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Update 3/27/21: This deal is still going and can be maximized in 2-player mode even better than originally written Update: This deal has expired. For next time, this is how to maximize:
- Player 1 signs up via referral link and gets a $10 credit.
- Before buying anything, Player 1 refers Player 2. Player 2 gets a $10 credit.
- Player 2 scouts out the cheapest bottle they want to buy (I’ve seen as cheap as $8, but at least once an hour there is something in the $12-15 range). After the $10 discount, out of pocket cost should be somewhere between $0.66 and $6 (you still pay tax even if your credit covers the price of the bottle).
- Player 1 receives a $30 referral credit after Player 2’s purchase and now has $40 in credit. Now Player 1 can use the entire $40 credit on a single bottle or split it up and buy a couple/few less expensive bottles. Out of pocket in taxes if you don’t go over your credit should be less than $4.
- Total out of pocket cost for 2 or more bottles of wine should be less than $10 shipped. There have been some decent options to pick up with a $40 credit. See more detail in the original post below.
No Mas Coash reports on a “Marathon Madness” wine sale at Last Bottle Wines. I’ve ignored these sales in the past, but today I clicked on the No Mas Coach post and read it and realized I may have been missing out: when you sign up through someone’s referral, you get a $10 credit. Apparently, they sell some wines in the $9-$12 range and shipping is free, so you can potentially pick up a nearly-free bottle of wine. On top of that, if you refer Player 2, you’ll get a $30 credit when he or she buys their first bottle (ordering with their $10 credit counts!). That could be a nice deal for some cheap wine.
The Deal
- Last Bottle Wins is offering “Marathon Madness” today, which is a sale where they quickly rotate various bottles / price points of wine (the bottle on offer can sell out and change every few minutes). Here’s a link to the sale.
- If you’re new to Last Bottle, you can feel free to sign up via my referral link with my thanks and you’ll get a $10 credit. Then, refer your Player 2 and you’ll get a $30 credit when they buy their first bottle.
Key Terms
- FREE GROUND SHIPPING on ALL ORDERS (lower 48)
- First come, first served!
- You must complete your purchase on each wine (no saved cart).
- No $50 credit for buying the Last Bottle.
- All orders placed during this marathon will be combined. Shipping begins on March 29th, going state by state, and will require several weeks to get to all states (~2-8 weeks).
Quick Thoughts
If you shopped at Woot.com back in the days of the Woot-Off, Last Bottle Wines is the same idea. They sell what is purportedly the “last bottles” of a small lot of wine until sold out and then switch to a different bottle (which can have an entirely different price point) every few minutes. The cheapest bottles sell very quickly and the more expensive bottles might hang around for a bit.
As noted at the top, this deal caught my eye because it works out well for a couple playing in 2-player mode if you’re willing to be quick on the trigger and try a bottle of wine without knowing much about it (the cheaper bottles likely sell out too fast to do much research).
In my case, I signed up through No Mas Coach today and I pounced on a $14 bottle without any idea as to quality.
After tax and with free shipping, it cost me a grand total of $5.29. At that price, if I hate it and pour it out I won’t feel too badly about the gamble. Note that you do pay tax, but no shipping.
The cheapest thing I’ve seen so far was $8. While I wouldn’t have high hopes here, the tax would come to $0.66. If you’re following the instructions at the top of this post and Player 2 were to pick up something like this, you would spend $0.66 and trigger the $30 referral credit for Player 1.
As soon as my wife bought a bottle, the $30 referral credit posted in my account.
Again, if you followed the directions a the top, Player 1 would have $40 in credit. That credit can be used all on one ~$40 bottle or on several cheaper bottles. Keep in mind that the wine is often discounted somewhere below retail to begin with, so a $40 bottle can be pretty nice.
My expectations for my cheap bottle are low and I don’t expect to see the wine soon. I see a comment at No Mas Coach saying that shipping from the last marathon sale was very slow (like two months). At potentially five bucks or less for a bottle of wine shipped, I’ll just be happy if and when the wine arrives. It’s like buying a lottery ticket where I’ll at least win a bad bottle of wine and might win a decent bottle (and really, I’ll be happy to have it arrive in two months when I’m hopefully ready to celebrate summer with visitors for the first time in a while!).
It’s definitely not all cheap bottles on offer. If you have a more refined pallet, you may appreciate a deal I just saw on Yount Ridge Cabernet Epic Reserve 2016. Last Bottle had it for $99.
They claimed a retail price of $240. I have no idea whether this wine is worth it, but sure enough Total Wine has it for $240.
I’ll admit to having been curious, but not curious enough.
