I have a useless roommate/tenant who will be on his way out soon.
I have 2 Jack Daniel’s collector tins that were gifted to me ten years ago or so from a friend. How long that friend had them before giving them to me is unknown.
My roommate decided to drink the bottles from the tins, I was not asked. He has failed to replace them. He’s had 6 months. I’m done waiting. I want replacements for completeness sake along with establishing a monetary value.
My research so far is I need bottles from prior to 2011. JD changed the bottle shape slightly them, so newer bottles don’t fit right. The bottles are labeled at 90proof which seems to mean they were from before 2002? New JD is 80proof.
These are the bottles in question:
One is 500ml the other is 750ml.
I don’t know how the laws work shipping alcohol. I live in MA, I know we have some laws that may make it difficult. I can also arrange to recieve them in NH.
How do I get new unopened bottles?
Have you tried contacting Jack Daniels via their website? I suspect this is something they’ve been asked a few times already.
Apologies for stating the obvious, but people (including me) do sometimes overlook them.
try this forum, they seem to be experts at this sort of thing. Give them pictures of the outside of the tins so they can identify.
You might not be able to get replacement bottles. It could be that the particular bottle shape was unique to that particular collectors’ set. You’d have to replace the whole set.
Shipping hard liquor legally is pretty difficult. My sister owns a winery and just setting things up to legally ship wine from one state to another is a lot of paperwork. I’d suggest going to a good liquor store near you (there are many good ones near Boston) that would have someone who knows more on how to get you the bottles you’re looking for.
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You roomie was a dick for drinking your whiskey without you knowing it.
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Jack Daniels is a very mass produced type of whiskey, it’s not like Pappy Van Winkle.
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JD doesn’t get better with age in the bottle, only in the barrel.
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You should have drank it yourself.
I’d charge him the current retail value of the two bottles and tack on some amount of fee for the nuisance value.
Unfortunately it’s like looking for Campbell’s soup with the older labels: it’s a common everyday product, not a special collector’s item.
Incorrect. There are collectors who will buy and keep old bottles of JD. See the forum I linked above.
The roomie didn’t just steal some booze, he ruined a couple of collectors’ items. The OP should sue for full replacement value.
I read several of the pages on drinksplanet forum you linked to. Most people had no clue how much certain aged bottles were worth. In one thread, ranges of $2,000 to $80 were thrown out as values. Certainly not a definitive valuation, again, because Jack Daniels is so mass produced. The collectors pack described by the OP probably originally sold for $50-60 bucks and they made thousands of them and sold them probably as some sort of holiday promotion.
I’d tell the roomie that he owes you $100 and call it good. And then when Christmas rolls around buy himself of one of this years promotion packs for $75 and stick it in his closet.
I don’t know much about Jack in particular, but spirits that don’t improve in the bottle (like Jack) and aren’t produced in small batches (like Jack) don’t generally gain much value over time.
I’d say the effort of finding the correct sized bottles wouldn’t be worth the hassle. It’s a bummer, but your monetary lose isn’t much above a brand new bottle of Jack (IMHO).
JD doesn’t get better with age but the production has changed. The bottles were 90 proof. It appears the last year JD was made 90proof was 1987. JD used the same shape bottles up until 2011. I may be able to get 86 or 80 proof bottles that will fit the tins.
The value of the bottles was considerably more than the current 80 proof bottles due to the collectors value. The now empty bottles are valued at about 60 bucks each. To replace the bottles from what I’m seeing is $200-300 each, if they can be located. Likelyhood is they may simply be irreplaceable.
Regardless of the outcome with these bottles the roommate is being booted. In addition to helping himself to these bottles he’s helped himself to other more easily replaced alcohol a few times. If he’d replaced what he’s drank I wouldn’t care. What’s happened is I go to drink my alcohol and it’s not there for me. It’s not till I bring it up that he replaces stuff. I drink maybe a half dozen times a year, I expect my shit to be there when I do want a drink. He can’t manage rent on time, while paying far below market value. He’s all around pretty useless. This isn’t a college aged arrangement. He’s in his mid 30’s renting a room in my house. I’m single in a 3 bedroom I can easily afford myself. I took on a tenant only because I felt I had so much unused space. After this guy I think I might just let the extra rooms sit empty. Depending on what else he ends up costing me I will be taking him to small claims.
It sounds like you want the bottles replaced, assuming for sentimental reasons, but someone out there probably has the bottles and is looking for the tins. I wonder if you can find out what they are worth. It may be easier to sell (and ship) the tins if you are willing to part with them.
And while I think JD is a fine whiskey, for $300 you can buy better.
I’ll believe the “value” of the bottles when I see dozens of them sell for that price.
Replacing the bottles is foolish. Any collector value was from having the original tin and the original bottle that came with it. Once you sub in another bottle, even the same batch, the value is destroyed (if there ever was any to begin with.) The tins were mass produced in the thousands and unless you have one signed by the head distiller, the value is purely sentimental.
Dump the roomie and use the empty tins to hold your spare change.