Don't buy Dark Lord on eBay

If you desperately need to get your hands on some Dark Lord, skip the details and go to the bottom of this post.

Dark Lord Day, the day each year when Three Floyds Brewery releases their beloved Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout, is almost here. April 25 promises to be a fun day at the brewery. In addition to Three Floyds and guest brewery beer, music, food, and camaraderie among beer geeks, there will be beer as far as the eye can see. Hundreds of people in attendance bring their favorite rare beers to share with everyone. The picnic tables are literally covered with beer bottles.

In the past, each person in line could buy 6 bottles of Dark Lord. At $15 per 22-oz bottle, we're not talking about Miller Lite, but it's a reasonable price for such a great beer. Every year, they produce more beer. Last year, unfortunately, many hundreds of people didn't get any Dark Lord after waiting 5 hours in line. One reason is because many people only buy the beer to sell it on eBay. So Three Floyds came up with a new system.

This year, just to have the opportunity to buy Dark Lord, you had to purchase a Golden Ticket. One person can purchase two tickets, with a maximum of four tickets per household. Each ticket costs $10. All you get for the ticket is the right to purchase your allotment of Dark Lord (ok, you also get a cup of Dark Lord on tap and to me, that's worth $10 right there). Proceeds of the Golden Ticket sales are going to charity, which is pretty cool. We don't yet know how many bottles you can purchase per ticket, but it is probably about 3-6. The tickets went on sale in the wee hours of the morning on March 17. I decided to check before I went to work, and it's a good thing I did...I purchased my tickets then, and by the time I arrived at work, they were sold out.

This is a great improvement because now you won't stand in line for hours and NOT get your Dark Lord. Unfortunately, it's not stopping the eBayers because now people are scalping the Golden Tickets! I think it's unfortunate because there is no reason to pay $100+ for a Golden Ticket or upwards of $300 (in the past) for a bottle of Dark Lord. Since the production of Dark Lord has increased, the bottles have only been going for $50-60 on eBay. But there's an even better way to get Dark Lord if you can't go to Dark Lord Day.

Go to ratebeer.com or beeradvocate.com and trade for it. Simple. If you want to drink Dark Lord, you can find someone who will trade. The trade market will be flooded with it soon. Beer trading is good for your beer karma. eBay is bad for your beer karma.

- schneid

P.S. Suggestion to 3F for next year: print the Golden Tickets with each person's name and last 4 digits of their credit card. You must either show a photo ID or the credit card with those numbers. If I want to give the tickets to my friend, then I'll have to give him my credit card too.