How to Buy

Step 1: Create & Biometrically Verify Your Account

To strictly comply with statutory international alcohol trading laws and identity regulations, we maintain an elite and fully vetted community.

• The Registration Process: Click the registration button to create your personal or corporate account. You are required to provide accurate, current, and truthful registration data.
• Mandatory 18+ Verification via Veriff: In order to grant active bidding privileges, our platform utilizes the specialized, certified identification software Veriff. Before your account is activated, you must complete a swift digital scan of an official, valid government-issued ID (such as a passport, identity card, or driver's license) along with an instantaneous biometric facial check. Accounts that do not successfully pass this verification process are strictly barred from auction access.
• One-Time Registration Fee: Creating and biometrically verifying a new account is subject to a non-refundable, one-time registration fee of €3.00 (excl. VAT — local VAT may be calculated on top of this verification fee depending on your status and country of residence, matching the regulatory path of digital platform services). This micro-contribution directly covers the high overhead costs of our automated electronic identity and age-verification compliance systems.

Step 2: Explore Live Auctions & Place Binding Bids

Browse through our highly curated, authentic collections using our centralized, data-driven auction mechanics.

• Expert Pre-Grading: Every lot features unedited, high-resolution condition photography overseen by our Auction Master, Pierre Sauren, verifying historical provenance, fill levels (ullage), capsule seals, and label preservation.
• Bids are Final and Binding: In accordance with Section 3.1 of our Buyer Terms, every bid placed on the platform is legally binding, irrevocable, and final. If you are the highest bidder at the closing of an auction lot, you are under a strict legal obligation to complete the purchase.
• Anti-Sniping System: To guarantee transparent fairness and prevent last-second automated bidding manipulation, our platform implements an advanced anti-sniping framework. If a bid is placed within the final 2 minutes of an auction lot's closing time, the bidding window for that specific lot automatically extends by an additional 2 minutes. This cycle repeats until all bidding activity stops.
• Competitive 6% Premium: Our buyer’s commission is kept extraordinarily low at a flat 6% over the hammer price (excl. VAT — local VAT may be calculated on top of this premium depending on your status and country of residence).

Step 3: Secure Third-Party Escrow Payment & Full Net Settlement

When you win a lot, your capital is fully insulated from fraud through our advanced financial clearance architecture.

• The 3-Day Settlement Window: Full payment of your total checkout invoice must be securely settled into our rails within 3 business days following the close of the auction. Failing to meet this strict deadline results in automatic late-payment penalties starting at 3% (Day 4) and escalating to 5% (Day 8), before being referred to our debt collection agency on Day 15.
• Licensed Escrow Account: Your funds are safely held in an independent, licensed third-party escrow account managed by our accredited payment provider. Your capital is never handed over to the seller upfront.
• Buyer Protection Fee: A fixed €2.00 fee (excl. VAT) is applied per won lot to fund our secure transaction rails (local VAT may be calculated on top of this fee depending on your status and location).
• Full Amount Mandate & Transaction Costs: We support secure payments via iDEAL, Bancontact, major credit cards (Visa/Mastercard), and manual SEPA bank transfers. It is the sole responsibility of the buyer to ensure that the total, exact invoice amount arrives 100% net on our platform account. While standard SEPA bank wires (EUR) within the Eurozone are entirely free of transaction costs, any international wire transfers, cross-border currency conversions, or electronic gateway costs (such as PayPal or global wires) must be paid fully by the sender. International buyers choosing manual bank wire transfers must explicitly instruct their financial institution to use the "OUR" instruction code (Sender bears all transaction fees) so that zero intermediate cuts are deducted from the final escrow deposit.

Step 4: Premium Tracked Logistics & Quality Inspection Window

While physical fulfilment is executed directly from the seller's location, the platform tightly enforces premium shipping benchmarks to guarantee safe arrival.

