Unicorn Auctions is a website (unicornauctions.com) and app with weekly auctions of whiskey and other bottles of spirits. Kind of like an eBay for those hard to find bottles you are looking for. First, let me say I am not affiliated with or receive any compensation from them. This is just a PSA for those who are curious.
What is it good for?
Unicorn bottles: First, as their name implies, if you are looking for that “unicorn”, hard-to-find rare bottle this is the place. Like if you are looking for a 2012 Willett Family Estate 21 Year Bourbon with Stitzel-Weller distillate then this is the place. Now that bottle won’t be cheap (it recently sold for $9200), but if you have deep pockets and really want it this is probably your best place.
Allocated bottles: If you are looking for that allocated bottle that is in short supply but is readily available on the secondary market at “museum” prices then you can probably get it in an auction for less than typical secondary. Again, it won’t be cheap, but it will probably be cheaper (unless you know a guy). For example: Pappy Van Winkle 15 Year for under $1400. This is usually $2000+ on secondary so while not cheap it is probably the best you would find for that bottle. I have seen Willett Family Estate 6 Year Bourbons go for under $250 and 13 Year for under $1000. Not cheap, but below typical secondary.
Collector/Hard-to-find bottles: If you are a Blanton’s collector looking for specific releases like a Takara Gold, Green Label, Red Label, Silver Edition, Poland release, etc. then this is the place to find it. Also, if you are looking for a specific Dump Date or an early year (pre-2000) then this is a great place as often they will have over a hundred bottles with specific dump dates shown for each. Even if you are looking for a specific letter to complete your collection you can find all the letters here. I have even seen a complete collection with all letters and all with the same dump date.
Limited releases: The auctions are not just all expensive or rare bottles. Unicorn is also a great place if you are seeking a previous special release, like for a specific Larceny or Elijah Craig barrel proof batch. Recently I was looking to try the Larceny Barrel Proof Batch B523 which Breaking Bourbon had scored a 4.5/5. I was able to win at auction for $55 (less than msrp, but with fees it is higher. see below on fees). They have hundreds of just regular bottles that you might be looking for but that are not readily available where you live.
How does it work?
Unicorn is a weekly online auction that typically ends every Sunday at 7pm EST. You can watch and bid on bottles all week. When you place a bid, you can place the maximum you want to pay. So, if you start a bid a $20 and you place a maximum bid of $100, it will automatically keep raising your bid (in $5 increments) up to $100 if someone tries to outbid you. At the end of the auction if you are the highest bidder you win. In addition to your winning price there is also a 15% fee, as well as 10.25% tax and shipping. Shipping is around $25 but is less if you there are multiple bottles in the same shipment. If you are local to their warehouse in downtown Chicago, or if like me you end up traveling to Chicago, you can pick up your bottle(s) and save the cost of shipping. Picture here is from my trip to their warehouse. One thing to consider is it can take up to 21 days before they ship out your bottle(s) so you need to allow for about a month before you can expect to receive it. Also, Unicorn doesn’t “technically” ship the bottle to you, they arrange for “you” to ship it to yourself via UPS so you need to make sure your state allows you to ship alcohol to yourself. They will add insurance to the shipment if you want which I recommend.
What is the best strategy for bidding?
If you bid early with a maximum bid then the advantage you have is that you will always be given precedence over other bids up to your max. Say you started the bid at $20 with a maximum of $100 and someone else places a bid of $25 with a maximum of $100. You will win as it will automatically raise the bid to both maximums, $100, but the final bid is yours as you bid and set yours first. Now if someone then bids over your maximum, they would outbid you, but they have to do that before the auction ends. I have done this method several times and it has worked well. If there was a specific bottle, I really wanted I would place my maximum and in the end I won for below that maximum and did not have to worry about watching the auction constantly.
The other option is “sniping”, or waiting until the last minute of the auction to place a bid. The idea is that you can just outbid the highest bidder without driving the bid too high. While this might work if the current bidder isn’t watching the price at the end, generally this doesn’t work. The system is designed that anytime a bid is placed it extends the auction 10 more minutes and notifies the previous bidder and anyone watching the auction. It keeps adding 10 minutes every time another bid is placed so even though the auction officially ends at 7pm, it will extend any specific bottle auctions until no more bids are placed.
Personally I think the best option is just to place a maximum bid on a specific bottle you are interested in early in the week. That way if your bottle gets outbid you will often have the option to find another similar bottle that you can bid on within your price range. This is true for bottles like Blanton’s where there are often dozens of similar bottles in the auction.
What if I want to sell a bottle at auction?
Unicorn in my opinion is the best way to sell a bottle. Maybe you won a lottery for a bottle that is just worth too much to keep, like that Pappy Van Winkle 23 Yr or you found an old “dusty” at an estate sale or in the back of your grandfather’s liquor cabinet. First, Unicorn offers a free appraisal. Just contact them. Since they only make a commission when it sells you can expect honest and transparency since it is in their best interest to get the most for your bottle. You can also set a reserve price that is the minimum you will take and if the auction doesn’t reach that you can re-list it for free or have it returned to you. Unicorn charges a $5 listing fee plus 5% of the final bid price if someone wins it. They authenticate every bottle and store them in their secure and insured warehouse. I have found that you will likely make more via auction than if you sell to a liquor store since they will usually offer you much lower than its value so that they can make a decent profit themselves. You could always trade or sell to a friend or someone you know locally but this is illegal in many areas. Trying to do this online via Facebook, Craigslist, etc. is the riskiest way and not recommended.
It doesn’t cost anything to join or place a bid. You can check out the current auction and even go back and look at previous auctions to see what bottles are going for.