Collectible rums versus premium drinking rums


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Paul B avatar image
Paul B 🇺🇸 | 472 ratings Author Posted 24 Jul '21

When I first started my rum journey on this site almost four years ago, collectible rums were unheard of. Gradually, they have come to the forefront. About a year ago, I tried in vain to get a separate category for collectible rums and was knocked down by the collectors.My mindset came from being an avid concert attendee. Dirty rotten ticket brokers would scoop up all of the best seats with no intentions of attending each show. This really screwed over the die-hard fans like me who really wanted to see their favorite artists up close in concert. So we came up with an acronym for these creeps, SOTE, which stands for Scum Of The Earth.With the introduction of collectible rums, I initially referred to the collectors as SOTE because all of the best bottles would fly off the shelves into the hands of money hungry collectors instead of those who truly loved the liquid in the bottle. However, I have since found myself owning about a half dozen collectible rums for my drinking purposes only. Some were intentional purchases knowing that they were collectible and others wound up being accidental.This has lead me to a new conclusion. The collectible rums generally do not appeal to the wider audience because they cost too much in the first place.  There are now so many choices in rums out there which leads one to say, "So what if all of the Foursquare ECS rums disappear off the shelves into the hands of greedy collectors". There are others. Some are better. Most are not as good. But all are cheaper. I will savor my only bottle of Foursquare Shibboleth and I won't drive 90 miles to get another bottle.As for those thinking that they are onto something with rum investments, I have news for you. The obscene after market price increases on a few American bourbons makes rum investments look like chicken scratch. Get a life!  It has now become the drinkers versus the hoarders. I am so glad to be the former instead of the latter.
vomi1011 avatar image
vomi1011 🇩🇪 | 403 ratings Replied 24 Jul '21

Everything from postage stamps to stones are collected. A category of collectible rums fits neither into the old classifications by colors or regional styles nor into the modern Gargano classification. In the case of non-industrial rum, it was foreseeable three years ago that the available amount would not meet the demand. This demand has less to do with malicious collectors than with increasing demand for craft rums while supply remains the same. This development will continue for years and the old bottles are becoming more and more valuable. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/craft-rum-market  The first ECS release costs around 800 euros, but it tastes no better than the Doorly XO. The question is, as a rum lover do you have to be annoyed that a collector buys such a bottling? I don't think so, some rums are expensive but this don't affect anyone. Some good rums are limited, so you have to assert yourself with more purchasing power against others. Rum lovers compete in this area, it is about unique and limited bottlings with special flavors. A normal rum drinker would often not understand such bottlings. In some cases it would be a waste of money. But if someone understand whats inside a bottle, there is nothing to say. If someone understands what makes a sassafras special, then he should buy it. The collectors are not a big problem, there aren't many of them. The flippers sell pretty quickly, they have no idea whats inside a bottle. The rum lovers buy for themselves and the investors are in the whisky sector. In principle there is little going on with rum. So there is little reason to be upset.
KU
kudzey 🇵🇱 | 38 ratings Replied 25 Jul '21

Ok, there exists a group of collectors or investors who buy rums today and are willing to sell them 10 years from now. You can complain that they are hoping to get enormous prices but, on the other hand, if they drank instead of hoarding, you would just have no chance to buy these rums at all. I don't think these guys are the enemies of people who aim at drinking only.
Paul B avatar image
Paul B 🇺🇸 | 472 ratings Author Replied 28 Jul '21

kudzey: Where I live, it is illegal to have spirits shipped to me, so buying rums at after market prices is not even an option. My guess is that those who buy after market rums are not drinkers, but are hoping for prices to go up even more. If rums were priced like concert tickets, there would be less of chance for this insane after market to exist for rums. Really good seats for concerts get set aside as "Platinum seats" at much higher prices that include all kinds of extra crap. Greedy ticket brokers do not risk buying these seats because they are usually still available all the way up to about a week before showtime. Patient people like me simply wait for the Platinum package to be removed and those seats to be sold at normal prices. Richard Seale needs to raise his initial prices on the ECS rums because people are willing to pay whatever to get them. This would also screw up the greedy after market investors. Had my $52 bottle of Foursquare ECS Zinfandel Cask Rum been priced at $150 initially some three years ago, I seriously doubt that one would see them being for sale on the after market for $300. These Platinum quality rums need to adopt Platinum pricing just like the concert industry uses.
vomi1011 avatar image
vomi1011 🇩🇪 | 403 ratings Replied 28 Jul '21

The proposal would be desireable. But nobody is interested in low prices. Neither the distillers, nor the retailers, nor the buyers. Everyone wants to see prices go up, so this trend will continue. And rum doesn't go bad, the concert ticket on the other hand has a KnockOut date. Limitation and consumption of rum automatically lead to price increases. I was hoping the Estate Hampden LROK wouldn't sell. But it also sold quite well for 125 euros. Producers test the market and when it allows, they raise prices. They also tested the market with Hampden birds... this could be a rum for the collector rum section. Such a large series that appeals to collectors has never been seen before. I have also read several times that there is more and more movement in the US alcohol shipping topic. https://www.foodandwine.com/news/mail-alcohol-usps-law-change-bill-proposed That will probably take a few more years, but after that the shipping will be more and more possible.