Vinfolio Blog

We’ve recently added a new field to our Marketplace listings to help both bidders and sellers set prices.  The field is called Suggested Price and can be found on the far right hand side of the Marketplace listings page.  It is intended to signal to both Bidder and Seller what market pricing for the specific wine might be, and serve as a guide for setting both bid and sell prices.

 

The Suggested Price field data is derived from multiple sources:

• Marketplace average transactions for that particular wine, vintage and bottle size for the past year.
• Auction data for that particular wine, vintage, and bottle size for the last 24 months as calculated by the auction algorithm’s on WinePrices.com
• Current Retail Pricing for that particular wine, vintage and bottle size from WinePrices.com

If there’s not enough data from all of those sources, the field will be left blank.

Bidders and sellers who use the Suggested Price will find higher bid acceptance and sell rates.  We also use Suggested Price in our Bid Feedback emails, so that sellers are able to signal to bidders the pricing that they are looking to see in order for them to accept a bid. Sellers can elect to send Bid Feedback from within VinCellar.

 

Bidders receive the email suggesting a price change and can then modify their bid.

 

 

 

When both bidder and seller come to the same market assessment, we find that both consummate the transaction happily.

The new Vinfolio Marketplace homepage is designed to be your gateway into the Marketplace. In addition to providing relevant Marketplace stats including most traded wines, most recently added and best values, we have also made it simple to search by producer, top vintages and Burghound, Spectator, Parker and IWC picks.

Additionally, each day, we will highlight one wine that offers an exceptional opportunity based on its asking price versus the low retail price. Check the site daily or even better, follow @VinScoop on Twitter or become a Vinfolio fan on Facebook to find out the daily features.

 

 

If you’ve logged into VinCellar in the last couple of days, you may have noticed the new Marketplace Summary tile on VinCellar home. This tile, also available on the Vinfolio homepage, provides a snapshot of all active bids on your wine in one quick glance. Even if you have not marked wine for sale you can use this snapshot to view, evaluate and accept bids on wine that you own.

To use, simply click the hyperlinked label to navigate to the My Cellar Marketplace tab. From that tab you can view a list of all wines with bids. Click through on the wine name to evaluate individual bids. As of next week, if you’ve marked that wine for sale you will be eligible to provide direct feedback to the bidder on changes requested to accept their bid.

Remember that while you can accept bids on wines owned, explicitly marking them for sale triggers their listing on the Marketplace, qualifies you to receive immediate bid alerts and, as of next week, qualifies you to provide feedback directly to the bidder.

 

If you haven’t marked your wine for sale or accepted bids in the Vinfolio Marketplace, now is the time to start.  Beginning October 1, we’ve lowered seller fees and cut in-bound shipping costs to make it even more profitable to sell your wine, regardless of location*.

Sell your wine now and enjoy these limited-time benefits:

• FREE in-bound shipping for first-time Marketplace sellers on all bids accepted in October

• 15% fees for ALL Sellers, regardless of storage location until December 31, 2009 (reduced from 20% for off site locations).

• $6 minimum per bottle fee for ALL sellers until December 31, 2009 (reduced from $8)

• All sales still go towards the Marketplace cumulative volume discounts

• Shipping subsidies for bottles sold over $100 are still included

   
Get started

• Mark your wine for sale – learn how

• Set asking prices – learn how

• View open bids on your wines

For questions or to provide feedback, please contact service@vinfolio.com or visit the Vinfolio Forum.

*Please note that location refers to Vinfolio, private or home storage. All wine sold in the Marketplace must still be physically located in the U.S. (excludes MA).

You may have noticed a “Watch” icon next to any wine listing in the Vinfolio wine store or Marketplace. This is part of our new Wine Watcher alert program which replaces Vinfolio wine alerts.

Wine Watcher alerts allow you to track individual wines or all wines in a group selected by search criteria such as your current bids, a saved search, or by keywords and see activity on the resulting wine(s) in the Vinfolio wine store and/or Marketplace. Create as many individual alerts as you like. They will be all combined into a daily or weekly digest and grouped by the alert name within the email. Wine Watcher alerts can be created from wine listing and wine detail pages or within My Account. Click here to learn how to set up an alert.

