a retail store or a private collector.

I always think of bourbon and whisky as regionalized in terms of markets because a lot of times different markets have different bourbons and whiskeys. If you know what you’re looking for then I’m sure you know where and who has it. If you don’t then I’d suggest you consult with your nearest liquor store employee to steer you in the right direction and provide advice.

Buying to flip is a whole different ballgame because that involves more knowledge and expertise on specific bourbons and whiskeys and different markets and pricing. The price of a bottle in the northeast may be much less out west so that’s going to limit your buyers. Buyers looking to flip are just trying to make a few extra bucks. Nothing wrong with that but you have to know what you’re doing because if you don’t you can and will lose money repeatedly. If successful, you can be profitable and build an extension of buyers who will seek you out because they know you have what no one else can get in their eyes which makes you an asset.

Also when trying to flip it’s important to not be a phony politician by over promising and under delivering. Make sure the product that you have is something that you have on hand/you can get or else your credibility is going to be shot and once word gets out that you are not somebody dependable no one is going to seek you out to try to help them find specific hard allocated items.

Buying to invest is something that has caught on recently as publications have written that investing in whiskey and bourbon have better returns than the stock market; to which I tend to agree with. But it all comes down to bottles you are buying with the intent of investing. This requires meticulous research and knowing the sort of the brand, the bottle and year. All of which affect value in the long run. The last thing you want is a $1,000 bottle that is not worth anything or has not appreciated not as much as you thought it would.

A recent trend I’ve seen is people trading instead of paying cash for a bottle simply because paying retail or secondary prices are not justified in their eyes. However trading a bottle to someone else and getting one in return can be a mutually beneficial business transaction. Leaving both parties mutually satisfied. This is something that I’ve seen recently due to certain bottles price tags.

These are just a few things to keep in mind when buying whiskey on the first or secondary markets. If you have a question for Matthew please leave a comment below or contact him at Village Wine and Spirits.

A few select photos from Matthew’s Instagram feed: @msaunds27