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Buying wine on pre-arrival often gets a bad rap as in a June 5, 2007 article appearing on Wine Spectator Online titled "Pre-arrival wine purchases are only for patient people."

Definition of Pre-arrival

"Pre-arrival" is a term used to describe wine offered for sale prior to its arrival at your retailer.  Why would your retailer do this?  Because faster sellthrough of inventory creates a better return on capital which in turn keeps consumer prices lower.

Pre-arrivals can be created when a retailer buys wine from any source if the retailer chooses to begin selling before the wine has arrived.  Sourcing from a local distributor or directly from a producer (e.g., a Napa winery) simply means a shorter wait (a few days to a few weeks) than if the retailer sourced the wine directly in Europe (which could take 3-6 months or longer).

Reasons to buy pre-arrivals

1. Snooze, you lose - It's common industry practice for highly sought-after wines to be sold as pre-arrivals.  If you wait, you may not be able to buy the wine later at similar price levels (or at all).
2. Lower prices - There are various reasons contributing to lower prices such as (a) better retailer capital utilization and (b) the fact that there are often fewer parties (and mark-ups) involved in the supply chain.
3. If you're cellaring the wine anyway - For most collectors, much of what they buy on pre-arrival is not for immediate consumption and will be cellared.  Therefore, whether the wine arrives in one week or six months is generally less important than securing the wine at a good price.
   

Areas of confusion

1. Futures vs. Pre-arrivals - The term "futures" is analogous to "pre-arrival" but is normally associated only with new releases.  See a prior post (Wine futures and pre-arrivals: what's the difference?) for a full explanation.
2. Type of wine - Pre-arrivals may apply equally to newly released wine or a 20-year old vintage.  For example, Vinfolio routinely sources both newly released and older vintage wine in Europe and sells all of them on a pre-arrival basis.
3. Free retailer use of your money - Most people I speak to about pre-arrivals bring this point up.  There is no such retailer benefit (at least for a reputable retailer).  Speaking for Vinfolio, our standard is to pay all international sources within 15 days of making our purchase commitment (and sometimes we do so immediately to secure a parcel others are competing to buy).  Payment is clearly required before foreign sources will release wine to our logistics partners.  The sooner it is released the sooner our customers get it.  Receiving their wine, in turn, tends to generate further orders.

Questions to ask your retailer

1. When is the pre-arrival expected?  How often are the retailer's estimates wrong?  Vinfolio provides timing estimates for every pre-arrival wine in our online wine store.  There are some factors the retailer cannot completely control which is why they're only estimates.  If you absolutely need wine by a fixed date, either avoid a pre-arrival purchase or ask your retailer when the wine is arriving before your buy (and give yourself some extra room for delays).
2. Does the retailer have a written invoice confirming its own purchase from the supplier?  There are retailers who broker wine they don't own (and don't have on reserve with a supplier) on the theory they can backfill the supply based on orders received.  When they can't, your order tends to get cancelled.
3. Are you notified proactively by the retailer upon the wine's arrival or is the responsibility yours to remember to chase them?  Vinfolio emails customers automatically when wine is received in our warehouse.  Customers may also check order status online or call/email our Customer Service department any time.  For many other retailers, the onus is on the consumer to manage their records and remember to chase the retailer until their wine is delivered.  Note: Vinfolio's free online VinCellar software is designed to handle tracking pre-arrivals from any retailer as part of its capabilities.
4. What's the retailer's history of failing to deliver and what are you offered as compensation in such a circumstance?  If the market value of a wine has appreciated since you ordered it, getting your money back is an inadequate remedy for the retailer's failure to deliver.  While we have not had to invoke it, Vinfolio has a published policy described in our terms (listed on our site) which includes a 125% refund.  

Conclusions

Pre-arrivals generally serve the collector well but understanding how they work helps set appropriate expectations.  As the Wine Spectator Online reporter discovered, where you buy your pre-arrival also makes a big difference to your experience.  For advice in that realm read my prior post, "Criteria for selecting a good wine retailer".