How to use the Wine Watcher alerts
Wine Watcher alerts offer a powerful tool to track a wine or group of wines. Depending if you are monitoring your bids, looking for new inventory or just watching transactional activity, Wine Watcher alerts can provide you with timely information (see below) to support your decision-making on wines you are following:

•    New Vinfolio Wine store inventory added (with the price)
•    New quantity that is marked for sale has been added to the Vinfolio Marketplace
•    A new low ask price has been set
•    A new high bid has been placed
•    A Marketplace transaction has been completed

Automated bid feedback provided by My Active Bids alert
The only alert created automatically upon placing one or more bids is one called “My active bids.”  This alert defaults to “Immediate” delivery (the only alert with “Immediate” option) based on a new low ask or high bid on a wine which you have already bid upon.  This “push” capability enables you to react quickly to competitive bidders or new asking prices set by sellers.

Managing your alerts
For alerts you create manually, you will receive a consolidated update of all the activity in your alerts on either a daily or weekly basis. To update alerts, simply go to My Account and select Wine Watcher. You may edit, delete or create a new Wine Watcher alert.

We’ve already written about the new Bid Fulfillment feature that we’ve deployed on the Vinfolio Marketplace.  It’s a great new feature that is a required parameter of a bid which specifies whether the Bid Quantity sought may be achieved through multiple purchases.  It essentially enables multiple sellers to accept part or all of a bid up to the maximum quantity specified. 

Different treatment of bottles failing inspection
When one or more bottles in a transaction fail our Inspection Guidelines, the transaction is processed differently based on what Bid Fulfillment choice was specified:

1. “Single purchase” - In the past, or if the “single purchase” option is selected today,  a single bottle  failing inspection would cause the entire transaction  to be cancelled (including acceptable bottles).  
2. “Multiple purchases” – Today, using the “multiple purchases” option, only the single bottle that fails would be affected.  This is a significant improvement to both bidder and seller, as they will only have individual bottle exceptions to the total transaction.  

 

All bidders’ credit cards must be successfully pre-authorized for $40 (not charged) prior to placing a bid in the Marketplace to verify the bidder’s identify and validate the card.  There may be times when a charge fails (e.g., based on purchase amount, bidder credit availability at the time, card issuer setting fraud alerts, etc.).  Typically, these are easy to resolve, but we felt it would be helpful to understand the process and the steps we take to quickly address these situations.

A bidder’s credit card is immediately charged when the seller completes the accept bid process. However, when the charge fails to authorize, a pop-up window is presented to the seller offering them the option to hold the bid for one business day while Vinfolio corrects the problem (this also prevents the seller from accepting an alternative bid for wine involved).

    

Should the seller agree, the following actions are triggered:

1. The bidder receives an email notifying them that their bid was “conditionally” accepted due to a problem when processing their credit card.
2. Vinfolio Customer Service proactively reaches out to the bidder to offer resolution assistance.
3. The seller receives an email confirming their agreement to reserve the bid until the buyer’s card can be successfully charged or other form of payment collected. (Note:  Even though the seller has agreed to give Vinfolio one business day to resolve the problem, the seller has the option to cancel the transaction at any time. If this happens, the buyer will receive an email notifying them of the cancelled transaction.)
4. Vinfolio successfully collects payment by:

 - Resubmitting the same card
 - Processing another credit card
 - Receiving a wire transfer for large purchases

A successful charge or other form of payment generates an email to the bidder summarizing the details of their purchase.  The seller receives an email confirming the sale.  If we are unable to resolve the problem, both the seller and the buyer are notified via email and the hold on the wine is released which enables the seller to accept another bid.  

Vinfolio is committed to ensuring both the seller and the buyer enjoy a positive experience and a successful outcome.

As we’re building out the Vinfolio Marketplace and watching users interact more and more, we’re noticing several important trends.  One of the most important is that sellers setting a low ask price drives successful Marketplace transactions .  

    
 

As the above chart shows, the overwhelming majority of successful transactions in the Vinfolio Marketplace occur when there is a low ask price set by the seller.   More importantly, the higher percentage in Total Dollar Volume when ask prices are set indicates that bidders set a bid price more effectively when they see that there is an asking price from a seller.  For many sellers, this has a likely intended effect of raising the final price that they might see from any sale.  It’s also clear that setting an ask price sends a message to bidders and that the data is acted upon.

