Lottery participation

[birdie]

Ok...this might not be a popular post but do you think its 'fair' to overload a lottery with your friends/family to increase your chance of getting a LE, or when a store is is doing a 'first come first served' allocation and you have 6 of your buddies in line. I recently experienced that latter and I admit it pissed me off when i realized what was going on.

 

Part of me is "why did I not think of that".

 

But then I saw the guy in the parking lot loading up with 3 bottles of Weller 12, 1 bottle of Lot B, 1 bottle of Pappy 15 and a Parkers Heritage 11 doing the high five with each of his buddies came out with another bottle for him. (My car was next to his and I saw what he put in the trunk).

 

So what do you think, 'good idea wish I thought of that' 

[JoeTerp]

I do enter my wife in most of the VA ABC lotteries I enter, but nothing more than that.

[flahute]

Lottery? No.

6 buddies in line? That crosses the line for me.

I'd bring my wife and maybe get 2 bottles of something good, but 6 buddies is too much.

[NDN98]

2 minutes ago, flahute said:

Lottery? No.

6 buddies in line? That crosses the line for me.

I'd bring my wife and maybe get 2 bottles of something good, but 6 buddies is too much.

Agree 100%

[lcpfratn]

I just won't participate in first come, first served events nor will I spend much money at stores that hold those types of events. I don't mind lotteries as long as they aren't open to the entire world. I participated in a local store lottery that limited participants to local residents (they checked everyone's drivers license) and regular customers, and scored several bottles...need to bring my wife next year like several others did. In general though, I prefer to spend my dollars at stores that remember me and know my name when I walk in the door. Those relationships have generally yielded more results for me in the long run than other alternatives.


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[Bnrhodes3]

I haven't attended any first come first serve things, but it is an option. I'm personally down for whatever as long as rules are there and they aren't broken. Once I found out a few local people were bringing friends to buy out local shipments of OFBB and flip it, I decided I wasn't holding back if I wanted to keep it to actually enjoy it.

 

I went to my first lottery tonight and they gave out one ticket per person per day for 15 days leading up to the lottery, and each person could win a max of one bottle. So, I brought my mom and girlfriend with me every day and we each got tickets - probability smiled on us this time and we all walked away with something.

 

That being said, a couple from Canada was there and really wanted the W12 I picked as one of the bottles I won (older bottle). I wanted that particular bottle, but I'm actually meeting them tomorrow to give them one of this year's bottles I had bunkered for what I paid for it. Idk if karma is a thing, but I figured I would have a little Christmas spirit and spread the wealth.

[DCFan]

4 hours ago, JoeTerp said:

I do enter my wife in most of the VA ABC lotteries I enter, but nothing more than that.

Well, my wife and my daughter. 

[Gorzo]

7 hours ago, flahute said:

Lottery? No.

6 buddies in line? That crosses the line for me.

I'd bring my wife and maybe get 2 bottles of something good, but 6 buddies is too much.

I think your spot on.  There are several ways that people use to obtain LE bottles. If stacking a lottery with a couple extra people is your sole advantage then go for it.  As far as the first come first serve, usually people line up a few hours in advance (at least that's my experience).  If I called six friends to stand in line for a couple hours to get a bottle of booze 5 would tell me to F-off and 1 would have an unforeseen family emergency.  Anybody that agreed to go with me most likely be a bourbon enthusiast and would want to keep the bottle.  

Edited December 21, 2017 by Gorzo

[JoeTerp]

2 hours ago, Gorzo said:

I think your spot on.  There are several ways that people use to obtain LE bottles. If stacking a lottery with a couple extra people is your sole advantage then go for it.  As far as the first come first serve, usually people line up a few hours in advance (at least that's my experience).  If I called six friends to stand in line for a couple hours to get a bottle of booze 5 would tell me to F-off and 1 would have an unforeseen family emergency.  Anybody that agreed to go with me most likely be a bourbon enthusiast and would want to keep the bottle.  

I couldn't imagine that people would tolerate waiting in line for nothing other than my wife, and I'm not even sure that I would subject her to that.  

[JoeTerp]

5 hours ago, DCFan said:

Well, my wife and my daughter. 

Well my daughter is 3, so I don't think that would help.

[Mako254]

10 hours ago, JoeTerp said:

I do enter my wife in most of the VA ABC lotteries I enter, but nothing more than that.

Same. 

[BamaGrad2005]

My friends and I have attended the first come-first serve situations several times in 2017. We take a look at the offerings and determine a meeting time. Usually around 2-4am. We meet at the store and there are always at least a few people in line. We think of it as bourbon tailgatng and use it to catch up with each other. Based on my experience, we have only encountered 1 or 2 "flippers" as they are usually pretty obvious. We view ourselves as "a team". One of my buddies is a Four Roses and Elijah Craig guy. I like Buffalo Trace products for the most part, but am always willing to try other bottles. The other buddy is on a mission. He is getting married next October and wants to serve Kentucky Owl. He have been trying get bottles that people would be willing to trade for the Owl's. His family has a tie to the area where it is made and it hold a special meaning to his family. So, when the Owl's were available, we all got bottles and gave them to him. When something I want come around, they buy for me. It works for us.

 

We have done the lotteries too with wives and girlfriends to help our odds...but none of us believe in making money off this.

[birdie]

Seems like this is a strategy used by a number of people, so definitely one that I will use next 'Pappy Season' to increase my chances, as my wife and son would definitely line up for me, and I have a couple of buddies who would as well. So for sure a team approach for next year.

[Gorzo]

6 hours ago, JoeTerp said:

Well my daughter is 3, so I don't think that would help.

