Well, ok, but in this case since they don’t have the documentation can’t they just say they have no clue whether the original excise tax was paid but they (and by that I of course mean their buyers) are happy to pay it (possibly again)? It would probably make cheaper bottles somewhat uneconomical but from 150 € or so upwards would it really matter if you’re charged 5-10 € extra per bottle?
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The auction has ended but the prices don’t seem significantly lower. Have people from the UK covered the missing demand from the EU?
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Or people just dont give a fuck and buy anyways 
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I think what happened is people underestimated the number of international buyers (non-UK, non-EU). Prices were somewhat lower without many of the Europeans bidding but the armagedon wsa postponed it seems.
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Kenny is right : I think that non-EU people still buy, mainly asian people and especially on Caroni or others high level bottlings. The main problem for Rum Auctioneer will be the sourcing of sellers, mainly on middle-priced bottlings and european independent bottlings.
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Offtopic:
Does anyone know how to delete your rumauctioneer account? I cant find any button.
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I watched the auction and a day before it seemed that the prices had to go down a lot. But the last day, for expensive rums, the prices went back to normal.
I’ve checked this morning and for the not so expensive rums : some were significantly cheaper and others just a bit cheaper.
So it seems that the best rums and the Caronis are bought outside Europe (I’m Swiss so nothing changed for me) or in Europe but with people that don’t care about prices.
I’m quite surprised by that. But as Forrest said the problem will be Europeans selling their rums to RA, the amount of sold rums should be significantly lower the next months.
And that can increase premium rum prices !
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What will happen to good but not premium rums, I don’t know. We have to watch them closely.
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One may argue that the non-EU buyers don’t know the IBs and only go after Velier bottles but I think that’s a false perspective. There were quite a few mid-ranged items that actually went for more than before (like the SBS Skeldons) and prices seemed to not care about UK or UK+VAT (ie those were not UK buyers). One may also argue that the less Europeans sell these mid-priced rums the higher they are going to go which will motivate more people to sell and so on (case in point: Sassafras that had only 2 bottles this month and ende up higher than every before except the first 2 months it was available). As a seller you should only care about hammer price and nothing else and as long as int’l buyers are willing to pay they are good.
As for EU buyers: I don’t think it’s far fetched to say that quite a few people have friends or family in the UK where they can stash bottles for the time being and just bring them home whenever. These people along with those that don’t really care about a 20-30% increase, while they may not bid on everything they want to, will keep the lowest priced, best deal items (somewhat) honest.
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Brand new auction launched today : 630 bottles only.
Very very few Velier (including Caroni). No more Rum Artesanal, Nobilis or Rumclub…
Seems to be the end for them : will see next week for Rum Trades if they increase their number of lots.
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I mean Caroni Velier, those wanted.
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Hmm no TECA or TECC 
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Yes, there are 12 more Velier Caronis in the current Auction than in February (going by search results).
Biggest loser is the Category “other”… so while there is a small downtrend, overall that VAT move seems to have a lesser impact than predicted. Certainly not the death of RA.
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Small downtrend?! 
Without the change in excise duty stuff, it would have been probably 1000 lots more. If they can’t figure out a way to go back to “normal”, they are dead for most people anyway. I mean, Brits can still sell their stuff there of course.
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Definetly more, but not by a 1.000. Maybe it should have been double, but not more than that. There were only 2 auctions in 2022 with 1.600 lots or more. In regards to Velier Caronis, the current low level is not unseen before:
There seems to be a general downtrend even before the excise duty change (briefly broken by the pre-christmas auctions). Maybe due to the rise of competition (finespirits, rumtrades,…)?
Now the more interesting analysis would be the sum of all hammer prices in each auction, since that is the defining factor for RA.
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Cooles chart. Wo kommt das her? Hast du die Statistik selbst gecrawlt?
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Even if it would have been only 1200, you get the point 
Personally I don’t care about the Caroni prices at all. They are just an item for investors for a long time now.
If I would own any Velier Caronis and would be eager to sell them, I would certainly not do it in the current market situation and rather keep them and sell them later. That has nothing to do with the RA changes though.
I mean there was and still is of course a downtrend since Putin has gone all mad. That goes for the whole Rum market though and not only auctions I assume.
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Thanks DevideByZero, anyway, they see their lots decreasing each auction, a little bit only for Caroni because There are sellers from asia or elsewhere and nothing change for them.
But if you look Demerara Velier, it should be interested to see the difference.
And for all nice independant bottlings, the drop is huge : Silver Seal, Rum Artesanal, Rumclub, Nobilis. The only independants that we find are english : Kill Devil, Thompson Bro, Sponge, etc… It seems clearly that EU person don’t ship anymore to Rum Auctioneer.
I think Rum Trades will clearly go up next xeek : by the way, me and friends have sent 9 bottles in Italy. We will see.
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I have to say, it is a bit frustrating as I don‘t see a comparable platform to RA on the horizon. I liked RA due to the sheer number of lots, and when you took your time to go through the auctioned bottles, aside from the hype Veliers, you could occasionally snatch some bottles at a really fair price. RT is in my opinion still very far behind with currently only around 80-130 lots/month and even with the medium level rums at ridiculously high hammer prices, it is nothing that I would go for at the moment. Cata is most often not an attractive alternative, either, as it is not a centralised platform, and individual bottle shipping at 35 EUR spoils it mostly…
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