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Man sells Macallan whisky for £2,700 after buying it for just £11
An amateur collector who bought a bottle of Scotch for £11 has sold it on at auction for £2,700.
Michael Amphlett from Cholsey, Oxfordshire, bought a bottle of 1937 Macallan Single Malt Scotch Whisky in the late 1970s as a present for his father.
The age statement was a sentimental touch; as 1937 was the year his father moved Didcot as a 19-year-old glove maker, to work in a new factory in the area.
The whisky cost roughly a third of Amphlett’s weekly wages in the 70s, so was saved for a special occasion before eventually being forgotten. Michael’s father passed away in 1991.
Since then, Amphlett uncovered the bottle again but, not having the heart to drink it without his dad, put it up for auction online instead at the start of 2020, despite being a self-confessed “novice when it came to whisky auctions.”
It beat the reserve he placed on it at Whisky.auction, achieving a £2,700 hammer price.
The amateur collector said: “Since the loss of my father I haven’t had the inclination to open the bottle as it just didn’t feel right to drink it without him. I wanted to offer if for sale simply so someone else could enjoy it as much as I’m sure he would have done.
“I’m a complete novice when it comes to whisky auctions, and the fact that I’ve just made a lot of money from a bottle which I remember paying around £11 for 42 years ago is pure luck – but shows what stashing a bottle for a few years can do! Dad would’ve smiled at the price, and we have too. We’re off to south Goa!”
42 years back 11 pound is either equivalent or may be more than 2700 pound now.
Funny I thought you may be right but had to research. If you presume a 3rd of a week’s wages then at minimum wage that is today only around 150$. By raw inflation it’s around 300$.
Whiskey I feel is a better investment than many things, imagine buying a case of some Japanese 18 year old whiskies 15 years ago. They have gone up at least 3x.
42 years ago I was 20 years old and having just finished my apprenticeship, I was earning £30 a week as a welder!
So £11 was nowhere near £2,700 I’m afraid.
It’s worth about £450.00 at a rate of inflation in and around 3%.. Now that’s a nice rate of return on investment of £11.00.
Hahahaha that is some incredible inflation!!
Adjusted for inflation, it’s £68. Not quite £2700.
Actually, 11 pound in 1978 is 64 pound today accounting for inflation. So he did very well.
No it wasn’t. I was on £60 a week as a tradesman then. £11 would be around £80 now.
Oh dear god no it isn’t. That would represent an inflation rate to rival Germany’s in the 1920s. 11 pounds in 1978 are equivalent to 55.06 pounds in 2020.
https://www.inflationtool.com/british-pound/1978-to-present-value?amount=11
Inflation adjusted, $11 in 1970 is approx $73 now.
Precisely. This article seems to have missed that point.
It’s actually just over £65
No mate. It was a third of his weekly wages.
Don’t think he was on 10k a month.
£10 in 1977 equivalent of £46 now.
Inflation converter gives £11 from 1973 to £133 today.
Sure, if by “more than 2700 pounds” you meant “about £165”.
He made quite a good profit, 42 years ago 11 pound would be about a quarter of a weeks wages,
Today a quarter of an average weeks wages would be about 200 or 250 pound.
So pretty good profit.
D.Bhatt, You didn’t take the time to even run the numbers before you spouted off BS, did you? 11BP is same as 63BP today. Moron!
More like 146 pound after inflation.
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator
CLICK BAIT….. Thank you for wasting of my time. I wondered where they’d got Macallan for £11.
Attune start the article with “old bottle of whiskey worth more now”…… CLICK BAIT
Wouldn’t risk drinking it either. Might have got too warm, too cold or both!!!!!!!!
Read the story! It was a 1/3 of the guys weekly wage when he bought it.
£2700 is not a 1/3 of almost anyone’s wage today, that would be £7100 a week or around £350,000 a year!
£11 was a third of his weekly wage, so for that to be equivalent of £2,700 he’d have been on the equivalent of £420,000 per year and if that was his equivalent wage back then, I doubt he’d be worrying about £2,700 these days.
According to an inflation calculator it is more like 146 pounds. So a little shy of 2700…
A gimmick for Edrington to sell more industrial swill.
Not quite. The BOE has an inflation calculator available in their website, and it will show you that £11 in 1970 was worth £171 in 2019. So, this bottle of whiskey does indeed represent a solid investment.
Mesmerising
Actually, no one cares