You can set asking prices after you've clicked on either "Sell wine" or "Sell via Marketplace" where you will arrive at the following screen:

   1. Indicate the quantity you would like to sell in the "Qty to sell" field.

     

   2. Indicate an "Asking price".

     

 

   3. If your wine is in Vinfolio storage, indicate a "Minimum price" and click "Auto-accept" to speed up the transaction process. Then click "Finished".

     

   4. Be sure to read the Auto-accept Terms screen and click "Submit". You can also access Vinfolio's full terms from this screen.

 As Vinfolio deploys new features like Auto Accept, setting low ask prices will have even greater effect upon successful sales.  

 

The ability to create “Auto-Accept rules” is a new Vinfolio Marketplace feature designed to make it faster and easier for bidders and sellers to consummate transactions.  Initially only available to sellers with wine in Vinfolio Storage, auto-accept is an optional feature for sellers that automatically accepts a bid immediately after it is made provided that the bid price is equal to or above the seller’s minimum price (which is not disclosed to bidders) and other terms of the bid are satisfied (quantity, bottle size).  In the event a bid satisfies the Auto-Accept rule of more than one seller, the determination of the sellers permitted to accept part or all of the bid is made by applying the following rules in order:

1. Seller with the lowest minimum price for the auction item.
2. Seller with the largest quantity of the wine marked for sale in the requested bottle size.
3. Seller who has sold the largest cumulative gross value through the Marketplace since inception.

We’ve made this feature available so that sellers who pre-commit to the terms under which they would sell will be rewarded with first crack at new bids and the convenience of automating the acceptance process.   Bidders are also more likely to get a faster response which creates a better Marketplace experience.

How do use the Bid Auto Accept Rules?
When marking their wine for sale, sellers are able to enter their optional, public ask price and their private minimum price (which is required to create an Auto-Accept rule).  

In VinCellar, you'll need to mark a wine for sale.  To do so, right click the chevron image next to the wine you wish to sell.

       

You’ll need to check the Auto Accept box to activate this feature.

    

And then enter your Pricing.  We highly suggest setting an ask price, as it greatly increases the potential that you'll successfully sell your wine on the Vinfolio Marketplace.

     

 
Can I edit Auto Accept rules?
Yes, simply go to My Cellar, and click on the Marketplace tab

    
 
Then right click on the chevron symbol to the right of the wine name to open up the left action pop-up menu.  
 
Click on the Edit selling details link

    

You can then modify an existing Auto-Accept rule, change the quantity for sale, and change your pricing.   

     

What does it mean? 

For the Vinfolio Marketplace, Bid Fulfillment is a required parameter of a bid which specifies whether the bid quantity sought may be achieved through multiple purchases.  The initial design of Marketplace assumed that each bid would only ever be fulfilled by a single seller. Therefore, if the seller didn’t have the required quantity to supply the full bid quantity, the seller would not be able to accept the bid (nor would they be notified of the bid as they weren’t eligible to accept it). The original approach also had consequences if even a single bottle failed to pass inspection as it resulted in the entire transaction being cancelled instead of completing the sale of the accepted bottles.

Based on user feedback, bidders didn’t understand the initial approach and, in fact, assumed the opposite, where the bid quantity is really a maximum only and not also the minimum. For example, if a bidder wanted to purchase 60 bottles of a given wine for a particular price, bidders currently seem to assume we are notifying any and all sellers (even those with 1-2 bottles) and permitting them to accept bids for lesser quantities until the total of 60 bottles is reached.  The advantages of bidders specifying “Fill to max quantity” (multiple purchases) as their Bid Fulfillment method  are compelling, including:

• Bids are processed as bidders intuitively expect.
• Sellers of any quantity are eligible to accept bids so more selling opportunities are presented. With each seller acceptance, the bidder's maximum bid quantity is just revised downward by the quantity accepted (until it reaches 0).
• Sellers can complete the sale of wine that passes inspection even when another bottle that is part of the accepted bid quantity is rejected. The bidder's remaining quantity to buy is just increased by the number of rejected bottles.
• Vinfolio's aggregation of incoming supply in the bidder's name in our storage facility (including six months of free storage) enables the bidder to wait until the full quantity of his/her bid is completed (or expired/canceled) before transferring or shipping his/her purchase.

