On Monday, BSJ mentioned how fast 3 Floyds Dark Lord hit eBay and how inflated the cost of the regular and barrel aged editions are selling for. (in some cases, 1000%) Today, the brewery made a statement on the sales on their website:
Dark Lord Day has become the success that it is due to the support from the craft beer community. Each year we’ve worked hard for months to improve the experience of the attendees.
Dark Lord Day is the only day that Dark Lord is sold. Part of only selling beer at the brewery guarantees that it goes to the consumer at a reasonable cost and that everyone has an equal opportunity to purchase Dark Lord.
We do not condone black market sales of Dark Lord, DLD tickets or any other beer that is purchased at our facility. The best way to ensure that black market sales do not happen is for consumers to not patronize the illegal sellers, (this also goes for retailers who engage in price gouging.) There unfortunately is not a practical, legal or cost effective way for us to police after market sales of our limited products or tickets.
We have reviewed many options but have found that all of them would affect our mission of making the best beer we possibly can at a reasonable price to the consumer. If you find Dark Lord for sale on a day other than Dark Lord Day and other than at the brewery please understand that without exception, the sale is not legitimate. It is on all of us as a community to try to prevent black market sales.
Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to planning an awesome Dark Lord Day 2013.
Straight from ebays policies, they do not allow sales of alcohol, but apparently do not enforce it. Report all black market items to them, make them remove them!
What are the guidelines?
Alcohol and alcohol kits
Allowed
Beer/wine making kitsFoods
with alcoholic ingredients and flavoring (such as liquor-filled
chocolates, rum cake, and other items) as long as the item complies with
our food policyHops, seeds for hops, and other raw materials to make beer or wine
Restricted
Empty alcohol bottles and containers (images in the listing must show item is empty)Non-alcoholic wines are permitted in the Wine categoryWines listed in accordance with our policy
Not allowed
Alcohol products intended for consumptionLiquor licensesNon-alcoholic or de-alcoholized beerOther alcohols listed in the Wine categoryWine listed outside of the approved Wine category
Alcohol-related collectibles
The following disclaimer must
be posted word for word in your item description. It must be in the
same font size as the rest of the description. Each of the following
conditions must be met in order to list alcohol-related collectibles on
our website:
— The value of the item is in the collectible container, not its contents.
— The container has not been opened and any incidental contents are not intended for consumption.
— The item is not available at any retail outlet.
—
The seller will take all appropriate steps to ensure that the buyer is
of lawful age in the buyer’s and seller’s jurisdiction. In general, this
is 21 years of age.
— Both the buyers and sellers ensure that the sale complies with all applicable laws and shipping regulations
We suggest copying and pasting the above disclaimer directly into your listing.
Allowed
Alcohol-related memorabilia, including empty wine, liquor, and beer containers.
Restricted
Unopened collectible beer and liquor containers that contain alcohol may be sold, as long as:
The conditions outlined in the above alcohol disclaimer are met.The guidelines for shipping alcohol listed above are met.
Not allowed
Collectible
wine containers if they still contain any alcoholic content. To become
an approved wine seller on our website, read the section below about selling wine on eBay.Alcohol products intended for consumption.Collectible
containers that contain alcohol while the item description includes
information about the container’s contents or implies the alcohol is
consumable.Items
that don’t have the alcohol disclaimer word for word in the listing, or
if the appearance of the disclaimer words are changed in any way with
the intent to lessen its purpose of informing buyers.Open containers of alcohol.