Martin Green - Collecting Malt Whisky - A Price Guide

[Onefortheditch]

The second edition is out!!

See McTears website.

I've been waiting for this one!!

[les taylor]

LFW has it. As does Amazon although they are quoting 4 - 6 weeks delivery.

[Di Blasi]

I wondered about this when I saw it on the LFW site. Is it mostly older bottlings or current whiskies as well?

[les taylor]

Without looking it up, if I remember correctly it's the prices that bottles have actually made at the Mactear's auctions for the last 5 year's. So some will be up to date some a bit older prices.

[vitara7]

yeh, but the prices quoted in the book dont include the buyer premium nor does it include VAT

[Di Blasi]

Thanks Les, that's what I was wondering. A good guide is what it seems like.

[Deactivated Member]

I have the original version and it is very good as a reference for looking up general prices of auctionable bottles. But as has been mentioned, the prices in this book are based on those achieved at McTear's auctions, which in turn are generally below the prices achieved at online auctions such as Ebay and WhiskyAuction.

If you allow for this, it is fine when you need a general idea or ball park figure.

I will probably buy the second edition.
MT

[corbuso]

I have the original version and it is very good as a reference for looking up general prices of auctionable bottles. But as has been mentioned, the prices in this book are based on those achieved at McTear's auctions, which in turn are generally below the prices achieved at online auctions such as Ebay and WhiskyAuction.

If you allow for this, it is fine when you need a general idea or ball park figure.

I will probably buy the second edition.
MT

I have also the first edition, but it is so old that the prices can't be anymore used as a reference. Some prices have exploded during the last few years.
Hopefully, It will be more detailed than the first edition.

Cheers

[Onefortheditch]

I’ve now got this book. It has McTear’s auction prices for the last 7 years, 2000-2006.

If you collect whisky it’s a must!!

[Jeroen Kloppenburg]

I'm not a collector, but... isn't this the auction house with all the dubious sales? And are those prices/bottles listed in this book as well? See this forums' Macallan discussions and for example a thread or two on the Maltmaniacs site.

[kildalton]

I'm not a collector, but... isn't this the auction house with all the dubious sales? And are those prices/bottles listed in this book as well? See this forums' Macallan discussions and for example a thread or two on the Maltmaniacs site.

I suppose you could be right but anyway i think those are the price those bottles will have fetched if they were originals so it could be a nice reference....

[Onefortheditch]

I'm not a collector, but... isn't this the auction house with all the dubious sales? And are those prices/bottles listed in this book as well? See this forums' Macallan discussions and for example a thread or two on the Maltmaniacs site.

I'm afraid you've lost me here JK? I always thought McTears was a highly respected auction.

Its the best one I've seen and I review e-bay, the whiskyauction, the whiskyhammer and the whiskyexchange quite often.

I couldn't find the discussions you referred to, or the dubious prices? It is true some bottles do not do well at Mctears, but that is because the buyers do not place a value on them on the auction day. Other bottles do very well indeed. For example the last Black Bowmore went for £1700 if I remember correctly.

[irishwhiskeychaser]

Basically everyone got caught out with the forged Macallans and that was a long time ago. Sure did not Macallan themselves shell out the big monies for the bottles so it was not such a travesty I think all involved were quite embarrased. Where the real stink arose is that Macallan tried to do a hush up job and continued to sell their replicas even after they were deemed to be fakes.

The problem with forged bottles, a lot of the time, is that you cannot tell it was forged until the bottle is opened and the auctioneer cannot do that as then the bottles is bsically worthless.

And if you are value-ing (sic!) something you have never seen before again it is hard but to make an educated guess. Some of the forgeries are actually original bottles and lables filled with what ever and corked very professionally and a very credible story attached as to the sourcing of the bottle.

McTears have a very high standing in the UK auctioneering world not only in Whisky but also in fine art and antiques etc so I would be very surprised if they would jepoardise this on purpose by knowingly selling fakes.

[Iain]

Basically everyone got caught out with the forged Macallans and that was a long time ago. .

That's a bit unfair to all those folks who rang the alarm bells about the fake Macs, and got a shirricking from Macallan for their troubles.

It's true that Martin Green and Macallan's people got caught out, but that was because they would not listen to many, many people - collectors and industry insiders - who told them (privately at first, and then increasingly in public) that the "Vintage Macs" were fakes. Michael Jackson dropped some heavy hints of his own. If rumours are to be believed, even the Macallan Master Blender (who sampled the stuff) opposed the continued purchase of the fakes, but was overruled by a marketing department hell-bent on giving the brand a collectors' market "halo".

Macallan and MG still claim the bottles and packaging/get-up were genuine, despite clear evidence that the labels had been "enhanced" (at least!).

It transpired the whisky within each "19th century Macallan" bottle was an unidentified single malt distilled in the 1980s or 1990s.

[irishwhiskeychaser]

I suppose Iain ....

A marketing dream that they refused to let go of when people were shouting blue murder

[Mr Ellen]

There has been a lot of discussions regarding the "self-acclaimed whisky expert" at McTears. If you want to dig out more information about it follow this link:

http://www.maltmadness.com/

and scroll down the page to Entry #302 - McTears In My Eyes

Regarding the book, I have the first edition and it's the only whisky book I regret I ever bought. Why buy the book when you can read the auction results at their own website - for free!!!
But I guess it fills a purpose as people are buying it

Cheers
_______________________
Anders

[Onefortheditch]

There has been a lot of discussions regarding the "self-acclaimed whisky expert" at McTears. If you want to dig out more information about it follow this link:

http://www.maltmadness.com/

and scroll down the page to Entry #302 - McTears In My Eyes

Regarding the book, I have the first edition and it's the only whisky book I regret I ever bought. Why buy the book when you can read the auction results at their own website - for free!!!
But I guess it fills a purpose as people are buying it

Cheers
_______________________
Anders

I was not aware of the fake bottles. It is very disappointing and a pity Mr Green tried to cover up instead of own up

Still, hopefully he will have learned from his mistake and the resulting bad publicity. Each McTears auction sells hundreds of bottles. I'm sure the vast majority of them are genuine.

The info in the book is available on the website, but only on an auction by auction basis. The book pulls all the info together and this is the format of the info I want, in order to view trends, consistency in auction prices, etc of certain bottles, so I'm quite happy to pay £14.99 for it.

[Jeroen Kloppenburg]

There is not just the Macallan bottles, there have been more issues where they have been MADE aware, but apparently did not made them change/remove auctions or so.

I thought this was all pretty much common knowledge by now

[Onefortheditch]

It may be my imagination, but the catalogue for the next auction seems late in being published this time?

Hopefully its because they are carrying out more checks on the bottles they sell.....