Slangin' beer on Ebay.

The beer geeks of the world are rabid for rare bottles of Lost Abbey, Three Floyds, and Firestone Walker beers. This growing phenomenon shows beers made by reputable producers popping up on Ebay for outrageous prices. Recently, a bottle of Dark Lord from Three Floyds sold for $167. I'm sure others have sold for even more.

As I sift through the gossip of online beer folk I find people claiming that the true beer enthusiasts would never purchase a beer on Ebay, that this practice is harmful to the beer industry, the brewers are losing out on profit, and that it's artificially pushing beer pricing higher. Nonsense, I say.

How is it artificial if the consumer is setting his own price? Isn't it also the insane enthusiast who is willing to pay 500% of face value for a rare product. And if it was harming the breweries don't you think they wouldn't be bragging about it (Lost Abbey brewer Tomme Arthur "mentions" ebay pricing here) and sending out press releases announcing the prices their beers are fetching on Ebay (Firestone Walker here).

Sure, it's a wacky world seeing bottles of beer sell on Ebay for a 100 bucks, but it is an auction with the audience setting the price.

At one point my mother was buying childrens books at thrift stores for $.25 and then turning around and selling them on Ebay for $20. Her customers were not complaining because they realized they were buying a product that was rare and no longer available. The same goes for beer. If a brewery can only produce a curtain amount of a given beer and the demand is greater than the production, then the consumer will help set the market price.

So, in my opinion, more power to all you Ebay slangers. If the beer geeks keep buying, I'm sure the breweries are willing keep soaking up the free press.