As a bidder, Bid Fulfillment enables multiple sellers to accept your bid and sell you wine.  However, it will also result in separate charges to your credit card for each accepted bid transaction that occurs towards satisfying the total quantity of wine you specified in your bid. You may also obtain only a portion of the total quantity you were seeking.

Sellers will see an increase in the number of bids received and more opportunities to accept bids.  This will have the fortunate effect of making it easier for you to sell your wine. 

So how do you use Bid Fulfillment to maximize your buying options?

It’s easy.  When you’re bidding on a given wine, simply click the choice labeled ”Fill to max quantity (multiple purchases).” 

 

 We take care of the rest.  We’ll notify all owners of the wine on which you’ve bid. 

Sellers can then accept the bid for either the entire quantity you’ve specified, or only as much as they can or wish to accept. 

After the seller has accepted the portion of the bid that they choose, Vinfolio Marketplace’s standard processes ensue.  Both the seller and the bidder will receive email notices, along with notices in their Vincellar or CellarTracker My Account. 

It's been two weeks since the launch of Marketplace and in that time we've received lots of great feedback in the Marketplace Forum as well as via various online bulletin boards. Earlier this week we held a multi-hour planning meeting to discuss software enhancements to respond to the feedback. The result of this meeting was development of a "product road map" to take us through the next 4-6 weeks.

Here is an excerpt from Steve Bachmann's more detailed Marketplace Forum post on this topic. 

1. "Bidder education" (Timing: Within next 1-2 weeks)

A number of bids have been placed which are unrealistically low. While we are not going to impose a required minimum bid, we want to ensure bidders are consciously entering a bid price that reflects objective market pricing data

Step 1 of the bidding wizard will be revised to include market data pricing points (when available) and we will implement helpful rules-based messaging on pricing and quantity values entered during this step.

2. "Open to buy" (Timing: Within next 1-2 weeks)

The initial design of Marketplace assumes that each bid would only ever be fulfilled by a single seller. Therefore, if the seller doesn't have the required quantity (in a single location) to supply the full quantity in the bid, the seller is not able to accept the bid.

In the future we will be adopting more of an "open to buy" approach where the bid quantity is really a maximum only and not also the minimum. For example, if the bidder wants to purchase 60 bottles of a given wine for a particular price, we will notify any and all sellers (even those with 1-2 bottles) and permit them to accept bids for lesser quantities. This "open to buy" method will become the default approach soon (with an option of invoking the single supplier method).

3. Auto-accept rule from Vinfolio storage (Timing: Mid-to-late August)

In general, bidders have expressed the desire for more responsiveness from sellers and advance knowledge of whether an asking price is "firm". Moreover, with or without an asking price, we know many trade sellers (and others) wish to "automate" the process of accepting a bid (to reduce labor costs to administer their participation) and also to gain an edge in accepting bids versus competing sellers. We call this generic capability "Auto-accept."

The first (and easiest) step for us to take in enabling this capability is to implement it for wine being sold from Vinfolio storage. After that phase is implemented, we will expand the concept's application.

4. Wine Watcher(TM) alerts (Timing: Mid-to-late August)

Marketplace users have asked for tools which support more, timely interaction. While we already have bid alerts to notify sellers when a new bid is made on wine that is marked for sale, we do not currently have a means of notifying bidders (or just "watchers") of various forms of activity relating to a specific wine. Therefore, we've decided to implement a capability we're naming Wine Watcher alerts.

Any Vinfolio user will be able to configure Wine Watcher alerts to monitor one or more pre-defined activities on a daily or immediate notification basis. A Wine Watcher "Active Bids" alert will be automatically created for bidders and be comprised of the list of wines with active bids.  By default, the Active Bids alert will be configured to deliver an immediate notification whenever a new low asking price is entered by a seller or a new bid is placed by someone else on the same wine.

5. "Quantity caps" (Timing: Mid-to-late August)

To avoid having large quantities of individual items available that may distort the intended business positioning of the Marketplace and skew sorting/filtering by quantity, we will implement a maximum displayed quantity per item of 120 bottles for all users. 