Get her a fake ID

[tanstaafl2]

I don't do the "stand in line" for any whiskey. Never have, likely never will. Might go for a lottery thing where everyone got essentially the same chance. But I am not that bothered by those that choose to do so or even people who talk friends into it (after all I am not going to do it so!) if their objective is to acquire bottles to drink.

 

But I am bothered, at least philosophically, by those who do it simply to collect bottles to flip. However I have no real practical solution for the problem. Clearly just making it illegal to sell without a license is not a deterrent. If there were a good way to prevent this I would be all for it. I suppose dragging them bare assed down a road and then soaking them in grain alcohol would be considered a bit extreme...

[Bob_Loblaw]

I also do not really frequent any stores that do lotteries /raffles and/or first come first served.  Agree lotteries, esp online ones like Virginia ABC, are fair game.  As for 6 buddies in line I am also in the wife only group and anyone else would be someone who wanted the bottle themselves.  So I don't think I could even make that happen.  Would I? Probably not and be slightly miffed afterwards when I saw one guy snag all the good stuff.  They probably should have been a bit more discreet.  

 

I think the problem here is more with the system of distributions that leave this type of angle to be exploited.  

[lcpfratn]

In a non-control state, I just don’t understand the business logic for doing a regular lottery/raffle or a first come first serve event. Neither of those options improve the stores business the rest of the year, and likely decrease business. It’s the easiest and laziest way to deal with the LE and allocated whiskey, but not the most business savvy method in my mind.


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[birdie]

I think a lot of stores are looking for the easy way come LE season as they are all pretty much fed up with the whole thing, they have to take so much 'crap' product during the year to get LE's allocated, then deal with the constant badgering that comes their way with people chasing those LE's.

 

 

[Bourserker]

I say do whatever works for you.  If someone can actually organize that many people to help 'em out then they must have some good buddies.

 

Me personally, I'm to lazy to try to organize something like this...got too much other stuff to do. 

[Kane]

5 hours ago, lcpfratn said:

In a non-control state, I just don’t understand the business logic for doing a regular lottery/raffle or a first come first serve event. Neither of those options improve the stores business the rest of the year, and likely decrease business. It’s the easiest and laziest way to deal with the LE and allocated whiskey, but not the most business savvy method in my mind.


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Well, at least all lotteries I entered so far offered extra entries for purchases based on bottle count or dollar amount, so that might actually turn out very profitable for them. Who knows.

[HoustonNit]

OP to me it seems like a bunch of guys that are friends got together, car pooled and got there early and kept each other company while waiting to get some bottles. That doesn't seem so bad. Now if they where all his bourbon mules and are buying for him than yeah that's not cool.

[CardsandBourbon]

When my son was in college one of his fraternity brothers who had graduated used to pay the "poor college students" to stand in line for Pappy releases.  I don't know whether they were lotteries or FCFS.  This summer we had heard that one of the local Kroger W & S had gotten some ETL.  My wife son and I drove over and each bought a bottle.  My wife's was actually for me and my son's was for him.

 

Only participated in one lottery and you could sign up one time a day, which I did, but my name wasn't drawn.

 

Pretty much all of my limited stuff (Stagg Jr., ETL, RHF) was obtained by standing in line.  My best get was being third in line recently when they had 3 bottles of EC 18.

[lcpfratn]

Well, at least all lotteries I entered so far offered extra entries for purchases based on bottle count or dollar amount, so that might actually turn out very profitable for them. Who knows.

That's a little different than a "regular" lottery in my mind, but I guess it still depends on whether or not customers feel sufficiently rewarded for their purchases at that store versus the store's competition and how those competing stores may reward customers that patronize their establishments. The stores that get most of my business reward me for my patronage or I end up shopping somewhere else.

Some of the stores that I shopped at this year will get more of my business next year and some will get none or less. A store that switched to a limited participant lottery this year for all of their allocated bourbon will likely see much less business from me next year, while a store that didn't get as much business from me this year, but still remembered past years of significant purchases will get more of my business next year.


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[kevinbrink]

14 hours ago, CardsandBourbon said:

When my son was in college one of his fraternity brothers who had graduated used to pay the "poor college students" to stand in line for Pappy releases.  I don't know whether they were lotteries or FCFS.  This summer we had heard that one of the local Kroger W & S had gotten some ETL.  My wife son and I drove over and each bought a bottle.  My wife's was actually for me and my son's was for him.

 

Only participated in one lottery and you could sign up one time a day, which I did, but my name wasn't drawn.

 

Pretty much all of my limited stuff (Stagg Jr., ETL, RHF) was obtained by standing in line.  My best get was being third in line recently when they had 3 bottles of EC 18.

I hate to say this because I know a lot of people find Stagg Jr., ETL & RHF hard to find but if the only way to get them was to wake up early and stand in line I wouldn't bother. Stagg Jr. is pretty much always available somewhere and the other two I can buy a few times a year by finding them on the shelf. Admittedly I spend more time than anyone should shopping in liquor stores, but hard to imagine that is going to change drastically. 

[CardsandBourbon]

2 hours ago, kevinbrink said:

I hate to say this because I know a lot of people find Stagg Jr., ETL & RHF hard to find but if the only way to get them was to wake up early and stand in line I wouldn't bother. Stagg Jr. is pretty much always available somewhere and the other two I can buy a few times a year by finding them on the shelf. Admittedly I spend more time than anyone should shopping in liquor stores, but hard to imagine that is going to change drastically. 

Unfortunately around here standing in line is the only way we can get the aforementioned bottles.  They are never "just on the shelf" around here, which is strange, since "around here" is within an hour of where most of the brown water is made.