Buyer's Guide
Our customers love whisky, and we want them to love our auctions too. That’s why we make it as easy as possible to buy whisky online with Whisky Auctioneer.
How does it work?
Our Buyer Guide will help you navigate our auctions with confidence - from registering an account to winning that prized bottle.
Step by step guide
Register with us
First, you need to make sure you’re registered to bid. By registering, you will gain lifetime access to buy and sell in any of our auctions.
Browse auctions and place your bids
Once you have registered an online account you are all set to take part in our auctions. Our auctions run on a monthly basis and last for 10 days.
We make it as easy as possible for you to place bids in our auctions, the first step is to navigate to the lot you are interested in and place a bid.
We would recommend that you choose our maximum bid option, designed to save you time during live auctions. Enter the highest amount you're willing to pay for a lot, and we will do the work for you. Our system will automatically increase your bid incrementally if someone bids against you. If your maximum bid is exceeded, you will be notified by email with the option to increase your bid.
Alternatively, you can choose to place a single incremental bid on a lot you are interested in.
Please note: To place bids over £2,000, please complete our quick and secure process below to verify your account.
Review your winnings and pay
Our monthly auctions end from 7:00 PM (UK local time) on the closing date. If a bid is placed after 7:00 PM on any lot, the entire auction will be extended by an additional two minutes. The auction will end once all bidding has ceased for two minutes. Based on previous auction activity, the auction will continue for several hours and is most likely to finish between 10 PM - 12 AM (UK local time).
Once the auction ends, winners will receive an email with details on how to process and pay for your order.
Collect, ship or store your order
During the checkout process, you can choose to collect your bottle(s) from our offices, utilise our storage service or we can arrange delivery to you. Further details and our appointment booking calendars can be found below.
Our top tips
Find interesting lots
There are several ways to search for bottles in our auctions. You can filter lots by distillery or region, sort them by current bid price or alphabetically, or use the search bar to find a specific bottle. Whatever you're looking for, our auction tools are designed to help you refine your search and quickly find the bottles that interest you most.
Keep an eye on your favourites
Whether you know exactly what you're looking for or want to track multiple interesting lots, adding items to your watchlist is easy. Simply click the star icon in the top-right corner of the lot image. You can view and manage your entire watchlist in your personal dashboard, where you can monitor and compare the current bid prices of all your favourite whiskies.
Read lot listings thoroughly
We take pride in providing detailed descriptions and high-quality photography for every lot in our auctions. To ensure you're fully informed about what you're bidding on, we encourage you to carefully review all available information. Since all lots are sold as seen, please examine the images, lot descriptions, and condition reports (where applicable) before placing a bid to ensure you're satisfied with the item. Additionally, we use icons to highlight key features of each lot, such as its location.
Fees and Payment Terms
Storage Services
Frequently Asked Questions
All of the information that you need about the fees involved for buying can be found on our dedicated Buyer Fees and Payment Terms page.
Due to the governing laws for licensing in Scotland, there is a minimum price for alcohol units.
As a result we have introduced a minimum bid price for each item, £20 will be the starting bid for most bottles of whisky, but this will be calculated on a lot by lot basis (for example, multiple bottle lots will have a higher starting bid).
To place bids accumulating to a total above £2,000 (whether across multiple bids or a singular bid), we require an identity check for account verification.
This is to ensure the legitimacy of users so that bids are valid and fair. Once you submit the required documents, our Client Service team will review the documentation and you will then be alerted whether you have been approved or not. Please note, for an approval to take place, we also require verification of your contact number. In order for us to do this, we will give you a call when reviewing your application to ensure the number is correct and valid.
Please note, that should circumstances arise as per our terms and conditions, we reserve the right to revoke approval, or, alternatively, provide approval following further review should an individual not be approved.
Upload your identity documents and verify your account to place bids accumulating over £2,000.
We have a structured bidding system in place.
Whether you choose to set a maximum bid value or to manually enter a single bid, our system will only increase the bid level based on the table below.
Lower Price
£15.00 - £24.99
£25.00 - £99.99
£100.00 - £499.99
£500.00 - £999.99
£1,000.00 - £1,999.99
£2,000.00 - £4,999.99
£5,000.00 - £9,999.99
£10,000.00 - £19,999.99
£20,000.00 - £49,999.99
£50,000.00 - £99,999.99
£100,000.00 - £249,999.99
£250,000.00 - £499,999.99
£500,000.000 - £999,999.99
£1,000,000.00 - No Limit
Increment
£2.00
£5.00
£10.00
£25.00
£50.00
£100.00
£200.00
£500.00
£1,000.00
£2000.00
£5,000.00
£10,000.00
£25,000.00
£50,000.00
The end date of the current auction will always be clearly displayed on the notification bar at the top of the website.
Our auctions will end anytime from 7pm (UK Local Time). Once 7pm is reached, activity on any item will prolong the ENTIRE auction by a further 2 minutes.
This means that the entire auction will end when there has been no bidding activity placed within the last two minutes after 7pm. Based on previous auction activity, it is most likely that the auction will finish between 10pm - 12am (UK Local Time).
If you are successful at auction, once payment is received by Whisky Auctioneer then your whisky will be dispatched within 10 working days.
If after 10 days you still haven't received shipping/tracking details for all your orders to be shipped, please contact our Client Services Team who will be happy to help.
Please visit our shipping page for more information.
Interested in Buying?
Discover and bid on old, rare and collectible whiskies in our online auctions each month.
Interested in Selling?
Our global whisky auctions give your bottles the attention they deserve. Get started with a free valuation today.