6. Detailed retail market pricing pop-up (Timing: Mid-to-late August)

We currently provide various market pricing data to both buyers and sellers based on the belief that market price transparency encourages convergence between buyers on sellers on a "fair market value price" needed to complete a Marketplace transaction. In addition to the following data currently available on wine detail pages, this project will integrate individual retail price istings:

• Marketplace transaction history (very limited now but will grow over time)
• Major auction house results from WinePrices.com (both averages and details of individual lots sold)
• U.S. retail average pricing
• Active bid prices

7. Bidder-requested deferred inbound shipping (Timing: Fall 2009)

We already take steps to ensure sellers' wine is protected during its inbound shipment by increasing shipping speeds during periods of adverse weather. However, some buyers and sellers would prefer to eliminate all risk (including unforeseen events that could create delays).  This project will enable bidders to specify that their bid should only be accepted by a seller whose wine will be sent either after a certain date or when the weather check which Vinfolio performs between the originating Zip code and our warehouse's Zip code satisfies the requested conditions.  As this project could not be implemented in time for the summer months, we have deferred it until the Fall.

Other ideas

If you have other suggestions not addressed by the above plans, please add a comment to this blog or create a new topic in the Marketplace Forum.

The day has arrived! With over $850,000 in active bids placed in the Marketplace, sellers can now start accepting bids! Here are some details to help you monitor and respond to those bids.

Monitor
We’ve built a several tools to help sellers monitor bids and, based on your early feedback, we’re hard at work improving them.

Bid alerts
When you mark wine for sale in the Marketplace, you are opted-in to receive Bid Alert email notifications. This basic bid alert is sent in the form of a daily digest (by default) and notifies you of any recent bids that have been placed on your wine. Clicking on the Wine or Accept Bid button from the email links you to the VinCellar Marketplace detail page. Here you can view all active bids on that wine as well as other Marketplace details including other sellers and completed transactions.

You can change the frequency with which you receive the basic bid alert to Immediate or Weekly by going to “My Account” in VinCellar and clicking the “Alerts” tab.

Within this tab you can create additional alerts to further filter the bids you receive on a particular wine, saved search or keyword by:

• Bid price relative to your cost, auction or retail pricing
• Your asking price or private minimum price
• Minimum bid quantity (and other factors)

VinCellar Marketplace tab
You can access a holistic view of all active bids on your wine from the My Cellar Marketplace tab. Clicking on any Wine name from that tab will link you to that wine’s Marketplace detail page.

VinCellar Home page
Within the next few days we will be adding a Marketplace summary tile on the VinCellar Home page and we have other Home page alert notifications in development.

Respond
From VinCellar Marketplace detail pages, sellers can review all current bids, details on other sellers, completed transactions and can respond in a couple of ways:

Set an Asking price. Respond to low or $0 bids by entering an Asking price. Read more here:

• Vinfolio Blog Pricing your wine
• Marketplace forum Asking prices from a Bidder's perspective
• Marketplace FAQs Managing Asking prices and bids section

Accept! Review all current bids from VinCellar Marketplace detail pages.

Ignore. Wait for a more reasonable bid.

So, get busy accepting and continue to let us know how we can improve your Marketplace experience!      

With the launch of the Vinfolio Marketplace just days away, it’s a good time to talk about wine location and why it matters for both buyers and sellers.

For sellers, one of the best things about the Marketplace is that you can just leave your wine in its current location until it sells for the price you want.  However, there are some clear benefits to moving wine that you intend to sell in the Marketplace to Vinfolio storage first:

• Pay lower transaction fees. Wine sold from Vinfolio storage is charged a 15% transaction fee vs. 20% for other locations.  You will incur storage fees but these are likely modest in comparison to the 5% savings.
• Generate more demand from buyers – Wine sold from storage is fulfilled to buyers within one week compared to up to four weeks from other locations. Additionally, bidders can choose to bid only for wine in Vinfolio storage.
• Eliminate post bid acceptance process – Don’t worry about shipping or packaging sold wine within the two week deadline. After you accept the bid, Vinfolio does the rest of the work for you. Assuming your wine passes our Inspection Guidelines, you just wait for the check.
• Ship more cost effectively and conveniently – As any wine you sell must be sent to Vinfolio for inspection to complete the transaction, you know you’ll need to ship it at some point.  You can often reduce your total shipping costs by consolidating and shipping all of the wine you expect to sell together.  For example, if you had at least 30 cases to sell, it is generally more cost effective (and safer for the wine) to use a freight forwarder’s temperature-controlled truck (which Vinfolio can help arrange).  You might also just find dealing with all shipping matters at one time more convenient.
• Coming soon: For wine that is stored in Vinfolio storage , you'll be able to establish an "auto accept" rule to get first crack at bids over your private, minimum price threshold.
  