Personally, I’m not a big drinker, but I do enjoy a glass of wine a few times a year (usually in business or first class on a flight or in a lounge), so this seemed like an easy win to me, particularly if it does work for P2’s purchase with their $10 credit to trigger the $30 referral bonus for P1.
Tips:
- After you sign up, set up your account with a preferred shipping / billing address and payment info. That $12 bottle of Shiraz sold out because we hadn’t done this.
- If you’re logged in at Last Bottle, you’ll find a link to your referral info right at the bottom of the home page as seen here:
Enjoy!
Saw this after midnight last night and marathon was still on. Got 2 bottles with p1 and p2. 2nd bottle was $39 that I paid taxes on. Looking forward to trying that expensive $70 bottle! Thanks for posting!
Awesome! Glad you were able to take advantage.
Related (and related to Larry’s comment above): I very rarely drink alcohol outside of first and business class flights and hotel lounges and on the rare occasion when I actually buy a bottle of wine I typically don’t splurge much (at least in part since I get to do that with miles by flying the airlines that serve the fancy stuff and partly because I typically only drink one glass and won’t finish a bottle). So this deal also made me excited to try a couple of bottles that are beyond the price range I would ordinarily consider for a price point where I won’t feel bad if I don’t finish the bottle. Although I guess I’ll probably make sure we have some company to help us finish the good stuff!
And on that note, I think I’m going to have to open a bottle tonight that I’ve had sitting here collecting dust for a few years in order to make room for what I ordered 🙂
I generally don’t have alcohol at home and really don’t know much about wine. So I may not even appreciate my $70 bottle! Lol But it will be fun to try it WHEN I get it! I do need to finish it, however. May just take awhile.
Frequent Miler — where $10,000 first-class suites meet $2 pizzas and $3 wine!
I’m just trying to keep my spend proportional. If I pay like $50 for the $10K first class flight, I can’t get too carried away on food and drink.
My wife and I are both big wine fans. I referred her and bought a bottle of Hartwell Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2019 for $10.57 which is what we pay for Sauvignon Blanc anyway. I now have a $40 credit in my account to play around with. Thanks for the tip.
Update. I used all of my $40 credit and bought StuhlMuller Vineyards Zinfandel Field Blend Estate 2018 for $1.48 and Youngberg Hill Pinot Noir Natasha Willamette Valley 2017 for $2.22. A search on the Internet shows those wines are usually pricey. Sounds like they might take a while to ship but not much to lose.
Nice! That’s exactly what I figure here — at a couple of dollars per bottle and with some of these bottles regularly selling for more (and in some cases quite a bit more) than what Last Bottle has them marked, it looks like it’s hard to lose. Even if the Last Bottle price is only about “average”, paying two bucks a bottle with free shipping seems like a no-brainer for a wine drinker. You’d spend more on a 20oz Coke at the gas station lol.
I’ve purchased from Last Bottle many times when something catches my eye. Perks of their marathons are no minimum bottle order to get free shipping. Last marathon it did take a couple of months to get the wine, but it was inexpensive and who am I kidding, I am not hurting for more wine. I generally only buy when I see something that I’ve wanted to try or a brand I already know and often do a quick search around the price and reviews. Much of the time they are offering a good deal, though sometimes the price is no better than other retailers. I’ve never seen their price to be worse, at least. I’ve gotten the referral bonus in the past, so that was nice, though I’m not really pursuing those actively.
wonderful post.
MEH
(.com)
Is this harder or easier than buying a coin from the mint?
The site hasn’t crashed on me once. App seems to work smoothly as well. So I’d say easier – but if you want a $10-$15 bottle (that’ll be just a couple of dollars after the $10 credit), you do have to be able to move relatively quickly. That said, I saw one $15 bottle sit there for at least 15 minutes earlier. The $12 bottles have gone fast.
Just saw a $10 bottle!
Just bought it 🙂
Ha! What did it cost after the $10 credit? Curious what the tax came out to be.
10c for shipping and insurance, plus 78c in tax, but there’s no tax on wine in MA and the rate isn’t 7.75% anyway, so I don’t know where they got all that.
There’s also an Amex offer of $30 back with $100 spend if you’re looking to stack..
Here’s an idea. Sign up for your own account, then refer P2 and cycle. No need to click the referral link here to play the game.
I didn’t try that. Were you able to get the $30 referral credit for referring player 2 without buying a bottle of wine first with P1’s account? I was in a hurry to verify that it worked and didn’t think to try that. If you did and it works I’ll update the post.
That said, I’m not sure I see any advantage to not signing up the referral to begin with. You’d just be missing out on a $10 credit on player 1’s account. You would end up with $40 in credits instead of $50, right?
If I’m missing something, let me know. Always want to have whatever the best deal for the reader – in this case, the referral offer looked like the best deal.