Frequently Asked Questions

We are a global company with offices located across 3 continents. We are headquatered in Hong Kong (SAR), with locations in the UK, Australia, and across most of South East Asia.

Locations

South East Asia: Hong Kong (SAR), China, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka

United Kingdom: England, Scotland

Australia

Sellers register their bottles and consign them to us. Once received, we'll verify them and allocate the approved bottles into lots which will then be listed in the next available upcoming auction. Bidding can take place at any point during the auction, with the highest bidder winning the lot at the end of the auction. The winning bidder pays for the lot through an online checkout, after which we ship the bottle to the buyer and make payment to the seller.

The auction will finish on the 8th of each month at 20:00 HKT. A count down timer will be displayed on the notification bar at all times for laptop/tablet users. The timer does not display on some phones due to limited screen space. The timer will display the time remaining until the end of the auction. To ensure sellers get the best price and bidders don't miss out on an opportunity to win, a bid placed 10 minutes before the auction closes will extend the closing time of that specific lot by 15 minutes. The lot will only close after 15 minutes have passed without a bid being placed, after the auction close time.

Please see our How to Sell page for a step-by-step guide on selling your whisky. If you would like further information, please email us at [email protected] or call us on our Hong Kong contact number +852 5476 6618. We are more than happy to assist you every step of the way.

1. User Registration (One off payment): HK$50.00 

2. Seller's fee: 3% on the hammer price of each lot sold at auction.

3. Listing Fee: HK$50.00 per item listed.

4. Reserve fee (optional): HK$200.00 payable only if the Seller sets a reserve price.

5. Storage fee: First month of storage is free of charge. After the first month, a fee at 3% of the total lot cost payable will incur for each subsequent month. 

Please see our How to Sell page and read through our Terms and Conditions for details.

We aim to pay sellers as soon as possible, this will typically be within 21 days after the auction has ended. Payment is made through direct bank transfer, all banking fees and exchanges rates incurred in making payment will be paid for by the seller. Please see our How to Sell page and read through our Terms and Conditions for details. If you have not received your payment within 21 days of auction close, please email us at [email protected]

Yes you can, please read through our Terms and Conditions for details.

In the unlikely event that a buyer doesn't follow through with the payment, there may be an option to offer the lot to the second highest bidder, re-list the lot in the next auction, or have the item returned. Please read through our Terms and Conditions for details.

Lot descriptions are written by our team of experts. In the event that you are not happy with the description provided by us, we may provide you with the option to make reasonable changes, with the final description being subject to our discretion. If we believe the changes requested to be inaccurate or are not requested on time, the auction will continue with the original description.

1. User Registration (One off payment): HK$50.00 

2. Buyer commission: 12% on the hammer price of each lot sold at auction.

Please note that additional fees for shipping may apply, please see our How to Buy page and read through our Terms and Conditions for details.

Payment must be completed in full within 7 days of the issue of the invoice, which will be within 24 hours of the auction finishing. All payments made later than 7 days after the receipt of the invoice from WWA to the Buyer will incur a late payment fee. Please read through our Terms and Conditions for details.

As many as you like, we have no limit on the number of items that can be submitted.

WWA’s preferred payment method is by bank transfer. Alternatively, payments can be made by one of the following methods:

1. Hong Kong Dollar personal cheque drawn on a Hong Kong branch of a bank

2. Cash

3. Debit Cards issued by a Hong Kong bank (EPS)

4. Mastercard/ Visa/ Union Pay

5. American Express

6. China Union Pay (CUP) Credit Cards.

Please read through our Terms and Conditions for details. We are planning on adding PayPal as a payment method in the future.

We ship worldwide. See our Shipping & Insurance page for details.

We are a monthly auction service with auctions going live from the 2nd week of every month.

Bottles can be delivered to us at each of our regional locations - Hong Kong (Causeway Bay), Australia (Melbourne), Singapore (Central Region), Taiwan (Taipei City), UK (Perth) and Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City). Please email us at [email protected] and a member of our local teams will be in touch with you to help organise delivery. Please see our How to Sell page and read through our Terms and Conditions for details.

In the case that the item does not meet the reserve price, we still require the listing fee and reserve fee be paid. You can choose to re-list the item (subject to fees) or have the bottle returned to you (subject to delivery charge). Please read through our Terms and Conditions for details.

Loss and Breakage Liability Cover is available and offered to you at a cost of 3% of the hammer price. If buyers do not wish to take out Loss & Breakage liability cover for shipping, this must be selected at the checkout stage of the purchase. Please read through our Terms and Conditions for details.

