FAQ

To place a bid on an item you need to be logged in. Once logged in you can browse the current auction and bid on any bottle you choose. From the lot page you can see a full description of the bottle including a condition report and photographs. If you want to bid just enter the amount and click bid, you will be prompted to confirm your bid before the it is accepted. This will prevent you from placing any bids accidentally.

To make life easier you can also place bids from the main auction page without having to navigate into the lot page. To do this simply click on the current amount of the lot displayed underneath the picture and enter you bid by click the bid now button. Again you will be prompted to confirm your bid before it is accepted.

So as not to overly extend the auction time of higher value items we increase the minimum bid amount as the bid value of the lot increases throughout the auction. You will have to meet the minimum bid to place a successful bid on a lot.

For items valued under £500 the minimum bid is £5.
For items valued between £500 to £1,000 the minimum bid is £10.
For Items valued between £1,000 to £5,000 the minimum bid is £25.
For items valued between £5,000 to £10,000 the minimum bid is £50.
For items valued between £10,000 to £50,000 the minimum bid is £100.
For items valued between £50,000 to £100,000 the minimum bid is £500.
For items valued over £100,000 the minimum bid it £1,000.

If your items don’t sell we can list them in the next auction for free. There is no limit to how many times you can re-list an item. If you don’t wish to re-list your bottle you can have it sent back to you or you can have it stored with us.

These options can be found in the My Bottles section on the members page.
For any questions please reach out to our support at [email protected] or by the contact form here.

Auction Month                                            Submission Deadline          Auction Start                     Auction Finish 

February Auction 2024                                  21st February 2024              27th February 2024              1st March 2024

March Mid Auction 2024                                10th March 2024                  15th March 2024                  18th March 2024

March End Cask Auction 2024                        22nd March 2024                 28th March 2024                  2nd April 2024

April Mid Auction 2024                                  8th April 2024                      12th April 2024                    15th April 2024

April End Auction 2024                                 22nd April 2024                    26th April 2024                    1st May 2024

May Mid Auction 2024                                  12th May 2024                      17th May 2024                    20th May 2024

May End Auction 2024                                 25th May 2024                       31st May 2024                   3rd June 2024         

June Mid Auction 2024                                10th June 2024                      14th June 2024                   17th June 2024

June End Cask Auction 2024                       25th June 2024                       28th June 2024                   1st July 2024   

July Mid Auction 2024                                8th July 2024                          12th July 2024                     15th July 2024 

July End Auction 2024                               22nd July 2024                        31st July 2024                     5th August 2024

August Mid Auction 2024                           12th August 2024                   16th August 2024                 19th August 2024 

August End Auction 2024                          25th August 2024                   30th August 2024                 2nd September 2024 

Auctions will start to close at 7pm (19:00) GMT on the dates listed above.

Each lot will close when bidding on that lot has ceased for a period of 5 minutes, any bids placed within the last 3 minutes of the lot closing will add a further 5 minutes to that lots timer.

The auction can take a number of hours to completely close if some highly contested items fail to reach their maximum bid quickly.

After the entire auction has closed (when all lots have ended), the lots you have won will be added to the “Lots You’ve Won” tab at the top of the website. You will also receive an email to confirm the lots you have won and to notify you that the auction has closed

After the auction has ended you will be prompted to select between having your bottles stored or delivered. If you select the delivery option you will be given a choice of packaging options and will be asked if you require insurance cover.

After you have selected your delivery, packaging, Insurance and have paid for your bottles we will immediately pack and arrange for your bottle to delivered. We estimate that your bottles will be picked up by our courier within 2-3 days of payment being received for UK mainland post codes. For non-UK mainland post codes or for international addresses please email us your specific address for an accurate estimate of the delivery timeframe.

Registration is completely FREE! It costs absolutely nothing to start selling with WBA. There is no reserve fee, no listing fee and 0% commission for sellers.

We offer all sellers a bonus of 1% of the hammer price as an extra incentive to sell your bottles with WBA. So, for every £100 you sell we’ll give you £1 bonus on top.

We charge 7% on top of the hammer price as a buyer’s commission.
Postage for your bottles. VAT on the service elements, such as postage, commission and insurance where applicable.

Buyers have 7 days to pay for items won following the last day of the auction. We will send you a reminder after 5 days if the payment has not been completed and a final reminder on the 7th day. If payment for won items has not been received after 7 days a 3% late fee will be charged.

For any other charges like storage or packing an invoice will be issued with a standard 28 day payment period.

If you live within the EU, 20% VAT will be added to all fees, including delivery, insurance and commission, but will not be added to the hammer price. If you live outside the EU, you will not be charged VAT.

You can pay using credit or debit cards via STRIPE or by direct bank transfer. Credit card payments will be subject to an additional 3.5% credit card fee.

We do not accept any returns in exchange for refunds as all bottles are sold as seen. We go to great lengths to photograph each bottle as accurately as possible and to provide the most accurate condition reports we can. The majority of bottles sold on the WBA website will be second hand so some amount of wear is to be expected. Any damage that may occur when being delivered to you will only be covered if you choose to have the additional insurance at checkout. Bottles damaged in transit will be covered under your insurance if you choose to add it to your purchase. If you did not, this is at your own risk. We do endeavour to package and send everything as safely as possible and do not foresee any damage coming to your goods.

