Bottle Brokerage Process

1. List – we request you send your list of bottles to RW101 - ideally as an excel file.
2. Flash Valuation - We conduct a “flash valuation” and will pick around 100 key bottles out of your collection and provide you with a draft valuation to ensure alignment. This will be done within 10 working days of receipt of your list.
3. Business Terms Agreed & Timings - Once this initial valuation is accepted we agree to work as partners to "broker" the bottles on your behalf to our clients. We would expect a 3 month exclusivity for small collections (<1,000 bottles) and a 6 month exclusivity agreement for larger collections (>1,000 bottles). This gives us time to find the right buyers, negotiate the price and gain agreement between you (the seller) and the buyer to proceed. Typically once we have an accurate valuation of all bottles our buyers make a decision within 4 to 8 weeks.
4. Full Valuation - we would immediately create a full collection indicative Open Market Valuation (OMV) using UK auction data and our own experience and insight and share this with you - we will do this as a desk study and create a total valuation. Depending on your collection size this will take 2 to 4 weeks to complete
5. Valuation Alignment - If the resulting valuation is in the range you are looking for we would then expect to visit the collection and assess each and every bottle.
6. Eyes on Every Bottle - our clients expect us to authenticate and check fill levels, packaging, etc and provide a full and fair and exact valuation. This exact valuation is what we would then take to our buyer clients around the world. Please note that low fills levels and damaged packaging can significantly depress values.
7. Finding the Buyer - we then find the buyer(s) and agree a negotiated price and time frame for the transaction between you and the buyer.
8. Money Transfer – buyer will wire the money to you and you release the bottles for shipment.
9. Logistics - We can assist you and the buyer with logistics and warehouse solutions.
10. Brokerage Fees & Invoice – our fees typically range from 10 to 15% depending on the quality and quantity of the collection. Most auction houses can charge anything from 10 to 25% and do not offer a guaranteed sales price nor guarantee of sale and would only sell on a bottle by bottle basis! At RW101 we are very experienced in finding the buyer, agreeing the price and supporting the transaction and logistics processes. Many of our recent brokerage transactions are for collections up to 5,000 bottles in size and have been in excess of £0.5M in value.
11. Invoice Payment - We would invoice the seller for the agreed for the brokers fee only once you have received the funds from the buyer.
12. Anonymity - clients like working with us given the privacy and anonymity we offer.