Re PMs and Jameson bottle removed due to eBay policy changes

[Bwilliams]

Very frustrating for me given the interest level in the auction and for any of you who were watching/bidding. Thanks for the interest and PM's... Here are my thoughts....and what is going on with eBay.

eBay temporarily susprended full bottle transactions because people were selling non-collectible (new) bottles as collectible. My notification from eBay said that they will update their policies and that collectible (older) bottles will probably be allowed back. I am not sure how long this will take and apologize to anyone who was interested/watching/bidding. Not much I could do.

In response to a bunch of requests, I will consider private offers, which i do not think would be a violation since eBay removed my listing, but i had almost 40 watchers and over 17 bids with a couple days left before the auction close. As you know, the price tends to go up to fair market value in the last hour (or minutes!) of bidding. While I am confident that I would have realized a fair price, I would obviously need an offer well over the most recent bid to consider a private sale.

I live near new york city where there are many fine specialty shops that would be eager to take all of the Irish whiskies I am thinking about selling (see photo background or pm me) on consignment. Admittedly, this would be a bit of a hassle but at least I could bring them all at once and probably get near the high end valuations and even after the 15% they would take (on a multiple bottle consignment). The posts on this site suggest that specialty retailers might bring way more than eBay which would make their 15% well worth it. I'd be interested in hearing peope's thoughts on this -- feel free to post or pm me.

There are 4 bidders from eBay and several folks from this board that have already contacted me with an offer to buy outright. I don't want to get into specifics on this site as it is a forum, so please contact me privately if you are interested via:

bgerstley@gmail.com.

Thanks,

Bob

[jmrl]

Living in the US you're issues are presumably unrelated to our policies here in the UK or maybe not. I'd like to know the legality of e-bay conducting auction sales of alcohol, do they have a licence? How do they make sure people are over the legal purchasing age.

I see the sales of uncollectable bottles are being cracked down on but I hope you don't mind me bigging backing this thread for comment.


Have you considered Bonhams New York? I know they take more than a pound (or dollar) of flesh from both seller and buyer but the ready audience of potentially rich enthusiasts might lead to a lucrative bidding war....

Yours faithfully

Intrigued of Scotland

[Bwilliams]

jmrl,

Thanks for your reply. They are one of the auction houses in my consideration set.

Do you (or does anyone else) know what the letters on the bottom of the bottle refer to and whether they can be used to date the bottle more precisely?

The bottom of mine has three rows of characters:
A 4 E
S 2
U G B

I'd be quite interested to know --

Cheers!

[Brgreat5]

Hi There,

UGB is United Glass Bottle

* 1913 Formed as a public company named The United Glass Bottle Manufacturers Ltd, when Ravenhead Glass, Cannington Shaw and Co, Nuttall Co, Alfred Alexander and Co and Robert Candlish and Son combined.
The company closed some smaller plants and concentrated its production at a newly built factory at Charlton and two factories in St. Helens.
*1922 Advert: U. G. B. - Use Good Bottles. 250,000,000 British Made Bottles Per Annum. U. G. B. Bottles are:- Accurate in Capacity; the Corkage is Correct; the Height and Shape are Uniform; the Stongest Bottles Made. (Stand Nos. G.24 and G.40)

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/United_Glass_Bottle_Manufacturers

The numbers probably refer to the mould no. & the design no. - may have some date significance but that would require serious research into moulds and their peroid of usage via the company archives.

Hope that sheds some light...