I’m not sure if this is a thing in Europe, however, Here in California, there are numerous unassuming liquor stores that have dusty old bottles of rum that are just sitting there and have been sitting there for years.
In the past year, I have found some really, really cool bottles. See the photos!
I would imagine the liquor stores across the pond have been picked clean.
I guess there are very few liquor stores here that can afford to let their stock become dusty and if the bottles are old, the community here would have bought them right away 
I guess there are old bottles that want to be found in some small shops around europe. But there are also more and more hunter which are collecting the last unicorns from the shelfs.
Funny story i found this Depaz VSOP two years ago in a small “Getränkehändler” a shop for all kinds of drinks, from drinking water, beer and other stuff. The shop was 500m from my home but i was never in there because it was very old and not so inviting. Had to pick a package from the shop and saw that bottle dusty as hell in the shelf. Price was the old Release price. That made my day because bqck in 2011 it was my first agricole i tried. The shop burned down this year 
Wow, and what a lovely story 
Thanks for sharing that!
I kind of expected something like this from the title “dusty bottles”…
…not an Appleton 21
But yeah, like others have pointed out it happens here, too, that you can find older release in some unsuspecting corner. I wouldn’t call it “hunting” rather “stumbling upon” but who knows, maybe some people have that as a hobby.
The hunt never ends, believe me
I snatch up anything I can find. One of the benefits of being in the US is that there aren’t enough people looking for rum (yet)
Those are the best liquor store visits, aren’t they? When you find something coated in dust and cheap as hell. There’s very few things in life that are better!
Always on the hunt!
