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In the early summer of 2007, when the financial crash came (better known as the subprime crisis), the buying patterns of wine lovers also changed. More specifically, it was all about the investment wines and cult drinks like Petrus, Lafleur, Le Pin, Ausone and the Premiers from the Medoc. Traders reduced the profit margin and cleared their stock to avoid higher losses. Even private persons wanted to achieve a good return for their treasures and auctioned one or the other bottle on eBay. Until the beginning of this year, the prices dropped and when the first 2005 cult wines were auctioned on eBay since March, the turnaround began. The first bottles of Petrus 2005 achieved higher prices on eBay than many traders were asking for them. On April 15, 2008, an eBay auction of this 100 WineSpectator points wine ended with the highest bid of Euro 4005. For other PGCCs, too, up to 1000 euro per normal bottle were paid. Since then, the crisis seems to be over, which is also indicated by the Liv-ex (London) wine exchange barometer. From now on, purchases were made diligently again and the best wines from best vintages reached top prices.

Record prices for 2005 vintage on eBay
Fraudsters wanted to take advantage of this and auctioned the "Who's Who" of the wine world on eBay. Tens of cracked and newly opened accounts were misused to offer cult wines for sale and to harm unsuspecting buyers. The eBay security team had their hands full to cope with the flood of ads. In the process, a particularly stupid and brazen seller caught my eye. As many as 14 bottles of Lafite Rothschild 2000 were offered in April by a Berliner of Turkish origin (note: name known). When asked where the bottles came from, he answered that they were an inheritance from his grandfather in Turkey. Muslims who have Lafite Rothschild in their cellar are about as frequent as a Chateau Petrus in the shelf at ALDI. Upon further investigation, it turned out that both the eBay member account and the bank account were not identical to the supplier of the wines. But opening an account at ebay is very easy. It is only important to know the name and date of birth of a person. Empty company buildings are also addresses that are often used.

Ebay deleted the member account, but as early as the next day, a new account was opened with a similar offer (this time only 10 bottles of Lafite Rothschild 2000). As I know from a reliable source, unfortunately a lot of buyers transfer money for one or the other cult wine bargain, probably partly out of greed, partly out of naivety. Even though you can get one or the other wine cheaper at the wine detector of Wein-Plus than at eBay. From reputable traders, without any risk. But where is the "kick" for some people?

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