Our packaging fee per bottle is £2.

To buy or sell on the Whisky Bull Auctions website you will first need to register. The registration fee is a completely free! If we are in any doubt about your age, you can and may be asked to provide a photographic ID. Failure to do so upon request will cause a block on your account and we will not be able to deliver any bottles until the verification is complete.

We created Smart Lists to make bidding and managing your collection easier. The three main smart lists are the Wish List, the Watch List and Live Lots, but we also have many other lists such as My bids list, My Bottles list, Bottles I’m Selling list and more.

Wish List – The wish list works exactly as it sounds. You can add bottles to your wish list by browsing our past auction pages. By adding a bottle to your wish list you will get an automatic email notification the next time an identical bottle is added to one of our future auctions. So you’ll never miss out on the chance to get a bottle again.
Use this list for items you’d like to buy in the future.

Watch List – Similar to the Wish List, the Watch List does exactly what you think it would. You can add a bottle to your watch list by browsing the current auction or by moving it from the Wish List to the Watch list after getting a notification that a similar bottle has been listed.
Use this list for items you’d like to watch in the current auction.

Live Lots – Probably our most helpful list. The live lots list has been designed as your main control point for the live auctions. We all know that keeping track of bottles you have bid on, bottles you’re still bidding on and bottles you’ve given up bidding on can get a bit messy. With our live lots list you can clear the bottles that you no longer wish to win and have stopped bidding on and concentrate on only the bottles you still wish to win.
Use this list for items that you are currently contesting in a current auction.

My Bids List - Another useful list. The bids list will track all the bids you have placed in the current auction, so even if you remove an item from your live lots list you can still keep track of all your bids.
Use this list to see the items you have placed bids on in the current auction.

My Bottles - For members who choose to store their bottles with us after winning them in an auction, this is the place to find all your bottles. Should you choose to list your bottles in an upcoming auction or decide to have them posted to you, this can also be managed from here.
Use this list to manage the bottles you are holding in storage.

Bottles I’m Selling - After submitting an online bottle registration and we have received your bottle, it will be added to this list.
From here you can see which auction it has been entered into and track its progress throughout the auction.
Use this list to track the bottles you are selling.

My Orders - Will display all your previous orders placed with WBA, detailing the items you have won and a breakdown of what you have paid.

Delivery fees will depend on your location and the weight of the items you have won. We use DHL for all of our UK deliveries and DHL calculate charges on weight and distance. You can find the weight of each lot written at the bottom of the condition reports, for an estimate of how much your delivery may cost you can use: https://parcel.dhl.co.uk/dhl-service-point/size-and-price-guide/

WBA are happy to ship to any location in the world. However please be aware of any local laws or duties that may be applicable to the delivery of alcohol in your location. If you are unsure please email us in advance of placing any bids so we can clarify the situation.

WBA cannot be held responsible for any fee’s, duties or hold up after your bottles have left our premises.

Yes you can, if you feel more comfortable delivering bottles to us then you may between the hours of 11:00-17:00 Monday-Friday. You may be asked to show Photographic Identification and or to complete a delivery form, on arrival if you have not submitted one online. We only allow those over the age of 18 years on the premises, due to our licensing restrictions.

WBA work very hard to ensure that no bottles entered into a WBA auction are fake. Our highly trained staff diligently inspect every bottle to ensure its authenticity and any bottles that may give us question as to their authenticity we will seek further confirmation from the seller. Should we still have questions we will either refuse to enter the bottle in to the auction or to consult third party whisky experts. We may use an independent authority to verify bottles in some cases at our expense.

Any persons found to be intentionally attempting to enter fake bottles into auction will be reported to the police and punished to the fullest extent of the law.

In the rare case that a bottle sold on the WBA website slips past our screening and is found to be a fake we will offer a full refund to the buyer.

We cannot offer a guaranteed valuation of your bottle or make any suggestion of the price it will sell for at auction. This is down to two main reasons.

Firstly, the price that a buyer is willing to pay on the day depends on the number of buyers participating in the auction and value those buyers have attached to the bottle in question.

Secondly, the prices that any given bottle has been sold for before are only reflective of the auction they have been sold through. Different auctions charge different rates in buyers commission, which greatly effects how buyers will value bottles.

We can however provide you with a value based on the last price a specific bottle was sold on the WBA website. However, this again is not a guarantee that that same price will be reached in the future.

Yes. We will accept all whisky related products, such as cask ends, mirrors, decanters, etc. We will not however be able to value these items for you. We also reserve the right to refuse these items for any reason. 

It is completely free to set a reserve.

WBA assume full responsibility for all bottles in our possession. Any loss or damage to bottles while in our possession will be fully compensated for.

Bottles sent to us are the responsibility of the of the sender. We take no responsibility for any loss or damage to the bottles until the bottles have been received and inspected by us. We strongly advise that sellers attach several clear images of their bottle to the online bottle reservation form before send their bottles in. We can use these images as a reference to ensure the bottles have not been damaged while being delivered to us.

Similarly, bottles sent from WBA will cease to be the reasonability of WBA once they have been collected by the courier. If you choose to purchase the additional insurance at check out the bottles will be covered for any loss or damage while in transit. We strongly recommend that you check the bottles on arrival before signing and accepting delivery. WBA will not accept any responsibility for damage to items after a signature has been given to the courier.