• Sellers' Shipping Obligation: We mandate that all sellers package vintage glass collectibles in professional, shockproof, specialized glass-transport packaging. Furthermore, sellers are legally required to ship the parcel fully insured with a mandatory "Signature Required + 18+ Age Verification Check" enabled with their courier.
• Statutory Excise Duty Warning: Under European legislation, when commercial sellers dispatch alcoholic beverages across EU borders directly to private consumers (B2C Distance Selling), the selling party bears exclusive legal responsibility for declaring and settling domestic excise duties within the buyer's destination country prior to dispatch via the EMCS framework. For consumer-to-consumer (C2C) private shipments or individual imports originating from non-EU jurisdictions, any mandatory custom declarations, import clearances, or domestic excise duty settlements rest solely on the buying and receiving party. The platform assumes zero operational or legal liability for items delayed, fined, or confiscated due to regional non-compliance with excise and customs parameters.
• The 3-Day Quality Inspection: Once the carrier delivers the package to your address, a strict 3-calendar-day quality inspection window begins. You are required to immediately inspect the bottle, label, and seal. If the lot is delivered damaged or materially fails to match the description, you must log a dispute with verified photographic evidence within this 3-day window via exclusivewhiskyauctions@proton.me. We will immediately freeze the escrow account. If an issue cannot be resolved by the responsible party, the platform will issue a full financial refund to you from the escrow account. If no dispute is logged within 3 days, the funds are automatically released to the seller.

Step 5: Detailed Invoice & VAT Breakdown (Scenarios)

For absolute fiscal clarity regarding how your final buyer invoice will look depending on the seller’s country and tax profile, please consult our official structural matrix below:

How Do Our Invoices, Buyer Protection, and Payouts Work?

Welcome to our transparent calculation example! Whether you are buying or selling an exclusive bottle, we believe in clear figures upfront so you never face surprises afterward.

To demonstrate how invoices, VAT flows, and payouts work in practice, we use a fixed calculation example across all scenarios below:

• Hammer Price: €100.00 (excl. VAT — VAT may apply depending on seller status)
• Shipping Costs: €30.00 (excl. VAT — VAT may apply depending on seller status)
• Buyer Protection Fee: €2.00 (excl. VAT — VAT may apply depending on user status and location)
• Reserve Price Setting Fee (When Met): €2.00 (excl. VAT — VAT may apply depending on user status and location)
• Fixed Sales Fee Per Lot (When Sold): €2.00 (excl. VAT — VAT may apply depending on user status and location)
• Payout Transaction Fees: 100% Free for standard SEPA bank wires (EUR) within the EU/Eurozone. External provider fees, currency conversion spreads, or international cross-border handling fees only apply to international payouts outside the EU/Eurozone and are deducted directly by the respective financial institutions.

For Buyers: Bid Carefree with Our Buyer Protection

As an independent auction platform, we do not own, inspect, or ship bottles ourselves; the sale and physical shipment represent a direct agreement between the buyer and the seller. Consequently, we are not liable for loss, theft, breakage, or delays during transit, nor for any quality disputes between users.

In the event of a logistical or descriptive escalation, our legal team initiates immediate mediation. Escrow funds remain safely isolated and are exclusively disbursed upon confirmed receipt and quality validation. In cases of verifiable transit loss or damage, our multi-layered framework clears appropriate settlement coverage or full financial refunds directly from the escrow ledger.

For Sellers: Sell Successfully and Protected

Transactions remain fully insulated by requiring winning bidders to settle total checkout balances prior to dispatch authorization. Our automated infrastructure presents comprehensive transparency regarding structural flat fees, deducting overheads cleanly from the escrow collection before wiring net proceeds directly to your account upon destination arrival.

Global Logistics and Premium Carriers

While physical transit execution originates directly from the seller's location, the platform mandates strict fulfillment parameters. Contractual guidelines dictate that vintage glass assets must be secured in professional, impact-absorbent packaging and forwarded exclusively via premier, fully insured global couriers.

CATEGORY A: INSIDE THE EU TO INSIDE THE EU

CATEGORY B: INSIDE THE EU TO OUTSIDE THE EU (EXPORT)

CATEGORY C: OUTSIDE THE EU TO INSIDE THE EU (IMPORT)

CATEGORY D: OUTSIDE THE EU TO OUTSIDE THE EU