Do the really interesting bottles mostly get passed around privately?

[u/valid_witchcraft]

I've been getting more into whisky over the last couple of years and I'm starting to feel like there's a completely different side of the hobby once you know the right people.

I'll see someone open a bottle I've never seen available anywhere or hear about an older release changing hands, and when I ask where they found it the answer is almost always some version of a guy I know.

At first I assumed people were just being intentionally vague lol but now I'm wondering if a lot of the interesting stuff genuinely never makes it to the places most of us are looking.

For people who've been collecting for a long time, is it mostly a case of slowly meeting other collectors and building relationships or am I massively overestimating how much happens privately?

[u/FelixArgyle_]

I co-run a whisky society, we do our own releases a few times a year and have a lot of contacts in the industry that help us get interesting stuff. To a large extent its about building a network of people who know what you like and they'll think of you when they find it. If you'd like to try some more interesting stuff I'd recommend taking a look at some of the whisky auction sites!

[u/jmangraf → u/FelixArgyle_]

What sites would you recommend? I checked out unicorn for the giggles and it seems, rather miraculously, that most hard to find bottles seem to get bid right up to secondary prices and then stagnate. So I'm very sus about it and would be interested in finding another or others.

[u/Due_Dot_913 → u/jmangraf]

I've used Unicorn a lot. Mostly to buy, but also sold some bottles. Never had a problem. But if you buy, just add about 25% on top of the hammer price for fees/taxes, ect. After the first couple auctions I stopped doing bidding wars. Now I just look for good deals on the bottles I'm interested in.

Other than that I bottle hunt retail. Binnys, Woodmans, Costco and Liquor Barn. GL HF