Click here to learn about Vinfolio’s full-service storage and how to get started.

When you mark your wine for sale in the Marketplace, we recommend setting an asking price (which is optional). The benefits of setting an asking price include: 

1. Stimulates more bids (assuming it's reasonable) as it increases bidders' perceived chances of a success by reducing uncertainty
2. Signals that the seller is more likely to respond quickly to a bid, again improving bidders' odds of success
3. Ensures your wine shows up in searches when a buyer searches on price
4. Calls attention to your wine over those without asking prices when a buyer is browsing
   

Vinfolio offers several easy-to-use tools to help you research and determine a reasonable asking price:

1. Use the Community wines page of VinCellar to review the average value and community cost of your wine. These values will give a good starting point for the price range of your wine:

 

 

2. Visit WinePrices for recent auction results (if any) and current U.S. retail pricing history:

 

 

3. Click on the Marketplace tab in My Cellar and then on the specific wine name which will show you what others in the Marketplace are asking for your wine:

4. Don't forget to consider your Marketplace fees.

5. Remember, you may optionally set filters if you only want to receive notification on bids that meet your specified criteria.

Happy pricing!

Mark your wine for sale now so it’s listed as "marked for sale" in the Marketplace when bidding commences on July 7th. Vinfolio is offering 10 free storage units for every 10 cases of wine you mark for sale through June 30, 2009. To mark wine for sale, log in to VinCellar. If you don’t already have a Vinfolio account you may register for one here. Your single, free Vinfolio account grants you access to all Vinfolio sites including VinCellar and WinePrices.

 

There are a few, simple ways to mark your wine for sale. Find the one that works best for you and get started.  

Mark all your wine for sale by clicking on the Marketplace tab in VinCellar and selecting "Mark all wine for sale". This option marks all bottles of all eligible wine for sale with one simple click.

 

Mark an individual wine for sale by clicking the “Sell via Marketplace” link on the left action pop-out of any wine in the “My Cellar” Marketplace tab or from any wine detail page.

 

Mark multiple wines for sale at once by clicking the “Sell wine” link under Common Tasks on VinCellar home or the “Sell” button at the top right hand of any “My Cellar” page.

 

When marking individual or multiple wines for sale you will have the opportunity to select how many bottles you’d like to sell as well as set an optional asking price for those wines.  

Mark wine for sale during Import. Simply specify “Yes” in the optional “Marketplace for Sale” column in the VinCellar import template and your wine will be automatically marked for sale when it’s added during the import process.

That's it! Getting ready for bids is as easy as that.

Happy selling!

Over the last several weeks, we’ve been describing how to mark your wine for sale in the new Vinfolio Marketplace, launching July 7th. Many people have asked about the difference between the Marketplace and our Consignment Auctions.

Both offer fast and profitable ways to sell your wine, including low fees, anonymous selling, no buyer’s premium and fast payment. The key difference is whether you prefer hands-on control over selling prices and a highly flexible process (to sell or not, ship upfront or not, etc.) or wish the convenience of making all of your selling-related decisions at once (turning it over to Vinfolio to manage from there).  

We’ve provided an overview of some of the main benefits and requirements of each. You can also click here for a more detailed comparison of the Vinfolio Marketplace and Consignment Auctions.

The Vinfolio Marketplace

• Gives you complete control over the entire selling process from optionally setting an asking price to accepting a bid.

• Mark any wine for sale – as long as it meets our eligibility requirements.

• No obligation to sell until you get the price you want. 

• Wine is offered for bid in the Vinfolio Marketplace.

• Fees are 15% for wine stored in Vinfolio Storage and 20% for wine in other U.S. locations.

• Wine can be stored at Vinfolio to reduce Marketplace transaction fees from 20% to 15% (but will incur storage fees) or Seller can ship wine after the transaction. Shipping costs are the seller’s responsibility but reflect Vinfolio’s negotiated rates and qualify for subsidies on each bottle sold for $100 or more.

• All wines must pass Vinfolio’s inspection guidelines.

• Learn more about the Marketplace.

Consignment Auctions

• Wine is offered for sale at a fixed price in the Vinfolio wine store for either 90 or 180 days, enabling immediate purchase confirmation and faster fulfillment 

• Requires a minimum total retail value of $10,000.