Buyers can collect their lots in person at the Hong Kong office address during business hours (Monday - Saturday 9.00am - 5.00pm HKT). Photographic identification and the order number(s) must be provided at collection. In the case of a proxy collection, a prior notice stating the name of the proxy collector must be emailed to WWA from the buyer’s registered email address. The proxy collector must show photographic identification and the order number(s) upon arrival at WWA. Please read through our Terms and Conditions for details.

Items submitted must be agreed upon by us prior to listing in any auction. We only accept whisky and wine products deemed of a high enough quality to list, which will be at our discretion. If you're uncertain about your bottle, email us at [email protected] and we'll assist you.

The hammer price and the buyer’s premium is inclusive of any goods or services tax or other tax (imposed by Hong Kong or otherwise). Some International deliveries may incur local customs charges. Please read through our Terms and Conditions for details.

No. We take user privacy very seriously and at no point will your personal information be revealed to other bidders. Please read through our Terms and Conditions for details.

Yes you can. Storage for the first 31 days post auction close date is free of charge. All lots not collected after 31 days post auction close date will be stored at a rate of HK$1,200 per lot per month. Please read through our Terms and Conditions for details.

The minimum next bid is determined by the value of the current bid. The bid increments are as structured below.

No. Every time you're outbid, we'll send you an alerting notification for the lot you bid on. You'll never have to worry about missing out on a lot.

At WWA we take Lot photography very seriously. Everyone who works at WWA has been buying and selling Whisky at auction for years so we know what works when it comes to Lot photography.

There is a fine balance between making the images look good and accurately representing the nature and condition of the Lot items for buyers.

The only elements we will remove from the pictures of Lot items are:

1. Reflection of the photographer as this is distracting and removing the reflection does not impact the buyers ability to decipher the condition of the bottle.
2. Unique bottle number at the sellers request. Some distilleries and bottlers have a negative view of their products going to auction and we protect our Sellers (on request) from these companies by making it impossible for the particular bottle being sold to be known.

We will display pictures to show any cosmetic damage or a less than usual fill-level of each Lot in the case where such features are not clearly visible in our usual Lot images. It is generally accepted that very minor scuffs and bending on cardboard packaging is not required to be documented as this type of cosmetic condition is frequently found on Lots that have come straight from the distiller/bottler and are therefore part of the product itself. This is a judgement call on our part and we have very high standards, if we think that there is any cosmetic damage above very minor levels we will display additional images to show these features.

If you are not convinced of the condition of the Lot, please ask us for more details before placing a bid.

We cannot tell you everything that we do to verify the integrity of each bottle that we recieve, this would make it easier for counterfeiters to try and trick us, however we will say that we make it so difficult for the counterfeiters that it is not worth it for them to even try.

Whisky auctions are the major contributor to combating whisky fakers. At WWA we reject whiskies that are either not authentic, or by a "judgement call" deemed questionable or problematic.  

We understand from personal experience that this is an issue our users are very concerned about. Part of what makes WWA such a great place to buy and sell whisky is that buyers and sellers can rest assured that we do not allow questionable or problematic items into our auctions.

Our team are verteran "fake dodgers", we have seen every trick and every counterfeit method out there. We have a vast pool of resources to expend on making sure that our auctions are a safe place for our clients and we will continuously fight to keep buyers and sellers safe.

Read our full counterfeit policy here.

Once you have paid for your sucessful auction items you have the following options:

1. Store the bottles with for 1 month, free of charge and collect the items within that month from the office where the item is located. After 1 month storage fees apply (HK$1,200 per lot per month). No storage fee will apply if you list the items with us in the next auction. You are welcome to arrange for a friend or colleague to collect your items for you providing that they provide us with Photo ID matching the name you provide and you email us to confirm your collecting persons name. We do not want to hand your items over to unauthorised persons, if there is any doubt, we will not hand over any items.
2. Local Delivery with a courier. We use various trusted couriers to make local deliveries.
3. International Delivery. We offer international shipping with DHL Express and our checkout system uses quotes based on weight for worldwide shipping. DHL Express is usually a 3 day transit time but customs will slow this transit time depending on your destination country. Item weight is listed on each Lot page so you can determine the cost of shipping with DHL Express.

We will always declare the full insurance value (winning value of the items) on the customs forms. Please be aware that international shipping is expensive on some routes due to carrier weight limits, local customs costs and operational costs, the client is responsible for all import customs/duty fees. We will always ship items as low cost as possible while keeping the items with reliable carriers.

Most clients sourcing bottles internationally prefer to store bottles with us for collection at a later date or have the items shipped locally to a 3rd party import/export company who can ship internationally at a reduced cost.

Please look at our shipping page for estimates before committing to buy any item overseas.