When I got hooked on this insidious habit about 7 years ago (maybe longer) I got caught up in the cult/ratings quest. I signed up for the waiting list of all the high end wines. Never made it to Marcessin, Bryant, or Grace. But finally made Abreu, Colgin, Harlan, and yes, even SE with the 2003 vintage (see my previous posts that try to derermine if I was the ONLY one who went from waiting to mailing for SE that year).

I dropped Harlan with the 2004 offer. Just too much money and I only got more than one bottle if the RP score wasn't outstanding.
I dropped Colgin with the latest mailer, just too much $$

Now what to do with SE.....

I bought my 3 pack of the 2003 with the flawed logic of, "How can you wait 7 years on the waiting list of the most sought after CA cabernet and not buy when you finally get an offer?" I never wanted to go through the hassle of flipping. I want to drink this stuff! With other wine folks! But someone on the other board was looking for 2 bottles of the 2003 for a friends BD and I PM'd them and they offered me $900 each. Done. No hassle and I got to drink one of mine for free. I was in the position to almost afford/justify the purchase of the 2004 3 pack and did.

But now....$750 each???? The only way I would do this if I was completely confident that I could get $1500 a bottle for one somewhere down the line. And this isn't the reason that I started collecting/drinking wine. I am not someone that can drop this kind of cash without blinking like some on this board. To me, the whole point of haveing a few SEs in the basement was to pop them with friends or board members that had never tried (I still haven't ever tried them).

All said and done, I might still buy them but only if I can admit that it is stupid for me personally to spend $750 on a bottle of grape juice....

Well Chicago Wine Geek, I admire the fact you want to have these bottles to open them with others.

The only reason I've tried SE was because David N was gracious enough to open not one but TWO bottles at a tasting at his house a couple of years ago. As evidenced by my post above....I don't think that I'd have ever tried this wine if not for the generosity of others. That's why I love this board!

Economically speaking that's a very good point.

My point above is that when SE was available on the mailing list for <200, it was still relatively affordable, and it was possible to share the wine with others if you were on the mailing list. However, at >$500/bottle, it becomes economically challenging to share wines (I ain't Bill Gates or Sergei Brin). The wine enters another territory (in my mind at least) where it is purely a trophy. How many people buy Le Pin or Petrus and figure they will share some at an offline? Probably very few.

Actually, most of the high-end wines I buy I assume I'll likely share at an offline. But my family isn't into wines very much since most of them are far more pragmatic than I.

-Al

Like Chris, my most expensive bottles have been saved to open and share with wine-loving friends. And there are some that won't be ready to open for almost 10 years, so we all better stay healthy!

2018?

I'm already wearing turtle necks, vests and coats to stay warm as well as throwing comforters on the bed. If I make it to then, I'll be getting a fur implant.

With global warming, it should be almost tropical here in 2018...

Yes. But the final point of note is that those who have been buying on the secondary market who are used to paying $1,000-$1,500 will find that their Holy Grail wine is now a bargain at $750.  The secondary market might dry up, but those shifting from secondary to primary buyers are going to make out "like bandits" relatively speaking.

Bought the 2 pack when I saw that they were going for about $2,600 on WC.

Yep, it was a no-brainer. It's also the reason you should probably expect the release price to continue to rise.

-Al