• All wine must have a minimum $40 per bottle retail value and a minimum professional score of 89 points; otherwise, any wine is eligible for consideration if not past its latest recommended drink date.

• Wine is stored and insured at Vinfolio during consignment auction period at no charge.

• Fees are typically around 20% (plus inbound shipping costs).

• All wines must pass Vinfolio’s inspection guidelines.

• Learn more about the process.

Whichever method you choose, you can count on the full support of Vinfolio’s e-commerce engine and our superior customer service staff.

Click here for a more detailed comparison of the Vinfolio Marketplace and Consignment Auctions.

Since announcing the upcoming launch of the Vinfolio Marketplace, we’ve received a lot of questions about the types of wine that can be sold, if and how international users can participate, as well as questions about our guarantees on the wine.

Requirements

In short, there are three basic limitations on wine that can be sold through the Marketplace:

1. 1970 or later vintage
2. Less than or equal to 6-liter bottle size
3. Physically located within the United States (to ensure timely completion of the transaction)
   

For wines that cannot be sold through the Marketplace, we recommend selling your wine through Vinfolio’s buyout auctions. Be aware that after July 1st, we’ll require a minimum $10,000 retail value for buyout auctions. Click here to learn more about buyout auctions and how they differ from the Marketplace.

Option for International Customers

We also have an option for international customers. Wine stored at Vinfolio’s storage facility in the U.S. may be sold through the Marketplace. So if you have wine you want to sell, transfer it to Vinfolio’s storage facility and mark it for sale. You will also earn an extra 5% on sales because wine sold from  Vinfolio storage is only charged a 15% fee vs 20% for wine located elsewhere!

Guidelines and Terms

Every bottle sold via the Marketplace is inspected against all Inspection Guidelines. So before you sell a wine, check it first. Failure to satisfy any guideline causes the bottle to be rejected, the entire transaction to be cancelled and result in an $8 per bottle cancellation fee. Our guidelines were established to detect signs of bottles with an increased risk of being in unacceptable condition or possessing other attributes which negatively impact value or marketability to a buyer.

Buyers should be aware that all wine is sold "as is" and Vinfolio makes no guarantees on the suitability of a wine to drink. Though Vinfolio inspects each bottle, we can’t guarantee a bottle’s suitability for consumption and it’s the buyer’s decision to bid on a wine that may have passed its useful life (the bid price would presumably reflect that risk). It’s also not possible to determine certain flaws through inspection alone.

Rest assured, we’ll be encouraging bidders with complaints about wine condition to contact our Customer Service Department. Vinfolio will also be actively managing Marketplace activity on both the bidding and selling side to preserve its integrity. We want to create a place where buyers and sellers can participate with confidence.

If you haven’t started marking your wine for sale yet, what are you waiting for? Vinfolio is offering 10 free storage units for every 10 cases of wine you mark for sale through June 30, 2009. Get started.

It’s been an exciting week at Vinfolio. If you haven’t heard yet, we’ve announced the Vinfolio Marketplace as an easy way for VinCellar users to sell their wine anonymously. Bidding starts when we launch in early July.

Now’s the time to go through your cellar and start marking your wine for sale. Selling is passive so once your wine’s been marked for sale, just sit back, pour yourself a glass of wine and let the bidding begin.

Improve your chances

• Set an optional asking price on your wine. Your asking price is public and informs bidders of the price you are willing to accept for your wine. This will help bidders set a reasonable bid. Enter an asking price when you mark wine for sale or from the Marketplace tab on the wine detail page.

• You can also set an optional minimum price. Your minimum price is private and represents the lowest price you would accept for this wine.  Your minimum price can be used to auto-accept bids on wine stored at Vinfolio (more about auto-accept in a future blog post).
• Upload a label image for your wine. Read Amy's blog post to learn how.  

What happens next?
We’re building robust tools to simplify the process of accepting bids and shipping your wine to us including:

• Custom bid alerts which notify you immediately (or less frequently, you choose) on bids which meet your specific criteria.
• Simple, guided bid acceptance process.
• Easy, visual steps for preparing wine for shipping.  We’ll tell you what to ship, when to ship and how to ship.

We'll be walking through the specifics over the next few weeks. Check back here frequently and you'll be ready to sell in July!