Buyer's Premium and Shipping of Auction Wine

At Brentwood Wine Company, we are committed to keeping our overhead as low as possible and getting wine to you at the lowest possible price. We believe we have the lowest overall buyer's premium program of any licensed wine auction house. 

Buyer's Premium

The buyer's premium is the amount added to the winning bid on auction items. It represents approximately the net profit that Brentwood Wine Company makes on the sale of an auction item.  Our buyer's premium for new bidders starts at 12% of the hammer price. It declines 1% for each $1000 of auction purchases that you have made at Brentwood Wine or AuctionVine auctions in the previous 12 months, to a minimum of 6%.

Platinum Club

Members who have won $6000 or more wine at auction in a 12 month period and thus have moved to the 6% buyer's premium level automatically become members of the Brentwood Platinum Club. Privileges of membership include the ability to take any unsold bottles of wine at auction for which they have won some bottles at their winning bid if they contact us within 4 hours of auction close. 

Sales Tax

There is no sales tax charged for any purchases except for wine shipped to New Hampshire.

Due to state law, New Hampshire imposes an 8% sales tax on all wine delivered to that state, which we must collect.

Handling Charges

While other auction houses customarily charge a handling fee to cover the cost of the special shipping cartons necessary to send wine safely as well as the labor to pack them, we no longer charge any handling fee for auction wine.

Wooden Wine boxes

Handling for each wooden box  is $6. We only ship these if available and requested. Except in very rare cases, all bottles are removed from wooden boxes and shipped separately for safety.

In the spirit of recycling, to reduce waste and keep our rates low, we may utilize used shipping material, which has been inspected and determined to be in excellent condition, unless you request otherwise.

Shipping Charges

We endeavor to ship auction wine in a way that maintains the quality at the lowest reasonable shipping cost to you.  We do not make a profit on shipping, only charging you about what the carrier charges us. The methods we use vary by location and time of year. You can view the Shipping Policy here. We can follow specific shipping instructions outside of these normal methods, if you prefer.  Contact shipping@brentwoodwine.com. Note that USPS will not ship wine.

On average, each 750 ml bottle of wine weighs about 4 pounds with its shipping material. Each Riedel wine glass weighs around 1 pound with its shipping material. You can use the cost calculator at: http://www.ups.com/using/services/rave/rate.html to get a good estimate of what a shipment will cost if we can use UPS. We have daily pickup, use our own packing material and shipments originate at zip code 97068. You can calculate approximate UPS transit times at: http://www.ups.com/using/services/transit/timetran.html. Please note that UPS adds $1.80 per wine shipment to cover the cost of collecting an adult signature and verifying identification. 

We always endeavor to ship as quickly as possible and will Email you with a UPS tracking number when the shipment has gone out.  In general, wine usually ships within 7-10 days of auction close.  Please allow 6 additional business days for UPS ground to reach the Eastern states, fewer for locations closer to Portland, OR.

Customers in the Portland, Oregon area can arrange to pick up items at our West Linn location by calling (503) 638-9463.  There is of course no shipping or handling charge for this. We must verify identification on all wine pick-ups. 

Alternate Carriers and Shipping Accounts

We often use DHL or Fed Ex, where shipping regulations require and/or when this costs less. You will only be charged what these carriers charge us for their service. You can specify a specific common carrier (where allowed) or request that we use your shipping account, by contacting shipping@brentwoodwine.com.

For large wine shipments (around 15 or more cases) refrigerated trucking may be more economical than a common carrier. Contact us about this option at shipping@brentwoodwine.com.

Partial Shipment Policy

We generally hold a shipment until it is complete. If you would prefer that we ship partial shipments where we are still waiting on one or more items, please contact us.

Combining Shipments

We generally ship each order, and wine from each auction, separately unless we notice multiple shipments going out to the same address in the same week. We must charge expected shipping and insurance fees for such orders and auctions winnings at the time of receipt. We can combine orders received within reasonably close proximity of one another, if you so request. Contact shipping@brentwoodwine.com if you would like this.

Alternate Shipping Address

All wine shipments require an adult signature.  Please make sure you have supplied us with an address where an adult is present during business hours to take delivery. Failure to do so may result in return of your shipment, or undo temperature damage. Neither Brentwood Wine Company nor the common carrier can be liable for any expense or loss resulting from failure to take delivery on the first attempt.

Due to policy by American Express, we may require that you contact them to specify an alternate address if you use this card as payment and your shipping address is not the same as the billing address on the account.

Cancellation, Returns and Restocking Fee

Due to the costs we incur from credit card companies, a 6% fee will be levied for cancelled orders, except in the case where an error has been made by us or wine shipping laws require cancellation of such an order. Flagrant or unreasonable cancellation of an auction order may result in denial of future bidding privileges. If returned items are not completely fit for immediate resale, additional charges, up to the entire cost of the item, may be levied.

Where a carrier returns a shipment to us due to a failure of the buyer to take delivery, all additional charges associated with this return as well as future shipping charges to deliver it will be charged to the buyer.

Insurance and Damage

We insure all shipments for their replacement value. For auction wine, this is listed as a separate item on your invoice. We only charge you what the carriers charge us.

We package each shipment carefully and often use specially designed shipping material to get your orders to you in pristine condition.   Occasionally damage does occur, however.  If you receive a shipment from us with damage, please contact us immediately.  Please save the broken item and packing material as the carrier has the right to inspect any damage.

All shipments are insured for their replacement value and we will handle any claim paper work. Where a replacement is available, we will ship it to you.  Where such replacement is not possible, we may refund all costs of purchase instead.

Please note that shipping insurance does not cover damage due to heat or freezing. We endeavor to ship in such a way as to avoid such damage, but in questionable circumstances will attempt to contact you about alternatives. Please notify us immediately is you believe such damage has occurred.

Confiscation or refusal to cover replacement

We are acting as your shipping agent and you represent that you are asking us to ship product to you in accordance with all applicable laws. In the unlikely event that a shipment is confiscated or insurance coverage is refused due to a violation of the law, we reserve the right withhold a refund or replacement.