Mixed Case & Auction Lot Pricer

Apportion the cost of a mixed case or auction lot across individual bottles based on their relative market value.

When you buy a mixed case or win an auction lot, you get a single number: the total price you paid. But that number covers a collection of wines with wildly different market values, and you can’t just divide by the bottle count and call it a cost basis. A 12-bottle lot with two bottles of 1990 Pétrus and ten bottles of 2015 regional Bordeaux isn’t a $500-per-bottle proposition. The Pétrus carries the bulk of the value, and your per-bottle cost should reflect that. This calculator takes your all-in lot price, weights each wine by its current market value, and gives you an accurate cost basis per bottle for inventory, pricing, or resale.

What This Tool Does

The Mixed Case & Auction Lot Pricer distributes a total purchase price across individual wines using weighted market value apportioning. Enter your all-in cost, add wines with quantities and current market prices, and the calculator shows each wine’s share of the lot’s total value and its resulting per-bottle cost basis.

• Enter total lot cost including hammer price, buyer’s premium, taxes, and shipping
• Add wines with name, quantity, and current market price per bottle
• Automatic weighted apportioning based on each wine’s share of total lot market value
• Results table showing total market value, percentage of lot, apportioned cost, and cost per bottle
• Column paste feature for fast entry from spreadsheets on large lots
• Real-time updates as you add wines or adjust prices

How Weighted Cost Apportioning Works

The principle is simple: each bottle’s cost should be proportional to its share of the lot’s total market value. If a wine represents 40% of the lot’s total market value, it should carry 40% of what you paid. The math works in three steps: calculate the total market value of the entire lot (quantity times market price for each wine, summed), determine each wine’s percentage of that total, and then apply those percentages to your actual purchase price.

A Worked Example

Say you win an auction lot for $6,000 all-in (hammer price plus buyer’s premium plus tax). The lot contains three bottles of 2005 Château Margaux with a current market value of $1,000 per bottle and nine bottles of 2010 Château Léoville-Las Cases at $350 per bottle. The total market value of the lot is $6,150 ($3,000 for the Margaux plus $3,150 for the Las Cases). The Margaux represents about 48.8% of the lot value and the Las Cases represents about 51.2%. Apply those percentages to your $6,000 purchase price: roughly $2,927 apportioned to the Margaux (three bottles at about $976 each) and $3,073 to the Las Cases (nine bottles at about $341 each). That’s your cost basis per bottle, and it’s far more accurate than dividing $6,000 by 12 and calling every bottle $500.

Why Simple Division Fails

Dividing total cost by total bottles treats every bottle as equal, which almost never reflects reality in a mixed lot. The problem gets worse as the value spread increases. In a lot where the top wine is worth ten times the least expensive bottle, simple division massively overstates your cost on the cheap bottles and understates it on the expensive ones. That means your pricing, your profit calculations, and your inventory valuations are all wrong. If you’re putting wines from an auction lot onto a restaurant list, your markup and pour cost targets depend on knowing the actual cost per bottle, not an averaged fiction.

Getting the Market Price Right

The accuracy of weighted apportioning depends entirely on the market prices you enter. The best sources are Wine-Searcher (for current retail and merchant offers), Liv-ex (for trade pricing on fine wine), and recent auction results from houses like Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Acker, and Hart Davis Hart. For wines that trade actively, these prices are easy to find. For rarer bottles, you may need to look at several sources and use your judgment. The important thing is consistency: use the same type of price (retail, auction estimate, or merchant offer) across all wines in the lot so the relative weighting is accurate.

All-In Cost Matters

Always enter your total, fully loaded cost. At auction, the hammer price is just the beginning. Buyer’s premium typically adds 20% to 25%, plus state and local taxes, plus shipping or storage fees if applicable. A lot that hammered at $5,000 might cost you $6,500 or more by the time it’s in your hands. If you apportion based on the hammer price alone, your per-bottle cost basis will be too low, and you’ll think your margins are better than they actually are. The calculator is designed for the all-in number precisely because that’s the number that matters for your books.