Ich starte mal mit dem Vorschlag, eure Meinungen, Erkenntnisse, Vermutungengen zum Thema Preisentwicklung unserer Lieblingsspirituose hier zu sammeln.
Bei der Ankündigung des unaged Rums von RdL ist mir wieder aufgefallen, dass sich der Inhalt der nachfolgenden Beiträge hauptsächlich mit der Preisgestaltung, deren (vermuteter) Gründe und mögliche zukünftige Entwicklungen auseinandersetzen.
Ich lese diese Beiträge sehr gerne und möchte anregen sie thematisch an dieser zentralen Stelle zu sammeln. @MarcT hatte vor längerer Zeit bereits ein ähnliches Thema gestartet.
Ich halte es für vorteilhaft, wenn wir für dieses anscheinend wichtige Thema eine zentrale Stelle etablieren, so Dopplungen vermeiden und versuchen die anderen Bereiche davon möglichst frei zu halten.
Ein interessantes Phänomen ist, dass Abfüllungen zum Zeitpunkt ihres Markteintritts für zu teuer erachtet werden und nach einer gewissen Zeit durchaus als Schnäppchen gelten können.
In einem Umfeld steigender Preise finde ich dieses Phänomen wenig überraschend
Den HGML empfinde ich mit 530€ à 0,7l auch heute nicht als Schnäppchen
Noch seltener werden die Gelegenheiten, wenn Abfüllungen zu release-Zeitpunkt als Schnäppchen gelten. Das letzte mal kam mir das bei den RA NY09 so vor.
I see two different developments in the Rum world. One is that of overpriced limited Specials which I doubt will see the glass in many cases. The other one is the problem of economy, possible inflation and loss of buying power by consumers.
The first one will make it impossible to get some of the desired bottlings for the general consumer (there will always be collectors with deep pockets), the other one be quite interesting, and I hope not damaging to the rum world. Will prices continue to go up, or have bottlers adapt to the possibility that there is a possible ceiling as less and less people can afford to buy as they want to (between moving to a new home, new kitchen, higher prices for gas, heating and food I for my part have put a stop to buying Rum, currently), up to the point that certain trends die. Does the rum world continue to grow or will certain global developments put a temporary dent into it, as has already happened at some points over the last centuries.
Regarding subjective view of price development: I still have a Foursquare left in my very humble collection that I paid 50€ for, now it goes for 125 in auctions, and when looking at pricing of newer releases its not much far away from those. Meaning: we get used to the fact that the same rum went for half the money 2 years ago, and this influences our perception of pricing in general. As for one prices have risen significantly over those 2 years and paying double via auction for something that was 50€ not long ago suddenly becomes acceptable and is considered a bargain…
There is also the fact, that bottlers and distillers compete with each other, and some have the advantage of being well known or being established.
Gems in my perception usually are those of new bottlers (buyers are not aware or have reservations) and thus the chances are good to find one there that would be triple the price had it come from the likes as Velier. RA is a good example, I think. They started not long ago, and quickly rose to the more expensive range. Thus you will have very slim chances to find such bargains from RA at the moment, other than the bottler making an error when calculating its possible market value.
This goes to the other directions, too. Those new Long Pond distillery releases (that ITP for nearly 200€ last year and the other more recent one) that come to my mind were too expensive for their perceived value, and I consider this distillery release reboot a botched one.
Rum has done in a couple of years what took whisky almost 2 decades, pricewise, imo. It is a fact that more and more people are getting into rum so there’s a higher demand today.
I partly follow @MarcT in his reasoning, but I notice more and more often, myself included, that we always look for a certain brand or bottler that is becoming more and more expensive and that we sometimes pass up the affordable rums while there are fantastically good rums right there. For example, right now I have an 18 month old rum in the glass from a very well known Jamaican distillery called Hampden. I must admit that I haven’t had such a good Hampden in ages that had a price tag of 50-55€.
Now I doubt if many will buy this since it’s not Velier, it’s not collectable and it hadn’t had any reviews by bloggers yet. So it’s relative unknown. And I think that there’s also a difference in pricing… Lately a lot of bottler release old (and good) stuff for a high end price where I think they are more aiming towards the investor with a deep pocket then a consumer who opens up the bottle, shares it with other pasionates and talks about it in a community.
I am a shopkeeper, I see the purchase prices also rising, which means that the sales price also rises, despite the same margin (yes, I also have to pay bills to survive) is used. We are also regularly confronted with the fact that in order to purchase a special bottling we have to add X bottles from a standard range here. Reason why sets are often for sale or the unit price of an individual bottle goes up. That error lies partly with the distillery and partly with the importer. An example of this is Foursquare in Belgium. FSQ sells and Doorly’s does not, while Doorly’s price/quality is very good. The quality is also sublime. I found the 14y Doorly’s with a lower ABV even better than the FSQ ECS 2008 (personal taste).
Pricing will always be a difficult issue and open to discussion. I personally have made the decision to select more on price/quality in my range, often it works, often not. Of course taking into account to continue to serve my regular clientele with the coveted bottles at a correct price (not always obvious).
To conclude, perhaps this, if certain bottles do not immediately reach 3x the release price on an auction site, the prices of a number of products would also rise less quickly. A shopkeeper who sees that a bottle at an auction goes for 3 times the price than he asks for, will also have a hard time not adjusting his price online or in his physical store. The reasoning is then purely business, either he takes the money or his customer or no one (and he keeps the bottle for a later purpose)
While I agree with your general point of view, I’d like to add that not everyone flipps bottles. So in that sentence the third option “or no one” is missing.
Only 50 Euros? Sure? Hampden aged up to 18 months & > 60%: in comparison to competing products, more than 100 euros would also be reasonable currently… Maybe it should adjusted by the IB: a few more animals on a box and, bang, it also could be sold at red light district prices …
Higher prices, more hype, even if (of course) nobody opens the bottle…
Very fine to see relatively normal prices for young Jamaican-Rum nowadays!
Wenn ich sehe, dass die Zentralbank in den USA schon wieder 300mrd. $ in die Banken gepumpt hat, wird sich das vermutlich in inflationären Preisen auch beim Rum ausdrücken. Ich kaufe jedenfalls seit längerer Zeit nur noch ca. 5 Flaschen pro Jahr…
