Whisky flipping. It’s the ultimate physical response to that vexatious question, “How much is this whisky worth?” Nevertheless, the answer to the question is pretty simple: A whisky is worth whatever someone is prepared to pay for it.
One of the most contentious and ire-inducing phenomena to appear in whisky circles in the last 15 years has been the rise of the whisky flipper. Not familiar with the term? It’s applied to someone who obtains a whisky at retail price (typically when the product is first launched or made available) and then, within a short timeframe, re-sells it on the secondary market at a significantly higher price. More often than not, the re-selling occurs once the original retailer’s or supplier’s stock is sold out, thus cashing in on a product that is no longer available through the original channels.